My name is Amy Aidman and I am the Research Director for the Center for Media Education. CME is a national non-profit public interest organization based in Washington D.C. dedicated to improving the quality of electronic media, especially on behalf of children, their families, and the community. It requires commercial Web sites targeted at children under 13 to secure parental permission before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children. Web sites must also post a privacy policy detailing what personal information is being collected, how it is to be used, and if it will be given to third parties. Adequate and age-appropriate privacy protections for teenagers are still needed.
Teenagers are a vulnerable age group that deserves protections from data collectors.
CME has just completed a study of teens and the Internet that will be released later this year. It is clear from our research that marketers are targeting teens with a variety of new interactive strategies to involve them in the online consumer culture. Teenagers do not suddenly become more privacy savvy once they turn 13. A recent study released by the Annenberg Public Policy Center points to teens' readiness to provide access to personal information when offered a free gift. According to the report, young people seemed concerned about protecting their information privacy and nervous about Web sites' having information about them.