Sony Pays $1M for Violating Children's Rights
Sony BMG has agreed to pay $1 million to the Federal Trade Commission for saving the details of up to 30,000 children without parental consent. The Commission says that through sites run by the company for its artists, Sony violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
We’ve all signed up for sites that have a little box you’re supposed to tick if you’re over 13. Those under 13 are supposed to get parental consent for using these websites because in order to register, you have to hand over certain information like your name or date of birth. Sony BMG has a whole rake of artists, many of them popular with young people and so the issue of children’s privacy is obviously something the company should be paying full attention to.
According to the FTC, the Commission’s complaint also charged Sony Music with violating Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act by falsely stating in its privacy policy that children under 13 would be restricted from participating in webpage activities when in reality, anyone under 13 was able to register just fine.
The million quid fine aside, the complaint requires Sony to provide resources to parents and their children about children’s privacy in general and in particular. For the next five years Sony Music must link to certain FTC consumer education materials.
“Sites with social networking features, like any Web sites, need to get parental consent before collecting kids’ personal information,” said FTC Chairman William E. Kovacic. “Sony Music is paying the penalty for falling down on its COPPA obligations.”
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This is true, but even the ones that do say "you must be 18yr of age - Click YES NO" are not really verification. I never trust any oneline site that wants a credit card for age verification. The whole system is a fraud.
Do you mean Sony didn't even have a tick box for these services to "verify" age? Or that the box was there, it just didn't matter if the box was ticked?
Picknitting: $1 million is NOT the same thing as a million quid. Not unless something extremely terrible has happened specifically to the British economy today. Also, "it's" is not the possessive form, it's a contraction.
I wish the meaning of "artists" was a bit clearer, and that the websites in question were not just ambiguously implied to exist in this context. What websites? What artists? Music artists? Social networking sites related to musical artists? I'm lost here without crucial information.
Also, it's "nitpicking" not "picknitting." It's not a particularly clever rearrangement, if that's what you were going for; it's just distracting.
I think these kids were signing up for Social Networks. It would appear Sony didn't ask for age verification, so a bunch of >13 year olds signed up, and now Sony is being sued for not getting kids to tick a checkbox that they could easily lie about.
Also, it's "nitpicking" not "picknitting." It's not a particularly clever rearrangement, if that's what you were going for; it's just distracting.
You're wrong, sir. It was extremely clever.
Also, it's "nitpicking" not "picknitting." It's not a particularly clever rearrangement, if that's what you were going for; it's just distracting.
Stop being so picknitty.
Picknitting: $1 million is NOT the same thing as a million quid. Not unless something extremely terrible has happened specifically to the British economy today. Also, "it's" is not the possessive form, it's a contraction.
Some picknitting of my own: certainly not the other way around (some miracle happening to the USA economy and the $ matching the £)
Some picknitting of my own: certainly not the other way around (some miracle happening to the USA economy and the $ matching the £)
That sort of rapid deflation would also be a disaster, rather than a miracle.
Hey all,
I'm used to referring to cash as quid (I'm based in Dublin) so when writing in dollars, I sometimes forget to change over to bucks.
Sorry, again!
million quid or million bucks ....it's still a million point understood here. Personally I find it rather humorous and enjoyable seeing them get fined a million (whatev) since their ceo's and vp's are prob like making Million$ of whatev
TSM
Ah, not a problem, it just stuck out at me. Can't be too careful in these times of economic uncertainty, after all.
I think the Irish would be first to notice if anything big happened with the British pound. Any excuse to bring up the Euro/single currency issue...