December 11th, 2008
Sony collected, shared kids' info; FTC sues
In Robert Bly’s “The Sibling Society,” the poet compares modern society to “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Jack is running from the giant and the giant’s wife hides him in a cupboard. As parents giving our kids over to television and computer games and movies, we are acting not as the giant’s wife, but as another parent, one that rips open the cupboard doors and says, “Here he is!” The kid entertainment industry — like the tobacco industry — is the giant, in Bly’s view, a force of evil, a disrupter of play and learning and discovery.
With that context, it’s heartening to see that Sony is taking such good care of the personal information of the children it counts among its customers. The Federal Trade Commission is suing Sony for for collecting and disclosing personal data about 30,000 young children without informing their parents, Bloomberg reports.
“Sony Music collected, used and/or disclosed personal information from children without first providing their parents with notice of its information practices,” the complaint says.
Rumor has it Sony will settle for $1 million and a compliance officer.
According to the FTC, Sony Music collected information from more than 30,000 children under age 13 since 2004, despite claims that young visitors wouldn’t be allowed to register. Collected from kids: names, addresses, mobile phone numbers, e-mail addresses, dates of birth, ZIP codes, usernames and gender.
