ABC News recently featured a list of 11 websites that they endorse as websites "you can trust with your kids." I make no such endorsements here! The headline actually makes me shudder and admire ABC's confidence in its recommendations. To be fair, Disney, NickJr., National Geographic Kids and PBS Kids are a third of the list.

How would you determine if your website should be entrusted with children (being kids under 13)?

In Part 1 of this post, we looked at what is personal information. If you determined that you are collecting it from children under 13, one of your first stops should be the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. If you are normal, you'll find congressional prose to be, well, awful.

The FTC's interpretation of the basic requirements is:

  • Post a clear and comprehensive online privacy policy describing your information practices for personal information collected online from children;
  • Provide direct notice to parents and obtain verifiable parental consent, with limited exceptions, before collecting personal information online from children;
  • Give parents the choice of consenting to the operator's collection and internal use of a child's information, but prohibiting the operator from disclosing that information to third parties (unless disclosure is integral to the site or service, in which case, this must be made clear to parents);
  • Provide parents access to their child's personal information to review and/or have the information deleted;
  • Give parents the opportunity to prevent further use or online collection of a child's personal information;
  • Maintain the confidentiality, security, and integrity of information they collect from children, including by taking reasonable steps to release such information only to parties capable of maintaining its confidentiality and security; and
  • Retain personal information collected online from a child for only as long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected and delete the information using reasonable measures to protect against its unauthorized access or use.

For more information, review the FTC's website on the subject:

COPPA.org is another great resource.

Originally published September 20, 2014

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.