Editorial
Preserving the privacy of toddlers to teens

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Buying and selling data on young children is unsavory and carries more than the usual dangers of unregulated commerce.

A credible case cannot be made for gathering personal information on children as young as 2 years old. That this information is sold on the open market with little oversight properly troubles parents and privacy advocates. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, propose to halt this practice with the Children's Listbroker Privacy Act. The legislation, coming as evidence mounts of a link between junk-food marketing and childhood obesity, is welcome. Even better if the bill is fast-tracked to passage.

Peddling personal information is a billion-dollar-a-year industry. For adults, it has become the nuisance we're learning to live with. This shouldn't be the case with children. Despite assertions that collecting a preschooler's name, birth date, gender, address and phone number is for benign, albeit commercial, uses such as pageants, camps and fast-food restaurant coupons, the reality is the information can be used for anything.

Current laws limit some entities — schools, for example — from selling or releasing data on children. But a wealth of information can be ferreted from other sources, such as child-care centers, official birth and census records, and even the seemingly innocuous warranty cards from toys and other products.

While some groups try to regulate who purchases their lists, others don't bother. A Seattle Times article quotes one list broker who doesn't screen clients before selling personal information on children.

Two of the largest list brokers settled with the Federal Trade Commission in 2003 after they were accused of using school surveys to collect detailed, personal information from students as young as age 10. The companies claimed they would only use the information to connect the students with higher-education opportunities.

To its credit, the Direct Marketing Association supports Congress' intervention. But the organization is trying to pull a fast one by requesting an exemption for children between 13 and 16 years of age.

An absolute, unambiguous ban on the trafficking of personal data of children has become necessary. Anything less leaves a loophole large enough to slither through.