Re: Minimum age law for internet purchases

I don't know about a law restricting on-line purchases, but there is a 
federal law called COPPA (the "Children's Online Privacy Protection Act") 
which prohibits collection of *personal data* from visitors under 13 (not 
14).  You can do it under some circumstances, but the requirements are so 
draconian (getting a faxed signature from a parent) that I've never seen 
any site which goes along with all of them; most of them simply say they 
don't allow people under 13 to register for their services.

COPPA is not to be confused with COPA, the "Child Online Protection Act", 
an anti-Internet-pornography law which was successfully challenged in court 
by the ACLU.  COPPA has not been challenged in court.  Personally I think 
it's a joke (legislation passed in response to media frenzy over Internet 
privacy, while designed not to impede companies from collecting data about 
paying customers), but some sites have been fined for violating it.

I haven't heard of a separate law against under-14-year-olds making 
purchases online, although they'd presumably have to have a minor's credit 
card or other method of making payments online, all of which require 
parental permission and (I think) let parents review your purchases.

         -Bennett

At 11:35 AM 9/12/2001 -0700, Rebecca Campbell wrote:
>I've heard that there's new legislation prohibiting anyone under the age 
>of
>14 from making on-line purchases.  Does anybody know what we have to do to
>make sure e-commerce sites comply with the new laws?
>
>tia,
>rebecca
>http://www.nerdygirl.com


bennett(at)peacefire.org     http://www.peacefire.org
(425) 649 9024

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