Whootie Owl's
Complete Privacy Policy

Important: Privacy Policy

Whootie Owl's web site is proud to be fully in compliance with The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

• Personal information, such as e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, or other specific information, are never sold or given to third parties ever.
  
  
• When you visit our web site and access information, you remain anonymous. We do not use cookies to track your surfing habilts.
   
  
• Activities involving the submission of e-mail addresses or home addresses must be accompanied by a parental consental form if the child is under 13 years old. More on the special circumstances where this applies below.
  
  

• Visitors to Whootie Owl's site may sign up for Whootie Owl's free monthly electronic newsletter at Whootie Owl's Guestbook. The newsletter announces "what's new" such as new activites, contests, and special features available for free at storiestogrowby.com.
  
  
• E-mail addresses and other personal information of subscribers are never given or sold to third parties.
  
  
• Visitors are asked to first identify themselves as a child under 13 years old / a child 13 years or older / a teacher / or a parent/caregiver. A request to subscribe to Whootie Owl's free monthly newsletter will not be processed until the visitor clicks one of these choices.
  
  
• If the visitor identifies himself or herself as a child under 13 years old, the child is directed to a Parental Consent Form (Newsletter).
            The Parental Consent Form must first be signed by the child's parent or legal guardian before the child's e-mail address can be added to the subscription list for the newsletter. The signed Parental Consent Form may either be Faxed to Whootie Owl Productions at (617) 244-8761 or Mailed to Whootie Owl Productions, LLC / PO Box 600344 / Newton, MA 02460-0004. Also, the parent or legal guardian may Call 1-877-WHOOTIE (877-946-6843).
  
  
• Advertisements may appear within Whootie Owl's newsletter. If this occurs, any advertisement shown will be deemed appropriate for a family-oriented audience.
  
  
• If a subscriber to Whootie Owl's Monthly Newsletter wishes to no longer receive it, then the person need simply reply with the word "REMOVE" or "UNSUBSCRIBE".
  

• At the end of Whootie Owl's stories, below the yellow flourish, you will see discussion questions. Some of the stories are activated to receive responses from children. In these cases, you will see "clickable" white boxes. Note that we ask for the first name of the child only (we specify, "No last names, please!") and the child's age. We ask for no other information. In other stories, the discussion questions are "deactivated" - that means no clickable white boxes appear. Rather than entering responses to discussion questions online, the viewer is directed to print the page and to answer the questions in writing.
  
  
• When a child enters a response to a discussion question in an activated story, we receive no information whatsoever other than the child's first name, age, and comment. The posting we receive provides no information as far as where the message originated. Each message received is edited for spelling, grammar and child-appropriateness before it is uploaded and shown online. The child's first name, age, and comment is the only information that is shown online.
  
  
• If a child enters his or her last name by mistake, we try to re-enter the message with the child's first name only. Then, we simply delete the original message with the child's full name from our database. Or we may delete any message received that has the child's first and last name. In any event, we receive the message first and edit it before it is posted online.
  
  
  

• Young visitors may also send specific one-time questions to Whootie Owl from the Guestbook page. A specific request from a child under 13 years old may be responded to on a one-time basis. However, any continued contact would require parental permission. The email address is requested only to reply to the sender if the child requests specific information. The email address is never displayed anywhere on the site. We do not pass along this information to any third party.
  

• Whootie Owl's offers his adorable award-winning audiocassettes for sale on this web site (here, if you're interested). Listeners to Whootie Owl's stories on audiocassette will discover that they're invited by Whootie Owl to visit this web site and enter their thoughts online about what they think the story was trying to show them.
  
  
• At the page where such thoughts can be entered, you will see "clickable" white boxes. Note that we ask for the first name of the child only (we specify, "No last names, please!") and the child's age. We ask for no other information.
  
  
• We have no way of contacting the sender. The posting we receive provides no information whatsoever as far as where the message originated. Each message is edited for spelling, grammar, and child-appropriateness before it is uploaded and displayed online. The child's first name and age only is shown with that child's message.
  
