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No doubt, there are a lot of talented kids out there. Aspiring young actors, singers, dancers, models and other artists often network to find auditions, casting calls and other professional opportunities. Online talent search companies often advertise that they can help make dreams come true. These companies may ask for information about budding artists, including names, postal and email addresses and phone numbers.

In their eagerness and excitement, children may think it’s okay to share information about themselves online — especially if it means getting a gig they really want. As a parent, you know better. You have control over the personal information companies collect online from your kids under 13. This includes your child’s name, address, phone number, email address, and, in some instances, information the companies can use to track your child’s online activities. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) gives you tools to do that. If a site or service is covered by COPPA, it has to get your permission before collecting personal information from your child and it has to honor your choices.

According to the FTC, a Nevada corporation failed to follow the law and is now paying the price. The FTC alleges that Explore Talent allowed children under age 13 to set up online user accounts and profiles. Explore Talent required children who set up accounts to submit personal information, including contact information, gender, and birthdate, including year, and also requested that users submit detailed physical descriptions. The FTC alleges that Explore Talent has collected, used, and disclosed children’s personal information without accurately describing its practices, and without notifying or obtaining consent from children’s parents. Much of the personal information provided by users in setting up their online accounts became publicly available on users’ profiles. Despite these practices, Explore Talent falsely represented in its Privacy Policy that it did not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.

The proposed federal court order would stop these business practices and would also bar the defendants from engaging in other practices that have caused injury to consumers.

If you think a site has collected information from your kids or marketed to them in a way that violates the law, report it to the FTC. Need help talking to your kids about online safety? Check out Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online as the basis for the conversation.

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Unwanted Calls, Emails, and Texts

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

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We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

CURIOUS
February 05, 2018
How does a company know if someone is under 13 ???
happybike
February 05, 2018
Ok
Roni C
February 21, 2018

It's Time To See Mug Shots...Using Adults...The Vunreble Adults...Taking advantage of people in there most needed times in there life...Using precious innocent children, And very talented kids that in due time will become "So Much" more...I pray for Gods Mercy & Protection for the parents who had to endure such Pain & Agony & That God will provide us all a way to remove the shakles & To Place The Shackle To Whom They Belong To...What A Crime! It's Time For JUSTICE!

JOHN
February 21, 2018

FIRST...BEFORE YOU..TRY TO.ENROLL YOUR KID IN A ACTING CLASSES OR ANYTHING... RESEARCH.... THAT COMPANY... AND....OWNER'S... TO SAFE GUARD YOU FROM CHILD PORNOGRAPHERS..TELLING YOU...YR KID HOLDS A MODELING OR ACTING CAREER. COULD BE SOME MOOOOCHOOO GRANDA..BS AND YR SUCKERED... IT PAY'S TO.. ALWAYS BE AWARE ..WHO...YR DEALING WITH AND THOSE SURROUNDING YOU...

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