http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/teaching_backgrounders/internet/popular_childrens_web.cfm
This is an article pretty much bashing sites for not utilizing privacy features on web sites aimed at children. It says that:
88 percent collect children's personal data, but more than a quarter do not have privacy policies, the CME study stated. Less than 26 percent ask for parental permission before collecting the information.
We were sort of mulling over the privacy policy of a children's web site. I really think it needs to be a key feature to the site. The anti-myspace. Parental permission might be pushing it, but who knows, really. Maybe that it something we should be talking about. I don't think we should be giving out personal info at all, not even a picture. Maybe kids can draw their pictures or something, but no pictures. No names of schools besides groups, and groups of that nature can't be viewed by the public, only by people invited into the group by the admin. These are jsut some thoughts. Any ideas?
Look to the other post about what I said about privacy ... but I defintely agree with the whole no photos thing. And no contact info (because no one needs to be contacting you). A place of residence, cell phone number and AIM screename is really not needed for anything being done on this site. As for any community involvement being generated by the groups feature, I think exchange of contact info should be done outside the site somehow or organized by a group administrator or something along those lines ...
ReplyDeleteDefinitely no photos at all, or contact info for that matter. We're talking about middle school here - dangerous territory.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should restrict girls from adding friends from other schools besides the one they attend - I don't imagine that there are many connections outside of your own microcosm when you're in middle school anyway.
Thats exactly what I had in mind, Jon.
ReplyDelete