Do I need to worry about complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA")?  It’s a question I get from time to time from website owners and is commonly misunderstood.  The COPPA was enacted to protect the privacy and personal information of children, those under the age of 13, online. 

The initial analysis of whether you have to consider the COPPA with your website is an analysis of your website itself.  The COPPA applies to operators of websites in two major instances:

1. when the website is directed to children (or partially directed to children).  I would guess most people know whether their site is directed or targeted to children but if you don’t, look at the site - does it have cartoons? animation?  is the subject matter such that children would be interested in it? are ads on the site directed towards children? If the answer is "Yes," you need to comply with the COPPA.
2. when you know that you are collecting information from children.  If you do, you need to comply with the COPPA.

If you answered "no" to the questions above, you still may want to restrict access to your site, in your terms of use agreement and privacy policy, to those over the age of 13 (or 18 or above if you have no interest in serving kids). Or, to play it safe, you may choose to comply with the COPPA requirements anyway.

If you answered "yes" or think there is a chance you might be subject to the COPPA, then you should take steps to comply with the specific rules of the COPPA.  There is a long list of what you must disclose, and how you must disclose it, to visitors of your site and what you may and may not do with the information but its not very complicated.  You can find a handy checklist at COPPA.org to help you navigate the requirements.

If you want a review of your privacy policy or website for potential COPPA implications, I provide that as part of my website audit process .  If you would like to discuss this, please contact me for more information.

As I mentioned back in October of last year, ICANN approved a new .asia domain.   An article by the Associated Press today states that the new .asia domains will be released in October, 2007. Registration will be opened up to governments and long-time trademark holders first on October 9, 2007.  Companies and more current  trademark owners will be allowed to register starting on November 13, 2007 and continuing through the end of the year.  The open landrush will probably start in January, 2008, although no firm date was specified.

The new .asia domains are intended to be a regional domain (like .eu).  Interestingly, a plan has been in place to auction general domains that have interest by more than one potential registrant.  It will be interesting to see how that works out. 

As InfoWorld reports, two individuals were convicted a couple of days ago for sending out mass spam with pornographic images in them.  And, in what is being reported as a first, these individuals were convicted of criminal violations of the CAN-SPAM Act, which has normally been enforced through civil proceedings. They may have generated $2 million from these activities but I bet the thought of the potential thirty year sentences facing them make them wish they made a different choice. 

Just another reason why you want to be sure that you comply with CAN-SPAM requirements. And, of course, don’t include pornographic images in mass emails - the government (and most recipients) hates that…