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Many children are skilled navigators of the Internet. They are comfortable using computers and are fascinated by the information and images that can be explored at the click of a mouse. Recent figures show that 90% of school-age children have access to computers either at home or at school.

The Internet offers children and youth tremendous opportunities to explore new ideas, visit foreign lands, meet other children, and participate in challenging games. But like the real world, aspects of the virtual world can be dangerous and harmful to children.

Parents, teachers and other guardians cannot always be on hand to prevent children and youth from visiting web sites with harmful or objectionable content. Nor can they always be available to discuss with children what they are encountering in the online world.

The words "harmful" and "objectionable" can be interpreted in many ways. In the online world, they are often used to describe pornography, profanity, and hate speech. In this guide, we use these terms to also describe advertising messages and images that are highly manipulative of children.

The guide provides resources for parents to maximize the benefits of cyberspace for children and minimize the dangers. It is divided into six sections:

1. Summary of privacy and safety tips
2. Online marketing to children
3. Harmful material and filtering
4. Online safety for chat and instant messages
5. Spam to minors
6. Online privacy and safety resources
   6a. Resources for teens
7. Directory of organizations.

 

This guide covers a broad range of Internet privacy and safety topics. There are no easy answers to ensure your child has harm-free experiences on the Internet. Likewise, there are no truly effective technology-based solutions.

In the final analysis, there is no substitute for parental involvement in children's exploration of cyberspace. The best way to ensure that your children have positive online experiences is to spend time with them and ask them to show you their activities.

Here are the top tips for protecting children’s privacy and safety on the Internet. For additional tips, read the remainder of this guide, and get acquainted with the many other materials listed in Section 5, "online privacy and safety resources."

Privacy policy. Read the privacy policy statements on the web sites visited by your children. Teach older children to do the same. Look for policies that explain what information is collected, if any, what the web site operator does with it, and how you can choose whether or not the child’s information can be collected.

Consent. If your child is under age 13, you must decide if you are going to give permission for web sites to collect personal information from them, a requirement of federal law (see Section 2). Be sure to carefully read the privacy policy and terms of service before making this decision.

Web seal. Look for a privacy "seal of approval," such as TRUSTe, www.truste.org, on the first page. Participants agree to post their privacy policies and submit to audits of their privacy practices in order to display the logo. Web seal programs also provide dispute resolution services. TRUSTe displays a seal especially for children under age 13. The Council of Better Business Bureaus also has a seal program, www.bbbonline.org.

Contracts. Encourage your children, especially teens, to take responsibility for their online behavior by establishing a contract with them. The Federal Trade Commission’s "Site Seeing on the Internet" provides sample language, www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/sitesee.html. The web guide for parents, GetNetWise, also provides contract language, www.getnetwise.org/tools/toolscontracts.php.

Family rules. You can establish family rules for online computer use. Among those suggested by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (www.missingkids.com) are the following:

• Tell your children never to give out identifying information such as family information, home address, school name, or phone number in chat room discussions and when visiting web sites. They shouldn't even reveal such data in private e-mail unless they know who they are dealing with. They must also not send out personal or family photos without your permission. It’s best for children to use "screen names" that are different from their own in chat rooms.
  
• Explain to children that passwords must never be given to anyone else, even someone claiming to be from the online service. 
  
• Warn your children not to respond to messages that are threatening, suggestive, demeaning, or otherwise make you or the child uncomfortable. Tell them to report such messages to you.
  
• Set reasonable usage rules, including time limits, for your child's use of the computer. Watch for excessive use of online services late at night. That could be a tip-off there is a problem.
  
• Try to make online use a family activity. Keep the computer in a family room rather than the child's bedroom.
  
• Get to know your children's online "friends," much as you try to get to know their other friends. Never permit a child to arrange a face-to-face meeting with another computer user without your attending at least the first meeting.
  
• Explain that people online may not be who they seem to be. Someone claiming to be a 12-year old girl might be a 40-year old man.
  
• Also explain that not everything they read online may not be true. Any offer that's "too good to be true" probably is.
  
• Learn about the online services your child uses. Find out about ways to steer them to child-friendly sites. If you are a novice to online use, ask your child to show you what they do online and how to log on to online services. Better yet, take a class and learn to navigate the Internet yourself.

