[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 12, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15724-15725]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-05630]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB
Review; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Notice and request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) plans to
conduct an online survey of parents and (with parental permission)
their children from the ages of 8-16 years old who watch movies, listen
to music, and/or play game applications (apps) on smartphones,
Internet-accessible handheld devices, or tablet computers (collectively
app-capable mobile devices) that run either the Apple's iOS or Google's
Android operating system. This is the second of two notices required
under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), and the Commission seeks
additional public comments and requests Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) review of, and clearance for, the proposed collection of
information.
DATES: Comments must be received by April 11, 2013.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or
copies of the proposed information requirements should be addressed to
Keith Fentonmiller, (202) 326-2775, Attorney, Federal Trade Commission,
Bureau of Consumer Protection, Division of Advertising Practices, 600
Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20580.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Online survey of parents and children about movies, music,
and games on app-capable mobile devices.
OMB Information Collection Request Reference Number: 201302-3084-
002.
Type of Information Request: New collection.
Type of Review: Regular.
Abstract: Although children (like consumers generally) increasingly
are purchasing or playing movies, music, and games on app-capable
mobile devices, no commercially available data quantify children's
consumption of mobile content that is rated or labeled as potentially
inappropriate for them; assess whether and to what extent the various
content rating systems impact their ability to purchase or play such
content; or measure the content restrictions imposed by parents,
including through technology-based parental control mechanisms.
Accordingly, the Commission proposes to conduct a survey of parents and
(with parental permission) their children from the ages of 8-16 years
old who use the most common app-capable mobile devices--those that run
either Apple's iOS or Google's Android platform. The staff anticipates
conducting a voluntary online survey of 900 adult respondents and 900
children drawn from a nationally representative pool. The Commission
expects that the survey results will help inform its policy
recommendations on the marketing of violent entertainment to children.
On September 24, 2012, the Commission sought comment on the
information collection requirements for the proposed consumer research.
77 FR 58834. No comments were received. Staff, however, did have a
telephone discussion about the proposed survey with representatives
from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). The ESRB expressed
concern that the Commission was planning to survey only children, in
contrast to prior surveys, which asked questions of both children and
their parents. After further consideration, the Commission has decided
to expand the online survey to include the parents of children who
watch movies, listen to music, and/or play game apps on mobile devices.
As required by OMB regulations, 5 CFR part 1320, the FTC is providing
this second opportunity for public comment.
This online survey will build upon the body of consumer research
that the Commission has conducted in the media violence area since
2000, which includes seven undercover shops by children of music,
movie, and video game retailers and movie theaters; two telephone
surveys of parents and children about their awareness and use of the
entertainment rating and labeling systems; \1\ a mall intercept study
of parents on the adequacy of rating disclosures on movie DVD cases;
and a telephone survey of parents on the marketing of unrated DVDs.\2\
Although a survey of only children about their consumption of violent
entertainment on mobile devices would be informative, past research has
been especially instructive when the Commission has been able to
compare the responses of parents and their children about parental
involvement in the selection and purchase of violent movies, music, and
games; the extent to which parents restrict their children's access to
violent content; and awareness and use of the rating and labeling
systems for such content. This research has uncovered significant
differences between what parents think they are doing to regulate their
children's consumption of violent content and their children's reported
experiences. These areas of parent-child disconnection have informed
the Commission's recommendations for the entertainment industry and
guided its consumer education efforts. For these same reasons, the
Commission now intends to survey parents about their children's access
to violent content on
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mobile devices, awareness and use of content labeling and rating
systems, and awareness and use of parental controls for mobile content.
Similar questions will be posed to the adult respondents' children.
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\1\ See FTC, Marketing Violent Entertainment To Children: A
Review Of Self-Regulation And Industry Practices In The Motion
Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries, Appendix F,
at 5 (Sep. 2000), available at http://www.ftc.gov/reports/violence/Appen%20F.pdf; FTC, Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A
Fifth Follow-up Review of Industry Practices in the Motion Picture,
Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries, at 25 (Apr. 2007),
available at http://www.ftc.gov/reports/violence/070412MarketingViolentEChildren.pdf.
