After the Center for Digital Democracy, CCFC, and other advocacy groups filed complaints with the FTC, McDonald's has stopped collecting children's email addresses for viral marketing on HappyMeal.com. The company had been encouraging children to upload photos and videos and then "forward-to-a-friend" by entering friends' email addresses without parental consent. Our FTC complaint charged that this practice was in clear violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Great news! Your Baby Can, the producers of the video series Your Baby Can Read!, will no longer be deceiving families. The company, which falsely claimed its product taught babies to read, has shut down.

Late Friday, Scholastic, one of the world’s largest educational publishers, announced that it would immediately stop distributing “The United States of Energy,” a controversial fourth grade curriculum paid for by the American Coal Foundation.  The announcement came just two days after CCFC and Rethinking Schools launched a campaign demanding that Scholastic stop pushing coal in elementary schools.  It is a significant victory for anyone who believes that schools should be free of industry PR and teach fully and honestly about coal and other forms of energy.

Huzzah to the San Diego Board of Education!

San Diego school board members were once intrigued by the thought of allowing ads on campus to help soften the blow of budget cuts, but they turned uncomfortable once they learned more.

The board voted 4-1 Tuesday to reject a plan to allow ads in hallways, cafeterias, libraries and other places on school campuses. Nine months ago, the same board directed staff to research the idea.

Thanks to CCFC members across the country, when children ride school buses today, they won’t be subjected to specially designed student-targeted ads for Barbie and Cingular Wireless or entreaties to spend their after-school hours watching TV and playing videogames. After CCFC’s three-year campaign. BusRadio - the company that planned to "take targeted student marketing to the next level" - ceased operations yesterday.