Introduction.

Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important. With this policy the Aboutd Web Awards aims to promote safer use of the internet through contributing to a culture of responsibility and a higher level of awareness, enabling everyone and specially children and young people to benefit evermore from the internet.

Recommended reading: Internet Literacy Handbook from the Council of Europe.

Our Procedures.

I - Collection of information.

1. Our site's Privacy Policy is compliant with ICRA and  Labelled with ICRA.

2. Information about the information collected at our web site, how is it used, with whom is it shared and how that information can be accessed and this Award Program contacted, can be found in the policy above.

3. In addition to the terms of the referred privacy policy and in order to protect children privacy and safety, we do not collect or maintain personal information that somehow reveals the age of the user.

4. Should we receive any correspondence, either by postal mail or email, that discloses the age of the user and this age is below 16, we will not provide any answer to it and we will destroy the message and all associated information.

5. Should the minor insists in contacting us, in addition to the procedure delineated in point 3 above, we will try to contact the legal tutor(s) of the child informing them of the ongoing situation.

6. Should we receive an application for any of our awards that is found, by any means, to be of someone below 16, the procedure delineated in point 3 above will be carried on.

7. All posts and comments in any message board or similar available in our website, and that can be viewed by children, will be moderated.

II - Our own site's content.

1. No part of our website is intended to attract or establish any kind of transaction with children. We understand that despite that, our website may be visited by children. In this conformity:

   1. Only if in an educational, scientific and/or artistic context (as determined by our panel) we may eventually post links to external websites that can be considered as offensive or rude, potentially disturbing and/or dangerous. We will require from the linked website that an appropriate warning should be clearly noticed in the opening page and we will require also that the website should be fully labelled by means of a PICS label; In addition, our pages containing links to such material will be fully labelled by means of a PICS label;

   2. Only if in an educational, scientific and/or artistic context (as determined by our panel) we may eventually post links to external websites that can be considered of sexual or erotic connotation, such as integral or partial nudes, description of sexual activities, either in words, sounds or images and similar or related material. We will require from the linked website that an appropriate warning should be clearly noticed in the opening page and we will require also that the website should be fully labelled by means of a PICS label; In addition, our pages containing links to such material will be fully labelled by means of a PICS label.

III - What we require from our applicants.

1. We will not consider eligible to be awarded one of our awards any website owned and/or operated by someone below the age of sixteen (16), whereas personally identifiable information about the owner / webmaster is present in the website;

2. We require from all our applicants who are aware that their sites are popular with children (although not targetted at such audience) to state clearly on the home page if they think some of the material on their site, or linked from their site, is inappropriate for children; In addition, the content provider should also rate and label the site. Whenever the site's content is declared as "Child Safe", the corresponding PICS label must be available in the site's entrance page (recommended reading about Labelling);

3. We require that if and when used, the PICS label should at all times reflect accurately the content it describes and must be present in the site's entrance page;

 

III-A - Additional requirements for sites targeted at children

We will consider a site as being targeted at children (a children site) any site that provides information to and about children, including school sites, that merchandises any kind of material that can be considered of interest to children such as toys, children clothes, games, books and music, sports accessories, etc. or that promotes any kind of children online or offline activities.

1. Providers of children' sites should ensure that their content respect certain fundamental principles in relation to children. They should adhere to codes of conduct which promote these principles.

2. The content of the children' site should respect children's rights, social and cultural diversity, personal and physical integrity, and the democratic values of equality, freedom and friendship.

3. We require from sites targeted at children, or from any site where personal information and age is collected to provide any kind of service or establish any kind of transaction, strict compliance with applicable children online privacy protection legislations, like COPPA and EU Directive 95/46;

   1. It must be detailed how the site intends to use and display gathered information;

   2. Personal data should only be collected from children with the explicit and verifiable consent of the child’s parent/guardian (for example by sending an e-mail directly to the parent or requesting a signature by post).

   3. School sites need to make available acceptable user policies signed by parents. Included in this document should be permission for the children works to be published. It should be also stated if the school allows the use of full names or photos of the children online, if such information is present.

4. Safety advice should be clearly signed at the entrance to any chat rooms or chat fora on children' sites. Chat rooms and chat fora on children' sites should be moderated (Recommended reading about chat).

5. The provider of the children' site should check the suitability of the content of any third party sites to which it links from the children's site. The children' site should only contain links to third party sites which contain material appropriate for the age group of children towards whom the original site is targeted.

6. Providers of children' sites should not make personal information about children available to others users of the site nor non-essential personnel which would allow them to trace and contact the children.

7. Advertising or other forms of marketing directed at children should be clearly marked as such.

8. Content providers should not encourage minors to persuade their parents or others to purchase the goods or services being advertised. They should not encourage minors to buy a product or service by exploiting their inexperience, sense of loyalty, credulity or the special trust that minors place in parents, teachers or other persons.

Additional Notes.

Definition of personal information.

Personal information means individually identifiable information about an individual collected online, including:

1. A first and last name;

2. A home or other physical address including street name and name of a city or town;

3. An e-mail address or other online contact information, including but not limited to an instant messaging user identifier, or a screen name that reveals an individual’s e-mail address;

4. A telephone number;

5. A Social Security number, a Fiscal identification number and/or a National Identitity Card number;

6. A persistent identifier, such as a customer number held in a cookie(*) or a processor serial number, where such identifier is associated with individually identifiable information;

7. A combination of a last name or photograph of the individual with other information such that the combination permits physical or online contacting;

8. Information concerning a child or the parents of that child that the operator collects online from a child and combines with an identifier described in this definition.