The Federal Trade Commission said operators of three Web sites have signed
settlement agreements in a suit that charged they violated the Children’s Online Privacy
Protection Act.
The settlements came on the first anniversary of the effective date of the
law.
The FTC charged Monarch Services Inc. and Girls Life Inc., operators of
www.girlslife.com; Bigmailbox.com Inc. and Nolan Quan, operators of
www.bigmailbox.com; and Looksmart Ltd., operator of www.insidetheweb.com,
with illegally collecting personally identifying information from children
under 13 without parental consent.
Although the agreements with the FTC state that the companies do not admit to any wrongdoing, they have said they will collectively pay a total of $100,000 in civil penalties. The
settlements require the operators to cease and desist, as well as to delete
all personally identifying information collected from children online, at any
time since the law’s effective date.
These cases mark the first civil penalty cases the FTC has brought under the
rule.
The FTC alleged that each of the defendants collected personal information
from
children, including such things as full names and home addresses, e-mail
addresses and telephone numbers. None of the Web sites posted privacy
policies that complied with the Act or obtained the required consent from
parents.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act applies to operators of
commercial Web sites and online services directed to children under 13, and
to general audience sites that
knowingly collect personal information from children.
The law requires that Web sites post a complete privacy policy, and directly
notify parents of their information collection practices and get verifiable
parental consent
before they collect children’s personal information or share that information
with others.
The FTC, which maintains a Web site devoted
to privacy and children, says that 91 percent of children’s Web sites now
post a privacy policy, compared to just 24 percent in 1998.
