Released on May 16, 2000, by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, this report finds that many younger users are willing to divulge private information about their families in exchange for free gifts. Based on a survey of 1,000 parents and children with online access at home, the report reveals that 45 percent of ten- to seventeen-year-olds, as opposed to 29 percent of adults, were willing to exchange information such as their names, addresses, and various preferences in exchange for a free gift. Last month, the Childrens' Online Privacy Protection Act went into effect, barring sites from collecting information from users under age thirteen without their parents's consent, but online marketers are free to collect this information from teenage users. The authors of the report recommend, among other things, the establishment of some sort of "limited Federal regulation" to protect the privacy of these users and their families. The full text of the report and the accompanying press release are available in .pdf format at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg site.
Comments