The Internet Safety Technical Taskforce, assembled by 49 U.S. State Attorneys, has presented a report that counters the belief that the Web is full of sexual predators trying to solicit children for sex, especially through social networking sites. According to an article on
Sci-Tech Today, the task force was made up of "academics, childhood safety experts and executives of 30 companies, including Yahoo, AOL, MySpace and Facebook."
A hot debate has begun about the validity of the report, with claims from Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who helped to create the task force and had been one to push for reforms from MySpace and Facebook, that it belies the many actual cases of child predation.
But according to the
Sci Tech Today article, "In what social networks may view as something of an exoneration after years of pressure from law enforcement, the report...said that sites like MySpace and Facebook 'do not appear to have increased the overall risk of solicitation.'"
As quoted on
The Hour Online based out of Norwalk, CT, the task force found that "[t]he data...show that in most incidents of Internet-initiated offline encounters between adults and minors, the minor knows that the adult is older..., knows that sex is desired, and believes that she or he can consent to a sexual encounter." According to the article, Blumenthal said, "The report definitely seems to cast the blame on the children who were enticed to engage in contact with the predators. Blaming the victim is appalling and outrageous."
Whatever the outcome of the study, which claims that age-verification software won't be much help in matters of child safety, we at Geeks On Call still feel that education and communication with kids are the keys to their staying safe on the Web. We believe that the more they are aware of these possible encounters and the reality of the people approaching them, the less likely they are to make bad choices--whether they are willing participants or not.
Download our free
Parents' Guide to Internet Safety here.
