POCKET PROTECTION

摘要

Children are online at an increasingly young age, and they are subject to increasing dangers because of the evolving online environment of interactivity and social networking. MySpace exceeded the page views of Go-ogle and eBay years ago, and the AMA advises doctors to warn parents about potential Internet dangers. Although the Internet brings rich content to children and expands their horizons, at the same time it also creates dangers and risks to their privacy and well-being. For the better part of a decade, the FTC championed the protection of children's privacy online. The FTC predicted since its COPPA regulations in 2000 that technology would provide the answer to protecting children online, yet no technology solution emerged. Clearly, Internet and communications technology have progressed rapidly and significantly in over seven years, yet protection of children's privacy seems to have been left behind. The goals of COPPA, to encourage the participation of parents in the online activities and decisions of their children and to facilitate the method of obtaining verifiable parental consent, can be accomplished with the aid of presently available technology, as illustrated by the POCKET proof of concept.