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COPPA: Let It SlideApril 23, 2002 Â Effective April 21, the Federal Trade Commission has amended the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule to extend the sliding scale time period. This means that Web site operators -- many of whom are educational providers -- may use an e-mail from a parent as verifiable parental consent for the collection of personal information from children under age 13. As long as the data collected is for the site's internal use only, the rule will apply for another three years. AEP has always stood in favor of this scale, which would not require site operators to use secure electronic forms to verify parental consent and would fit in with our goal to balance children's right to privacy with their freedom to pursue educational experiences online. After a number of members voiced their opinions to us last December, we submitted a strong comment to the FTC, encouraging the extension of this more flexible approach indefinitely. (See the 12/18/01 issue of AEP ONLINE.) The Commission agreed last week that the sliding scale mechanism has been effective so far, and the safety risk to children of a Web site collecting personal information for internal use is low. More to the point, affordable, secure electronic mechanisms -- which the FTC believed would be available by the time the final COPPA Rule was implemented -- still have not been perfected. For more details read the Federal Register notice. | |||
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©2007
The Association of Educational Publishers | |||
