McDonald's, General Mills, Subway, Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network could be violating online privacy rules designed to protect children, according to nearly 20 children's advocacy, health and public interest groups.
A bevy of advocacy groups will file complaints on Wednesday with the Federal Trade Commission accusing these five major companies of not complying with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, according to the New York Times. The act requires Web site operators to obtain verifiable consent from parents before collecting personal information about children under age 13.
In the letter, groups including the Center for Digital Democracy, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Consumer Watchdog ask FTC to look into "refer-a-friend" marketing tactics used by these companies.
That is a marketing technique that invites children to make a music video or play a game, and then share the video with their friends by entering the names and e-mail addresses of other people.
The marketing practices highlight the need to update a 1998 law designed to protect the privacy of children on the Internet, the groups said Tuesday in preparation for filing complaints Wednesday with the Federal Trade Commission.
"The FTC should act promptly to stop this commercial exploitation of children," said Georgetown Law Professor Angela Campbell, legal counsel for the Center for Digital Democracy, which is leading the effort for the watchdog groups.
The websites cited by the groups are General Mills Inc. and its ReesesPuffs.com and TrixWorld.com sites, Viacom Inc. and its Nick.com site, Doctor's Associates Inc. and its SubwayKids.com site, McDonald's Corp.'s HappyMeal.com and Turner Broadcasting System's CartoonNetwork.com.
On the Happy Meal site, for example, a child can appear in a music video about healthy eating by uploading a photograph that is placed on a dancing cartoon character. The child then is encouraged to share the video with as many as four friends by providing their names and email addresses.
The friends then get an email with a link to the video saying, "You've been tagged for fun by a friend! Check it out!"
Among the changes the agency is considering are revisions to the definition of "personal information" to include geolocation data and persistent identifiers, which are not necessary to the basic function of a computer or website, such as online tracking cookies.
