FTC Seeks Public Comment on COPPA

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comment on a proposal to amend the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act rule to make permanent a temporary provision that allows Web site operators and online services that collect personal information from children for internal use only to obtain verifiable parental consent via e-mail.

According to the rule, an e-mail can be sent to obtain parental consent, plus an additional step to assure that the person providing the consent is actually the parent. Obtaining permission to disclose the child’s personal data publicly or to third parties is more rigorous, and can include using a print-and-send consent form; a credit card transaction, a toll-free number, a digital certificate, or an e-mail with a password or PIN obtained by one of the above mentioned methods, the FTC said.

This “sliding scale” approach was adopted when the rule was issued in 1999. The FTC said that the technological progress it had expected for an efficient and reliable means to obtain parental consent had not come to fruition and therefore proposes to amend the rule to make permanent the sliding scale approach.

The FTC is seeking comments concerning whether: (1) current or anticipated reliable technology or infomediary services could facilitate obtaining verifiable parental consent at a reasonable cost; (2) eliminating, extending, or making permanent the sliding scale approach would affect the incentive to develop secure technology for the purpose of obtaining parental consent; (3) eliminating the sliding scale approach would have an effect on how Web site operators would use personal information collected from children; and (4) the sliding scale approach should be eliminated, extended, or made permanent.

Comments can be filed electronically using the Web-based form available at secure.commentworks.com/ftcslidingscale/. Written comments should refer to “Sliding Scale 2005, Project No. P054503” on both the text and the envelope, and should be sent or delivered to: Federal Trade Commission/Office of the Secretary, Room H-159 (Annex Y), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Comments containing confidential information must be filed in paper form. Comments must be received by February 14, 2005.