LAUSDnet Privacy Policy
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act became effective April 21, 2000. The regulations apply to the online collection of personal information from children under 13. These regulations spell out what a Web site operator must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent and what responsibilities an operator has to protect children's privacy and safety online.

LAUSDnet has, from the beginning, advocated protecting the rights of children and personal information by the publishing of our Acceptable Use Policy and our Personal Information Permission Form. This form allows for VERIFIABLE PARENTAL CONSENT, a major requirement of the Act. In addition, LAUSDnet encourages the use of the Personal Information Permission Form for ALL personal information posted on LAUSDnet, and not limited to children under the age of 13.

Who must comply - All commercial websites, or online services directed toward children or if you operate a general audience web site and have actual knowledge that it points to sites that collect personal information from children. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) applies to ALL sites that are directed toward children under the age of 13. If your pages direct children to commercial sites that collect personal information, you must include a notification to the children and parents of their rights under this act in the form of a Privacy Policy. The Site Master or Operator must include a link about their privacy policy and the COPPA.

There are exceptions that allow operators to collect a child's email address without getting the parent's consent in advance. These exceptions cover many online activities for kids, including contests, online newsletters, homework help and electronic postcards. Prior parental consent is not required when:

  • an operator collects a child's or parent's email address to provide notice and seek consent;
  • an operator collects an email address to respond to one-time request from a child and then deletes it;
  • an operator collects an email address to respond more than once to a specific request- for example, for a subscription to a newsletter. In this case, the operator must notify the parent that there will be regular communication with the child and give the parent the opportunity to stop the communication before sending or delivering a second communication to the child.
  • an operator collects a child's name or online contact information to protect the security or liability of the site or to respond to law enforcement, if necessary, and does not use it for any other purpose.

You may find the following sites very helpful in complying with the COPPA:

NOTICE:
This rule covers ALL personal information collected after April 21, 2000 regardless of any prior relationship an operator has had with a child. For example, if an operator had collected the name and email address of a child before April 21, 2000, but plans to seek information about the child's street address afther that date, the later collection would trigger the rule's requirements.