| Comment Number: | 514511-00016 |
| Received: | 2/10/2005 6:47:33 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Kathleen Lonergan |
| State: | WA |
| Agency: | Federal Trade Commission |
| Rule: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| Docket ID: | 3084-AB00 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
I am absolutely hiorrified by this proposal. As a parent who does everything within my power to keep my children safe from exploitation, I expect my elected government to assist me in this effort. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act was designed to prevent companies from eliciting and exploiting private information from children under the age of thirteen. Under no circumstances should a company be allowed to collect personal information from young children without verifiable parental consent. Merely receiving an email from a parent’s email address does not qualify as permission since it is possible for parents to not even be aware that an exchange has taken place and therefore allows companies to market to children without parental permission. Marketing to children ought to be subject to FAR stricter regulations in general, and particularIy in this case. Though (of course) we all want to trust our children, we must remember that they are still *children* and do not always act in their own best interests, or even know what these interests are. All children deserve to be protected - at any cost - from insidious exploitation by marketers. Not all parents are able to monitor 100% of their children's computer time, and therefore regulation must exist to protect children when parents are absent or unavailable. I ask the FTC to rescind the temporary ruling that will allow this to occur and require that all companies that collect information from children under 13 be subject to the more stringent policies that govern operators wishing to disclose children’s information publicly or to third parties