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CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
What rights to privacy do children have? News stories about parental notification and other child-related privacy items. For stories on student rights, see the Student section of Privacy Watch. For stories on children and online safety, see the Children and Online Safety section.




Judge orders teen barred from sex
"SHERMAN, Texas - A state district judge has ordered a 17-year-old drug offender barred from sex as a condition of her probation."
Full story - Denton RC
Submitted by Anonymous, Thu Sep 29 08:20:29 EDT 2005



Hospital bans cooing over tots to protect their privacy
"COOING over babies has been outlawed at a hospital because they have "a right to privacy". The new rule also stops visitors from questioning mothers or looking at tots in maternity wards."
Full story - Mirror
Submitted by Anonymous, Tue Sep 27 08:27:55 EDT 2005



School decides on toilet cameras
"More than 80 parents have complained to a school in Lancashire after cameras were installed in the toilets there."
Full story - BBC
Submitted by Anonymous, Sat Sep 17 10:37:58 EDT 2005



Governor signs abortion bill
"Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation placing further restrictions on abortion yesterday... "The law would prohibit us, also family members, clergy people, health-care providers, from giving young women information about their options if they're pregnant""
Full story - Columbia Tribune
Submitted by Anonymous, Fri Sep 16 16:53:14 EDT 2005



Privacy and predators (Opinion)
"Kline believed he was about to close in on perpetrators who had criminally assaulted their victims, rendering some of them pregnant. But the fly in the ointment has been the refusal of abortion offices to turn over the medical records needed to either confirm or deny Kline's suspicions."
Full story - renewamerica.us
Submitted by Anonymous, Fri Sep 16 12:26:39 EDT 2005



Court: Parental Consent for Abortion Legal
"Ohio's law requiring girls under age 18 to get a parent's consent for an abortion is constitutional and may be enforced, a federal court ruled Thursday. The law, signed seven years ago but put on hold by litigation, also requires a woman seeking an abortion to meet with a doctor at least 24 hours before having the procedure to get a description of the procedure, its risks and alternatives."
Full story - Las Vegas Sun
Submitted by Anonymous, Fri Sep 9 09:22:10 EDT 2005



South Africa: Virginity Testing - Absence of a Small Tissue Becomes Big Issue
"... The traditional gathering takes place in the wake of controversy surrounding the soon-to-be-outlawed testing of virgins: the Children's Bill was approved by parliament in July 2005 and, if passed by the National Council of Provinces, the legislation will impose an outright ban on the custom."
Full story - AllAfrica
Submitted by Anonymous, Thu Sep 8 17:23:46 EDT 2005



KS Justices Hear Case Regarding Privilege of Abortion Clinic Records
"The Attorney General of Kansas says the state's Supreme Court is hearing arguments today in a matter that pits protection of children against privacy issues. The case is part of his effort to obtain medical records from abortion clinics for criminal investigations of child rape and illegal late-term abortions."
Full story - AgapePress
Submitted by Anonymous, Thu Sep 8 17:23:05 EDT 2005



More Parents Going High-Tech to Track Kids
"In this case, it isn't Big Brother who's watching - it's Big Mother (or Father). Increasingly, parents are using high-tech methods to track everything from where their children are and how far they are driving to what they buy, what they eat and whether they've shown up for class."
Full story - TBO
Submitted by Anonymous, Mon Sep 5 09:51:02 EDT 2005



Good Parenting Trumps Teens' Need For Privacy (opinion)
"With apologies to my colleague, Eric Chabrow, I have to take issue with his position that parents should have limited access to their teenagers' medical records. His argument that extending privacy rights to teens will teach them responsibility strikes me as wishful thinking, and I speak from a wealth of experience."
Full story - Information Week
Submitted by Anonymous, Sat Sep 3 08:57:19 EDT 2005



