The COPPA Act
To effectively gain compliance for the COPPA Act, an individual is expected to be running an online service that is directed to the children mostly under the age of thirteen. All the personal information will have to be gathered from the children by the individual. Any other person running a general website can manage to comply if he knowns that the private information being collected is precisely from the children.
The Act adheres to the data that notes the individuality of the child, and the information ought to be gathered online. All the relevant details of the child will have to be collected to allow anyone desiring to contact the child to get an easier way. Email address, contact number, home, and name, among others, are the key details that ought to be collected from the child. Interests and hobbies are also covered by the Act because they can as well be applied as the tracking mechanisms.
To prove that there is proper compliance with COPPA, the learning institutions will be required to show that they indeed are applying the protective measures of the technology. This can include the internet safety policy that is utilized during service delivery (Chapman, Bynog, Yocom, 2003). Information such as child pornography must be filtered by the site and allowing relevant data to be viewed. Teachers must further have the capacity to control all the activities that are undertaken by the children on the websites.
Q2
There is a close similarity between COPPA and CIPA as both are Acts used to safeguard the children against any form of threats that might hamper their psychological wellbeing. At a young age, children can be exposed to bad things, and they may get addicted to them even if they are wrong. The Acts are, therefore, similar as they work to safeguard the children from getting threats that might ruin their emotions and maybe against their privacy (Horowitz, 2000). The Internet can cause a lot of harmful threats to young children, and therefore the children must be protected until they can make their own decisions.
The difference is that COPPA works in safeguarding the specific information of the children on general sites on the internet to make sure that there will be no one trying to misuse the information to cause any harm to the children (Federal Trade Commission, 1998). CIPA, on the other hand, works within the schools by ensuring that it can filter all the private data of the children, and any information that they receive must be clean. Implementations of the two acts, therefore, differ as well as varying requirements for compliance.
The two acts need to work together to improve the working of website laws and easily separate the things that they are supposed to do at ago. The aspect will be vital as it encourages an efficient implementation of the legalities. In case one Act is allowed to operate alone, the task will be too much, and probably monitoring will be as well tricky. The application of the two Acts differently is necessary as it creates room for both to be implemented separately.
Q3
There is a critical challenge in COPPA based on the fact that modern children are operating on many websites; thus, it is not easy to monitor them. The websites are either the social networks or can be those used by adults, and most likely, the children can be exposed to adult information, an aspect which is against the primary objective of the acts. There is an increased rate of attraction in the websites used by adults, and children are running away from those that are monitored to unknown networks that cannot be managed.
Falsification has a great potential of taking place at these websites because a higher number of them have been made for the general audience. It is not also easy for the sites to further know whether what is being collected in it belongs to the children. It cannot be determined if the information presented at the site actually contains the right information of the children.
CIPA also faces a challenge because many schools have not been setting any rules to enhance its compliance. Filters are only being applied to lure the authorities to continue paying them revenue yet, compliance of the Act is minimal. The filters are used to cheat the government that compliance is active, yet the reality is that schools are using more funds for reservicing the computers in the wrong way.
The increased public effort will be needed in to enhance the compliance of CIPPA. The safety of the internet should further be emphasized on those who monitor the website to make sure that they know what they are looking for. Expertise education on the internet issues will as well help the website managers to easily learn whether the websites are being misused. The use of age verification systems can help as well as help to deter children from using adult sites.
Q4
There is an effective protection for different ages under CIPA and COPPA. According to COPPA, a child is anyone who is under the age of 13 years. It aims, therefore, to protect the children from any threats they may receive on the internet and further deter their private information from spreading. The children under the age of thirteen will have their information controlled while those above that age, have the right to share their information according to their will. The content being accessed is not what the activity monitors, and hence the age of thirteen is appropriate.
CIPA, on the other hand, often defines minors to be under the age of 17 years. The Act is meant for schools, and therefore its role is to manage the information that is available on the internet, which does not help the minors (Shea, 1999). The actual age of school children has been marked to be 17 years, and it has to ensure that any information not necessary for their age is prevented. In case the age limit of CIPPA is less than 17, it will work against the required age of children in the school, making its implementation complex.
Q5
A central opposition facing the COPPA emerges within the social networks sites primarily because they are mostly affected by the same sites. Many website organizations have criticized the Act that there is no proper understanding between the relations of the plug-in creators and the publishers of the websites. Also, firms have argued that the idea of imposing the regulations under COPPA will hold hosts to be accountable for any content in the site.
COPPA has also been opposed based on the fact that it prevents the children from accessing some useful information online that is essential in their studies. CIPA has also been opposed arguing that not many people understood it and how it can be applied to learning in schools. Revenue is vital to the instructors than the duty done by CIPA.
In the future, the criticisms might change, and people may adhere to the effectiveness of the Act by implementing it. public awareness can help to reduce further oppositions directed to CIPA.