Facebook faces congressional panel over child privacy

Facebook is meeting with Congress

Even in the wake of privacy changes at Facebook, officials from the social networking site are meeting with members of Congress to review how the company protects children online.

Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who is the co-chairman of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, has been fighting in Washington to increase Americans’ privacy online, especially children. Markey, along with Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), issued a statement earlier this year chastising Facebook after a report by the Wall Street Journal revealed security issues with the site.

“I am alarmed by an emerging pattern of privacy and security problems at Facebook,” Markey said at the time. “When it comes to its users’ privacy, Facebook’s policy should be: ‘Ask for permission, don’t assume it.’”

Markey and Barton co-sponsored the Do Not Track Kids Act, which updates the current standing Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) that makes it illegal to collect and share personal information about children under 13 years of age.

Facebook’s current policy states that users of the site must be 13 or older, but the rule is routinely ignored, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has said children of all ages should be able to participate in social networking sites.

According to CBS News, Facebook is meeting with the CPC to further discuss its privacy measures, following a similar meeting with Google last week.

“We shouldn’t be debating [child privacy],” Markey said. “It’s just about making sure kids get to grow up in an electronic oasis that does not come back to haunt them and their families.”

Former Clinton White House adviser Peter Swire cautions that legislation on the issue is a tricky one, telling CBS, “The trick is to somehow get some basic rules of the road and not to close down particular technologies.”