'Net bullies taking toll among young
"It frequently starts with a bad break-up. Then the e-mails and instant messages start or personal information shows up in an Internet chat room. Awful names are tossed around. Top 10 lists - everything from the ugliest in school to the fattest to the easiest - get posted online."
Full story - TheDailyNews
Submitted by Anonymous, Mon Aug 29 08:14:31 EDT 2005



Juvenile records should be public (opinion)
"This newspaper has long advocated that juvenile court proceedings and records be made public. However, like our fellow journalists throughout Kentucky, thus far it's been tantamount to butting one's head against a brick wall."
Full story - Winchester Sun
Submitted by Anonymous, Fri Aug 26 12:13:20 EDT 2005



Laws designed to shield kids from spam, porn backfire
"Laws in two states to shield children from objectionable e-mail are having a chilling effect on nearly everyone but the spammers they were intended for. The laws in Michigan and Utah create e-mail registries to prevent children from viewing adult-oriented messages. The laws, both barely a month old, threaten to disrupt businesses nationwide, marketers and legal experts say."
Full story - AZCentral
Submitted by Anonymous, Thu Aug 25 15:39:36 EDT 2005



Motorola phones let parents monitor children
"Motorola Inc., the world's third-largest mobile phone manufacturer, plans to make phones that would let parents monitor their children's whereabouts and censor obscene content, Chairman and CEO Edward Zander said."
Full story - Globe and Mail
Submitted by Anonymous, Wed Aug 24 17:20:55 EDT 2005



Girls taped undressing, police say
"POTTSVILLE - A longtime coach and teacher was charged with secretly videotaping girl athletes as they undressed in a locker room at Nativity B.V.M. High School... Police said they obtained the videotape, which they learned was stolen from Shields' home this summer and determined it was made surreptitiously by Shields and labeled with the girls' names and the date 5/25/05 in Shields' handwriting. "We had to make a judgment call there, and take the tape as we got it [stolen] ... because without that tape we might not have been able to obtain a search warrant, and our judgment was that we had to act to protect the children involved," county District Attorney Frank Cori said."
Full story - The Patriot News
Submitted by Anonymous, Thu Aug 18 10:44:36 EDT 2005



Teens list sex desires on Web
"When Whitman police Detective Stephen Drass opened a link to a Web site a concerned mother sent him, he was surprised to find profiles from Whitman youths who provided their real first and last names, addresses, photos and sexual preferences. While most of the kids were young teenagers, they claimed to be over the age of 18."
Full story - The Enterprise at SouthofBoston.com
Submitted by Anonymous, Sun Aug 14 10:41:51 EDT 2005



Cellphones with GPS technology let you keep tabs on your teens
"Bell Canada launched a service yesterday that lets parents know where their children are all the time, leaving teenagers with a dilemma: Do they keep their cellphones on to chat and exchange text messages with friends, or do they turn them off to escape surveillance?"
Full story - Globe and Mail
Submitted by Anonymous, Wed Aug 10 12:37:10 EDT 2005



Locate your child the same way they locate terrorists
"The same technology that enabled Italian police track down the whereabouts of one of the suspects in the recent London bombings is being used by increasing numbers of parents as a way to check the location of their children. Mobile phone technology offered by ChildLocate, the leading mobile location provider in the UK, allows parents instantly and unobtrusively to pinpoint the whereabouts of their children, using co-ordinates generated by the actual signal that enables a mobile to 'lock on' to a network operator's phone mast."
Full story - Net4Now
Submitted by Anonymous, Wed Aug 10 12:36:01 EDT 2005



Reaction to Alcohol Tests on Pedestrians
"The ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of 4 Michigan teens who were required by police to blow into a breathalyzer at parties. The ACLU says Michigan is the only state in the country where police don't need a search warrant to require pedestrians under age 21 to take an alcohol test. The controversy surrounds a breathalyzer, and according to Michigan's zero tolerance law,police can require someone who is under 21 to submit to a breathalyzer test if the officer believes that person has been drinking. The Michigan ACLU has filed a law suite challenging Michigan's zero tolerance underage drinking law."
Full story - 6News
Submitted by Anonymous, Sat Aug 6 12:01:41 EDT 2005



