Protecting Kids

Kids by their nature love to explore, and their curiosity often takes them to sites not appropriate for their age.  This concern is also true for kids paying online.  Kids may not know the difference between what information to give and which to withhold, or attempt to access paid services not intended for them.

Centipaid's Kid Safe Pay program is designed to work with merchants and parents to implement a system to protect kids when making payments with a KidSafePay CENTIPIX.

How does it work?

Merchants join the Kid Safe Pay program and have their paid services rated as E₆, K_8, T₁₃ or M₁₇ by Centipaid.  Approved sites maintain online privacy policies designed to protect kids and young adults through trusted third party companies such as TRUSTe and ESRB.

Parents pre-select a site ratings based on the age of their child, and purchase a CENTIPIX bearing the proper rating.  The CENTIPIX is then given to the child, who can use it to access paid services at properly rated sites. 

In addition to the integrated parental controls, KidSafePay cards use out-of-band aproval on spending.  Simply stated, parents can set spending limit per transaction, day, or otherwise and if any of these limits are triggered by kids overspending, then a call is made by an automated system requesting parent approval.  Parents approve the transaction by entering their PIN numbers into their phone, and the transaction is allowed.  The combined effect of the content rating and the spending limits make KidSafePay an excellent payment tool for kids and their parents. 

Merchants providing services to minors, will grealty benefit from these features which provide a balance between the freedom to purchase and keeping the parents informed of any attempts to misuse the stored funds.

How can parents further help protect their children?

Parents can request from sites visited by their children to enroll in the Kids Safe Pay program maintained by Centipaid.  This program enables parents to control what sites their kids make purchases on, and guarantee that none of their financial or personal information is passed to the merchants.

Parents interested in learning more, should contact us for more information.