Back

Information for Parents

Some Suggestions for Discussion

We strongly suggest that you discuss safe use of the Internet with your child. Show them the privacy policy and teach them to look for privacy policies in the sites they visit.

They should be encouraged to come to a parent or guardian any time they come across confusing or inappropriate materials.

The National Park Service has "Bumper Messages" or "Intercept Scripts" that warn a person when they are leaving ParkNet, the National Park Service web site. The bumper messages from the WebRangers site also provide helpful suggestions for children as they leave the site, and enter new sites whose security and information collection policies may differ from those of WebRangers.

When might my child be asked to provide personally identifying information?

In certain cases there may be reason to request personally identifying information.

1. If, in the future, when we add the feature, your child chooses to send an electronic post card to a friend using the WebRangers site, we would ask for a name and email address for delivery, but would not require any personally identifiable information about your child. We would require that they provide an email address for delivery of the message. As soon as the message or postcard is delivered, all information associated with it would be automatically deleted from our files.
2. Should there be a “WebRangers” newsletter, the child would be asked to provide us with his or her first name, email address and the email address of his or her parent or guardian.

The parent or guardian will be notified and given the opportunity to refuse the newsletter within 2 weeks of the child’s request. The notification will also include “unsubscribe” instructions that can be used at any time if the parent or guardian chooses to discontinue the newsletter.

How can I find out what information you have about my child?

We currently collect no personal information and are not asking for children to create screen names. If, in the future, we do, under the guidelines listed above, you may eMail us at nps_webrangers@nps.gov for a complete list of any information we have associated with your child. Since we will not have a listing for your child’s first and last name, address, etc., we will ask for your child’s screen name and password, and a telephone number at which you can be reached.

After determining that you are the parent or guardian, we will send a list of all information we have collected from your child. At that point you may request to have some or all of it removed from our database.

If you have any comments or questions about WebRangers, we’d like to hear from you. Send an eMail to nps_webrangers@nps.gov. Thanks very much.