The brouhaha that began last week over Facebook's rumored coming permission for under-13 year olds (with parental permission) continued this weekend in the Wall Street Journal with their article, "Mom, please feed my apps!"
The article focused on app purchases targeted at young children (primarily ages 4-10). Apps are increasingly pushing children to make purchases to unlock features, buy virtual animals, and more. For example, "Pet Shop Story" requires the purchase of a border collie for $29.97 in order to complete a "mission."
Parents are starting to push back, demanding better parental controls and less targeting by app-producers - some in-store app purchases targeted for children have been cited as high as $99.99 apiece.
So what is the digital age of consent? The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act requires operators of
online services for children under 13 to get parental consent before
collecting personal information, but what about children using their parent's apps? Or children's searches on Google, where Google doesn't ask how old the searcher is, but still tracks their data (albeit anonymously)? How much can technology producers be held accountable for having to create parental control options, and how much should be left to the sole responsibility of the parents?
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-06-04/facebook-kids-13/55379430/1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303753904577452341745766920.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews
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