FC: FTC releases childrens info regulations -- and a critique

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Attached is a critique of the regulations written by a GOP House staffer.
--DBM]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,32007,00.html

                     FTC Weighs In on Kid Privacy
                     by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

                     10:35 a.m. 20.Oct.99.PDT
                     WASHINGTON -- The US Federal Trade
                     Commission released long-awaited rules
                     restricting what information Web sites
                     may collect about children Wednesday
                     morning. 

                     Starting on 21 April, 2000, many Web
                     sites must obtain parental consent before
                     recording personal information about
                     minors younger than 13 years old. [...]

*********

Children's Privacy Regulation:  Preserving the Digital Divide

        New children's Internet privacy regulations issued by the Federal
Trade Commission may preserve the "digital divide," blocking paths out of
poverty for children.  The regulations would require Internet websites
directed to children to get "verifiable parental consent" before collecting
children's personal information.

        This is very likely to prevent the children who need it most from
interacting with educational websites.  Children whose parents speak a
foreign language, do not use computers, or do not have credit cards will
have limited means to give "verifiable consent" to their children's use of
websites.  

        Websites have observed dropout rates of 50% or more when they ask
for parental notification.  (Cassidy Sehgal-Kolbet, Council of Better
Business Bureaus, transcript at 79-80)  These are educational doors closed
to children. 

        In addition, requiring parental consent may prevent teachers from
guiding children from website to website in a classroom setting.  (Leanna
Landsmann, Time for Kids, transcript at 124-26)

        Imposing these regulations will seriously reduce the number and
usefulness of children's websites.  A medium size company may have to spend
$50,000 to $60,000 per year to comply with the regulations (Parry Aftab;
transcript at 15-16), causing children's sites to close down or never open.

        These regulations have numerous other defects as well.  For example:

*       In order to give verifiable consent, parents will have to reveal
their own private information.  (transcript at 285-86)

*       The regulations will affect thousands and thousands of small
businesses, a fact the FTC failed to consider when it proposed the
regulations.  (See Eric Menge, SBA, transcript at 308;
http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/comments/gekas.pdf )

*       The FTC can apply these regulations to all websites!  FTC has said
that it may apply the regulations to sites whose operators know that
visitors are under 13 (rule @ 18 (discussion of "Website or online service
directed to children" definition)).  FTC has already taken testimony that
children regularly visit general interest sites like Yahoo, the Weather
Channel, and CNN.  (Kris Bagwell, MTV Networks Online, transcript at 31).

*       The regulations dictate, for the first time in history, how an
Internet website must be constructed, dictating where a link must appear on
a page.  (rule @ 81; proposed rule @ 13 ("Placement of the notice")("The
link . . . must be placed such that a typical visitor does not need to
scroll down from the initial viewing screen."))

In the meantime, the Clinton/Gore White House collects information from
children in ways that would be illegal if it were subject to the same laws!
The "White House for Kids" website tips its hat to privacy, then asks a
visiting child to submit his or her name, school, grade level, e-mail
address, and home address- without verifiable parental consent! See
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/kids/html/write.html  The Presidential Records
Act requires the White House to maintain records of this information, and
makes it available to the courts, Congress, and the President during whose
Administration the information was collected.  In other words, personal
information about the children who contact the Clinton/Gore White House is
being collected and will be available to former President Clinton for his
entire post-Presidential career.


"rule" refers to the Final Rule.  See
http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/9910/childrensprivacy.pdf

"proposed rule" refers to the Proposed Rule.  See
http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/9904/childrensonlineprivacy.pdf

"transcript" refers to the FTC's Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule
Public Workshop, Tuesday, July 20, 1999.  See
http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/chonlpritranscript.pdf



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