Battle Between Freedom and Safety Commences, Again

A few weeks ago, a federal judge declared that a law designed to protect children online was unconstitutional. The law, entitled the Children’s Online Protection Act, required pornographic websites to verify that users were over 18. The judge held that the Act impermissibly restricted free speech.

Two U.S. Senators are trying again. Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) have introduced a bill called “The Cyber Safety for Kids Act of 2007.” The new bill would mandate that owners of adult websites provide secure logs-in that verify a user’s age. It would require that home pages contain no graphic images. And it would compell adult sites to install electronic markers enabling parental control software to more easily block explicit material.

In a statement released to the press, Senator Pryor said that “I wish the solution to protecting kids on the Internet was as easy as shutting every one of these sites down, but it’s not . . . . Government can and should be a better partner to parents by providing basic protections. This legislation helps meet that goal and gives parents and teachers peace of mind.”

In fact, this bill will not give parents and teachers peace of mind. Advocates of freedom of speech will challenge the bill, arguing that it limits the rights of adults to access any material they want. The matter will eventually end up in a federal court, just as the previous legislation did, and who knows what a federal judge will decide. The battle between freedom and safety continues.

In the meantime, it is up to parents to protect their kids. Parents must act themselves to insure that their kids are not exposed to graphic and explicit websites.

One way parents can do so is Snoop Stick.  Snoop Stick gives parents the power to monitor and control their kids’ Internet usage. We should all make our voices heard regarding the propriety of the Cyber Safety for Kids Act of 2007.  There are strong arguments on both sides of the divide.  But unless and until this Act makes it through the federal courts, it will be up to parents to make sure that “adult” sites are accessed by adults only.

New Study Reveals How Teens Shield Personal Information Online

It turns out that today’s teens are more aware of the need to shield personal information online than previously believed.

According to the Pew Research Center (one of America’s most respected research groups) the majority of teens take steps to protect their identity online, especially on social networking sites. This was one of the major findings of a new study done by Pew Research on how teenagers make decisions to disclose or reveal information when using the internet.

The study found that, although teenagers use their first name and photos online, they rarely put information on public profiles that they think would allow a stranger to actually find them.  Teens leave out, for example, their full name, home phone number or cell phone number.

Nevertheless, almost two-thirds of teens with profiles believe that someone with persistence and internet know-how could eventually identify them from the information available on their profiles.

The study also reveals that:

- 66% of teens say their profile is not visible to all internet users

- nearly half (46%) say they give at least some false information to protect themselves and also to be playful or silly

- 40% post their instant message screen name

- 29% post their email address

- 29% post their last name

The increased popularity of social networking sites generates worry among parents because strangers often contact kids on the sites.  But the co-author of the Pew Center study said that this was not the fist time parents were worried about the net.  “In our first study of teen internet usage in 2000, well before social networking sites emerged, many parents were worried that strangers would contact their children online through email and chat rooms.  At the time, parents responded to these worries by taking precautions such as monitoring their child’s internet use and placing the computer in a public area of the home – much as they do today.”

The Pew Center study is entitled “Teens, Privacy, and Online Social Networks.”  (If you would like to read the study yourself, simply click on the title and dive in.)

KBTV’s Kate Bohner Reports On Snoop Stick – Watch Right Here

Snoop Stick LIVE On Rachael Ray Show – Watch Right Here

Corporate Computer Police On Alert At Own Homes

The top executives of America’s largest security corporations work long and hard to protect computer networks and data from all forms of attack. But the vigilance they show at work is rivaled, even exceeded, by the steps they take in their own homes to keep their kids safe on the Internet.

The San Jose Mercury News interviewed America’s top security executives and found the following:

- A senior officer at McAfee, Inc. uses a program on his home computer that generates a report listing all sites his teenage daughters visit. The executive said that “being in the tech industry, I looked both of them in the eye” and told them`I can find out anything you do on this computer after you’ve done it.’”

