I stumbled across a great story on Syndey's Kid Friendly Blog. It floored me and really brought home a lot of what our Board has been speaking about regarding education on the issues of child exploitation online.
Here is a quote from Sydney's post. She is speaking about her 3 and a half year old child.
"Well another mom came over to me and asked if I would be willing toshare my boy's e-mail address as her precious little Johnny wanted tosend a valentine's message to all his friends. How sweet, I replied,but my little guy doesn't have an e-mail address, you can send it to meand I'll let him see it, I replied. It was the incredulous and shockedlook on the other mom's face that was the big surprise as I handed overmy business card. And I won't even mention the silly tone of voice thatwent along with her suggestion that 'I guess it will just have to do'."
You can read the full story here.
I'm unsure how much of this behavior is unadulterated ignorance to the issues and how much is just a refusal to look at the risks and dangers facing young children online. Maybe this woman Sydney speaks about carefully monitors every email her child receives, but I can't shake this pit of concern in my stomach...
Labels: In the News
Interesting story out of Texas yesterday on forbes.com.
MySpace - the social networking site - won the first round of what could prove to be a long legal battle. A 14 year old girl was lured on a MySpace site by a 19 year who sexually assaulted the girl after gaining her trust on the site. The parents of the girl sued MySpace for not having appropriate age controls on their site. The judge, in his ruling, dismissed all claims against MySpace and said they were not liable for having poor security and age verification on their site.
But this is not the end of legal troubles for MySpace. The lawyer who brought this suit plans to appeal and he claims that another 50 families have contacted him looking to bring suits against MySpace.
Obviously, all of this raises significant questions as to what responsibility companies like MySpace have to govern their own sites and ensure appropriate policy is in place.
Is MySpace liable? Do they have a responsibility to protect the users of their sites?
In my opinion, the answers are No and Yes ... and maybe somewhere in between. I personally don't think it is fair that MySpace be held financially responsible for the actions of those who seek to use their site for nefarious purposes. It's like saying the road builder is responsible for what crazy and aggressive drivers do on their highways.
But on the other hand, MySpace is responsible for putting reasonable safeguards in place to ensure their users - kids mostly - are reasonably protected. To take the analogy a step further - it's the road-builders equivalent to installing guardrails and painted markings on the highway. So the question is "what's reasonable protection?"
It is absolutely fair to criticize MySpace for not having strong enough age restrictions and content restrictions, but at a practical level, these restrictions are far too easy to breach, especially on the Internet. I can't think of a single process or technology that would be foolproof in keeping the bad guys out of a system like MySpace ... just as I think it's impossible to keep every single bad driver off the highway.
But we can do what we can do ... we can police and patrol the Internet more aggressively - which requires a lot more resources; we can appropriately punish - and hopefully deter - those that break the rules; we can educate kids so they know the rules of the road; and, perhaps most importantly, we can make sure the parents have the right tools and knowledge in place to watch over their kids as they venture out on the highways. An extra set of eyes watching for oncoming traffic from the passenger seat may be the best way to keep the young drivers using social networks safe.
Forcing companies like MySpace through the courts to improve their security systems will not, in my view, lead to the sort of change in behaviour we're looking for. A cooperative spirit - where MySpace, the police, educators, parents, and the kids themselves work together to raise awareness and create better systems is the only way to really succeed. Only when that fails should legal remedies be sought, especially when dealing with the Internet. Legal action that seeks to punish MySpace out of existence will simply push them - or the company that replaces it - underground and off-shore, where it will be even harder to govern.
I look forward to a spirited on-line debate on this one ...
KINSA stands firmly behind our support of the CETS initiative and everything Microsoft and the Toronto Police Service have done to launch and support this initiative on a global basis.
We want to congratulate Microsoft, Paul Gillespie and the Toronto Police as they recently won the Imagine Canada Business and Community Partnership Award!
Learn more by watching the video below or visiting Imagine Canada.
KINSA celebrates success with the first Safer Internet Day in Ontario! Through extensive media coverage and other activities, a tremendous amount of awareness was generated regarding online child sexual exploitation. Further to our previous posts describing our efforts to bring Safer Internet Day to Ontario, here is an update regarding the many activities that took place.
The first Safer Internet Day in Ontario coincided with the breaking news of a global child pornography ring - a case which further demonstrates the need for a proactive, collaborative approach to combatting this horrific abuse of children. Paul Gillespie and David Butt were featured in countless media pieces over the past two days. Some clips of these can be seen below.
In Ontario, the Provincial Government issued a Press Release outlining their Child Protection Strategy. Read the Press Release here. The Parliamentary Assistant to the Attorney General delivered a speech to students in Toronto to mark the day. In addition, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) issued a reminder to parents to protect children from Internet predators, and the Toronto Police Service Child Exploitation Section provided an information session on the subject. MPP Bob Runciman, who originally moved the motion for Safer Internet Day in Ontario, provided the following press release to mark this day.
While our Safer Internet Day motion has not yet been made in the House of Commons, we extend our appreciation to MP Art Hanger for making the following statement:
Mr. Art Hanger (Calgary Northeast, CPC) : Mr. Speaker, yesterday and today, dozens of countries around the world are recognizing Safer Internet Day. Safer Internet Day is a chance to raise awareness about the dangers that lurk online and encourage all parents and guardians to protect their children from them.
The need has never been greater. A new study has found that more than 42% of children as young as 10 who are using the Internet had recently been exposed to pornography, and just this morning we read a news story about a child porn ring that may include more than 100 Canadian offenders.As a government, we are taking steps to protect children, trying to increase penalties for child luring and raise the age of sexual consent, but parents are always the first line of defence. Websites like the Kids' Internet Safety Alliance are an excellent resource if they are looking for help.On this Safer Internet Day, let us encourage everyone who cares for a child to educate themselves, then their children, on how to stay safe online.
The need has never been greater. A new study has found that more than 42% of children as young as 10 who are using the Internet had recently been exposed to pornography, and just this morning we read a news story about a child porn ring that may include more than 100 Canadian offenders.
As a government, we are taking steps to protect children, trying to increase penalties for child luring and raise the age of sexual consent, but parents are always the first line of defence. Websites like the Kids' Internet Safety Alliance are an excellent resource if they are looking for help.
On this Safer Internet Day, let us encourage everyone who cares for a child to educate themselves, then their children, on how to stay safe online.
KINSA thanks all politicans, government officials, individuals, and organizations who promoted awareness of online child sexual exploitation during Safer Internet Day. In terms of raising awareness with children, parents, and teachers, KINSA has an on-going contest to develop the Mascot for SURF S.M.A.R.T., and has distributed the S.M.A.R.T. principles through POP! Teachers and POP! Kids publications, as well as on the YTV website. Communicating through these different methods will help to ensure that the message is getting through to kids, parents, educators, and all who play a role in ensuring the safety of our children online.
Further media coverage can be accessed through the links below, which represent just a small sample of the total coverage:
CTV coverage 680 News Coverage CFRA News Talk Radio Toronto Sun coverage Simcoe coverage