Politech: FC: COPPA claims another victim: Zeeks.com shuts down kid email

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Chalk up another win for the Law of Unintended Consequences. I mean, COPPA 
backers may be well-intentioned and all that, but did *anybody* in 
Washington do a cost-benefit analysis beforehand and realize that a law 
purportedly passed to help children would have precisely the opposite 
effect? (The answer, of course, is no.) More COPPA victims: 
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01158.html --Declan]
********

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2627742,00.html

   By Ben Charny, ZDNet News
   September 13, 2000 3:33 PM PT

   SAN FRANCISCO -- The cost of complying with federal online child
   privacy laws is forcing one children's Web site to shut up or shut
   down.

   Zeeks.com will remove all of its interactive elements, from e-mail to
   chat rooms, starting Oct. 1. It hopes to make up its expected 20
   percent traffic loss by posting additional games, said CEO Steven G.
   Bryan here Wednesday at the Digital Kids Forum conference.

   Bryan said the $200,000 per year it costs Zeeks to employ chat-room
   supervisors, monitor phone lines to answer parents' questions and
   process COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) permission
   forms was "the straw that broke the camel's back."

   To comply with the federal laws, he said, the company had to employ
   about a dozen chat room monitors to oversee activity in a pair of chat
   rooms available 12 hours a day.

   Overseeing e-mail -- another popular element of the site -- wasn't as
   labor-intensive. But Zeeks had to install several different pricey
   servers to comply with the COPPA rules and regulations, he said.

   [...]




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact.
To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------