From either Arizona Republic, Arizona Daily Star, or Tucson Citizen.
Safeguards for children
New goverment rules protect youngsters' privacy on Net
By Ted Bridis Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The government Wednesday laid out new rules for protecting children's privacy on the Internet, allowing companies to send e-mail to parents seeking permission to ask children questions - but only if the information is not shared with other companies.
The rules are designed to tell companies how to comply with a new federal privacy law that bans them from collecting personal information from children without a parent's permission.
One of the most contentious provisions involved a compromise allowing businesses for the next two years to send e-mail to parents.
The new Federal Trade Commission rules, approved 4-0, are expected to have a dramatic impact on hundreds of popular Web sites aimed at children that typically offer games and entertainment in exchange for personal information valuable to marketers.
The FTC will begin enforcing the new rules in April. "There's a real problem out there," FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky said. "We're going to give the industry six months to get its act together to make changes. After that, we'll monitor these Web sites and we'll take enforcement action."
The FTC said Web sites that share children's information with other companies must obtain a parent's permission through mailed or faxed paperwork, calls to a toll-free number, use of a credit card number or via e-mail using nascent digital signature technology.
The provision over a parent's consent was among the most controversial. E-mail is the most convenient and immediate method for granting permission, but it's also simple to impersonate another person online.
"E-mail is completely useless," said Stephen Savitzky, a father of two young girls, in Silicon Valley who runs a Web site with warnings for kids. "What's to keep the kids from giving their own e-mail address, or one of their many e-mail addresses? It's trivial."
The new law, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, requires commercial Web sites to obtain consent from parents before asking children under 13 for their names, addresses, phone numbers or other identifying information.
The industry, which generally supported the privacy law, had warned regulators that imposing barriers that are too onerous between children and their favorite Web sites might discourage youngsters from spending time online.
But Pitofsky said rules requiring a parent to mail or fax permission will be in effect only if the company collects, sorts and rents the data.
"That is a sensitive enough area that the more rigorous approaches are justified," he said.
The new law does not require companies to obtain a parent's permission to send a child -information on a one-time basis, such as a digital coupon for a video game.
big brother wants to flush the constition down the tolit to "protect the children" says the webmaster.