Artist Arena, a website devoted to developing fan clubs and websites for international artists such as Justin Bieber (BieberFever.com), his girlfriend Selena Gomez (SelenaGomez.com) and Rihanna (RihannaNow.com), has been sued by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). The case has already been settled for $1m as well as a civil injunction.

The FTC filed the complaint on Tuesday and now, just two days on, the case has already been settled, as Artist Arena apparently accepted responsibility of their haphazard approach to children on their fan sites. The websites managed by Artist Arena failed to seek or gain permission from parents or guardians for the children under the age of 13 using their sites. The Huffington Post make clear that “Under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), websites are required to give special treatment to children aged 12 or younger. Sites must get parental permission before collecting information about the children.”

The websites took information such as names, email addresses, birth dates and phone numbers, all without parental permission. NY Daily reports that “Registered fan club members could create online profiles and interact publicly online by posting comments.” And the company have collected the information of 101,000 children.

The FTC are now in discussion with COPPA to update the current rules, to adhere more to the ever growing love of mobile technology that children utilise.