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Parental Permission is Paramount

You, as a parent, are in control of your young child's personal information! Commercial Web sites must get your permission before they collect, use or disclose personal information from your children (with some common sense exceptions for your child's email and online contact information).

Should Parents Permit Web Sites to Collect Info About Kids?

It's up to you as the parent. But often children must provide Web sites with limited amounts of personal information to participate games, homework sessions, and chat sessions. It's best to make those decisions on a case-by-case basis. Again, Web sites will send parents a notice if they wish to collect personal information from children. Once a parent gives permission, however, they can prevent the web site from disclosing it to others or may later revoke the permission and demand that the information be deleted from their databases.

Giving parental permission and convincing Web sites that YOU are the parent.

How will Web sites know that you are the parent of your child? Online, Web sites must be careful to verify that you are the parent so that they can get your permission to collect information or to tell you what information they have about your child. Web sites may ask you to "verify" that you are the parent, and get your permission, in a variety of ways.

• Postal Mail
• Toll Free Phone
• Fax
• Email with Digital Signature or PIN
• Use of a Credit Card

Privacy and Your Child in School:

Parents should be aware that local school or other caregivers may be empowered to give permission or consent to Web sites regarding the collection of their children's personal information. If your school, day care facility, library or local church allows your child access to the online world, make sure that you know if they allow Web sites to collect personal information from kids.