Children are a highly marketed segment of the consumer population. Advertisers and marketers can use the Internet to target children and gather personal information from them for marketing purposes.

When children visit commercial web sites, they might be tempted to fill out surveys, exchange personal information for gifts, register for club membership, sign up to receive games, and give up personal information in chat rooms. After learning a child's name and favorite fictional hero, a company might send the child an e-mail message pretending to be from that "person." Younger children are not likely to realize the difference between fiction and reality.

Web sites can also be designed to invisibly gather information about children's interests as they "travel" from page to page, or site to site. Such transactional data is called the "clickstream." It often triggers the placement of "cookies" or "web bugs" on the computer used by the child, which in turn enable targeted ads to be displayed.

Web browsers Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape can be set to detect and reject cookies. For more information about cookies and web bugs, read our Fact Sheet 18, "Privacy in Cyberspace," www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm. See also the useful online privacy guides at www.getnetwise.org and www.consumerprivacyguide.org.

In short, the interactive world of cyberspace is a highly seductive and potentially manipulative environment for children. There are many opportunities for gathering data from children and sending them targeted messages.

Studies by the Federal Trade Commission and public interest groups in the mid-1990s revealed that commercial web sites aimed at children were collecting a significant amount of personal information and targeting them with advertising. In 1998 Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which took effect in April of 2000. (15 U.S.C. 6501, or 16 C.F.R §312, www.ftc.gov/ogc/coppa1.htm)

COPPA covers web sites that are developed expressly for children. But it also covers any online service which has knowledge that it collects information from children. This includes sites that allow children to use interactive communication tools. So, even if the site is not collecting information about children, if a child’s personal information can be made public on the site (such as through IM instant messaging or a message board), and the site has knowledge of this, it may be held liable under COPPA.
 

COPPA requires that web sites and online services directed to children under age 13 must:

• Post a clearly written privacy policy with links to the notice provided on the home page and at each area where the site or online service collects personal information from children.
• Describe the kinds of information collected from children, for example, name, address, e-mail address, hobbies, and age (note, this requirement applies to all information, not just "personal information").
• Explain how the information is collected – whether directly from the child and/or behind the scenes through cookies (explained below).
• Explain how the web site operator uses the personal information (marketing to the child? notifying contest members?), and whether it is disclosed to third parties.
• Provide parents with contact information – address, phone number, and e-mail address – for all operators collecting or maintaining children’s personal information.
• Obtain parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information about a child.
• Provide parents with the ability to review, correct, and delete information about their children collected by such services.
• Maintain reasonable procedures "to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information collected from children."

Further, web sites cannot require a child to provide personal information as a condition of participating in online, games, contests, or other activities when it is not necessary to do so.

The Federal Trade Commission oversees the implementation of this law. Its web site provides extensive information on COPPA:

• FTC’s FAQ on COPPA, www.ftc.gov/privacy/coppafaqs.htm
• FTC’s guide on how to comply with COPPA, www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.htm
• FTC’s Kidz Privacy pages. Click on "Resources." www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/kidzprivacy/index.html.

These sites offer additional resources on COPPA:

• American Library Association FAQ on COPPA, www.ala.org/oitp/faq.html
• Electronic Frontier Foundation FAQ on COPPA, www.eff.org/Privacy/Children/20000420_eff_coppa_faq.html
• Electronic Privacy Information Center page on COPPA, www.epic.org/privacy/kids.

If you think a web site or online service is not complying with COPPA, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission:

• FTC complaint hotline, (877) FTCHELP, or 877-382-4357.
• Online complaint form, www.ftc.gov
• By mail: Federal Trade Commission, CRC-240, Washington, D.C. 20580.

If the web site or online service is a member of one of the seal programs, TRUSTe or BBBOnline, you can also complain to those organizations. Their contact information is at the end of this guide.

Yes, although it is not entirely effective. The primary purpose of "parental control" software, also known as filtering software, is to block objectionable content such as pornography. Several software programs can also be used to block the outgoing transmission of children's personally identifying information, such as names, addresses, and telephone numbers. These programs can also block the use of online chat systems and instant messaging (IM).