- A vice president at Bivio runs parental control software through his Internet service provider that prevents his kids from viewing “adult” websites. If his kids use bad language in an e-mail, he receives a warning in his own inbox.

- The Chief Information Office at Juniper Networks uses a low-tech solution. He requires that his son ask for the password if he wishes to use the family computer. The CIO will not let his son connect to the Internet at all on his own computer.

Perhaps the nation’s computer police could save a lot of time and energy at home if only they knew about Snoop Stick.

SnoopStick On The Rachael Ray Show

On today’s Rachael Ray Show, a mom asked Rachael what she could do about her daughter, who admitted to lying and to engaging in questionable activities on MySpace.com. Rachael brought on a private detective who recommended using SnoopStick. Rachael noted that SnoopStick was a device put into a computer’s USB port that records Internet conversations and site visits in real time. This allows for monitoring a child’s computer use. The detective told Rachael that with Snoop Stick, “you can view what your child is doing and even log them off the computer if you believe they are at risk. This is something that is really useful for all parents.”

Here is a shot from the show:

For more information on today’s show, click here.

Today’s Kids Do It Totally Wired

Internet expert Anastasia Goodstein said last night that today’s kids are just like kids from earlier eras, except that they are totally wired. Ms. Goodstein, author of the new book Totally Wired: What Teens And Tweens Are Really Doing Online, spoke at Cody’s Books in Berkeley, California.

Ms. Goodstein said that society is in a panic about the Internet’s influence on the lives of the younger generation. She wrote her book to serve as a “voice of reason” and to provide “a more balanced view of what’s going on.” Her book’s theme is that kids are doing all the things that they always have done, just digitally.

Goodstein detailed a typical day in the life of a modern teenager, which begins with turning on a computer, checking e-mail, flipping on Itunes, checking text messages, heading to school with a cell-phone against her ear, using a computer at school to conduct research, coming home and logging into LiveJournal to continue a conversation begun at school, and finally paging through MySpace to get the latest gossip and goings-on about her circle of friends. If it is a Saturday night and the typical teen goes to a party, she gets a text messages from a friend (also at the party) about how another friend is drinking too many beers at the party. If mom calls to ask her where she is, she answers her cell phone and says she is at a friend’s, studying for the SAT.

Parents and teachers are more or less clueless about this new, wired world. What parents need to know, said Goodstein, is that kids are using all these digital forums to seek validation, gain peer approval, find out who they are and express themselves. It is the modern form of “individuation.”

Even though kids are acting like kids have always acted, the wired world does present new dangers. For example, Goodstein said that teens do not really understand that everything they do online is public. This lack of understanding can hurt a kid’s job prospects.

Thus a teenage girl may put something risque on her MySpace profile, and a teenage boy may put something stupid, like a picture of himself throwing up after drinking too much at a party (maybe the same party at which someone sent a text message to a friend about another friend having too many beers). They don’t realize that a prospective employer will Google their name before an interview and potentially turn up tons of embarrissing information, information that was merely funny when posted on MySpace. “Young people are learning this lesson the hard way,” Goodstein said.

Goodstein was also very troubled by cyber space harassment. Kids will put up “slam” pages when they get angry at someone, be it a fellow student or even a teacher. She described one incident where two high school students, angry at a teacher, put up a page saying that the teacher had engaged in unorthodox sexual activities with a flute. The whole school ended up seeing the page, the teacher got wind of it, and the students were expelled. In an earlier era, there would have only been a note passed in class, mocking the teacher. Today, there is a web page potentially seen by the entire community.

Goodstein concluded her talk by saying that it is up to parents to educate their kids about the dangers of the net. She said monitoring and filtering software is helpful, but the best monitor is a human monitor. She also suggested that parents limit the amount of time they allow kids to spend on the net. Even Bill Gates, she noted, sets strict limits for his 10 year old child. The veritable Father of the PC allows only forty-five minutes a day during the week, and one hour on Saturdays and Sundays.

If you wish to learn more about this new, totally wired world, and to educate yourself so you can educate your kids, Goodstein’s new book is an excellent resource.