ACLU Challenges Law Allowing Pedestrian Alcohol Tests
"LANSING, Mich. -- The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Thursday on behalf of four teens who were required to blow into a Breathalyzer at parties, challenging a state law that allows the test without a search warrant. Saginaw Valley State University honors student Katie Platte was 19 last year when Thomas Township police asked her and some friends to take the test. She faced a $100 fine if she refused."
Full story - ClickOnDetroit
Submitted by Anonymous, Fri Aug 5 10:54:36 EDT 2005



Collection of data from children online not permitted without parental consent
"For membership application purposes the online children's club run by the carmaker Skoda is not allowed to collect personal data from the children applying without obtaining their parents' consent. This judgment by the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt-on-the-Main was, according to the organization's own statements, obtained by the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband [Federation of German Consumer Organizations] (VZBV)."
Full story - Heise
Submitted by Anonymous, Sat Jul 30 08:47:42 EDT 2005



Government Defends Child Database Plans
"The Government is to press ahead with plans for a national network of 'child indexes' despite serious warnings from MPs. However ministers are now pledging to take a "steady, phased approach" to the project after the Commons' Education and Skills Select Committee urged them to proceed only "with upmost caution"."
Full story - eGov Monitor
Submitted by Anonymous, Tue Jul 12 14:21:01 EDT 2005



Judge won't stop parental notice law
"A federal judge Thursday refused to stop enforcement of a new Florida law that orders doctors to notify parents if their daughters 17 and under seek an abortion. U.S. District Judge William Stafford said opponents of the law failed to show they had a good chance of winning a constitutional challenge against it. That's the key threshold that had to be met to win the temporary injunction they sought."
Full story - Gainesville Sun
Submitted by Anonymous, Fri Jul 8 06:56:47 EDT 2005



Parents now must be told if teen daughter seeks abortion
"TALLAHASSEE - Starting today, a doctor performing abortions must notify parents that their underage daughters seek to have an abortion -- but abortion opponents fret that a provision in the new law might allow some girls to "judge shop" for a sympathetic court willing to waive the notification requirement."
Full story - Miami Herald
Submitted by Anonymous, Fri Jul 1 09:30:04 EDT 2005



Plan violates privacy rights
"... Barry Steinhardt, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union, said: "We understand the Pentagon's need to increase its recruitment efforts, but the government should not be keeping a book on private individuals who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. This is a principle that Congress sought to protect with the passage of the Privacy Act of 1974. Yet, by tapping into private-sector database companies, the Pentagon is effectively doing just that. These database companies compile ever-more-detailed files on each of us -- files that the Pentagon is now using." Privacy advocates told the Post that the Pentagon's plan appears to be an effort to circumvent laws that restrict the government's right to collect or hold citizen information by turning to private firms to do the work."
Full story - The Olympian
Submitted by Anonymous, Thu Jun 30 09:39:18 EDT 2005



DCF will post less info on foster children
"Information about the medical and emotional conditions of children in foster care -- or any abuse they have endured -- will no longer be posted on a state Web site featuring photos and profiles encouraging adoptions. The new policy, approved by the state Department of Children & Families, comes less than a week after the Orlando Sentinel questioned the agency Friday about its Web site used to recruit adoptive families. The story revealed the site often included information about behavioral disorders, health problems and past abuse that child advocates said could exploit or embarrass children."
Full story - Sun-Sentinel.com
Submitted by Anonymous, Thu Jun 30 09:37:42 EDT 2005



