Minors Online in 2026: The New Age-Verification Compliance Stack and the Constitutional Fight

Sheila A. Millar, Partner | Keller and Heckman LLP

Sheila A. Millar, a partner with the law firm of Keller and Heckman LLP, heads the Firm’s consumer protection practices, and counsels corporate and association clients on regulatory compliance and public policy issues. She often appears before federal, state and international legislative and regulatory bodies.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Millar earned her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Bryn Mawr College and her Juris Doctor from American University Washington College of Law. She is admitted in the District of Columbia and before the United States Supreme Court.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Millar leads Keller and Heckman’s consumer protection regulatory practices and edits Consumer Protection Connection. She is ranked by Chambers USA in Advertising: Transactional & Regulatory (Nationwide, 2026), has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Advertising Law from 2010 through 2027, and was named its Washington, DC Advertising Law “Lawyer of the Year” in 2014. She holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell and was recognized by Legal 500 in its 2026 US City Elite listing for Cybersecurity in Washington, DC.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Millar is a frequent speaker and author. She served as a Vice-Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce Marketing and Advertising Commission from 2012 to 2022 and chaired its Working Group on Sustainability. She sits on the National Association of Manufacturers Steering Committee for the CPSC Coalition and belongs to the International Association of Privacy Professionals. She can be reached at 202 434-4143, or via email at [email protected].

• Experience

Ms. Millar counsels businesses on compliance with advertising, privacy and product safety issues, as well as extended producer responsibility and other laws. She represents clients on advertising and privacy matters before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the National Advertising Division (NAD), and the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), as well as in connection with investigations by state regulatory bodies and Attorneys General. Drawing on her cross-cutting experience in product safety, advertising and privacy, Ms. Millar has advised many companies in the IoT space on consumer protection issues related to connected products such as toys, appliances, fitness products, and medical devices.

Her children’s privacy work includes resolving an FTC investigation into a COPPA and Section 5 petition without a consent agreement, guiding a national children’s product company through federal and state investigations of a child-directed connected product, and representing a national trade association on proposed COPPA and CCPA revisions.

Daniel A. Cotter, Member | Aronberg Goldgehn Davis & Garmisa

Daniel A. Cotter is a Member of Aronberg Goldgehn Davis & Garmisa in Chicago, where his corporate and regulatory practice is built around helping organizations operate in a compliant and resilient way. Across more than three decades he has advised clients on entity formation and restructuring, strategic transactions, and risk-sensitive corporate governance, concentrating on three intersecting areas: privacy and cybersecurity, insurance regulation and coverage, and corporate governance. He has counseled organizations on the shifting patchwork of privacy laws, advised online and gaming vendors on identification protocols under biometric statutes including BIPA, and guided clients through BIPA and GIPA compliance and defense in Illinois.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Cotter earned his Juris Doctor, summa cum laude, from John Marshall Law School in 1994, and his Bachelor of Arts in Accounting, magna cum laude, from Monmouth College in 1988. He was admitted in Illinois and to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1995, to the Seventh Circuit in 1996, and to the United States Supreme Court in 2011. He has held the CIPP/US credential from the International Association of Privacy Professionals since 2016.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Cotter received the 2026 NCBP/LexisNexis Rule of Law Award and was appointed to the Illinois Judicial Conference Civics Education Task Force. His honors include the Chicago Bar Association President’s Award of Excellence (2025), the Chicago Bar Association John Paul Stevens Award (2024), the Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals President’s Award (2023), and selection to the 2026 Illinois Super Lawyers list.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Cotter serves as President of the National Conference of Bar Presidents and chairs the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section’s Insurance Regulation Committee and its Cyber and Privacy Committee. He is a member of the American Law Institute and has sat in the American Bar Association House of Delegates as a Chicago Bar Association delegate since 2015, and he is a Past President of the Chicago Bar Association. He writes and speaks frequently on biometric privacy, cybersecurity, and insurance regulation.