Parental control software packages include CyberPatrol, CyberSitter, and NetNanny. Be aware that children and youth who are skilled on the computer can "outsmart" filtering software by entering alternate spellings of names and addresses, numbers written out as words, and so on (for example, Kevven for Kevin).

To learn more about the many filtering products available to parents, conduct a search on the words "parental control software" on a search engine such as Google, www.google.com. Also, visit the GetNetWise web site, www.getnetwise.org. The next section of this guide provides additional information on filtering.

Yes. You have many ad-blocking programs to choose from, including AdDelete and AdWiper. Some are free or available at low cost. In addition to preventing ads from being targeted at children, they can speed up your web surfing. The Junkbusters web site describes ad-blocking programs at www.junkbusters.com/guidescope.html and at www.junkbusters.com/links.html#More.

The Canadian organization Media Awareness Network (www.media-awareness.ca) discusses online marketing to children and youth at www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/internet/kids_for_sale_parents/index.cfm .

The data collection practices of child-oriented web sites, discussed above, are just one concern for parents. Another area of concern is children's access to web sites containing material that may be considered objectionable. Such content includes pornography, obscenity, gratuitous violence, and hate speech.

A number of products are available which, when installed on the home computer, block access to many web sites containing objectionable material. Some products also prevent access to the computer during specified hours of the day, provide parents a log of the web sites visited by their children, and prevent access to such web services as chat, discussed in Section 4 below.

Several filtering products are available today, including NetNanny, CyberSitter, and CyberPatrol. The major search engines such as Google www.google.com can direct you to many "parental control software" programs. The web site GetNetWise lists filtering products in its "tools" section. Yahoo’s online guide for kids, Yahooligans, provides a section for parents that includes a list of filtering products, www.yahooligans.com/parents.

Look for software that:

• Blocks "outgoing" transmission of personal information such as name, address, phone number.
• Limits access by time of day and total amount of connect time.
• Clearly states its criteria for blocking sites, and allows parents to read a list of blocked sites.
• Has user-definable options, allowing customization of blocked sites.
• Allows user to turn software on and off with password control.
• Is updated frequently.
• Blocks image files (JPEG, GIF) and binary downloads, likely to contain photos and graphic images.
• Filters offensive language.
• Blocks Internet Relay Chats (IRCs) and Usenet Newsgroups.
• Works with online service providers like AOL and MSN.

None of these software programs has been proven entirely effective when put through a set of controlled tests.

• Product testers have found that filtering programs often block access to sites with legitimate non-obscene speech, for example the word "breast," which can be found on the American Cancer Society's web site pages concerning breast cancer.
• At the same time, filtering products still enable some harmful content to be displayed.
• Reviewers are also critical of software products that do not disclose the list of keywords used to block web sites.

A March 2001 study on the Consumer Reports web site notes that filters often block harmless sites because their "software does not consider the context in which a word or phrase is used." It also found that filtering products appear to "block legitimate sites based on the moral or political value judgments" of the software developers. ("Digital Chaperones for Kids," free at www.consumerreports.org)

Consumer Report’s recommendation: "Filtering software is no substitute for parental supervision."

The filtering debate revolves around the First Amendment. Those who support mandated filtering in schools and libraries want to prevent children from encountering harmful material online. Critics of filtering are concerned about censorship of political, social and business viewpoints by the software developers. In addition, some critics believe young people should have rights to privacy, especially those in their mid- to late-teens.

Congress has weighed in on this issue. It passed the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) in 2000, requiring schools and libraries to install filters on computers used by minors and adults or lose federal funds.

In May 2002 a federal court struck down the rules on First Amendment grounds, stating that the programs blocked too much as well as too little. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania noted that web filters had erroneously labeled as adult material the web sites of orphanages, political candidates, and churches. The American Library Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the conservative Free Congress Foundation were among the organizations bringing the suit.

But on June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court reviewed the federal court’s decision and reversed it, reinstating the requirements of CIPA. The Supreme Court held, 6-3, that the First Amendment does not prohibit Congress from forcing public libraries, as a condition of receiving federal funding, to use software filters to control what patrons access online via library computers (United States v. American Library Association). The FCC issued an order on July 24, 2003, prescribing what libraries must do under the Act to be compliant.

