The US Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday released its long-awaited rules limiting what information Web sites may collect about children. Web sites must obtain parental consent before recording personal information about minors younger than 13 years old, according to the proposed regulation . Liberal groups say only a handwritten note or voice verification will suffice. Industry representatives believe the FTC should allow digital signatures and consider technological approaches.
Libertarians believe in no government regulation at all.
The FTC on Tuesday offered a compromise. Determining who's an adult and who's a child online has always been a slippery issue, as the Department of Justice learned when defending the Communications Decency Act and its successor, the Child Online Protection Act, in court. The federal judge hearing that case recently ruled that there was no easy way for Web sites to screen minors. Industry groups, however, ended up supporting last year's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act . That law, which Congress approved in October, directed the FTC to devise children's privacy regulations.