In a step to strengthen the laws designed to protect children who surf the internet, the Federal Trade Commision on Wednesday submitted a proposal to the US House of Representatives' Commerce Committee which includes, among others, a provision to expand the restriction on the collection of personal information, such as, email addresses, instant messages and screen names, to also include geolocation information and IP addresses.

The provisions discussed are aimed at protecting children under the age of 13 from the large operations targeting children with commercial ads which use the information gathered to formulate a more focused ad campaign. However, one side benefit will be the protection from sexual predators who target children with the information gleaned from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.