Children's Online Privacy Rights

@petten | npetten@marsdd.com
CHILDREN’S ONLINE PRIVACY
AND RIGHTS
NICK PETTEN
!
@PETTEN
NPETTEN@MARSDD.COM
WWW.NICKPETTEN.COM

AGENDA:
1. Trends
2. Legislation
3. Questions and discussion
4. Ethical and Pedagogical issues
5. Questions and discussion

TRENDS IN THE MARKETPLACE
• Over 80% of the top selling paid apps in the
Education category of the iTunes Store target
children from toddlers to high school (Shuler, 2012)
• 58% of apps
target toddler
and preschool
age children
(Shuler, 2012)

USAGE BY CHILDREN
• 30% of 3-5 year old children use the Internet
compared to 50% of 6-9 year olds
!
• 46% of the 12 year-olds surveyed in a 2010 Pew
study reported using a social network site (Lenhart
et al., 2010)

REPORT FROM COMMON
SENSE MEDIA 2013
• Children’s access to mobile media devices is
dramatically higher than it was two years ago.

REPORT FROM COMMON
SENSE MEDIA 2013
• Almost twice as many children have used mobile media
compared to two years ago, and the average amount of
time children spend using mobile devices has tripled.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE
NUMBERS
• There is a big difference between ages. Children are
not a homogenous group and are as diverse as any
other group.
• There is a growing market with younger children
going online and using apps.

FTC: LITTLE PROGRESS ON
PRIVACY AND DISCLOSURE
• A 2012 report from the FTC called, “Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures
Still Not Making the Grade” which surveyed 400 apps in the
marketplace
• 80% of the apps apparently did not disclose any information
about the apps privacy practices prior to download.
• 60% of the apps transmitted the device ID to the developer, an
advertising network, an analytics company, or other third party.
• 58% of the apps contained in-app advertising, but only 15% of
the apps disclosed information about the presence of advertising.

LEGISLATION
• COPPA: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
!
• PIPEDA: Personal Information Protection and
Electronic Documents Act
!
• Consumer Protection Act in Quebec

COPPA: CHILDREN’S ONLINE
PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT
• Applies to:
• operators of commercial websites and online services
(including mobile apps) directed to children under 13 that
collect, use, or disclose personal information from children
• operators of general audience websites or online services
with actual knowledge that they are collecting, using, or
disclosing personal information from children under 13
• websites or online services that have actual knowledge that
they are collecting personal information directly from users of
another website or online service directed to children

COPPA: THE RULES
• clear and comprehensive privacy policy describing
information practices
• provide direct notice to parents and obtain parental
consent
• parental choice to the internal use of information, but
prohibiting from disclosing to third parties
• parental access to child’s information to review and/or
delete

COPPA: THE RULES
• give parents the opportunity to prevent further use
and collection
• maintain conﬁdentiality, security, and integrity of
the information
• retain information collected for only as long as is
necessary to fulﬁll the purpose for which it was
collected and then delete it

COPPA: CASE STUDIES
• Path
• improperly accessing contact data and
registering children under the age of 13
• $800,000 ﬁne
• required a comprehensive privacy program
which must be audited every two years for the
next 20 years

COPPA: CASE STUDIES
• Artist Arena
• registered approximately 25,000 child users
without notifying parents and obtaining consent
• $1 million settlement
• the content of the website attracted young
children

COPPA: CASE STUDY
• Broken Thumbs Apps
• collecting children’s personal information
without parental consent and used for
marketing purposes
• ﬁned $50,000

COPPA: SAFE HARBOR
PROGRAM
• allows industry groups to provide ‘FTC-approved’
certiﬁcations
• Truste
• Privo
• KidsSafe

CANADIAN LEGISLATION:
PIPEDA
• PIPEDA: Personal Information Protection and
Electronic Documents Act
• recognizes an individual’s right to privacy and that a
company can only use or disclose personal
information that a reasonable person would
consider appropriate
• as a business are you providing enough information
that users are able to give their informed consent?

CANADIAN LEGISLATION:
PIPEDA
• Privacy Commissioner: children are not likely able
to provide meaningful consent
• Supreme Court of Canada: “[r]ecognition of the
inherent vulnerability of children has consistent
and deep roots in Canadian law” and that “[t]his
results in protection for young people’s privacy” in
several legislative areas.

QUEBEC’S CONSUMER
PROTECTION ACT
• prohibits commercial advertising directed at
persons under the age of 13

QUEBEC’S CONSUMER
PROTECTION ACT
• General Mills pleaded guilty for advertising Lucky
Charms cereal on a Lucky Charms website that
included games

QUEBEC’S CONSUMER
PROTECTION ACT
• presenting advertisements
to children when they
interacted with their avatar
• encouraging children them
to join a paid subscription
and purchase products

CANADIAN AND US
LEGISLATION
• Questions?

ETHICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL
ISSUES

ISSUES
• Businesses are increasingly creating and
inﬂuencing the experiences of childhood
• this is problematic if the sole purpose of a
business is to maximize proﬁt without ethical
regard for children’s well-being and learning
objectives

ISSUES
• Unethical practice: False claims that using a
product or service will help children learn
something
• Recommendation: Don’t make claims that you can
back up through scientiﬁc evidence

ISSUES
• Unethical practice: using children’s personal
information to send targeted advertising and
marketing
• Recommendation: don’t use children’s information
for anything other than the stated purpose of your
product or service

ISSUES
• Unethical practice: not disclosing how personal
information is being used
• Recommendation: address and design privacy
safeguards at the beginning (or as soon as
possible) of your business venture

ISSUES
• Unethical practice: conditioning a child’s
behaviour through in-app activities for monetary
gain
• Recommendation: carefully consider how users
might make in-app purchases and what leads
them to make that decision.

PRACTICAL WAYS OF BECOMING
A CHILD-FRIENDLY BUSINESS
Understand
and follow
applicable law
Do the
research to
understand
your impact
on children
Actively
design and
implement
child-friendly
business
practices
Adopt a
children’s
rights
framework
LEVELS OF ENGAGEMENT

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS AND
BUSINESS PRINCIPLES
• Partnership
between UNICEF,
UN Global
Compact and
Save the Children

QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU!
• please contact myself or someone from MaRS in
the education group for more information
• npetten@marsdd.com
• follow me on Twitter at @petten where I
regularly post items on this subject

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