A new United States federal law, COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), and the corresponding Rule of the United States Federal Trade Commission, COPPR (Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule), took effect on 4/21/2000. Under this law, commercial World Wide Web sites and online services are prohibited from collecting personal information, such as Email addresses, from children under 13 years of age without verifiable consent from parents or guardians.
The US Federal Trade Commission has provided an explanatory press release on the subject of COPPA, and also runs an excellent Kids' Privacy Web site (a good resource for parents as well). Kids' Space urges you to visit these sites and to become as educated as possible about your online rights.
As a non-commercial not-for-profit organization, Kids' Space Foundation (the operator of the International Kids' Space and Kids' Space Connection Web sites), is excluded from the restrictions of COPPA and COPPR. However, Kids' Space strongly agrees with the intent of COPPA and COPPR, and will make every effort possible to comply with the spirit of the law. As always, the Kids' Space editorial staff will continue to diligently monitor all submissions to the Kids' Space sites, and will remove before publication personal information, such as postal addresses, physical descriptions, last names, or any other information that that may possibly attract unwanted attention.
As an additional step towards compliance with COPPA and COPPR, Kids' Space has made the decision to only publish the email addresses of the parents, teachers, or guardians of child participants. We ask you to enter your family or teacher's Email address in all submission forms.
Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Please do not hesitate to contact the Kids' Space staff with any comments, questions, or concerns.
What is The COPPA?
It is a law designed to protect the privacy of kids online. 