Submission Number: 561789-00069 

Received: 9/24/2012 4:16:28 PM
Commenter: Shaun Hainey
Organization: 
State: Minnesota

Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Initiative: 16 CFR Part 312; Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule; Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Project No. P104503
Attachments: No Attachments
Submission Text
As a technologist and a dad, I am writing today to raise my concerns about the changes proposed to COPPA.   I started my own business in rural Minnesota helping people and businesses access technology. In my area, people don't often have the access to the museums, large libraries, and large educational institutions urban dwellers have. The closest international airport to me is over 100 miles away. I can, however, Skype with my friends overseas from my home and teach my neighbors how to do the same. As a dad, Im teaching my kids new things every day. My wife and I chose where we live to be close to our family and make sure our kids learn the names of trees while climbing them at the same time. I do, however, understand the power technology will have in their lives when obtaining a world-class education. This is why I'm concerned with the latest proposed COPPA rules. The proposed "reason to know" standard could force platform providers to remove educational apps from their stores so they don't have to be liable for the things contained within the apps. The vast majority of these application developers are good actors - many apps created by parents like myself. They want to innovate new ways to teach their kids to subtract, to read, to write, and to draw. Apps are being "prescribed" by teachers to parents when individualized learning is needed. I see them as a valuable service to parents, especially that may not have access to "big city" resources. I appreciate your dedication to protecting kids online but I respectfully request you consider the importance of a level playing field for my kids that apps help to create. My children growing up on Pike Family Farm deserve the same access to information as kids in Beijing, China.