Subject: Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998
katharina kopp (kk@cme.org)
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 13:32:50 -0500
Message-Id: <v0310280ab2230e49fe8d@[209.70.103.176]> Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 13:32:50 -0500 To: roundtable@cni.org From: katharina kopp <kk@cme.org> Subject: Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998,
Sign Letter of Support,
Contact the Center for Media Education
Legislative Alert
S. 2326 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998
S2326 likely to move quickly through Congress -
Senate to hold hearings within the next few weeks -
Your support is needed
The next few weeks will be critical to rally support for S 2326, a
bill introduced by Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Bryan (D-NV). The bill
requires the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe regulations to
protect the privacy of personal information collected from and about
children on the Internet. S 2326 implements the Federal Trade
Commission's recommendation to Congress to adopt legislation protecting
children's privacy online. The White House also endorses this privacy
legislation for children, and the Center for Media Education (CME) and
the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) strongly support S 2326 (see
summary of bill below). CME and CFA with the support of child advocacy,
education, and parents groups have worked over the last three years
for these kinds of online safeguards for children. S 2326 is the
culmination of our work in the privacy area.
Child advocacy, media, health and education organizations need to be
involved if this bill is to pass. We need your help to ensure that
privacy safeguards for children will be in place for generations to
come.
Contact us to find out how you can get involved and show your support
for this important legislation by signing a letter of support (see
below) . CME is looking forward to working with you. Please contact
Katharina Kopp, Senior Policy Analyst, at 202-628 2620, ext. 40, fax
202-628 2554, or at <kk@cme.org> with any questions you might have
regarding this matter.
___________________________________________________
Katharina Kopp, Ph.D. e-mail:kk@cme.org
Senior Policy Analyst phone:202-628 2620, #40
Center for Media Education fax:202-628 2554
1511 K Street, NW, #518 http://tap.epn.org/cme/
Washington, DC 20005
_______________________________________________________________
Letter of Support for S 2326 - DRAFT
If your organization wants to sign onto this letter of support for
S 2326, please contact Katharina Kopp, Senior Policy Analyst, at
202-628-2620, ext. 40, fax 202-628-2554, or at <kk@cme.org>.
September 14, 1998
The Honorable John McCain, Chair
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
241 Senate Russell Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator McCain:
Shortly, it is expected that the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science
and Transportation will be holding hearings on S 2326, the Children's
Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 introduced by Senators McCain and
Bryan. The undersigned child advocacy, media, health and education
organizations urge you to support this legislation and vote to report
the bill out of committee without amendment (s).
By doing this, you have a unique and unprecedented opportunity to help
shape our children's electronic future in a positive way. Without the
protection that this bill offers, threats to privacy by online
advertising and marketing targeted at children and youth are likely to
increase and undermine the enormous educational and civic opportunities
the Internet promises.
As the Federal Trade Commission recommended in June, the privacy of
children and their families needs to be effectively protected through
legislation. The FTC's report demonstrates dramatically the failure of
industry self-regulation to protect children's privacy online. The FTC
found:
o that 89 percent of the children's sites surveyed collected
personally identifiable information from children;
o 46 percent of the sites did not disclose their information
collection practices; and
o less than 10 percent provided for some parental control over
the collection of information from their children.
The vast majority of Web sites are gathering information from children,
and there are very few safeguards in place to limit these widespread and
egregious practices.
The undersigned organizations strongly agree with the FTC that
legislation is necessary to protect children, help parents and teachers
monitor the safety of children, and assure families that the Internet
can provide positive experiences without fear that children's privacy
will be invaded. We believe that clear government rules must be put
in place now to protect the privacy of children on the Internet. We
urge you to pass S 2326, legislation that would give the Federal
Trade Commission authority to develop flexible and effective privacy
safeguards through public rule making proceedings and to enforce
those rules swiftly and comprehensively.
Sincerely,
______________________
Summary of S 2326
(for full text see
<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c105:./temp/~c105e60uSW> )
S2326 - A bill to require the FTC to prescribe regulations to protect
the privacy of personal information collected from and about children on
the Internet, to provide greater parental control over the collection
and use of that information.
S2326 would require commercial Web site operators targeting children to
o Provide clear notice of the information collection and use
practices.
o Obtain verifiable parental consent prior to collecting personal
information from children under thirteen. (opt-in)
o Provide parents of older children (13-16) with notice and an
opportunity to prevent or curtail the use of personal information
after the data has been collected. (opt-out)*
o Provide parents of children up to sixteen years of age access to
the personal information already collected and opportunity to
refuse future use.*
o Require the commercial Web site operator to ensure data quality
and security.
The legislation also allows for 'safe harbors' - a provision that
essentially allows self-regulatory bodies to implement and enforce
their own guidelines, as long as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has
approved the guidelines and found them to be in compliance with the
regulations.
Furthermore, with regard to enforcement, and in addition to the FTC
itself, State attorneys general in cooperation with the FTC may bring
civil actions against violators of FTC regulations.
The FTC is instructed to develop the details of these requirements in
rule making proceedings no later than a year after the enactment of
the bill.
* * *
* The Center for Media Education supports the bill as currently
written. However, we are open to discussing the requirements to
provide parents with notice and access to personal information of
children 13-16 years of age. We do believe strongly that there need
to be adequate privacy protections for teenagers of that age group.
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