Stepping off the sidewalk: An examination of the data collection techniques of Web sites visited by children

As children step off the sidewalk of safe sites and into the realm of adult-oriented sites, they find themselves dealing with a large variety of incentives and encouragements to disclose personal information. Internet trend analysts capture data identifying the web sites children visit while exploring online. Most commonly, the data are used to identify the “most popular” child-centered web sites, but further data are also collected in an effort to track the web sites children go to immediately after visiting a popular children\u27s site. This list of “next-visited” web sites indicates to marketing analysts the types of advertisements, promotions, and contests that are successful in drawing the children away from their original interest. The list of next-visited sites also provides information regarding a broader range of web sites that children visit. The purpose of this study was to investigate the data collection techniques used by websites children visit, calculate frequency rates for Children\u27s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) adherence, and identify the types of advertisements contained within a sample of next-visited web sites. Data collection and analysis undertaken for this study suggest that children face a large number of privacy issues and data collection vulnerabilities as they explore the Internet. According to the findings from this sample, 65% of next-visited web sites were focused towards adults and contained direct incentives for the disclosure of personal information. The findings of this study also indicate that while online, children explore areas of the Internet that often times do not clearly identify their specific privacy rights. The conclusion of these findings underscores the need to prepare children for the privacy issues and data collection techniques they may encounter while working online. In order to prepare our children for the reality of privacy pressures they will face online, these findings suggest that there is a need to move beyond legislation and regulations in order to focus on the development of privacy awareness programs as a means to educate young users to the privacy issues they will inevitably face