DeKALB | The social networking Web site Xanga.com was fined $1 million Sept. 7 for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Act of 1998.

According to the act, parental notification and consent are required for commercial Web sites, including social-networking services, to collect personal information from children under the age of 13. In the past five years, an estimated 1.7 million Xanga accounts have been registered with a birth date that shows the person was under the age of 13.

Many people don’t realize information posted online will remain in databases for a very long time.

“On the Internet, no information dies,” said assistant sociology professor Adam King. “It’s stored in hard drives and you can never be sure that it dies. People think they type in a word and then it vanishes.”

Because of the Internet’s anonymity, people may be inclined to divulge more personal information about themselves than they would otherwise disclose if they were face to face.

“This medium encourages people to disclose more information about themselves,” King said. “You don’t see other people there, so it feels as if you are alone.”

Younger users are even more susceptible to this feeling of anonymity and may not understand they may be incriminating themselves by posting information about themselves on their blogs or profiles.

“They don’t have the judgment to protect themselves,” King said.

A way to protect oneself is to be discriminatory about the information that you post online, as well as your online activities, such as searches.

“You don’t know who is looking at your profile,” said junior art major Shana Johnson. “Jobs could be looking at it, and if they see something bad on it, they probably wouldn’t want to hire you.”

King echoed Johnson’s sentiments.

“Just don’t post stuff on the Internet you wouldn’t post on a bulletin board at IKEA,” King said.

Also, be aware your information is easy for anyone to obtain, and strangers have access to your profiles.

“I don’t put that much personal information on my Facebook profile, because I’m only on there to keep in touch with people who already know me,” said junior communications major Jen Lettvin. “They already know any information I could put down.”

Xanga has since changed their technology to screen for appropriate birthdays and has enhanced other mechanisms designed to keep young children off the site.