WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government laid out new rules for<br>protecting kids' privacy on the Internet Wednesday, allowing<br>companies to send e-mail to parents seeking permission to ask<br>children
Wednesday, October 20th 1999, 12:00 am
By: News On 6
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government laid out new rules for protecting kids' privacy on the Internet Wednesday, 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 rules from the Federal Trade Commission, approved 4-0, are expected to have a dramatic impact on hundreds of popular Internet sites aimed at children, which typically offer online games and entertainment in exchange for personal information valuable to marketers.
Catherine Benjamin, a mother of two young children in Rolling Meadows, Ill., called the law "long overdue" and bristled at how easy children online can be persuaded to disclose even the most personal details.
"It scares us," said Mrs. Benjamin, who recently warned her 12-year-old niece about these risks. "Children just give out information on the Internet. There's a lot of wonderful opportunities on the Internet ... (but) it can become a dangerous tool."
The FTC will begin enforcing the new rules in April.
"There's a real problem out there," said FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky. "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, through 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 -- especially for kids who often know more about technology than their parents.
"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 generally to obtain consent from parents before asking children under 13 for their names, addresses, telephone numbers or other identifying information.
"The FTC did a good, balanced job," said Ron Plesser, an attorney who worked with the Direct Marketing Association and other industry groups. "Everything's a compromise -- it's not all great for industry, but it resolves some major concerns."
Jason Catlett of Junkbusters Corp., who has frequently criticized the FTC on other privacy issues, praised it for a "remarkably good job."
"The intent of Congress and the common sense expectations of parents seemed to have survived intact," Catlett said.
Pitofsky said that in two years the FTC will reconsider whether e-mail can be more widely used to seek a parent's permission, as techniques improve for ensuring the identity of e-mail authors.
The industry, which generally supported the privacy law, had warned regulators that imposing barriers that are too onerous between a child and his favorite Web site might discourage kids from spending time online.
But Pitofsky said rules requiring a parent to mail or fax their permission -- a process that could take days -- will be in effect "only if the company has in mind collecting the information, sorting it out and renting it. That is a sensitive enough area that the more rigorous approaches are justified."
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.
The privacy law, enacted in October 1998, was prompted by an FTC study last year of 1,400 Web sites, including one where children were asked to give their names, addresses, e-mail addresses and ages and say whether they ever received gifts of stocks, cash, savings bonds or certificates of deposit.
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