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Xanga.com Fined for Children's Privacy Violations

September 11, 2006

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Social networking site Xanga.com will pay a $1 million civil penalty for allegedly violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) under the terms of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

According to the FTC, Xanga.com collected, used, and disclosed personal information from children under the age of 13 without first notifying parents and obtaining their consent. The penalty is the largest ever assessed by the FTC for a COPPA violation, and is more than twice the next largest penalty.

The complaint charges that the defendants had actual knowledge they were collecting and disclosing personal information from children. The Xanga site stated that children under 13 could not join, but then allowed visitors to create Xanga accounts even if they provided a birth date indicating they were under 13.

Further, they failed to notify the children's parents of their information practices or provide the parents with access to and control over their children's information. The defendants created 1.7 million Xanga accounts over the past five years for users who submitted age information indicating they were under 13.

"Protecting kids' privacy online is a top priority for America's parents, and for the FTC," said FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. "COPPA requires all commercial Web sites, including operators of social networking sites like Xanga, to give parents notice and obtain their consent before collecting personal information from kids they know are under 13. A million-dollar penalty should make that obligation crystal clear."

Xanga.com is one of the most popular social networking sites on the Internet. After setting up a personal profile, users can post information about themselves for other users to read and respond to.

On Xanga.com, users can create their own pages or Web logs (blogs) that contain profile information, online journals, text, hypertext images, as well as links to audio, video, and other files or sites. Information on the Xanga site is available to the general public through the use of global search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

Incorporated in 1999 and based in New York City, privately held Xanga.com, Inc. was founded by Marc Ginsburg and John Hiler. In 2005, Xanga had about 25 million registered accounts.

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