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Student Privacy Protection Act
Commercial Alert September 23, 1999
-- Rep. George Miller introduced a bill yesterday in the U.S. House of
Representatives to protect schoolchildren from corporations that intrude
into the schools to gather market research. The bill (HR 2915) would
safeguard children from ZapMe! Corp. and other predatory corporations by
requiring them to obtain parental consent before extracting market
research from children in school
-- Please urge your House Member to co-sponsor HR 2915, and encourage
your U.S. Senators to introduce and support a Senate companion bill.
Following is Rep. Miller's news release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, September 22, 1999
CONTACT: Daniel Weiss 202/225-2095
NEW EFFORT TO PROTECT PRIVACY OF K-12 STUDENTS
FROM MARKET RESEARCH IN SCHOOLS
WASHINGTON — In response to growing concerns about privacy,
commercialism in schools, and educational quality, Congressman George
Miller (D-CA) announced new legislation today to protect student privacy
and parents' rights to information about their children's education.
Miller's legislation, the Student Privacy Protection Act, would
prohibit schools from letting students participate in various forms of
market research at school without their parent's written permission.
The bill also would require a broad study of commercial involvement in
the classroom.
"Students should go to school to learn, not to provide companies an edge
in the hotly contested youth market," said Congressman George Miller
(D-CA). "But increasing numbers of companies are targeting schools as
the best place to learn the purchasing preferences of young people.
Unfortunately, there is no requirement that schools seek parental
consent before this occurs. In addition, students may not always be
aware that companies are collecting personal information about them.
"Parents have a right to know how their children are spending their days
at school," Miller said. "If parents do not want their children to be
objects of market research firms while in school, they should have the
right to say no. My bill gives parents that right.
"By requiring parental consent for a student to contribute to any market
research in school, students and parents will be able to retain more
control over how the school day is spent and will be able to make an
informed decision as to whether to reveal personal information that
private companies otherwise might not be able to obtain," Miller said.
Miller is a senior member of the House Education and the Workforce
Committee and a leading proponent of policies to inform parents about
the quality of their children's education, including the qualifications
of their teachers and a useful comparison of their children's test
scores.
Existing school privacy laws only protect official records and research
funded by the federal Department of Education. Current law leaves a
loophole for companies to go into classrooms to get information directly
from kids without parental consent. This information is then sold to
advertisers and marketers, who use it to target students. School-based
market research has the potential to compromise student privacy and it
interferes with the parent-child relationship.
Consider these examples of the growing trend of using the classroom to
solicit personal information from kids for market research:
* Kids in a New Jersey elementary school filled out a 27-page booklet
called "my all about me journal" as part of a marketing survey for a
cable televison channel.
* Students in a Massachusetts elementary school spent two days tasting
cereal and answering an opinion poll.
* The ZapMe! Corporation of San Ramon, California provides schools with
free computers but then monitors students' web browsing habits, breaking
the data down by age, sex and ZIP code.
"By raising the issue of commercialism in the classroom, my goal is not
to usurp local decision making by schools, but rather to protect parents
and students and encourage an informed discussion of all of the costs
and benefits of these arrangements," said Miller.
Miller introduced his bill in the House today and said he intends to
offer his legislation as an amendment during the reauthorization of the
federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), legislation that
is currently under consideration by the Education and the Workforce
Committee.
<-----------------news release ends here-------------->
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
1) Contact your House Member and encourage him or her to co-sponsor HR
2915. The congressional switchboard phone number is (202) 224-3121. To
find out who your Members of Congress are, as well as their phone
numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses, see
<http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html>.
2) Contact your U.S. Senators and encourage them to introduce HR 2915 in
the Senate and to support it.
Commercial Alert was founded last year to oppose the excesses of
commercialism, advertising and marketing. Commercial Alert's web
address is <http://www.essential.org/alert/>.
To find out more about how ZapMe! preys on schoolchildren, see:
<http://www.essential.org/alert/zapme/index.html>.
For more information about Noggin's misuse of the schools to conduct
market research, see:
<http://www.essential.org/alert/letter_britt.html>.
Commercial Alert's materials are distributed on the listserve
<commercial-alert@essential.org>. To subscribe to commercial-alert,
click on <http://www.essential.org/alert/listserv.html> or send an
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PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
--
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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/alert/ | mailto:gary@essential.org
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