iKeepSafe participates in the Internet Safety Technical Task Force: Final Report Released

January 14, 2009 – Washington D.C. – The Internet Safety Technical Task Force, convened by the Berkman Center of Harvard University, the US Attorneys General, and MySpace, released its Final Report, detailing findings for the Attorneys General. Through 2008, the Task Force gathered to explore technical solutions for alleviating risks to youths online, specifically within social networking spaces.

iKeepSafe President Marsali Hancock, who served on the task force, commented, “On behalf of iKeepSafe, I want to thank MySpace, the Berkman Center, and the Attorneys General for convening this unprecedented gathering of primary stakeholders – industry, NGOs, and researchers – to explore new solutions for the safety of youth online. It was very helpful to have access to experienced researchers and quality research. We anticipate that the results of the task force will lead to effective legislation and relevant prevention and intervention programs, particularly for high risk youths."

“I particularly want to recognize the AGs and their role in reducing Internet crimes against children. The research also reflected the need for other sectors of the community – public health, education, and parents – to become involved in keeping children safe online.”

As part of the Final Report, iKeepSafe submitted the following recommendations for AGs:

Age Verification

iKeepSafe carefully reviewed the proposals for technology solutions that would identify a parent-child relationship and age verification in an effort to reduce harmful contact and content. Some of the challenges to these technologies are:

a. We have no consistent and credible way to determine who is a custodial parent and who is a child. In today’s Internet environment, this obstacle is insurmountable. (Would hospitals or county records clerks be asked to verify a birth parent? Is the birth parent still the legal guardian? Who determines eligibility? Will schools be asked to identify a custodial parent? Will a verification form, mailed or faxed from a residence determine parentage?)
b. Verifying children’s ages will aggregate large databases of personal information of youth, creating problematic scenarios including commercial companies storing data on American children, identity risks, privacy concern, and substantial security risks. What happens when this database gets hacked?
c. It is important to note that many youth experience inappropriate contact and content, including home-produced pornography, from other youth. Age verification will not protect from these exposures.

Gaps in the Research

For those of us on the Task Force who produce prevention content, it was very helpful to have access to experienced researchers and quality research. Access to more comprehensive law enforcement data would have been helpful in giving a more complete view of problems youth face online. More statistics and research about what the states are experiencing in Internet crime units will help bridge the gap between what law enforcement is reporting to AGs and what we see in peer reviewed research. Additionally, many of the studies we reference were designed or rely on data that was gathered before 2006 when social networking exploded.

What Can Be Done Now

Because youth at risk (on and offline) are not likely to have parents engaged in their online safety, what can be done now to protect minors?

• Engage the public health community to develop and implement prevention, intervention, and bystander awareness initiatives.
• Invest in research to ensure that Internet safety and security efforts are targeted, relevant, and effective, including evaluations of existing safety content and programs.
• Increase post-conviction controls on convicted sex offenders and impose restrictions on the online activities of convicted child predators.
• Expand sex offender registry information to include Internet identifiers.
• Preserve Internet evidence for law enforcement investigations.
• Expand the reach and enforcement of child pornography reporting. Add state enforcement powers and broaden the scope of online companies that must report images of child pornography to the Cyber Tip Line at NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children).
• Create a new crime of Internet Sexual Exploitation of a Child. Make it a crime to use a computer or computer network to encourage a child to engage in or to observe sexual activity while communicating online.
• Criminalize the luring of a child online. Make it a crime to use a computer or computer network to make sexually suggestive statements and to lure children into face-to-face meetings.
• Criminalize age misrepresentation with Intent to Solicit a Child. Make it a crime to lie about your age when enticing a child into criminal sexual conduct.
• Create incentives for law enforcement to make serving on cyber-crime units a career fast-track. Provide internal rewards and promotions. Hone technical skills and increase resources for officers and prosecutors.
• Educate children and parents. Provide school districts with online safety curricula for children and educational materials for parents teaching online security, safety, and ethics.
• Empower parents. Require Internet access providers to make filtering, blocking, and monitoring tools available.

Click here to view the full report and the iKeepSafe summary and recommendations.

Click here to listen to a radio podcast about the findings in the report.