Under CIPA, no school or library may receive discounts on Internet connectivity unless it certifies that it is enforcing a policy of Internet safety. To receive the discounts, libraries much use filtering or blocking technology to shield minors from "inappropriate material on the Internet" and prevent the "unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal identification information regarding minors."

However, CIPA allows the filtering technology to be disabled to "enable access for bona fide research or other lawful purposes, " including a request by an adult. To be compliant with the law, libraries must certify that they have both the filtering technology in place as well as a procedure to remove the filter/blocking mechanism upon request by an adult. For more information, see "CIPA Updates" at www.ala.org.

Another law, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), is still moving through the courts, also challenged by the ACLU and other free speech advocates. COPA was struck down for the second time by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2003. The Court found that the law, by requiring commercial web sites to obtain proof of age before delivering material which might be harmful to minors, imposed too much of a burden on adults who were trying to access material protected by the First Amendment. Passed in 1998, COPA has never been enforced due to injunctions and lower court rulings won by the ACLU on behalf of 17 plaintiffs.

An October 2002 study by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) found that schools using the two most common filtering programs, Surfcontrol and N2H2’s Bess, block tens of thousands of web pages inappropriately when the least restrictive settings are applied. Many web pages are miscategorized, they found, and many that are correctly categorized do not merit blocking in their opinion. www.eff.org/Censorship/Academic_edu/Censorware/net_block_report

COPA is seen as a stricter law than CIPA partially due to the fact that proof of age is a difficult requirement to verify and because it imposes criminal penalties on commercial sites that do not comply. On October 14, 2003, the Supreme Court stated that it would re-evaluate the constitutionality of COPA. The Court is expected to hear oral arguments in March 2004, and issue its decision in late May or June.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center maintains a resource on COPA (including the text of the act), at www.epic.org/free_speech/copa.

Visit these web sites for additional discussion of these issues:

• American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/burning.html. Read its seminal white paper, "Fahrenheit 451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning?", which discusses the potential for censorship in the use of filtering software.
• American Library Association, www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/filt_stm.html. Read the ALA's policy on filtering in libraries.
• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, www.cpsr.org/filters/faq.html. Harry Hochheiser's "Filtering FAQ" contains plain-language descriptions of how filters and ratings systems work.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation, www.eff.org. Visit its archives on filtering and labeling, www.eff.org/Censorship/Ratings_filters_labelling.
• Electronic Privacy Information Center, www.epic.org/reports/filter_report.html, "Faulty Filters: How Content Filters Block Access to Kid-Friendly Information on the Internet" (1997). Also read its 2000 report, Filters and Freedom 2.0: Free Speech Perspectives on Internet Content Controls, www.epic.org/bookstore/filters2.0.
• Internet Free Expression Alliance, www.ifea.net. Coalition of civil liberties and public interest organizations opposed to government enforcement of ratings or filtering of online content.
• MIT Student Association for Freedom of Expression's annotated list of web sites on filtering: www.mit.edu/activities/safe/labeling/summary.html.
• Peacefire, www.peacefire.org. A youth advocacy site, critical of web filtering software. Provides product-specific reviews.

The blocking products described above reside either in the personal computer or the online service provider. Parents have several alternatives to installing filtering programs on home computers.

Child-friendly filtering services and web sites. One option is to take advantage of child-friendly Internet Service Providers. Commercial service providers offer programs that strive to offer a safe environment for children. AOL, for example, enables parents to steer children to "kids only," "young teens," or "mature teens" areas.

The Internet Service Provider FamilyClick offers age-based levels of service, and screens the web sites accessible to each, www.familyclick.com. It and similar services, such as Mayberry USA, www.mbusa.net, charge a monthly fee. The web guide for parents, GetNetWise, provides an extensive list of these and other filtered access services, http://kids.getnetwise.org/tools/.

Be aware that filtering services are subject to the same biases as the blocking software programs discussed above. Take the time to carefully read about the service’s criteria for filtering.

