[LM_NET] Internet threat to minors overblown

[Nancy Willard <nwillard@CSRIU.ORG>]

Hi all,

The Berkman task force has released its report on Internet safety issues.
This Task Force was created under an agreement between MySpace and the AGs.
The AGs, two in particular - Blumenthal (CT) and Cooper (NC) had been
pushing the social networking sites to implement age verification to prevent
adults from communicating with minors on social networking sites - to
protect minors from sexual predators.

This was all an overblown hysteria - and a totally ridiculous - would not
work - technology quick fix solution.

The review of the research literature demonstrated that the majority of
young people are generally making good choices online and effectively
responding to the negative incidents that do occur. The young people who are
at greater risk online are the ones who are already at greater risk in the
real world. And young people face greater risks from peers than from adults.

My son will turn 18 in November his senior year of high school. Under the AG
plan he would at that point mysteriously turn into a potentially dangerous
sexual predator and need to be prevented from ever communicating with any of
his slightly younger friends. My 15 YO daughter has electronically received
aggressive messages and sexual solicitation - from peers. She knows how to
respond - and to use the protective features on the sites.

I stayed off the task force so I could operate in the background if
necessary. This was necessary as I discovered that some of the companies
were going to schools promising to protect children and teens online,
getting schools to verify the identity of students - with the objective of
then providing web sites with demographic data so they could better target
advertising. I was able to get coverage of this in NY Times, Education Week,
and Eschoolnews. 

The best overview of the report is here:
http://techliberation.com/2009/01/14/internet-safety-technical-task-force-re
leases-final-report

This links to many of the articles covering this report.

A good day.

Nancy
-- 
Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D.
Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use
http://csriu.org
http://cyberbully.org
http://cyber-safe-kids.com
http://csriu.wordpress.com
nwillard@csriu.org

Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Responding to the Challenge of Online Social
Aggression, Threats, and Distress (Research Press)

Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn to Use the
Internet Safely and Responsibly (Jossey-Bass)

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