Kid's Privacy on the Internet: Collecting Children's Personal Data on the Internet and the Protection of Privacy

The children of today are growing up with the Internet. At the same time, there is a lot of uncertainty and ignorance about collecting personal data from children on the Internet, for example for direct marketing purposes. There is also much uncertainty and ignorance about the applicability of data protection rules. In this contribution, the American and Dutch legal framework for this phenomenon will be described. Furthermore, it appears that in EU member states, very little attention is being paid to this phenomenon. Obviously, there seems to be a lack of data protection regulation at EU level. The current evaluation of the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC makes it possible to redress this deficiency.