Editorial: Children are prey when going online

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 1998 | 11:09 a.m.

Last week the Clinton administration announced it would seek federal legislation to prevent companies from obtaining personal information from children who use Internet websites, chat rooms and e-mail. Federal regulators allege that companies are seeking the names and e-mail addresses from children -- including asking about personal finances, according to the Associated Press. Sometimes they try to lure this confidential information from children by using animated characters or incentives, such as joining a contest or playing a game.

Businesses are exceptionally sophisticated in finding ways to manipulate children. It's bad enough when parents have to run a gauntlet of candy displays at the supermarket checkout counter, cleverly arranged so that children will bombard their parents with pleas to buy the candy. Despite the annoyance these displays provide, no one would suggest legislation prohibiting candy displays. It is a parent's responsibility to say no to a child's request.

But there is a big difference when businesses start invading the privacy of a home, soliciting information from a child without a parent knowing about it. If businesses on the Internet don't clean up their act, and they are showing no signs of wanting to, then Congress should pass legislation prohibiting companies from engaging in this practice.

archive