Parents can also steer children to web sites that provide appropriate content. The American Library Association offers a list of "700 Great Sites" for children, www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites as part of its "Librarian’s Guide to Cyberspace for Parents and Kids," www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites/guide.html. GetNetWise provides a directory of several child-oriented sites at http://kids.getnetwise.org/kidsites. Newspaper columnist Larry Magid offers a list of search engines that are child-friendly www.safekids.com.

Ratings services. Another approach is to seek web sites that have been rated based on levels of sex, nudity, violence, and harsh language. The web browser Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) allows you to select a rating service that acts as a filter when surfing the web. The major Internet Service Providers – AOL, MSN, and Yahoo -- have agreed to use voluntary electronic tags.

Internet Explorer comes already packaged with the RSACi, ratings service, now operated by the Internet Content Rating Association, www.icra.org/faq. To use other ratings services, IE users must download and install files from the Internet. The ratings systems that can be added to the Content Advisor feature of Internet Explorer are (click on Tools, Internet Options, Content, Settings, General, Find Rating Systems):

• Internet Content Rating Association, www.icra.org, the most widely used rating system to date.
• SafeSurf, www.safesurf.com, based on 12 categories for rating content.
• Entertainment Software Rating Board, www.esrb.net, originally developed to rate computer and video games.
• See www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/evaluation/features/indepth/contentadv.asp

Site labeling is in its infancy. It does not provide parents with an effective strategy for filtering Internet content for children.

• Like the filtering products discussed above, the ratings vocabulary can embody the values of the developers. These values are not likely to be appropriate for all users, especially in the increasingly global scope of the Internet.
• Web sites that rate themselves are likely to introduce bias into the evaluation process. Third-party rating can be abused as well.
• The sheer volume of web sites to be rated presents another problem, especially for third-party rating. Many sites, if not most, are likely to be unrated. This could result in many legitimate and useful sites being blocked by systems that do not allow unrated sites to be accessed.

The March 2001 Consumer Reports review of site labeling (see above) found several web sites that had not been labeled appropriately. It stated that "until far more sites suitable for children are properly labeled, labeling must be considered a complement to other filtering techniques, rather like motion-picture ratings."

Web seals. Another approach is to seek web sites that have a web seal of approval, such as TRUSTe, www.truste.org. Web sites that receive the TRUSTe Children’s Privacy Seal must meet certain requirements, www.truste.org/consumers/users_how.html:

• The site must be appropriate for children under 13.
• The privacy policy must explain what the web site does with personal information.
• The site must offer the privacy principles of notice, choice, access, and security.

What are the privacy and safety concerns for children regarding "chat" and instant message services?

Chat rooms. Chat rooms are enormously popular with children. They enable several individuals to interact with one another in real-time by typing messages onto their keyboards.

The commercial online services AOL, MSN, and Yahoo offer numerous chat rooms that cater to specific interests. Chat is also provided via Internet Relay Chat, or IRC. For more information, visit www.irchelp.org.

Many children report having problems with other users in chat rooms. The most common problems are: profanity; asking a participant for his/her password; asking for personal information such as name, address, phone number, and e-mail address; inappropriate advances; and adults visiting chat rooms set aside for children. (Source: Consumers Union's magazine for children, Zillions, 1996 survey. In 2000, Zillions became "Consumer Reports Online for Kids," www.zillions.org.)

Children can adopt several tactics for maximizing their privacy and safety in chat rooms.

• Participate only in monitored chat rooms.
• Choose a screen name that is used only for chatting and does not contain personal identification.
• Avoid names that attract inappropriate contact such as "sexyteen."
• Do not provide traceable personal information in the profile.
• Never give out personal information such as name, address, phone number, and school name.

Several filtering software programs provide features that they claim can prevent children from transmitting their name and other personal information. However, there is no foolproof way, other than blocking Internet chat room access entirely, to prevent a child from communicating a name and address in a chat room. That's because of the many ways such words and numbers can be spelled. A period can be inserted into a name, and numbers can be spelled out.

Instant messages. A popular form of one-to-one chat is provided by instant messaging (IM) services. Faster than e-mail and cheaper than the telephone, they are used to communicate in real time with friends and family. Many of the same strategies for safe chatting apply to instant messaging:

• Do not put identifying information in the profile.
  
• Don’t send personal identifying information via messages.
  