\2\ See FTC, Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A
Sixth Follow-Up Review of Industry Practices in the Motion Picture,
Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries, at 10 & 16 (Dec.
2009), available at http://ftc.gov/os/2009/12/P994511violententertainment.pdf.
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Likely Respondents: With the assistance of a consumer research firm
(hereafter the Contractor), the FTC will develop a draft questionnaire
for use in a nationally representative online survey of parents and
(with parental permission) their children ages 8-16 years who watch
movies, listen to music, and/or play game apps on a mobile device that
runs either the Apple iOS or Android operating system. To the extent
feasible, the adult panel shall consist of 100 adult respondents for
each of the nine child age groups between ages 8 and 16, inclusive (900
total adult respondents). The child survey shall be conducted as an
adjunct to the parents' survey, i.e., by surveying each child about
whom the adult respondents answered their survey questions (900 total
child respondents).
Estimated Annual Hours Burden: Approximately 417 hours (117 hours
for the adult screener + 300 hours for the parent and child surveys).
Screening Questions: The screening questions will be asked
of approximately 7,000 adult respondents to provide a large enough
random sample for the surveys. Cumulatively, screening should require a
maximum of 117 hours (7,000 total respondents x 1 minute for each).
Because the adult respondents will be pre-screening the 900 child
respondents, the Commission does not anticipate any burden on children
related to screening.
Survey Questions: Answering the surveys will impose a
burden per adult respondent of approximately 10 minutes, totaling 150
hours for all respondents to the surveys (900 respondents x 10 minutes
per survey). Similarly, answering the surveys will impose a burden per
child respondent of approximately 10 minutes, totaling 150 hours for
all respondents to the surveys (900 respondents x 10 minutes per
survey).
Estimated annual cost burden: $0.
The cost per respondent should be negligible. Participation is
voluntary, and will not require any labor expenditures by respondents.
There are no capital, start-up, operation, maintenance, or other
similar costs to the respondents.
Request for Comment: You can file a comment online or on paper. For
the Commission to consider your comment, we must receive it on or
before April 11, 2013. Write ``Entertainment Industry Study: FTC File
No. P994511'' on your comment. Your comment--including your name and
your state--will be placed on the public record of this proceeding,
including, to the extent practicable, on the public Commission Web
site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of
discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home contact
information from comments before placing them on the Commission Web
site.
Because your comment will be made public, you are solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number,
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive health information, like medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
* * * which is privileged or confidential.'' See Section 6(f) of the
FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2).
In particular, do not include competitively sensitive information such
as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas, patterns, devices,
manufacturing processes, or customer names.
If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c). Your comment will be kept
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the
public interest.
Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online, or to send them to the Commission by courier or
overnight service. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/mobileappssurveypra2, by following the instructions on the web-
based form. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov, you
also may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Entertainment Industry
Study: FTC File No. P994511'' on your comment and on the envelope, and
mail or deliver it to the following address: Federal Trade Commission,
Office of the Secretary, Room H-113 (Annex J), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW., Washington, DC 20580. If possible, submit your paper comment to
the Commission by courier or overnight service.
Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this
Notice. The FTC Act and other laws that the Commission administers
permit the collection of public comments to consider and use in this
proceeding as appropriate. The Commission will consider all timely and
responsive public comments that it receives on or before April 11,
2013. You can find more information, including routine uses permitted
by the Privacy Act, in the Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.shtm.
Comments on the information collection requirements subject to
review under the PRA should also be submitted to OMB. If sent by U.S.
mail, address comments to: Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for
the Federal Trade Commission, New Executive Office Building, Docket
Library, Room 10102, 725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503.
Comments sent to OMB by U.S. postal mail, however, are subject to
delays due to heightened security precautions. Thus, comments instead
should be sent by facsimile to (202) 395-5167.
David C. Shonka,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2013-05630 Filed 3-11-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P