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National Geographic Kids Privacy Policy

Nationalgeographic.com respects and protects the privacy of our users.

Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Information

At our kids' sites (kids.nationalgeographic.com, www.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer, littlekids.nationalgeographic.com, www.nationalgeographic.com/ngyoungexplorer, www.extremeexplorer.org) and online features specifically designed for kids (collectively referred to as NG Kids' Sites), the only use we make of personal information (usually email addresses) is to respond one time to a question or request for information from a child, to allow a child to send an e-card to a friend, or to award prizes in a game or sweepstakes feature on our site. We do not otherwise make use of personal information, nor do we provide it to third parties.

Parental Consent

If we decide to collect personal information for other reasons, we will notify parents that it is being requested, disclose the reasons for collecting it, and disclose our intended use for it. We will seek parental consent before collecting any personally identifiable information. If we do collect it, parents may request information on the type of data being collected, view their child’s information, and, if they choose, prohibit us from making further use of their child’s information. We will not provide personal information to third parties.

Games

Some games on National Geographic Kids require cookies to function properly. Cookies are small text files that are stored on a user's computer and allow websites to "remember" information about users. National Geographic Kids games may use cookies to "remember" a user’s progress through a game. We do not store any personal information in these cookies.  You can choose to remove cookies through your browser options.  However, if you do so, your ability to use some online games will be limited.

Some games require non-personally identifiable information such as a username and password in order to generate high score tables. This non- personally identifiable information is stored on third-party servers and cannot be connected to an individual user.

My Page

National Geographic Kids My Page (kids.nationalgeographic.com/mypage) is a safe environment that allows kids to personalize their own screens on National Geographic servers, select and bookmark favorite National Geographic Kids sites, and send e-cards to friends.

It is our policy to collect only information (such as user name, password, birthday, gender and parent’s or guardian’s email address) that is necessary to participate in My Page. We use the provided parent’s or guardian’s email address in order to send an email notifying the recipient that his or her child has created a My Page account and informing them of their child’s user name and password. We do not use the parent’s or guardian’s email address for any other purpose. 

If you have any questions about My Page or your child’s account, please contact mypage@nationalgeographic.com.

Blogs

National Geographic Kids Blogs allows a group of children, who are selected and monitored by NG Kids staff, to share their unique thoughts and experiences online, through words, pictures, and videos. Visitors to kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs can make comments on what they have read in the blogs if they register and log in with a user name and password. These comments are also monitored by, and may be edited by, the NG Kids staff.

It is our policy to collect only information (such as user name, password, birthday, gender and parent’s or guardian’s email address) that is necessary to participate in the comment section of the Kids Blogs. We use the provided parent’s or guardian’s email address in order to send an email notifying the recipient that his or her child has created a Kids Blog account and informing the recipient of the child’s user name and password. We do not use the parent’s or guardian’s email address for any other purpose.

If you have any questions about Kids Blogs or your child’s account, please contact kidsblogs@nationalgeographic.com.

E-Cards

All kids' e-cards (electronic postcards) request that users furnish email addresses. This is necessary to send the postcards. The email addresses are deleted from our servers and not distributed to third parties or used for any other purposes.

Sweepstakes and Contests

If a child participates in a kids sweepstakes or contest or submits a winning story idea, we will retain his or her email address for the duration of the contest until a winner is chosen. The winner will be notified by email or another method, as described in the rules. After the contest all participants' email addresses will be deleted from our system. We will not use email addresses in any other way, and we will not provide them to any third party.

U.S. federal law prohibits us from requiring kids to give any more personal information than is necessary to participate in a given activity.

Links to Other Sites

When children click on links from the NG Kids' Sites to other sites, we may open the other sites in a new browser window.

We make every effort to link to appropriate outside sites for kids. Unlike NG Kids' Sites, however, these outside sites may collect personal information.

Contact Information

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about our privacy policy—or to review, change, or modify personal information collected previously—please contact NG Kids, Digital Media at the National Geographic Society, 1145 17th Street, Washington, D.C. 20036-4688. You may also email us at kids@nationalgeographic.com.

For magazine subscription inquiries, please call 800-NGS-LINE (800-647-5463). For all other inquiries, call 1+ 202-857-7000.

Disclaimer

Due to the changing nature of the Internet, this policy may be changed at any time at National Geographic’s discretion.

This policy was last updated on 8/12/2009.