• Click on the option that requires others to get your permission before they can add you to their contact list.
  
• If participants use the instant message service to transfer files such as music and photos, take precautions to avoid viruses and worms.

Chat room behavior, instant messaging tips, and other Internet safety topics are discussed on the web site CyberAngels at "Internet 101," www.cyberangels.org/101/index.html and at WiredPatrol’s "Internet 101" tutorial, www.wiredpatrol.org/wiredhelp/internet101/index.html.

Instruct your child to tell you about any messages that make them feel uncomfortable or scared. Report harassment to the chat room monitor and the Internet Service Provider. Most services provide a special e-mail address to report problems, for example, abuse@aol.com.

Take advantage of the IM service’s blocking features. Users of AOL’s Instant Messenger service AIM, for example, can "warn" people who are sending them inappropriate messages. Those who get too many warnings are removed from the service. AIM users can also add harassers to their "block list" under the "privacy preference." 

If your child receives physical threats or if you suspect that a pedophile is contacting children, contact:

• The local police department.
  
• The nearest field office of the FBI. Information about the FBI’s Crimes Against Children Program is found at www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/crimesmain.htm.
  
• The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (800) 843-5678 or its online Cyber Tip Line at www.cybertipline.org.
  

The CAN-SPAM Act, effective January 2004, contains provisions which may help parents concerned by the amount of inappropriate e-mail their children receive. The law is primarily aimed at eliminating deceptive unsolicited commercial e-mail, but also addresses the problem of sexually oriented unsolicited e-mail.

The Act requires that any e-mail messages which contain sexually explicit material must be labeled in the subject line with an abbreviation or marking. The Federal Trade Commission proposed that the text "Sexual-Explicit-Content" be printed at the beginning of the subject line. In turn, concerned parents can use filtering techniques to block e-mail that contains the required text.

 

Further, the sexually oriented e-mail must contain an opening page with a clear and conspicuous option to not receive any more e-mail from the sender and a legitimate physical address of the sender. The opener page, called a "virtual brown wrapper" by some, cannot contain any graphic material, but instead may contain a link to the sexually oriented material.

Violation of these rules can be reported to the FTC or to your state’s Attorney General. Violations of the Act will result in fines under Title 18, imprisonment of no more than five years, or both.

It remains to be seen if the law will be effective in labeling sexually oriented spam and enabling individuals to prevent it from appearing in the computer’s in-box. Visit the Spam Laws web site for more information, www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html.

Several agencies and organizations provide brochures and other resources about Internet privacy and safety, both online and in paper form. To order paper copies, see the postal addresses and phone numbers in the directory at the end of this guide.

The Federal Trade Commission’s Kidz pages are found at www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/kidzprivacy. Its guide for parents, "Site Seeing on the Internet" is available in paper form too. Some FTC guides are available in Spanish. See the FTC’s mailing address in Section 7, below.

The FTC’s cyber-security web site features Dewie the e-Turtle, at www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/infosecurity. Its Spanish language pages are at www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/infosecurity/espanol.html.

The GetNetWise web site is a comprehensive resource for parents, sponsored by Internet industry companies and public interest organizations, www.getnetwise.org.

The TRUSTe online privacy guide for parents and teachers is available at www.truste.org/education/users_parents_teacher_guide.html. To order the paper version, see TRUSTe’s address at the end.

I-Safe is a non-profit foundation that teaches Internet safety in the school system. Contact your local principal to implement the I-Safe program in your school district. www.isafe.org.

The Canadian organization Media Awareness Network offers an interactive game for children on its web site and on CD-ROM, "The First Adventure of the Three Little CyberPigs: Safety Lessons for the Information Highway," at www.media-awareness.ca/eng/cpigs/cpigs.htm.

The National Consumers League’s brochure, "Essentials for Children Online," is found at www.natlconsumersleague.org/essentials/family.html.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offers its guide in paper form and online: "Child Safety on the Information Highway," www.missingkids.org. Its "Child Safety" and "Teen Safety" guides are also available in Spanish.

The SafeKids web site is a service of newspaper columnist Larry Magid, found at www.safekids.com.

