Hello,

Let me tell you about the situation to give you some background.  I am
a pastor who works for a particular denomination.  I have recently
received a letter from an educational recruitment firm in the
denomination that wants me to send them the names, addresses, ages and
e-mails of all the children in my church from ages 5-24. Their intent
is to make material "available" to these children and their parents. 
I am sure their motives are not malicious, but I am struggling with
the legality of passing out this information without the parents
knowledge or consent.
Do laws exist regarding this?  And if so, could you point me in the
right direction to show that?  Thanks.

evan11...

Although the specifics of your situation are, perhaps, not precisely
covered, the intentions laid out in the 'Children's Online Privacy
Protection Act of 1998' (COPPA) are fairly clear in the level of
privacy to be given to children's contact information. The Act itself
is very lengthy, and you can read through it all, but this section is
clear enough about requiring "verifiable" parental consent:

"IN GENERAL.?Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment
 of this Act, the Commission shall promulgate under section 553 of
 title 5, United States Code, regulations that?

 (A) require the operator of any website or online service directed
 to children   that collects personal information from children or
 the operator of a website or online service that has actual
 knowledge that it is collecting personal information from a child?

    (i) to provide notice on the website of what information is
    collected from children by the operator, how the operator uses
    such information, and the operator's disclosure practices for
    such information; and

   (ii) to obtain verifiable parental consent for the collection,
   use, or disclosure of personal information from children;

The entire document can be read here:
http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/coppa1.htm


While much of the language addresses website owners and webmasters
and regulates the practices used on websites to obtain personal
information, such as email addresses, from children, It would seem
wise to follow the intent of this Privacy Protection Act no matter
the means through which you happened to obtain the email addresses.

If, for example, you don't have a website, as such, but produce
an email newsletter, and obtained the children's email addresses
in that way, I would still suggest following the regulations and
intentions inherent in this Act.

Perhaps you could make an announcement during services, detailing
what the educational recruitment firm is offering, and making a
signup sheet available after services where children could provide
their email addresses, followed by a signature from the parents.


Another article worth reading is found on the Gigalaw site, titled
'How the FTC is Enforcing the Children's Privacy Act' by Jonathan
Winer:

"COPPA's guiding mandate is to provide parents the ability to
 control the disclosure of, and to consent to the use of,
 individually identifiable information pertaining to their
 children. To comply, operators are required to post notices
 concerning their COPPA- and privacy-compliance policies, to
 provide actual notice to parents prior to collecting the child's
 individually identifiable information and to obtain verifiable
 parental consent before collecting, using, disclosing or
 processing the child's information."

Much more in the article:
http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2000-all/winer-2000-10-all.html

sublime1-ga


Additional information may be found from an exploration of
the links resulting from the Google searches outlined below.

Searches done, via Google:

"children's privacy act"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22children%27s+privacy+act%22

Thoughtful answers. Sorry the tip can't be more.

Howdy evan11-ga,

I don't think the legality of it enters the picture at all.  Morally,
this would clearly be wrong.  Your parishioners, quite rightly, have
expectations of privacy, especially when it comes to their children.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Even if this did not involve personal details related to children, I
would think that all parishioners, regardless of age, would expect a
high level of confidentiality regarding their personal contact
information. When I give my address and telephone number to my church,
it is so that the church itself may contact me. If the church, or
someone associated with the church, provided my contact information to
spammers, I would feel betrayed and angry.

Have them send you the literature. Make it available on child height
table or buliton board in the church.

For the children 5-17, this seems to require parental consent in the
first place, as reminiscent of some of the "Media disclosure" forms
that my parents had to sign while I was in High School (granting
permission to use my name in the media, for better or for worse). For
those 18-24, they can give their own consent.

Regardless, it would probably be unethical to disclose such
information without permission of the proper individuals.

The COPPA also refers to children under the age of 13 if I am not mistaken.

The fact that this company requested said information means they can't be
trusted.  Please don't allow this company any access to your congregation.

They should know better.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Quite so.  Do you know of this" "educational recruitment firm" really
is related to your denomination?

To answer your question of why whether or not they are indeed related
to the denomination, in short...yes.  I have actually worked with some
of their recruiters personally and have found them to be professional
and helpful.  I was more concerned about the legalities of the issuse
at hand (that is not to say that things cannot happen, because I
realize that they can).  Thank-you all for your comments.  You were
most helpful.

Since I am also a father I felt that I would not want to share that
information, and probably others would not want it either. I had
chosen not to share it before asking the question here, but wanted
clarification as to specific laws (if any) in this type of situation.
I appreciate your candor and thoughtfulness. It's good to know that
there are so many who desire to guard our nation's children. 
Thank-you.

evan11...

Thanks very much for the rating and the tip.

sublime1-ga