Internet Regulation via Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

[Alicia Abramson]

I didn't know anything about COPPA until I saw the message below (the
identity of the recipient has been removed).  Apparrently Excite feels it
must terminate e-mail accounts for any of its members under the age of 13
in order to comply with COPPA.  COPPA will be enforced by the FTC (exactly
how they will enforce this for millions of Web sites is unclear).
Essentially it requires Web site operators to obtain verifiable parental
consent in order to collect private information from those under the age of
13. The FTC has a Web page that describes COPPA and compliance measures:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.htm.

I understand the desire to protect privacy--I want as much protection as
possible.  At the same time, COPPA compliance seems like a joke, as we all
know that when signing up for e-mail or some other service at a Web site,
one can use whatever birthdate that pops into one's head, thereby
circumventing the whole thing.  How are Web site operators supposed to
verify the age of every single visitor?   To follow COPPA to it's logical
conclusion, we'd all have to have government issued Internet Identity cards
that carry all of our personal information on them including birthdates, in
order to use practically anything on the Internet.  Of course no one is
proposing that in reality, but it seems that this is just a way to regulate
the Internet in order to "protect the children" but in reality is laying
the foundation for more regulation that will eventually restrict individual
freedom.

It seems to me that a national library filtering law is lingering on the
horizon....

Alicia


Message from Excite to members under 13:

Dear X,

Thank you for using Excite. We have some important Excite Member updates
for you. In order to comply with new law called COPPA (Children's Online
Privacy Protection Act) that protects the privacy of individuals less than
13 years old, we need to restrict your access to the Excite service.
Specifically, we are sorry to inform you that your Excite Member email
address X at excite.com will be deactivated after April 20, 2000. Excite is
participating in an industry-wide effort to apply COPPA on the Web. 

Now for some good news. We have a lot of FREE Excite products and benefits
that you as an Excite Member can continue to use or try out. To name just a
few - your Excite Start Page - decorate it with cool colors like tropicale,
add a personal greeting, e-cards, and local movie times. Plus, check out
Excite's MP3 center with the hottest bands and top downloads, and get daily
horoscopes.

For information about COPPA you can go to: 

http://excite-service-alert.com/c/00106700102030700103

We're glad to have had you as an Excite Member.

Sincerely,
Excite Privacy Policy Team
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Alicia Abramson
Director, Library Information Systems
University Library
California State University, Sacramento
abramson at csus.edu
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