  
• If a child enters a last name by mistake, we try to re-enter the message with the child's first name only. Then we delete the original message. We may also simply delete a message mistakenly entered with a child's full name.
  
  

• Note to Parents & Teachers:  Young artists under 13 years old who wish to submit artwork to illustrate Whootie Owl's fairytales online must accompany the pictures with Whootie Owl's Parental Consent Form (Artwork).
  
  
• This form is required because we need to ask the child's full name, mailing address and email address. The Children's Online Privacy Act requires that whenever such information is requested of a child who is under 13 years old, then the child's parent or legal guardian must first sign and submit a consent form.
  
  
• The child's name, mailing address and other information remains strictly confidential within Whootie Owl Productions, LLC. We will never sell or give this information to any person outside the company unless we first obtain the written permission of the child's parent or legal guardian.
  
  
• For more information on how to submit children's artwork to illustrate Whootie Owl stories online, click here.

• The free e-mail service we make available from Whootie Owl's home page () is hosted by BigMailbox.com
  
  
• Users who click "sign up for free e-mail!" from the red column on the home page are taken to a page where they click again to get to the sign-up page. The page is titled "Terms of Service" and followed with this phrase: "Before signing up for an account with Whootie Owl's Mail, you must review and accept the Terms and Conditions. You must be at least 13 years old or have your parent's permission to join this program." Below that are two buttons: "Accept" and "Decline".
  
  
• If the User clicks "Accept", then s/he is taken to a sign up page, on which the user is reminded that "You Must Be 13 Years or Older to Sign Up for This Service."
  
  
• A section called "Interests" allows the user to sign up for promotional and commercial material. This is entirely optional and will not be sent unless the user first clicks the desired selections.
  
  
• A User can cancel this free e-mail service at any time.

• Please Note, Parents & Teachers:  Young writers under 13 years old who wish to submit play scripts to Whootie Owl's web site must accompany their scripts with Whootie Owl's Parental Consent Form (Scripts).
  
  
• This form is required because we need to ask the child's full name, mailing address and email address so that we may contact the child in the event we seek clarifications or rewriting. The Children's Online Privacy Act requires that whenever such information is requested of a child who is under 13 years old, then the child's parent or legal guardian must sign and submit a consent form.
  
  
• The child's name, mailing address and other information remains strictly confidential within Whootie Owl Productions, LLC. We will never sell or give this information to any person outside the company without first obtaining the written permission of the child's parent or legal guardian.
  
  
• For more information on how young writers can submit play scripts of Whootie Owl's fairytales, click here.

• Whootie Owl's Online Kids' Surveys are accessible from the tope of Whootie Owl's home page. The online survey questions prompt youngsters to select a multiple-choice answer to a given question.
  
  
• At the survey box, you will see "clickable" white boxes. Note that we ask for the first name of the child only (we specify, "No last names, please!"), the child's gender and age. We ask for no other information.
  
  
• We have no way of contacting the child. The posting we receive provides no information whatsoever as far as where the message originated. We have no idea what the sender's email address is, and there's no mechanism for that information to be sent. The child's first name and age will not be displayed online. The data collected is bundled for statistical and reporting purposes only.
  
  
• The bundling of data may be used to report on trends and preferences. These reports may be distributed in articles or press releases. For example, if a particular child's thoughts are quoted, the quote would be attributed to the first name and age only of the child, such as "Marjorie, age 14" or "Justine, age 8". No other identifying information such as the child's full name or home city/state/address is available to us in any event, nor if it were available (which it is not) would it be released.
  
  

©Copyright 1998-2000 Elaine Lindy -- All rights reserved. "Absolutely Whootie: Stories to Grow By -- Fairytales & Folk Tales that Help Kids Grow" mailing address: P.O. Box 600344 / Newtonville, MA 02460-0004 Web: E-mail: whootieowl@storiestogrowby.com