The Breakfast Meeting: New F.T.C. Rules for Children Online, and Being a Replacement Official

September 28, 2012, 9:51 am

By NOAM COHEN

The Federal Trade Commission is expected to tighten rules soon about Web sites that collect information about children, Natasha Singer writes, greatly increasing the need to obtain parental permission for common practices like using cookies to track young users' activities online, or their location via a mobile phone, or accepting photographs submitted by children under 13. The current federal rule, which dates to 1998, requires parental consent before Web sites can collect personal information like phone numbers or physical addresses from children, but those rules can appear antiquated considering how technology has changed over more than a decade.

The authorities arrested the man thought to be responsibl e for “The Innocence of Muslims” - the crude YouTube video that set off riots in the Muslim world - for violating the terms of his probation in a 2010 bank fraud case, Brooks Barnes reported. The man, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, was ordered held without bail because the magistrate considered him a flight risk. He was arrested for eight violations of his terms of probation, including lying to law-enforcement officers.

• Google's senior executive in Brazil on Wednesday was questioned by the authorities over a video on YouTube, which is owned by Google, that criticized a local mayoral candidate, Claire Cain Miller reported. A Brazilian court had ordered the video taken down as violating local election laws and after rejecting Google's appeal issued an arrest warrant for the executive, Fabio Coelho. Late Wednesday, the video was taken down, and Mr. Coelho wrote a blog post registering Google objection to the court's restriction of “legitimate free speech videos” t hat “should remain available in Brazil.”

On Thursday night, an hour before kickoff at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, a roar could be heard - it wasn't for the hometown Ravens, Adam Himmelsbach reports, but for the regular officials who had been locked out by the N.F.L. owners, who installed replacements. The referee working the game, Gene Steratore, a 10-year veteran presided over the opening coin toss at midfield and said simply: “Good evening, men. It's good to be back.”

• The deal that brought back the officials was well on its way to being done, the union officials and owners say, but the “Monday Night Football” debacle certainly got everyone's attention, Judy Battista reported. She writes:

When the league and the union returned to the negotiating table Tuesday, each side was more conciliatory. The officials wanted to get back to work and undoubtedly realized this was the time to get the best deal they could. In th e end, though, the league probably moved more than the officials to complete the deal.

• The replacement officials were forbidden to speak to the media, but now that the replacements are being replaced, they are free to talk. One of the replacements, Jeff Sadorus, a former college official, spoke to Sam Borden of the work as “something I had wanted to do forever and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” though the barrage of criticism began to take a toll. And, now that it is all over, there is a final indignity over the uniform: “I think in the contract we signed, it said we had to return the equipment,” he said. “It's O.K. - I have a lot of stripes.”

Facebook already reminds users when it's time to send birthday greetings to their “friends,” but a new tool that the company announced on Thursday will allow users to mail a physical gift as well, Somini Sengupta reports. Gift givers can pay with a credit card and recipients will have to offer up their offline addresses so a gift can be delivered.