Use of Online Data From Children Restricted

The Federal Trade Commission placed restrictions on what online marketers can do with information collected from children. In a letter, the FTC legal staff said online marketers cannot share or sell information collected from children without obtaining permission from the parents. In addition, the agency said it is a deceptive trade practice to collect information for one purpose--such as a prize drawing--and use it for another--such as market research. The guidelines, which had been expected, came in response to complaints about the KidsCom site on the World Wide Web, which used an online pen-pal exchange to conduct marketing research. The FTC said KidsCom is now in compliance with the guidelines. The guidelines fall short of reforms sought by the Washington-based Center for Media Education, an activist group that complained about KidsCom. It wanted an order requiring marketers to obtain a parental OK before soliciting information from children.