An FBI website designed to help children to learn safe surfing tips is pointing users towards a website that violates US child safety laws, Wired reports.

The FBI's Safe Online Surfing site invites young surfers to take part in a quiz run by the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation on how to become an FBI agent.

To take part in the quiz, kids have to hand over home telephone numbers and addresses. Any site collecting personal details on youngsters needs to get verified consent from a parent to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). But a Wired investigation found that Common Knowledge fails to obtain this clearance despite claims that it complies with child safety laws.

As Wired notes, the only safe way to complete this online scavenger hunt is, err, not to complete it. ®