Children's Privacy Policy: effective January 1, 2001

Introduction

At www.mhasp.org, we are particularly mindful of protecting the privacy of our youngest users. Since some of our sites are designed to be especially useful to children, we encourage parents and children to be aware of special privacy provisions which apply to children under the age of 13, in addition to our main privacy policy. The Children's Privacy Policy pertains only to the collection, use and disclosure of personally identifiable information obtained from children under the age of 13 on our Web sites. Our Children's Privacy Policy ensures that no personally identifiable information will be collected from children under the age of 13 without the consent of a parent or legal guardian.

What Information May be Collected from Children

Children under 13 are entitled to know that our Web sites may not require disclosure from you of any more personal information than is absolutely necessary to accomplish the purposes for which it is requested.

A child wishing to use our services may be asked to provide his/her full name, home address, email address, or birth date. "Tell Your Story" on the Coping Skills Web site invites children to share personal experiences about living with family members who may have mental illnesses. To submit a story, a child must provide his/her full name, address and age.

Why Information May be Collected from Children

We may collect personally identifiable information from children in order to provide a requested service or for internal identification of stories submitted through "Tell Your Story". If a child participates in a contest or survey which may be offered from time to time, we may use the information to notify winners. We do not use cookies to link any nonpersonally identifiable information related to use of our Web sites to any personally identifiable information.

What Happens to Information Collected from Children

We do not knowingly disclose, share, sell, or rent any personally identifiable information collected from children. We may identify a child's story published online with the child's first name and age. We may disclose any information as required by law. Personally identifiable information may be accessed by the company which provides technical support for our Web sites.

Parental Review/ Revoke Option

Parents may review and edit a child's personal information, ask to have it deleted, or refuse to allow any further collection or use of personal information from or about a child.

To begin with, parents are encouraged to review with their children any personally identifiable information about that child which the child intends to submit. Once personal information has been submitted, parents may, at any time, ask to review that information, have it edited or deleted, or ask that no further information be obtained from a child or that no further use be made of the information we have. To do so, a parent should use the Parental Notice/Consent Form (available on this site in PDF format) and fill in the appropriate information. A parent's identity must be verifiable before we will release any personal information about a child.

Verifiable Parental Consent Requirement

Parental consent is required before we can collect any personally identifiable information from any children under 13. This information will be used for the purposes stated in this policy and it will not be disclosed to third parties except as stated in this policy.

Use the Parental Notice/Consent Form (available on this site in PDF format) for this purpose. Your return to us of the Parental Notice/Consent Form by fax or postal mail constitutes verification of your consent.

Changes to our Children's Privacy Policy

If we make any changes to our children's privacy policy, we will post a prominent notice on the home pages of our web sites so that you will know about the changes. If we make any material changes in the types of information we are collecting from children or how we use that information, we will provide you with an opportunity to review those changes and provide a new consent form.

Questions About our Children's Privacy Policy?

If you have any questions about any aspect of our Children's Privacy Policy, you may contact us at Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1211 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 or by telephoning us at 215-751-1800 x 215 or by faxing us at 215-636-6300 or email wkrum@mhasp.org.

Note on PDF Format:

In order to print the Parental Notice/Consent Form you will need the free Acrobat Reader plug in software. If your browser does not have this software contact Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1211 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-751-1800 x 215, email wkrum@mhasp.org to request that this form be mailed or faxed to you.