Many children are skilled navigators in cyberspace.
About 42 million children are expected to be online by 2002. Advertisers and marketers are increasingly using the Internet to target children and gather information for marketing purposes. Such information can be obtained by asking children to register in order to play games, visit their favorite cartoon, or enter a contest. Web sites can also send e-mails to children as messages from their favorite action hero or cartoon character. In 1997 the Federal Trade Commission issued broad principles that apply to the online collection of information about children.