'Do Not Track Kids' Bill Released With Bipartisan Support

The Wall Street Journal:

A draft House bill with bipartisan support would prohibit companies from tracking children on the Internet without parental consent, restrict online marketing to minors and require an "Eraser Button" that would allow parents to eliminate kids' personal information already online.

Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal

Comments

[p28312]

10:17 AM on 05/08/2011

p.s. F-Facebook

[p28312]

10:16 AM on 05/08/2011

They need to give anyone a real way to opt out (or better yet opt-in). I've been getting this marketing spam and I've tried unsubscribing and it never stops. I wish I had legal recourse for this kind of BS. I also want to make sure they dont store my credit card or personal information..why is this so hard to understand. I hope this becomes law.

[anthonytaurus]

06:20 AM on 05/08/2011

I think it's unenforceable. I look at it like statutory rape. Can you blame a company for tracking a child if the child lied about their age. For example, how many sites ask for age verification (alcohol, tobacco, video games, r-rated movies, porn sites etc) which requires you to pick any month, day and year from a drop down menu. I'm an adult and even I "lie" on that because it's just faster. If anyone is tracking me, they must all think I was born on 1/1/*some year under 1980*.

Sounds like a big waste of time to me. It's another one of those cases where Congress is just putting out laws because they can't come to a positive conclusion on anything truly important. I'm not saying children aren't important. But, if you're going to put out a law that protects them, don't waste time on nonsense.

In theory it sounds great. Imagining it in practice, it seems idiotic at best. Oh well, this is what you voted for America. Good job shooting yourselves in the foot.

[Jokergirl]

04:06 AM on 05/08/2011

Parents should have the say about their children. Good, they should not be able to track children, when children put in personal information there are pedophiles who will follow this child if they have a facebook page or they will send them inappropriate messages or pictures. Worse they will ask if they can meet the child, or pose as a young child themselves and still ask to meet the child. When the child meets with the assailant many are never seen again, it's only after the fact that parents and police discover the child was communicating with the pedophile online. There are already enough predators online after children, just watch DATELINE: TO CATCH A PREDATOR. I do care if they track teenagers as well, but adults I could care less.

[jsgaetano]

03:09 PM on 05/07/2011

Why draw the line at kids?  They shouldn't be tracking adults either.

[TaxpayingVoter]

02:17 PM on 05/07/2011

Wouldn't it be easier to just track NOBODY instead of just kids?

[portfolio]

01:39 PM on 05/07/2011

More nanny state bs.

Parents are the best people to decide what their children do.

Corporations shouldn't have to be babysitters.

[Rodger leMonde]

02:27 PM on 05/07/2011

This gives parents a tool to do just that.
As long as there is a market corporations will do whatever it takes, no matter what level of regulation they have to meet. You are defending Goliath against David.

[xanas]

07:43 PM on 05/07/2011

The parents could do just that by disabling cookies while their child is on the internet and telling them not to use facebook or other services that use their personal information. If they are afraid of the IP address knowing it can roughly reveal the location they are at then they can ask their ISP to obfsucate locations or use a proxy server.

All of the tools are already there, why do we need another tool people won't use?

[TruEngineHearing]

02:45 PM on 05/07/2011

...but since many parents don't guide their children, should a society just sit and watch those children lose out, or should it try to find a way to help keep childhood safe, and keep children out of the cross-hairs of corporate marketing? You say let the child fare for itself; perhaps guided by responsible parents; maybe guided by nothing but TV and the internet. There are millions and millions of Americans who totally disagree on ethical, moral, and spiritual grounds.

[xanas]

07:46 PM on 05/07/2011

If the problem is parents as you say, then how does this solve anything? Parents won't use it if you are right, and so the erasure will never occur. And if you say "don't track in the first place" are you saying sites can't accept users data entry? Your comment TruEngineHearing revealed your position on an issue. If you chose voluntarily to enter your real name for your profile here, we'd know who it was who had that position.

That doesn't frighten me at all, I go as Matthew Swaringen on many sites knowing that I'm one of the few in the US with that name and that it's fairly easy to look me up on the internet. That doesn't mean I don't care if any information is private, I certainly do, but I keep private things private by not putting them on the internet in the first place. If I enter it and I don't have an agreement with them that they won't share it I don't expect them not to share it.

So when it comes to my credit card data or something like that obviously I do have such an understanding with online vendors/etc. But when it comes to my login ID or my IP address how can I have that expectation unless I make the decision to hide it by using proxies or not visiting the site.

[Perry Clease]

01:32 PM on 05/07/2011

How will this work on websites hosted on servers outside of USA jurisdiction?

[rcballi46]

06:38 PM on 05/07/2011

We'll send in the US Navy Seal teams to shut them down, right after we execute the purpetrators. lol