Checkpoint 1 Xbis220

Checkpoint: Information Technology Acts Paper

Amanda Swartz

University of Phoenix

In 1998, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was established to help protect the privacy for children under the age of 13 (Federal Trade Commission Office of the General Counsel). COPPA was passed because of the advancement in technology and online marketing that was directed toward children. Before this act, websites were gaining personal information from children without the consent of a parent. Since children were unaware of the negative impact that comes from providing their information, Congress was pressured to pass COPPA. This act requires companies and websites to require a parental consent for anyone that is providing personal information for a child. COPPA also requires parents to assess any data that is collected from their child. COPPA should not be confused with CIPA, which is The Children’s Internet Protection Act.

Continued progression in technology resulted in new ethical issues that pertained to children. With more resources available with Internet use, there were concerns children could easily access content such as pornography, obscene pictures, and exposure to adult related material. For these reasons, The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was passed in 2000. This act addressed the worry of damaging content that may be accessible to children through the Internet (Federal communications commission, 2011). This act was necessary, as it required any establishment that received federal funds for Internet access to adopt an Internet safety policy. This would help schools, libraries, and other public Internet locations to have appropriate filters and block certain material children may be exposed to.

Internet dangers are everywhere. By employing protection and privacy acts, a level of standards and expectations are set to what...