Never before in the history of our nation is a technological revolution surrounding government regulations such as the Internet. The industrial revolution, like the birth of large companies, followed by acts of strict corporate governance and securities law requirements. The newfound mobility of the country has led to a more recent communications revolution as telegraph lines were installed along the railroad tracks the road. Suddenly, the people of the country is virtually at the touch of a dial.Once again, like a Pavlovian dog, the Government followed suit by introducing strict rules governing the use and control over the media. So we come to the revolution of information that we are still in the early years. Internet is growing faster and more thoroughly than any previous technological revolutions. However, because the Internet is not in a specific place, the public regulation over the Internet is slow to react. Jurisdictionissues aside, governments have struggled to make an effective way to determine the use of the Internet to regulate, while allowing the ideas of freedom of expression to flow freely.

Following the opening of the Internet and the anonymity involved, and issues of Internet governance difficult to design and almost impossible to enforce.
The Internet can be a good tool for students of all ages, but online predators, a serious threat to the most vulnerable group of Internet users,children. social networking sites continues to grow in popularity and expand in use. Myspace.com, facebook.com and classmates.com just some of the many sites available online. There are countless Internet chat rooms, where the identity of a person can be delivered almost untraceable. All of these sites and chat rooms are a significant risk to the welfare of children.

Also in response tothe expansion of this form of types of Internet, Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 ( "COPPA"). [For the complete text see http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/coppa1.htm] CUP targeting sites that offer services directly to children under 13 years, but also target the places of their services available to children under 13 years, although not the primary users. COPPA requires that Web sites at:

Write a policy with links toNotice on site and in all areas of the site or an online service, personal information collected from children, detailing how the site manager makes use of personal information, and if disclosed to third parties, describe each type of information gathered by children, such as name, address, email address, hobbies, and age, institute procedures to "protect the confidentiality, security and integrity of personal datacollect information from children. "Giving parents contact information for all operators collecting or maintaining personal information of children, allowing parents to review, correct and delete information collected about their children on these services; andObtain parental consent before collecting, use or disclose personal information a child under 13 years.

Services such as Myspace.com and facebook.com clear risk ofviolating COPPA simply giving children under 13 years to provide their services without parental notification service. Companies that these online services have a duty to exercise due diligence procedures in verifying the ages of its users Foundation. Failure to implement proper procedures can result in fines and potential civil liability. Recently, a social networking site called Xanga, which lets you create blogs and personalweb pages, sanctioned by the FTC $ 1 million U.S. dollars (FCC) for failing to comply fully with the Child Online Privacy Protection Act Xanga was that children under 13 years of online accounts without parental notification and not have sufficient resources for parents to access the accounts of their children. The fine is the largest of its kind ever conducted under COPPA. Other significant fines by the Federal RepublicTrade Commission for violations of COPPA are to be delivered to companies like toysmart.com (no longer exists), American Popcorn Company and Lisa Frank Inc., for all violations of COPPA.

As social networking sites continues to grow in popularity, so that the fines. It 'also likely that in the not too distant future, we will create a push-law's responsibility to ensure that parents can bring trials based in part on the CUPviolations. If you have a client that is planning to launch an online network, or already have, it is important to ensure that all policies are in accordance with COPPA. CUP has been recently updated and probably early in its scope extended to more and more predators lurking on the Internet through social networking sites. The best way to protect against any customer who is running as part of the net to do everything to protect childrenBy using this site. If not, can quickly prove costly for both lawyers and clients.

Posted on January 30th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Social Networking Articles