The WiredSafety family of web sites, www.wiredsafety.org and www.wiredpatrol.org, offers a variety of resources for parents, children, and law enforcement. The WiredKids web site provides tips and games for children at www.wiredkids.org/index2.html.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA, discussed in Section 2) requires parental consent before web sites can collect data from children. But the law only protects those under age 13. The lives of many teens are closely intertwined with the electronic culture offered by commercial web sites and by Internet services like instant messaging and music sharing.

Teens are both shaping and being shaped by their immersion in the digital culture. Marketing to teens is rampant on the Internet. It is common practice for Internet services aimed at teens to offer free products and services in exchange for personal information. As the report explains, there is no such thing as "free."

A growing number of teens are shopping online. While it is beyond the scope of this guide to cover online shopping and e-commerce, the world of online music deserves special attention because of its popularity with teens. The PrivacyActivism web site invites teens to join the character Carabella as she attempts to obtain music on the Internet. The interactive video game highlights the ways that consumers' privacy and fair use rights are being whittled away by digital rights management technologies, online spyware, and data profiling services, http://www.privacyactivism.org/carabella/. In another episode available on the PrivacyActivism web site, Carabella goes to college and learns how to safeguard her privacy there.

For general information about online shopping, see our Fact Sheet 23, www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs23-shopping.htm.

For a frank discussion of "cyber street smarts" for youth, visit the web site of CyberAngels, www.cyberangels.org. Its tutorial, "Internet 101," offers no-nonsense tips on a variety of topics that are relevant to teens, including dating services, cyberstalking, e-mail privacy, and the dangers of filesharing.

The WiredSafety family of web sites offers resources for teens at www.wiredteens.org and www.wiredpatrol.org.

Newspaper columnist Larry Magid provides a special section of his SafeKids web site for teens and their parents, www.safeteens.com, including many of his articles on child and teen safety.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provides its brochure, "Teen Safety on the Information Highway" in English and Spanish, and in paper and online, www.missingkids.com.

• American Civil Liberties Union. 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004. DC office: 1400 20th St., NW, Suite 119, Washington, DC 20036. Phone: (202) 457-0800. Web: www.aclu.org
• American Library Association. 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Phone: (312) 944-6780 and (800) 545-2433. Web: www.ala.org
• Center for Democracy and Technology. 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20006. Phone: (202) 637-9800. Web: www.cdt.org and www.consumerprivacyguide.org
• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. P.O. Box 717, Palo Alto, CA 94302. Phone: (650) 322-3778. Web: www.cpsr.org
• Council of Better Business Bureaus. 4200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 800, Arlington, VA 22203. Phone: (703) 276-0100. Web: www.bbb.org  and  www.bbbonline.org
• Electronic Frontier Foundation. 454 Shotwell St., San Francisco, CA 94110. Phone: (415) 436-9333. Web: www.eff.org
• Electronic Privacy Information Center. 1718 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite 200, Washington, DC 20009. Phone: (202) 483-1140. Web: www.epic.org
  20580. Phone: (202) 382-4357 and (877) FTC-HELP. Web: www.ftc.gov
• I-Safe America. 5963 La Place Court, Suite 104, Carlsbad,CA 92008. Phone: (760) 603-7911. Web: www.isafe.org.
• Junkbusters. P. O. Box 7034, Green Brook, NJ 08812. Web: www.junkbusters.com
• Media Awareness Network. 1500 Merivale Rd., 3^rd fl., Ottawa, ON K2E 6Z5, Canada. Phone: (613) 224-7721 or in Canada (800) 896-3342. Web: www.media-awareness.ca
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 699 Prince St., Alexandria, VA 22314. Phone: (703) 274-3900. Hotline: (800) 843-5678. Web: www.missingkids.org
• PrivacyActivism. 452 Shotwell St., San Francisco, CA 94110. Phone: (415) 225-1730. Web: www.privacyactivism.org
• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. 3100 5th Ave., Suite B, San Diego, CA 92103. Phone: (619) 298-3396. Web: www.privacyrights.org
• TRUSTe. 685 Market Street, Suite 560, San Francisco, CA 94105. Phone: (415) 618-3400. Web: www.truste.org

We acknowledge the assistance of Alaina Roche, Esq., Research Associate,
in updating this guide (Feb. 2004).
 

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