[LINK] Children, privacy & Government site: ippyonline.gov.au

[Irene Graham]

Words near fail me. ;-) We have a government so concerned about protecting
kids using the Net that we have ridiculous Net censorship laws, meanwhile
at least one government web site, aimed at kids, encourages kids to give
out personal information.  
http://www.ippyonline.gov.au/

This site is a semi-finalist in the AFR Internet Awards 2000
http://www.webawards.com.au/. 
Somewhat more than rumour indicates it will be disqualified on grounds of
violation of children's privacy, or something along those lines. Imo, the
site's a disgrace.

For kids to merely enter in a competition they *must* provide name, email,
address, phone number, date of birth and school:
http://www.ippyonline.gov.au/club/join.asp
I cannot think why the government needs so much personal information,
merely for the purpose of *entering* a competition.  It seems to me that
they do not need addresses etc of anyone other than, at the most, winners
and they could obtain that by email after winners were decided.

At the top of the join page, there's a link to what they claim is a privacy
policy:
http://www.ippyonline.gov.au/helpcred/privacy.asp
which says near the end:
	"[Users should note there are inherent risks associated with
transmission of information over public networks such as the Internet. You
should decide if it is safe to send your information over the Internet,
before you send your personal information to Ippy On-line."

Note that this site is a site aimed at young children!

At the bottom of the "privacy statement" page there's a link to a
disclaimer:
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about/disclm.htm
which says "Please read this notice before using our web site" (one might
ask why that isn't on the home page!) which links to yet another page which
says: "The Commonwealth, IP Australia, its officers and employees assume no
responsibility in relation to the use of this web site or the information
contained in it."

Then we have another page
http://www.ippyonline.gov.au/club/terms.asp
"Competition entrants should be aware that all Dirtsurfers carry warnings
which include:
Do not purchase this product if you are not prepared to be injured at some
stage. Dirtsurfing is a potentially dangerous sport.
Before the Dirtsurfer prizes will be distributed, IP Australia will require
the winner's parent's/guardian's written consent to receive the Dirtsurfer
prize and the winner's parents/guardians will be required to sign a waiver,
indemnity and release before the Dirtsurfer prize will be awarded.
Click here for more information on the Dirtsurfer competition terms and
conditions."   "Click here" leads to a disclaimer, not more info on T&Cs re
Dirtsurfer competition:  http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about/disclm.htm

Btw, if you look at the site and get 404 error messages/file not available
when clicking on links, change the *.htm extension to *.asp. I have not
bothered to investigate why this problem occurred when I tried to view the
site.

Irene

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Irene Graham 
Executive Director - EFA <http://www.efa.org.au>
Burning Issues: <http://rene.efa.org.au>
Voice: +61 7 3424 0201 Mobile: 0412 997 163 Fax: +61 7 3424 0241
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