Congress enacted the COPPA in 1998 to prohibit unfair or deceptive acts or

practices in connection with the collection, use, or disclosure of personally identifiable

information from and about children on the Internet. Section 6502(b)(1) of the Act sets

forth a series of general privacy protections to prevent unfair or deceptive online

information collection from or about children, and directs the Commission to adopt

regulations to implement those protections. The Act requires operators of Web sites

directed to children and operators who knowingly collect personal information from

children to: (1) Provide parents notice of their information practices; (2) obtain prior

verifiable parental consent for the collection, use, and/or disclosure of personal

information from children (with certain limited exceptions for the collection of "online

contact information," e.g., an e-mail address); (3) provide a parent, upon request, with

the means to review the personal information collected from his/her child; (4) provide a

parent with the opportunity to prevent the further use of personal information that has

already been collected, or the future collection of personal information from that child;

(5) limit collection of personal information for a child's online participation in a game,

prize offer, or other activity to information that is reasonably necessary for the activity;

and (6) establish and maintain reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality,

security, and integrity of the personal information collected.