The regulations implementing the Act were released in the late fall of 1999. These sites have a legal obligation to comply with the law or they could face prosecution. The commercial Web sites are required to get parental consent before collecting personally identifiable information from children 12 and under. Children age 12 and under, and the parents of those children, should also understand the law in order to protect children's online privacy. As of that date, all commercial Web sites which know they are collecting information from children or which are targeted to children will be required to comply with the law.
Web sites collect personally identifiable information for a number of reasons.
Some Web sites also collect this information for marketing purposes, in order to allow them to offer products and services tailored to the interests of the child - such as baseball mitts for children interested in baseball. Other Web sites collect the information for resale, selling it to other Web sites in order to allow that site to compile a more complete database of information on a family. For example, if a library is collecting personal information from children in order to e-mail them summer reading lists, or to help them with research requests, they are not required to seek parental consent. It will be the librarian's role to guide children through the process or help them find alternative activities online where privacy is not a concern. While ALA strongly believes in the importance of protecting online privacy, the ALA remains concerned that the parental consent requirement may limit childrens' access to online information and interactive services.