U.S. invades kids' privacy (opinion)
"The Defense Department has crossed the privacy line... There's no excuse for violating the privacy of children. There's no governmental purpose to collecting their grades, much less their races. There's no legitimate reason to ignore the rights of parents to restrict strangers from contacting their children. There's no way to justify a wholesale database of likely targets from a pool of minors."
Full story - USA Today
Submitted by Anonymous, Thu Jun 30 09:32:29 EDT 2005



Mich., Utah to Launch E-Mail Registries
"Two states are on the verge of trying to block porn and other inappropriate messages sent to children through e-mail, but critics question how the laws will be enforced and predict they could have unintended consequences. Michigan and Utah have until Friday to create and operate registries of e-mail addresses similar to "do-not-call" lists. Businesses will have to buy copies of the registries and face prison time and fines if they send e-mail to any addresses that parents submit. The registries also can include instant-message addresses, cell phones and pager numbers."
Full story - AP
Submitted by Anonymous, Thu Jun 30 05:00:02 EDT 2005



Groups to FTC: Kids' Privacy Improving, but Law Needs Enforcement
"fom epic.org: Consumer privacy groups have filed comments (also available in pdf) to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as part of its review of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The groups argue that COPPA has improved children's privacy online. There is a continuing need to continue to clarify COPPA via enforcement and research into the cutting edge techniques being used to direct websites at children. Further action is still needed to address the privacy concerns raised in the offline market for children's personal information."
Full story - Comments to FTC
Submitted by Anonymous, Wed Jun 29 12:46:25 EDT 2005



Senators Call on Rumsfeld to Abandon Recruiting Database
"CounterRecruiter.net has learned that seven Democratic senators have called on the Pentagon to stop using a massive database to target potential recruits. Last week it was revealed that the Pentagon had hired the private marketing firm BeNOW to run the database that keeps track of millions of high school and college students."
Full story - nyc.indymedia.org
Submitted by Anonymous, Wed Jun 29 09:50:24 EDT 2005



Colorado Homeschoolers Fear New State Database Threatens Freedom
"On April 29, Owens signed into law Senate Bill 87, which allows Colorado's health department to create a statewide database of immunization records and to contact parents directly when their children are due or overdue for inoculations. Treon Goossen, a spokeswoman for Concerned Parents of Colorado -- a grassroots group that lobbied against S.B. 87 -- said the homeschool community's opposition focused on privacy issues. While some homeschool families choose not to get certain inoculations for medical or religious reasons, she said immunization itself was not the primary objection."
Full story - Heartland Institute
Submitted by Anonymous, Tue Jun 28 14:08:48 EDT 2005



Pentagon database - Be now afraid: Wakefield co.'s deal raises privacy concerns
"A Wakefield marketing firm that builds databases to help sell compact discs and other products to young Americans has been tapped by the Pentagon to build a military recruiting roster of U.S. teenagers... "This database could definitely be reused for a draft," said James W. Harper, a privacy expert with the CATO Institute in Washington, D.C. A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, said the military has been collecting similar data since the early 1980s and is only centralizing the information with the BeNow database."
Full story - Boston Herald
Submitted by Anonymous, Fri Jun 24 10:24:13 EDT 2005



Suit Filed Over Fla. Abortion-Notice Law
"A federal lawsuit filed Thursday argues that a new Florida law requiring physicians to notify parents when their minor daughters seek abortions could endanger the girls by delaying emergency treatment. The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America hope to block the law before it takes effect July 1. The law covers girls 17 and under unless they are married or have already had a child."
Full story - AP News
Submitted by Anonymous, Fri Jun 24 00:45:53 EDT 2005



Parents Right to Know Act Reintroduced
"In the continuing debate over parental notification regarding abortion, legislation has been reintroduced requiring clinics to notify parents five days before dispensing contraceptive drugs or devices to minors."
Full story - Christian Post
Submitted by Anonymous, Wed Jun 22 01:57:30 EDT 2005








Other resources on CHILDREN'S PRIVACY:
  • Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA)
  • FTC: Kidz Privacy




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