The center studies how well sites have conformed to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which went into effect last April (see story).

"As we approach the first anniversary of the privacy-policy rules, an examination of the 162 sites with the highest percentage of child visitors under age 13 revealed that they often did not live up to the spirit and sometimes even the letter behind the rules. Privacy policies are typically too unclear and time-consuming to realistically encourage parents to confidently guide their children's Internet experiences," the report says.

The study used data from the Nielsen//NetRatings service to determine which sites were most trafficked by children.

Of the sites surveyed, 17 collected information about the users but didn't post links to their privacy policies from the home page. Of those that did have a link, 44% followed FTC guidelines by putting the link in a different font; only 6% put the link in a different color and 68% put the link at the bottom of the home page.

A key component of complying with the COPPA guidelines is making privacy policies clear and easily accessible for parents, said Joseph Turow, professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication and the author of the report. He said most sites still don't meet these criteria.

Among his recommendations, Turow said that sites intended for children ages 2 through 12 should have a clear marker, such as a fancy or distinctive letter K for kids.

Web sites shouldn't have to rely on collecting personally identifiable information to be profitable survive, he said in the report. "Nobody ever said that information should be cheap," Turow said. "Nobody ever said that everything should be free just because it's on the Web. That goes for the consumer as well as for the company."

Steve Schaffer, CEO of San Francisco-based Newfront Productions Inc., which runs several Web sites, including Nancydrew.com, disagrees and said the regulations are killing the viability of Internet sites geared toward children.

"What is happening now is the legitimate kids' sites are either going out of business or they're turning into teen sites [which don't come under COPPA guidelines], and then the kids are going to those sites," Schaffer said. "The problem is, there's nothing on the Internet for kids anymore. If you follow the policies, you still get called out because somebody interprets the policy differently than you do."

Nancydrew.com is one of the sites singled out by the Annenberg study for not posting a link to its privacy policy on its home page.

A link is now in place. "It was up from the beginning, but it fell off for a little bit of time," apparently while the University of Pennsylvania students were reviewing his site, Schaffer said. "How? I don't know. Stuff happens on the Web."

He also argued that the classification of home page is meaningless, because what users might think is a Web site's home page may not be. Schaffer added that the Web sites he manages don't collect personal information.

"We got out of the kid business because of these very issues," Schaffer said. "The only way to make money on the Internet right now is advertising, because parents won't buy subscriptions," he said, and in order to sell advertising space, a site needs to show traffic information.

Turow disagreed and cited a few examples of what he calls "responsible" children's sites: Mamamedia.com, Hasbrointeractive.com, Chevroncars.com and Lunchables.com.

Related stories:

• Children's Web site to shut down chat rooms, e-mail, Sept. 14, 2000
• Update: FTC warns Web sites to comply with children's privacy law, July 19, 2000
• MasterCard criticizes Disney plan for Net child privacy, April 24, 2000

For more coverage of this issue, head to our Focus on Privacy page.