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COPPA - Children's Online Privacy Protection Act is the law they are attempting to skirt through directed effort, which defines a child for the sake of all its protection as an individual under 13.

(1) IN GENERAL.â"It is unlawful for an operator of a website or online service directed to children, or any operator that has actual knowledge that it is collecting personal information from a child, to collect personal information from a child in a manner that violates the regulations prescribed under subsection (b). ... and it continues.

I wonder how they expect to monetize or indoctrinate this audience. As long as they don't violate the terms of the privacy law (which got iOS contact-stealing app company Path fined $800,000, in part for collecting on children) they can run a kid's site. This means that as long as they aren't wantonly scarfing details, they can still pitch sugar cereals.

You're making this up. Do you know how I know?

Because the policy is 13+

There was an epic whine about the policy back on the third that made both Fark and Reddit and probably other news aggregators.

http://sunpig.com/martin/archives/2011/07/03/google-made-my-son-cry.html

Just read. Read the fucking fail and self-entitlement within that posting.

Google+ follows COPPA. Who knew?

http://www.coppa.org/coppa.htm

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BMO

http://www.coppa.org/coppa.htm 13 year olds, dude.

Yes, I see your point. You may be right. At least, it looks like the act specifically defines personal information as including an "identifier" that, while defined broadly, wouldn't cover aggregate statistical information culled from these raw data streams.

I wonder if there still isn't a COPPA angle to prosecute, for some enterprising DA.

If EchoMetrix is like most American marketing data firms, they have no safeguards or controls, so raw data may be going to partners, subcontractors, "affiliates," etc. That could constitute a disclosure, with the caveat:

"...except where such information is provided to a person other than the operator who provides support for the internal operations of the website and does not disclose or use that information for any other purpose..."

Consider, too, that the rules are quite broad. For instance, if you simply track users with an "anonymous" ID in a cookie, and the rest of the data stream could ever conceivably include something identifying (i.e. the child identifying themselves accidentally), then your data is covered under the act. If you are thinking this means sites aimed at children effectively cannot use cookies, you are correct - this is the net effect of the law, AFAIK.

I doubt the parent's use of "net nanny" style software constitutes the necessary consent to disclose.

But who knows. At any rate, I think I stand corrected. This looks like a reach at best.

I seem to recall there being a law stating that no information may be collected from a under 13 years of age. It's called the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). I don't know much more about what the software is asking, and whom it is asking, but it seems to me they're treading dangerous ground by doing this kind of thing.

In the US, children have special privacy protections afforded by law. It involves things like "opt-in" and parental consent.

http://www.coppa.org/comply.htm

IANAL, but I have worked on a number of projects which had to comply. Based on what is said here, this seems in flagrant violation. Somebody call the cops.

Nope.

"The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and Rule apply to individually identifiable information about a child"

As long as they're only data mining the information on what the kids are interested in, and not saving which child was interested in what, they're apparently not violating the COPPA law.

Which is not to say that what they're doing is right, of course.

In the US, children have special privacy protections afforded by law. It involves things like "opt-in" and parental consent.

http://www.coppa.org/comply.htm

IANAL, but I have worked on a number of projects which had to comply. Based on what is said here, this seems in flagrant violation. Somebody call the cops.

...because it seems there is no statute that hasn't been overturned. Please help me to be better educated. Here's the best I could find on short notice... COPA, CIPA, COPPA, etc.

Apparently, it is this one.
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998

A growing number of sites deny access to users under 13, or require special parent's permission to access them. This is a result of the COPPA legislation. So yes, you are right, you have more legal privacy protection then.

...but you are missing the detail that you won't be able to access a small, but well used, portion of the net, or you will have very restricted access to sites. Changing your birthdate later when you run into this isn't always possible.

• I do not comply with COPPA regulations. Government authorities may send threatening letters to legal@oscarfish.com.

I don't believe in COPPA regulation and will not comply with it as long as I possibly can.