Children's Online Privacy Protection Essay Example

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is an act that was passed by the US Congress back in 1998 with the intent of protecting the privacy of children under the age of thirteen. It took effect in April 2000. It was primarily enacted to balance between using the internet as an educational tool and the threat that might crop as a result of sharing personal information (Federal Trade Commission, 2002).

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Since its enactment, my children websites have shown their interest in adhering to the regulations. A compliance Survey conducted by the COPPA through Federal of Trade Commission in April 2002, two years after its enactment, showed that websites were complying with an average of 89 percent.

In this paper, the focus was given to only three children Website to evaluate how the website fared in complying with the act. The data shown in the table below include reviews from the users most of them being parents and guardians. Personal observations by visiting the websites privacy policy statement was also helpful.

From the result of the evaluation in the table above, it is evident that all the websites strive to adhere to the COPPA rules. The sites, on the policy statement, indicate their intention of obtaining personal information of the kid as well as that of the parent. The information taken is usually the first name and the place of location. Also, parents are notified of any activity before any content is given to the kid.

In the privacy statement, the websites declare whether the personal information will be required, how the information will be used and whether there are third parties who would be given the information. Therefore, by visiting the site, the user knows what is required of him/her. This is an improvement to the previous systems before the enactment of COPPA since the information to be collected is now limited, suggesting that these sites are complying by availing themselves of any exceptions to the notice and the consent provisions.

However, there is much left to be done concerning confidentiality. None of the websites scored 5 in the confidentiality rating. From the reviews, parents expressed their displeasure on how the information about their children was handled. They knew why the information is collected, but they did not trust the sites with the information since sometimes it retained information even after ceasing to use the site.

COPPA has done a great deal in advocating for online children privacy protection however there is room for improvement. Some of the areas COPPA needs to address include:

• COPPA does not define how parental content should be gained. The task is left in the hands of the Federal Trade Commission. However, by offering a clear guideline, website operators would enhance their compliance.
• Also by creating stringent measures on kids below 13, websites have devised ways for age fraud and bypassing the weight of obtaining parental consent. Therefore, COPPA needs to provide strict alternative regulations for the collection and dissemination of such personal information to protect children from today's threats.
• COPPA put more emphasis on the protection of children under 13, but an increase in social networks makes teenagers even more susceptible to online threats. Adolescent's rights are likely to be abused on social networks such as Space.com and Facebook.com. COPPA should review their rules to include teenagers.

References

4kids. Privacy Statement. Retrieved from: http://www.4kids.org/privacyPolicy.shtmlDisney. Privacy Statement. Retrieved from: https://privacy.thewaltdisneycompany.com/en/current-privacy-policy/

Federal Trade Commission. (2002). Protecting Children's Privacy Under COPPA. A Survey on Compliance. Pp. 1-52.

Nickelodeon. Privacy Statement. Retrieved from: http://www.nickelodeonafrica.com/info/privacy-policy