Law to protect kids from unscrupulous Internet sites

Monday, May 3, 1999 | 9:42 a.m.

When Laura McBride left a seminar at UNLV in April 1998 on children and the Internet, she was thinking about issues that had never crossed her mind.

One issue was the amount of personal information collected from children on children's websites.

The seminar, hosted by Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and the FBI, provided information on how to instruct children to use the Internet safely.

"Your child could innocently give out information that they shouldn't," said McBride, a mother of two and an McDoniel Parent Teacher Association board member.

While McBride said she would like to see her children have access to information on the Internet, "it's disconcerting that on the Internet there's no way of knowing who's sending messages."

And sometimes the messages are received and responded to on seemingly harmless websites.

After surveying 212 children's websites in March 1998, the Federal Trade Commission found that 89 percent collect private information from children.

The information can range from names and e-mail addresses to home addresses and family finances and is collected through contest forms, pen-pal addresses and chats with cartoon characters.

"Children are being asked very intense questions that can be shared outside the home," Bryan said. "Their purpose is basically to develop a database that has commercial value."

The FTC reported that some of the websites will ask children if they received gifts in the form of stocks, cash or savings bonds, if those gifts were invested and how.

There are two concerns: privacy and safety, Bryan said. "Technology that has made life easier has also made it much more possible for our privacy to be invaded."

Bryan and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., sponsored the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act that was passed by Congress and which will become law in April 2000 after the wording is finalized.

The law will prohibit companies from collecting private information from those younger than age 13. Proposed wording can be viewed on the FTC's website, and the public may comment until June 8.

Options under consideration including requiring that websites provide consent forms that can be printed and signed by the parents, who would then mail them.

Officials at the FTC say operators may also develop their own procedures for the regulation.

Other options being considered include bans on requests for a credit card transactions; forcing website operators to provide an 800-number with a live operator, which some sites already do; and requiring a digital signature from the parent.

"There's a lot of unscrupulous people out there," David Gaberel, Las Vegas PC Users president, said.

McBride says she is concerned about who could get their hands on that information. "Once it's on the Internet, it's available for other people to access," she said. "I see no reason why any company should receive information from children under 13."

While some argue that regulation should be up to the parents rather than the government, officials say the legislation is putting the control back into the hands of parents.

Including the parent's role is what this rule is all about, said Toby Levin, attorney in the division of advertising practices with the FTC. "It's a fact that not all parents are at home while children are online. The point of the rule is to put parents in control."

Levin said businesses also have a responsibility. Only 1 percent of the websites surveyed last year required parental consent before asking personal information. Twenty-three percent of the sites only tell the children to get parental permission, she added, which isn't a credible policy.

Because of the research, Levin said some sites have stopped collecting private information.

A number of the leading industry groups support the legislation, she added.

The Childrens Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has also seen success in its efforts. The group works to promote responsible advertising and contacts businesses to recommended changes on their children's websites.

Ninety-eight percent of the companies complied with suggested guidelines, Elizabeth Lascoutx, vice president and director of the organization said.

Still, monitoring interaction on the Internet should be a parent's responsibility, Gaberel said. "In a lot of ways a lot of people are not willing to take responsibility, so the government steps in," he said.

According to the FTC, 10 million kids are using the Internet with 6 million accessing it from home.

Warren Harhay, president of Access Nevada, a local company that provides host sites and home-page design -- not including children's websites -- said that while there is a place for laws such as the child privacy protection act, they often transcend common sense.

"Fifty years ago I was told not to talk to strangers," he said. "It's a matter of common sense. It's completely the parents' responsibility to train the child. We can't rely upon the government to be a surrogate parent. Especially in areas that are unworkable."