Parents don’t want children’s information collected on the Internet, poll finds

Parents overwhelmingly say they object to the collection of personal information on children over the Internet, according to a new poll released just before federal officials are set to vote on a controversial proposal to strengthen child privacy laws.

According to a survey released by child-advocacy groups, nine out of 10 adults said they believed advertisers should get a parent’s permission before collecting the name, address or other personal data of a user under 13. Those businesses should never be able to ask for a child’s location or information about a child’s friends, respondents said. The survey of 2,000 adults comes amid a debate over how far federal regulators can go to protect the privacy of children without stepping on the business practices of the fast-growing and aggressive Web, media and mobile-phone industries. Current law is fuzzy on how much information these firms can collect on minors through social networks and mobile devices. The Federal Trade Commission is poised to vote this month on revisions to a 1998 law written in the desktop-computer age. Proposed updates to that law would require permission from parents to track children online with cookies and other tools used by advertisers to create profiles of users.