Sony BMG Music Entertainment is to pay $1 million to settle federal charges that it violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting, maintaining, and disclosing personal information from thousands of children under the age of 13 without their parents' consent.

The FTC said Thursday the civil penalty is the largest ever to be paid in a case alleging violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Sony Music, which operates more 1,000 music sites for its music artists and labels, "knowingly collected personal information from at least 30,000 underage children without first obtaining their parents' consent" on 196 of its sites.

The sites collected information like names, addresses, mobile phone numbers, e-mail addresses, dates of birth, postal codes, user names and gender, the Federal Trade Commission said.

In spite of this, Sony's online music policy states, "If you are under 13 years of age, you should not provide any personally identifiable information on this site without the knowledge and permission of your parent or guardian," according to the complaint.

Sony agreed to pay a $1 million fine and hire a compliance officer who will put a screening process in place to prevent the collection of such data, according to two people close to the agreement who declined to be identified. The settlement may be announced as early as today, they said.

The FTC filed a lawsuit against Sony BMG just yesterday in the US District Court in Manhattan. The Commission, suing on behalf of the United States, said that Sony has been operating a number of websites since 2004 in order to promote and advertise its music offerings.