Tuesday, November 3, 2009

FTC Virtual Worlds Report Due Dec. 10

The FTC on Dec. 10 will unveil the results of its congressionally mandated examination of online virtual worlds like the popular platform Second Life, an agency official told a Commerce Department Internet safety working group Tuesday. Commission attorney Phyllis Hurwitz Marcus said the report will include recommendations for best practices for industry, parents and youth. The examination was required under the 2009 omnibus appropriations bill but Congress didn't give the FTC much guidance other than asking them to zero in on "explicit content," Marcus said.

The agency first had to decide what constituted "explicit content" and investigators decided to fold sexually explicit and violent material into the 90-day probe. The study targeted virtual worlds populated by those under age 13; those popular among older youth; and sites that are populated mainly by adults, she said. FTC employees traversed a sampling of virtual worlds in search of explicit content, which Marcus said was "really outside of our comfort zone."

The report, which will be released as part of an OECD conference the FTC is hosting on e-commerce, breaks down categorically to describe the content and volume of what investigators found, Marcus said. While she was hesitant to offer a preview of the Commission's findings and recommendations, she said the study revealed a glut of user-generated text-based explicit content. She also indicated that sites not typically thought of as virtual worlds, including interactive gaming sites, were reviewed.

Additionally, Marcus noted the FTC will begin "a wholesale look" next year at a 1998 law that requires a Web site operator to obtain parents' permission before collecting personal information from children under age 13. The re-examination of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act was originally slated for 2015 but was fast-tracked due to the rapid pace of technological change. "It is possible there will be some major or minor tweaks," Marcus said. A 2005 FTC review resulted in no change to the statute.

Read an earlier Tech Daily Dose post on the FTC virtual worlds examination here and a recent CongressDaily story on the agency's COPPA review here (subscription required).