POLICIES WITH RESPECT TO CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 13

Our Collection of Personal Information from Children Under the Age of 13

The USOC does not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of 13 (referred to herein as “children”) unless we have received prior verifiable permission from the child’s parent or legal guardian (referred to herein as “parental consent”).  As is further explained in the USE OF IP ADDRESSES section of this Privacy Policy, we do not link the IP addresses of Site users to personal information other than in specified circumstances.  As is further explained in the USE OF COOKIES section of this Privacy Policy, we do use cookies on our Site, but such cookies are not linked to personal information unless such personal information is voluntarily provided to us via the Site. 

We encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children, and to take an active role to protect the privacy of their children, including but not limited to instructing their children not to disclose any personal information over the Internet without your prior permission.

Once we have received verifiable parental consent, we may actively collect personal information from a child so that the child may participate in the following services and activities in connection with his or her use of the Site:

• contests and promotions the rules of which permit entry by children;
• inclusion in our online newsletter program; and
• registration as a registered user of the Site.

We may collect the following types of personal information from children in connection with such services and activities:

• name and member name;
• age and birth date;
• e-mail address and mailing address;
• e-mail address of a parent or guardian; and
• favorite sports, hobbies, interests and extracurricular activities.

The USOC will not condition a child’s participation in any game, the offering of a prize, or a child’s participation in any other activity on the child’s disclosing more personal information than is reasonably necessary for the child to participate in such activity. 

We note that, in the course of a child’s use of our Site, the child may voluntarily provide further personal information about himself or herself to us – for example, by including personal information in messages submitted to us via the Site.  We also note that we may collect personal information about a child from the child’s parent or guardian  – for example, if the parent or guardian requests that we send our newsletter to the child.

Our Use and Disclosure of Personal Information Collected from Children Under the Age of 13

The USOC does not knowingly use any personal information about children unless we have first received verifiable parental consent to do so.

Once we have received verifiable parental consent, we may use personal information about children for the following purposes:

• fulfilling the purpose for which the child, parent or guardian provided that personal information (e.g., contacting the child in response to a question submitted by the child; sending newsletters for which the child signed up to the child, etc.); and
• record keeping.

Except as specified herein, the USOC does not knowingly disclose any personal information about children unless it has received specific verifiable parental consent to disclose such personal information for a particular purpose (e.g., publishing the name and image of a child who has won a contest).  For purposes of this Privacy Policy, the “disclosure” of personal information about children refers to both: (a) the USOC’s disclosure of the personal information in identifiable form to a third party (other than a service provider with respect to our Site that has agreed not to use or disclose the personal information other than to the extent necessary to perform services on behalf of the USOC); and (b) making any such personal information publicly available in identifiable form by any means, including but not limited to, by public posting on the Site, or through an e-mail service, message board or chat room.

The USOC may use and/or disclose personal information about children, without parental consent, to the extent reasonably necessary to:

• protect the security or integrity of our Site and online services;
• take precautions against liability;
• respond to judicial process; or
• provide information to law enforcement agencies or for an investigation on a matter related to public safety, to the extent permitted by law.

Parental Consent and Rights of Parents

Before knowingly collecting personal information from a child, the USOC will use reasonable efforts to ensure that the parent or guardian of the child: (a) receives notice of our personal information collection, use and disclosure practices; and also (b) authorizes the collection and/or use of personal information from the child.

In order for anyone to register as a registered user of the Site, enter any contest or promotion offered on the Site, sign-up for our newsletters, or otherwise participate in any e-mail services, message boards or chat rooms we may establish, he or she must submit an online form that includes such person’s date of birth.  If the given date of birth establishes that the person is under the age of 13, the Site automatically provides an online form that requires such person to enter an e-mail address for his or her parent or guardian.  We will then send notice of our personal information collection, use and disclosure practices to the parent or guardian at the given e-mail address.  Unless we receive authorization from that e-mail address to do so, we will not activate the child’s account, and we will not knowingly collect any further personal information from the child.  Further, we will delete all personal information previously provided to us by the child.  Finally, if we do receive parental consent to the collection and/or use of personal information about the child, we will send a confirmatory e-mail to the e-mail address from which we received such consent, providing the parent or guardian the opportunity to revoke that consent.

Additionally, if a child wins any contest or promotion offered via the Site, notification and prizes are sent to the parent or guardian who originally provided the parental consent.  We will not publish the name, age or image of any child who wins a contest without specific verifiable parental consent to do so.  A parent or guardian who consents to our collection and use of personal information about his or her children has the right to simultaneously deny us permission to disclose that personal information.

Once we have received parental consent with respect to the collection, use and/or disclosure of personal information about a specific child, we will not collect, use and/or disclose personal information about that child in any way that materially differs from the practices set forth in our original notice to that child’s parent or guardian without first providing notice of our new practices to the parent or guardian, and obtaining verifiable parental consent to the collection, use and/or disclosure of personal information about that child in accordance with our new practices.

A parent or guardian of a child who has provided personal information to us has the following rights:

• to require that we provide a description of the specific types or categories of personal information that we collect from children (such as name, address, e-mail address, favorite sports, hobbies and extracurricular activities);
• to, at any time, refuse to permit our further collection, use  or disclosure of any personal information about his or her child;
• to review the personal information that we have collected from his or her child;
• to require us to modify any personal information that we have collected from his or her child; and
• to, any at time, require us to delete all personal information that we have collected from his or her child.

To exercise these rights, parents must contact us by one of the methods set forth in the CONTACTING US WITH RESPECT TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY section of this Privacy Policy.

Confidentiality, Security and Integrity of Personal Information Collected from Children Under the Age of 13

We use industry-standard security techniques to provide secure transmission of personal information from users’ computers to our servers, and to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of personal information we have collected at the Site.  Please refer to the SECURITY AND INTEGRITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION section of this Privacy Policy.

Opt-In Procedures

Site users who are 13 years of age or older may OPT-IN to receiving information, advertising and promotional materials from third parties via e-mail by using one of the methods described in the CONTACTING US section of this Privacy Policy.