• Experience

Mr. Cotter began his career at Lord, Bissell & Brook in 1995 and has since held senior in-house and law firm roles, including Deputy General Counsel at Argo Group US, Inc. and General Counsel at Members Mutual Holding Company Fidelity Life Association. He practiced at Butler Rubin Santarelli & Boyd, Howard & Howard, and Dickinson Wright before joining Aronberg Goldgehn in 2025. His privacy work includes advising a rural bank on a vendor incident that exposed customer data and counseling companies through data breach investigations.

Tracy P. Marshall, Partner | Keller and Heckman LLP

Tracy P. Marshall, a partner at Keller and Heckman LLP, advises for-profit and non-profit businesses in a range of industries on privacy, data security, advertising, and intellectual property matters.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Marshall earned her Bachelor of Arts from Washington and Lee University in 1997 and her Juris Doctor from American University Washington College of Law in 2002. She is admitted in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Tracy is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) through the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Marshall was recognized by Legal 500 in its 2026 US City Elite listing for Cybersecurity in Washington, DC, and she contributes to Keller and Heckman’s Telecommunications Practice Group, which the National Law Review named a Go-To Thought Leader for Communications Law in 2021. She has served as program faculty at the Broadband Communities Summit in 2022 and 2023, at an International Municipal Lawyers Association webinar on public broadband and regulatory compliance in 2022, and at a Mackrell International roundtable on the patchwork of U.S. data protection laws in 2021. She authors the Firm’s recurring Privacy and Advertising Year in Review and Kids and Teens Privacy look-back and predictions series, including its analysis of the FTC’s COPPA enforcement policy statement promoting age-verification technology.

• Professional Involvement

Tracy is a frequent speaker, author, and contributor to Keller and Heckman’s Consumer Protection Connection blog. She belongs to the International Association of Privacy Professionals and the Federal Communications Bar Association, and also contributes to the Firm’s Beyond Telecom Law Blog and The Continuum of Risk. She can be reached at (202) 434-4234 or via email at [email protected].

• Experience

Tracy assists businesses with compliance, represents them in disputes, and advocates on their behalf. She helps clients implement privacy, data security, and security breach response programs, develop websites, mobile apps and other online services to comply with applicable laws, respond to cyber and data security incidents, and manage relationships with service providers and third parties. Tracy also helps clients protect and enforce their intellectual property rights.

She has helped consumer product companies implement global privacy policies for websites, mobile apps, and connected products, advised on breach notification obligations and breach response, and structured text messaging campaigns for TCPA compliance.

SESSION 1 – Age Verification and Parental Consent Compliance for Any Business With Minor Users | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session delivers a comprehensive compliance briefing on the federal and state age-verification and parental consent obligations that took full effect in 2025–2026, anchored by the April 22, 2026 COPPA Rule amendments and the FTC’s February 2026 age-verification policy statement. Attorneys will work through the eight approved verifiable parental consent methods, the restructured consent flow requirements, data retention mandates, and the state-level patchwork of social media, addictive-feed, and app store laws. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for auditing existing consent flows, selecting age-verification technology, and avoiding the common compliance failures illustrated by recent FTC enforcement actions against Epic Games, Disney, and Cognosphere.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Litigating State Age-Verification Laws After the Supreme Court’s Texas Orders | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session examines the constitutional litigation landscape following the Supreme Court’s June 2025 decision in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, which upheld Texas HB 1181 under intermediate scrutiny while leaving open critical questions about age-verification laws applied to protected speech. Attorneys will analyze the doctrinal fault lines separating permissible age-gating of obscene-as-to-minors content from laws being struck down when applied to social media and app stores, and will work through the active injunction record across Ohio, California, Utah, and Texas. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for evaluating constitutional vulnerability across state age-verification regimes, selecting litigation posture, and anticipating the next Supreme Court term’s likely flashpoints.