A review of one advertiser on Channel One’s web site has been completed and there is bad news for parents. Digitalbackpack.com has solicited personal information from children who are funneled to their site by the Channel One Network. Channel One enlisted hundreds of school teachers and principals to hand out advertising for Digitalbackpack.com in October. See article below about how a student mock election was used as a vehicle to promote this new "dot com" company.
Channel One’s TV show told students to go to Digitalbackpack.com. When children visited this site, they were asked to fill out a form. Some information was required. Some was optional. It is very easy for a child to just fill out the entire form and therefore give this Ohio company a lot of personal information. Here is Digitalbackpack’s privacy policy:
"3. dbp Privacy Policy
dbp is very concerned about the safety and privacy of all its users, particularly children under the age of 13. Account information and certain other information about you is subject to our Privacy Policy. For more information, please review our Privacy Policy in its entirety.
Site Usage Information
dbp collects information about your activity on our site, such as pages viewed, functions used, and ads clicked on. This activity is collected at both an individual and aggregate level. If you are age 12 or under we will only track individual usage anonymously or aggregate it.
Knowing how you use digitalbackpack is very valuable for understanding your needs and interests. With this information we can provide more customized features and information for you and for all users. Site usage tracking by individual user is not required and you have the option at any time to have it disabled by emailing us at [email protected]."
This isn’t good. Companies that deal with children should not be in the business of collecting personal information from children. Below is the information that Channel One’s advertiser wanted from kids.
"Create a New Account! View our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Required fields are in Bold. Please fill in the following form, making sure all the required fields are complete. Then click "Next Step" at the bottom. Personal Information: Prefix: First Name: Middle Name: Last Name: Suffix: Birthdate: Sex: Address Information: Email: Street Line 1: Street Line 2: City: State/Province: Postal/Zip Code: Are you interested in receiving email about digitalbackpack? Yes No Are you interested in receiving our electronic newsletter? Yes No"
Obligation’s Main Page One Channel One
News About Channel One 2002 (Jan – Jun)
Obligation, Inc.
3100 Lorna Road
Suite 311
Birmingham, AL 35216
Phone: (205) 822-0080
Fax: (205) 822-3336
Email: [email protected]
Promoting What Helps Children, Changing What Harms Them
