[privacy] FBI Pairs With Website Violating Law To Make Kids Safer

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Oops...

Via 27B Stroke 6.

[snip]

The FBI has set up a masterful site called Safe Online Surfing to help
kids learn how to use the internet safely. Via a scavenger hunt,
children get to learn that its okay to talk about Disney characters
online at the Privacy Falls challenge on Surf Swell Island and get
online tips from the Miami Hurricanes website and finally are directed
to take an Internet test at the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation.

Now, what's great isn't that the final Internet quiz actually tests you
on whether you know how to become an FBI Special Agent (Sample
question: What do you say to a female applicant who says she's not
strong enough to bust down doors?)

What's great is that the Common Knowledge site violates the Children's
Online Privacy Protection Act, which mandates that any site collecting
personal information on a child under the age of 13 must get verifiable
consent from a parent. While Common Knowledge claims to be in
compliance with COPPA, I was able to register as a 12 year-old (First
name: Vulnerable, Last name: Child Address:123 TouchMe Way).
Registration requires a name, an address, a phone number, a date of
birth, an email address, your school name, and your extra-curricular
interests just to take an online quiz. While I was required to add my
parent's email address, the site never sent an email to that address,
let alone complied with the law requiring the site to get a parent's
verifiable consent. The site's legitimacy is only burnished by having
its domain registered to a post office box and running Yahoo! ads on
the front page.

[snip]

More:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2006/10/fbi_pairs_with_.html

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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