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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
[Chalk up another win for the Law of Unintended Consequences. I mean, COPPA backers may be well-intentioned and all that, but did *anybody* in Washington do a cost-benefit analysis beforehand and realize that a law purportedly passed to help children would have precisely the opposite effect? (The answer, of course, is no.) More COPPA victims: http://www.politechbot.com/p-01158.html --Declan] ******** http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2627742,00.html By Ben Charny, ZDNet News September 13, 2000 3:33 PM PT SAN FRANCISCO -- The cost of complying with federal online child privacy laws is forcing one children's Web site to shut up or shut down. Zeeks.com will remove all of its interactive elements, from e-mail to chat rooms, starting Oct. 1. It hopes to make up its expected 20 percent traffic loss by posting additional games, said CEO Steven G. Bryan here Wednesday at the Digital Kids Forum conference. Bryan said the $200,000 per year it costs Zeeks to employ chat-room supervisors, monitor phone lines to answer parents' questions and process COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) permission forms was "the straw that broke the camel's back." To comply with the federal laws, he said, the company had to employ about a dozen chat room monitors to oversee activity in a pair of chat rooms available 12 hours a day. Overseeing e-mail -- another popular element of the site -- wasn't as labor-intensive. But Zeeks had to install several different pricey servers to comply with the COPPA rules and regulations, he said. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------