Three well-known toy companies have been fined after they were found to contain tools which can track children's details on the internet.
In the US, the practice of collating such personal data through so-called 'cookies' is prohibited without the consent of the parents of those children under-13.
According to
BBC reports today, one of the companies involved was Mattel which had tracking technology on its websites which included Barbie, Hotwheels, Fisherprice, Monster High and Thomas and friends.
TV broadcaster Viacom was also fined for the practices on its sites
Nick Jnr and
Nickelodeon which contain pages for TV shows like
Dora the Explorer,
SpongeBob, and
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.
All the companies involved have agreed to regular scans of their sites to prevent such information tracking in the future.
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