Govt. Web Sites Ignoring Kid's Privacy Law

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 9 -- Contrary to a federal directive, majorgovernment Web sites including the one operated by the White Houseare not adhering to a law that requires companies to obtainparental consent before soliciting personal information fromchildren.

The White House Web site invites children to submit personalinformation, such as their name, address and age along with e-mailmessages to the president and first family.

Sites operated by the Environmental Protection Agency and NASAalso collect personal information from children who submit art workto be posted on the site. Both agencies show the child’s name, ageand hometown along with posted drawings.

Federal law that took effect earlier this year requires privatesector Web sites to protect the privacy of children. The law doesnot apply to government sites, but the Office of Management andBudget recently ordered federal agencies to comply with thestatute.

The Federal Trade Commission is readying a crackdown oncommercial sites that fail to comply with the law.

“My jaw dropped,” said Jim Harper, administrator of Internetprivacy site Privacilla.org. “This very concern with commercialWeb sites giving where children lived and what their ages are wasthe supposed justification for COPPA (Children’s Online PrivacyProtection Act).”

The federal law requires commercial Web sites to carry privacypolicy statements, get “verifiable parental consent” beforesoliciting information, and give an opportunity to remove theinformation.

‘Spirit’ of the Law

Peter Swire, OMB’s chief counselor for privacy, refused to sayin an interview whether the government sites would be investigatedor any of their content changed. He stressed that the law wastargeted against commercial sites, and that the administrationtried to exceed those standards.

“We comply with the spirit of COPPA, given the special legalrules that apply to the White House,” Swire said, adding that thePresidential Records Act would keep the correspondence secret forup to 12 years.