www.thenightmareroom.com Privacy Policy
We do not require kids of any age to register or submit personal information. Any kid, whether registered or not, can explore thenightmareroom.com, read the bulletin boards, send e-cards, and read the exclusive on-line story Dead of Night. What does registered membership mean? Parachute Publishing and HarperCollins have worked closely with FreeZone, which administers The Nightmare Room Web site and hosts the chats. Because of this partnership, members of The Nightmare Room automatically become members of FreeZone. This is also the reason why you'll see that screening and monitoring are provided by FreeZone. Click here to see the FreeZone's privacy policy. Click here to see the HarperChildren's privacy policy. To have a richer experience at thenightmareroom.com, we ask users of all ages to make up a screen name along with a password. (This username or screen name is created by the user and its only function is to access thenightmareroom.com and FreeZone.)
With a NIGHTMARE ROOM ID and password, kids can do the following on thenightmareroom.com:
Post messages to the bulletin boards
Kids 12 and under need parental permission to chat in both the R.L. Stine chats and THE NIGHTMARE ROOM chat. What information does thenightmareroom.com collect? During the registration process, all kids are asked to provide their birth month and year and a parent's email address. This information is collected and shared only with Parachute Publishing, HarperCollins Publishers, and FreeZone to determine whether the user needs parental permission. This is also used to calculate the average age of our audience. We ask kids age 13 and over for their email address, too, but this is optional. Parental Notification for all members: When a kid signs up at thenightmareroom.com to become a member, we send an email to his or her parent's email address which was provided during the registration process. This way, parents can stay in the loop when it comes to their kids' online experiences. We don't require permission from the parents of kids 13 and over, but we want to make parents aware of their child's online activities, and of the fact that we asked them for personal information during sign up. Personal information includes first and last name, physical address including street name and city/town name (so that any prizes that members might win can be delivered), gender, year of birth, and email address. For kids ages 12 and under: All kids 12 and under who want to participate in chats must first obtain verifiable consent using one of the methods described below. The user's parent/guardian has 21 working days to respond and provide parental permission for their child to use our communication tools and/or be eligible to win prizes. If the parent does not respond within 21 days, we delete the parent's email address from our records. (When kids register, but don't sign up for activities requiring parental permission, we delete their parent's email address after 21 days, too.) What does THE NIGHTMARE ROOM and FreeZone do with this information? All this information is kept confidential and is used for the internal purposes of THE NIGHTMARE ROOM and FreeZone only. We do not give or sell this information to any other parties. What is parental permission? Because thenightmareroom.com makes kid’s online safety a #1 priority, we are strict in complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) passed by the U.S. Congress in 2000. This requires us to obtain verifiable consent from the parent or guardian of any child age 12 or under who registers and wants to win prizes (which requires the submission of a mailing address) or participate in any interactive activities that would allow them to submit any personal information (please see below for such activities). We ask for the child's NIGHTMARE ROOM ID and password, the parent’s name, email address, and signature. Parents need only give their permission one time to permit their children to be eligible for any contest, sweepstakes, or future game that may allow (or require) personal information to be submitted. Parents can revoke permission at any time by going to the unsubscribe section on FreeZone and following the instructions. Hardcopy permission is required for children 12 and under. While registering, children 12 and under will be taken to a printable form. Parents should print up this form, fill it out, sign it and either: 1. Fax the form to FreeZone at 312-705-3943 or 2. Mailing the form to FreeZone at
This form can be found here or can be mailed or faxed to parent's requesting a form. To request a form send your request via e-mail to laura@FreeZone.
E-cards are online cards that can be sent to any email address. Kids choose greetings from lists of pre-written messages to attach to the cards along with graphics we provide. These can be sent to any email address. We delete any record of email addresses once e-cards are sent. Recipients have two weeks to pick up their e-cards. Except during contests that require us to, we do not record which IDs send e-cards, or to what addresses e-cards were sent. Email addresses of senders are hidden from the recipients.
What about contests and prizes? We may periodically run contests and sweepstakes on thenightmareroom.com. Each contest or sweepstakes has its own set of rules for participation, but all follow this Privacy Policy. In order for kids to participate in contests, they must have a NIGHTMARE ROOM ID. If they are 12 years old or under, they must have parental consent in order to be eligible to receive prizes. Once a kid wins, we send a notification email to his or her parent. For virtual prizes, the information to claim the prize is sent via email to the parent. In the case of e-card contests, we sometimes record which NIGHTMARE ROOM IDs send e-cards or to what addresses e-cards are sent. The sender’s email address is deleted upon contest completion. No records are kept on individual users and we don’t track submissions from kids unless they are being collected for a sweepstakes, in which case the information is deleted upon contest completion. Will my kid receive newsletters or announcements from THE NIGHTMARE ROOM or FreeZone? We take kids' privacy very seriously and will only contact them to pass along fun and informative news from our staff or kid-generated newsletters. You may opt out of this service when registering, by sending an email to PrivacyQuestions@FreeZone, or by simply replying to any of the emails we send (they include instructions for unsubscribing). These newsletters and announcements may be sent to your kid's hbzMail address or the email address provided at the time of registration.
How do I update and/or delete personal information?
Members and their
parents can view, correct, update, delete and refuse further collection
of personal information at any time, as long as they use the correct NIGHTMARE
ROOM ID and corresponding password by going to http://www.freezone.com/registration/ According to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we are prohibited from conditioning a child’s participation in an activity on the child’s disclosing more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in that activity. Regardless of what information is given to us, it is our policy never to post more than a user's screen name, state and age. As important as all our policies and safety features are, we know that parental involvement is even more important for keeping kids safe online. What if I still have questions? This policy is reviewed periodically by THE NIGHTMARE ROOM and may be subject to change. If you have questions about our Privacy Policy, you may contact us by one of these methods:
Summary: Level 1: Some of the things kids can do without registering at thenightmareroom.com: Read about THE NIGHTMARE ROOM book series
Level 2: What kids can do at thenightmareroom.com with registration, but without parental permission all of the above plus the following: Download a free NIGHTMARE ROOM screensaver |