Govt. Web Sites Ignoring Kid's Privacy Law

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 9, 2000 -- 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.

Swire also said that all federal Web sites have been directed toprovide their privacy practices along with their budget request atthe end of the year, though there is no plan to audit the agenciesto review their practices.

“We think that putting privacy compliance into the agency’sbudget process is a new and useful tool for spreading good privacypractices throughout the federal government,” Swire said.

Harper says he has no objection to how the government sitescommunicate with children, calling the methods “neat.” But hepoints to how businesses have had to remove seemingly harmlesscontent to comply with the law.

“This illustrates the kind of things that commercial Web siteswould be doing.” Harper said. “But rather prematurely the COPPAlaw cut off the right of commercial Web sites to provide this kindof interaction.”

‘Caught in the Same Trap’

A company that has run afoul of COPPA, now calling it a“terrible law,” said the government obviously has no ill willtoward children and they were both caught in the same trap.

“COPPA goes far beyond limiting the practice of a businesscollecting personal information for its own use, to include theresponsibility that the business not provide any tool or servicethat would permit a child to send their personal information toanyone.” said Steven Bryan, CEO of Zeeks.com, a site aimed atchildren.

Zeeks.com had to take down its chat area, free e-mail system andother features because it couldn’t afford the cost of getting andverifying a parent’s permission.

Bryan said the features were always monitored and had securitysystems to check for suspicious activity.

Lee Peeler, the FTC’s associate director for advertisingpractices, was unapologetic for the situation faced by Zeeks.com,saying it “goes to the safety issue, of giving kids the ability tocommunicate with predators without any parental involvement.”

Peeler said the commission will start its formal sweep ofnoncomplying businesses within the next two months, and confirmedthat federal sites won’t be on the list. COPPA requires thecommission to provide a report to Congress on compliance and toidentify law enforcement targets.

Zeeks.com’s bulletin boards are filled with messages signed bychildren upset that the features are gone. Bryan said COPPA won’tmake children safer, but will simply drive them to other freee-mail services and unmonitored sites not designed for youngsters.

“Without question, that is where the kids will go to find theseactivities,” Bryan said. “We’ve closed the playgrounds and sentthe kids to play in the street.”