Facebook refused to reveal whether it plans to open up its services to children under the age of 13 in a response (PDF) released Friday to concerns posed by Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas last month. The lawmakers noted that allowing children under 13 on Facebook would make the site subject to the terms of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act or COPPA, which requires sites directed at children to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from kids. The social network acknowledged that many children under 13 currently use Facebook in violation of the site's terms of service, but also listed a host of actions the company takes to identify and remove underage users. Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan said Facebook has yet to decide on whether to lift the ban on children, but assured the lawmakers that Facebook would continue to comply with its legal obligations, including COPPA, if it chooses to do so.
That response was not quite enough for Barton and Markey, who said their concerns remain. Markey in particular has been strongly in favor of enhancing privacy laws aimed at protecting children, which would likely be a much easier sell in Congress than broader consumer privacy protections. Online companies probably aren't thrilled with the prospect of having to spend more time and effort validating underage users and then making sure to obtain parental consent before collecting their information, but opposing such efforts to protect children publicly wouldn't play well on the Hill. The topic is still in the early stages, but we expect serious attempts to overhaul COPPA to take hold in the 113th Congress, where privacy should replace cybersecurity as the tech policy issue du jour.
Quotable: “Children are not commodities, and their personal information should not be harvested to yield ad revenue for Facebook and its hungry shareholders. The privacy of personal information for pre-teens should not become a post-script in Facebook's drive for profits. Facebook must resist the impulse to violate users' privacy, including the millions of children and teens who are reportedly using its service. Now is the time we put children's privacy laws on the books to ensure Facebook and other online companies do exactly what we know they can do, and what we know they should do. I will continue to monitor this situation and look forward to receiving further clarity on any plans Facebook may have for children under 13.” — Rep. Markey New Federal Effort on Digital Literacy: FCC chairman Julius Genachowski will join Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to visit an employment center in Arlington, Va. at 10:30 this morning to announce a new effort relate to digital literacy and job training. They will be joined by representatives from Connect2Compete, a national nonprofit coalition dedicated to making high-speed Internet access, computers and digital literacy training available to Americans without Web connections at home. Roughly one-third of Americans don't have high-speed broadband access home, and two-thirds of them lack digital literacy skills. Studies have also shown that the primary barrier to adopting broadband is cost, not availability. Surveillance Extension Getting Complicated: A proposed extension of a 2008 law that allows the warrantless surveillance of foreign targets (S 3276) communicating with people in the U.S. is meeting resistance in the Senate, who question the privacy implications of the extension. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has placed a hold on the bill, making it unlikely that the matter will be resolved before the fall election. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has proposed reducing the extension from four and a half years to three, but it is unclear whether that will appease Wyden, who has asked for a report on how U.S. citizens have been affected by the law. Two House committees have approved a bill (HR 5949) that would extend the law for five years, but neither has come to the floor. TechAmerica CEO Talks Reorganization: Last month TechAmerica, one of the flagship trade groups for the broader tech industry, announced a major downsizing. TechAmerica President and CEO Shawn Osborne spoke to CQ Weekly to explain the move, arguing the new organization is leaner and more flexible at a lower cost. The group plans to maintain offices in D.C., Silicon Valley and Brussels, along with five regional locations. He also expressed skepticism about the prospect of Congress passing a cybersecurity bill this year. TechAmerica's decline is evidence of the uncertain landscape of tech policy, where the battles over SOPA and intellectual property issues have deepened the schisms between old media and newer digital startups. With large companies and their younger competitors often on the opposite sides of issues such as net neutrality and spectrum policy, we expect tech companies to continue their current single-issue coalition building, rather than investing too heavily in the future of any independent trade organization. House Passes Bill to Speed Permits for Rare Earth Mining: The House passed a bill last week (HR 4402) that would make it easier to mine rare earth elements, minerals crucial to the commercial production of cellphones, satellites and other hi-tech goods. The minerals weren't mined domestically as of last year and the U.S. is almost completely dependent on China for imports. Democrats argued the bill would cover virtually all mines and full of giveaways to the mining industry.