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White House takes aim at Net child exploitation
Administration prefers self-regulation over legislation
June 13, 1997
Web posted at: 3:32 p.m. EDT (1532 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Responding to concerns that Internet companies are exploiting children, the White House said Friday it wants industry assurances kids will get parental permission before giving out private information to Web site operators.
President Clinton plans to unveil the recommendations on July 1 when he releases the final report of a task force he set up to examine electronic commerce, task force head Ira Magaziner said in an interview.
Early drafts of the report have been available since late last year but until now have not given the White House position on children's privacy. The report encourages the industry to police its own Internet privacy behavior.
"If the industry doesn't do it, we may have to legislate," said Magaziner, President Clinton's former health-care architect.
Privacy advocates have insisted that the government must enact new laws to govern the freewheeling Internet. Without the threat of enforcement, they say, many Web sites are sure to ignore the voluntary guidelines.
Government officials are examining intrusions into privacy of all users of the World Wide Web -- the graphics-heavy portion of the Internet -- but marketing efforts toward children have struck a sensitive nerve.
Children are not as used to come-ons as adults and may not realize marketers are trying to extract information to get them to buy products.
Children's sites surveyed
About 40 percent of 38 major children's Web sites surveyed by a media watchdog group gather personal information such as name, address and age of young users.
The survey by the Center for Media Education was released Thursday at Federal Trade Commission hearings.
Only one in five of the Web sites asks children to check with their parents before releasing personal details. Also, 40 percent use incentives, such as free gifts and sweepstakes, to encourage children to tell about themselves.
The White House plans to push Web site companies to use computer technology and other methods to make sure kids have their parents' permission to release information over the Internet.
If permission can't be confirmed, children presumably would be prevented from giving out personal details. Currently, many Web sites simply urge kids to check with their parents first.
The concern is that the Web sites are advertisements in disguise that unfairly target children, weaving products and opportunities to buy them with such online activities as playing a game.
Magaziner said the revised draft was written in the last few days, just before this week's four-day FTC hearings that were to conclude Friday.
One Web site cited in the media watchdog group's study included a sweepstakes contest inviting children to sign up to win a big-screen television, a gift certificate to the Gap or other prizes.
They are asked to sign up by typing in their name, age, address and other personal details.
Representatives of five Web site companies present at the hearing on Thursday -- America Online, Time Warner, KidsCom, Yahooligans! and Digital Marketing Services -- testified that they do not sell their lists of Web users that they have assembled.
The concern is that people are getting inundated with junk e-mail as Web sites sell lists to other marketers seeking to target a specific group of potential buyers.
Even so, FTC Commissioner Christine Varney said, "500,000 (Web sites) aren't at the table. What do you think we should do about them?"
Regulators are using their findings from the hearings to see if they should recommend new federal laws. But the government has tried so far to work within the scope of existing laws.
For instance, federal regulators on Thursday put the junk e-mail industry on notice that businesses could be punished for breaking consumer fraud regulations if they place false information in unsolicited mail they send to millions of Internet users.
The FTC also asked the industry to come up with ways to stem the flood of commercial mail clogging the Internet and creating bottlenecks that make it difficult to get online.
Penalties a junk mailer might face for breaking the fraud law could include an injunction to stop the illegal practice and up to tens of thousands of dollars in fines for a repeat offender.
Related stories:
- The intricate world of the Web - June 10, 1997
- Oral history goes high tech - March 11, 1997
Related sites:
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- Center for Media Education Action for Children in Cyberspace
- The White House for Kids
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