On 22 May 96 at 11:16, Rich Graves wrote:

I'd have to see the bill, but I think it's a good general idea, provided there's the caveats KNOWINGLY and WITHOUT THEIR [parent/guardian's] KNOWLEDGE. As much as I hate direct marketers, I don't want them subject to malicious and arbitrary prosecution because one address out of thousands happens to belong to a kid.

When I was on the FTC privacy list a while back there were more details about that. Companies would set of very commercial web sites oriented towards kids, for the main purpose of getting the kids to give information about themselves. So imagine if somebody set up a Barney fan page with all sorts of links and goodies but with the encouragement (if not requirement for access) to fill out personal information, even personal info about family members. Ok... maybe that's within one's right. But while (most) adults would be suspicious, it's not necessarily so with some children... (who'd give out parent's CC#'s if they knew them). Teaching kids basic privacy issues is a whole lot better than legislation. (Caveat emptor aside, fraud and cons are still illegal...). I haven't seen the legislation so I won't rant for or against it (at least not on the list) for now. Rob. --- No-frills sig. Key-ID: 5D3F2E99 1996/04/22 wlkngowl@unix.asb.com (root@magneto) AB1F4831 1993/05/10 Deranged Mutant <wlkngowl@unix.asb.com> Send a message with the subject "send pgp-key" for a copy of my key.