Xanga, the popular social networking site, has been ordered to pay a $1 million civil penalty for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The penalty is the largest ever assessed by the FTC for a COPPA violation.
The charge seems pretty straightforward. Xanga stated that under 13s couldn't join, but then provided accounts to those who indicated that they were under 13 on the sign-up form (ie. the user's birth date made them a child). In Xanga's defense, however, they did require all users to tick a box verifying that they were over 13. Xanga's mistake was that they didn't check the birth date - a user whose birth date suggested they were a child would still be given an account if they ticked the box. Over the last five years, Xanga has created 1.7 million accounts for users who entered an age of less than 13.
As mentioned previously on Mashable, Xanga serves some of the youngest social networking users, and has some very strong privacy features in place. The company employs a Chief Safety Officer and provides online safety information for users. In fact, one of the reasons we rarely hear about Xanga is because it's such a closed community. However, this is a strong reminder that social networks have to be extremely careful when it comes to dealing with underage signups.
Update: Xanga's CEO John Hiler has responded with a statement: "Xanga has long been committed to making its site safer for its members. When these issues came to our attention, we instituted a stronger, more comprehensive safety and compliance program." MSNBC is also reporting on the story.
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