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1 Eur. Data Prot. L. Rev. 277 (2015)
Data Protection for Youth in the Digital Age: Developing a Rights-Based Global Framework

handle is hein.journals/edpl1 and id is 309 raw text is: Data Protection for Youth in the Digital Age | 277 Data Protection for Youth in the Digital Age Developing a Rights-based Global Framework Kathryn C. Montgomery and Jeff Chester* This paper examines the history and legacy of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, identifying the key factors that shaped its ultimate outcome and explaining its legacy for both the digital children's marketplace and US regulation. The authors also highlight impor- tant trends in the expansion of the global media marketplace for children, discuss the im- plications of these developments for young people's privacy, and assess the adequacy of aca- demic research to inform policy. The paper concludes with recommendations for a global initiative to promote the digital rights of young people. 1. Introduction In the mid-9os, during the heady days of the US dot- com boom, the World Wide Web ushered in a host of online marketing and data-collection practices that raised fundamental privacy concerns for chil- dren. The emerging business model of e-commerce, the increasing value of children as a target market for US advertisers, and the technical affordances of the Internet made it possible for websites to collect large amounts of personal information from chil- dren by tracking their browsing behaviours and of fering them incentives for filling out detailed online questionnaires about their lives.' These practices were at the core of a new advertising paradigm known as 'one-to-one' marketing, which relied on amassing information from consumers in order to develop personalised relationships with them.2 As leaders of the Center for Media Education (CME), a small Washington, DC-based NGO, we decided to Kathryn C. Montgomery, PhD, is Professor at the School of Communication, American University, Washington, DC, USA. For correspondence <kcm@american.edu>. Jeff Chester, MSW, is Executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy, Washing- ton, DC, USA. The authors wish to thank Tijana Milosevic for her contributions to research in this article. 1 Kathryn C. Montgomery, Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet (MIT Press 2007) 67-106. 2 Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, The One to One Future: Build- ing Relationships One Customer at a Time (Doubleday 1993). 3 John Markoff, 'New Coalition to Seek A Public Data Highway,' New York Times (26 October 1993) <http://www.nytimes.com/ launch a public campaign. Our goal was to establish a regulatory framework during the early stages of the digital marketplace to ensure that children's da- ta protection and advertising safeguards were built into its foundation. CME was also part of a coalition of public-interest groups calling for comprehensive Internet privacy regulation for all consumers.' Unlike most other countries in the developed world, regulation of pri- vacy in the US was fragmentary and piecemeal, with no national agency responsible for developing and enforcing policies.4 The official position of the Clin- ton administration was that government should take a hands-off approach to the nascent online industry so that innovation and electronic commerce could flourish on the Internet.5 Internet privacy, like the rest of e-commerce, should not be governed by laws, but by industry self regulation.6 But the US govern- ment was also under increasing pressure from the European Union to establish privacy laws that would 1993/10/26/business/the-media-business-new-coalition-to-seek-a -public-data-highway.html> accessed 29 December 2015. 4 Colin J. Bennett, 'Convergence Revisited: Toward a Global Policy for the Protection of Personal Data?' in Philip E. Agre and Marc Rotenberg (eds), Technology and Privacy (MIT Press 1997) 113. 5 'A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce' (The White House, 1 July 1997) <http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/New/ Commerce/read.html > accessed 6 January 2016. 6 Xiaomei Cai and Walter Gantz, 'Online Privacy Issues Associated with Web Sites for Children,' (2000) 44(2) Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 197-214. EDPL 4|2015

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