Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: Maryland AG Calls on Advertisers to Pull Advertising from Website Containing Alleged Cyber-Bullying, (May 13, 2013)
By Tobias J. Gillett, J.D., LL.M.
The Maryland Office of the Attorney General has sent a letter to advertisers on a website allegedly connected to online bullying stating that the website appears to be in violation of the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and requesting the advertisers to cease advertising on the website.
According to the letter, the Latvia-based website Ask.fm has become "a source of anonymous online bullying." The letter asserts that the Attorney General’s Office "has received multiple complaints about atrocious bullying occurring on Ask.fm," and that such bullying has been linked to several suicides.
"This website is putting children at risk and we think it's important to let major corporate advertisers know how their marketing dollars are spent and what those dollars support," said Attorney General Gansler in a press release accompanying the letter. "A growing number of children under 13 use Ask.fm because it makes no meaningful effort to limit underage access, and these kids are being exposed to malicious anonymous postings, including racial slurs, sexual references, drug use and personal assaults."
The letter observes that Ask.fm requires users to provide their full names and e-mail addresses, and encourages users to also provide their birth dates, genders, locations, and photographs, without warning the users that the information would be visible to others. The letter notes that most of that information requires parental notice and verifiable parental consent prior to collection under COPPA. Ask.fm allegedly states that users must be 13 or older to use the website, but does not attempt to prevent children under 13 from using the website after entering their ages, or to obtain verifiable parental consent for the collection for personal information.
The parental notice and consent provisions in the FTC’s proposed revised COPPA rule "apply to third party advertisers and ad networks that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information through a child-directed website or online service," the letter notes. The letter encourages advertisers to review the website’s content and to "consider whether the site deserves your company’s financial support and implicit endorsement." The letter closes by urging the advertisers to "pull your advertisements immediately from Ask.fm," and to "reexamine your ad placement policies in order to ensure that your advertising dollars are not being used to support such sites."
News: Privacy