Xanga and its founders, Marc Ginsberg and John Hiler, have made
the payment to settle the case with consumer regulator the Federal
Trade Commission in the US. The FTC said that Xanga had committed
an offence under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA).
The complaint said that Xanga had actual knowledge that they
were collecting and disclosing personal information from children,
said an FTC statement. The Xanga site stated that children under 13
could not join, but then allowed visitors to create Xanga accounts
even if they provided a birth date indicating they were under 13,
it said.
“Protecting kids’ privacy online is a top priority for America’s
parents, and for the FTC,” said FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras.
“COPPA requires all commercial Web sites, including operators of
social networking sites like Xanga, to give parents notice and
obtain their consent before collecting personal information from
kids they know are under 13. A million-dollar penalty should make
that obligation crystal clear.”
In addition to paying the $1 million civil penalty, Xanga will
be monitored by the FTC and will have to delete all personal
information that violates COPPA. The company will also have to
provide links on its site to FTC educational material for a period
of five years.
Xanga has 25 million registered members. The FTC's case claimed
that it had allowed 1.7 million people under 13 to create personal
profiles in the past five years. The creation of profiles involves
the collecting and displaying of personal information.
Xanga agreed to a consent order which binds them to make the $1m
payment and adhere to other conditions, such as the FTC monitoring
and the posting of links to FTC material. Consent orders do "
necessarily constitute an admission by the defendants of a law
violation", said the FTC statement.
