Monday Leftovers: Three Internet Safety Stories from Around the Country
Thought I’d begin the week with a few stories that come from around the country and show good things happening in the world of Internet safety. Each story highlights a new law or bill or program in the area to help boost online safety in the community/ state.
Of course, I don’t need to remind y’all that while these laws and steps in government are fantastic, parents need to fight the fight and do their job at home with monitoring software like our PC Pandora.
Here’s a summary list of the stories below; full articles and links follow:
- In California, a new school district policy banning videotaping of school fights (and cyberbullying in general) has prompted the popular YouTube to pull those videos from its Web site.
- The US Senate has passed The Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2008, which is aimed at protecting children and catching and prosecuting child molesters and pornographers who use the internet as their trolling ground. It’ll go to the House next and land on W’s desk sometime soon.
- The Crime Commission in Tulsa is preparing to launch its “Cyber-Safety” program that will teach children the potential dangers of being online
Vallejo School Fights Pulled From YouTube
By Mark HedlundVALLEJO, CA A new Vallejo Unified School District policy banning videotaping of school fights has prompted the popular YouTube to pull those videos from its Web site.
“We’re very happy they complied with our request. It was a real black eye for our district,” said Jason Hodge, district spokesman and assistant to the superintendent.
Last week, the district approved a ban on “cyberbullying,” prohibiting students from taking pictures or recording fights at school. It also bans students from taking pictures of other students without their permission.
“It’s a long, on-going saga. Back in April, we learned all these fights were online,” said Hodge. “There were fights up there from as far back as two years. It got worse. Kids were staging fights, starting fights with other kids just so they could be filmed and placed on-line.”
The day after the policy was passed September 17, Hodge faxed a letter to YouTube asking the site to take down all the Vallejo school fight videos. Hodge said he was aware of about 20 such videos. By Friday morning, Hodge said, it appeared they were gone from the site.
“They never responded to me, they responded to our local newspaper,” he said.
YouTube warns contributors about prohibited content through what it calls “community guidelines.” In part, those guidelines state,” “Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone being physically hurt, attacked or humiliated, don’t post it.”
Still, it’s easy to find videos of teenagers and young adults fighting. They appear to be some of the more popular videos viewed.
YouTube claims it responds 24 hours a day to any video that’s flagged by a viewer as potentially inappropriate or in violation of the guidelines. Violators will first be warned, but after multiple offenses can lose privileges to post more videos, according to the Web site.
Senate Passes Bill Aimed at Online Predators
The war against online child predators is about to acquire some new weapons. The U.S. Senate has passed a bill, introduced by two Texas Senators to help law enforcement officials and prosecutors pursue those who prey on children in ‘cyberspace.’
One out of seven children in the U.S. will be solicited for sex.
The Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2008 is aimed at protecting children and catching and prosecuting child molesters and pornographers who use the internet as their trolling ground.
The bill, co-sponsored by Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, allocates $635 million over an eight-year period for a broad range of efforts targeting internet crimes against children. It adds extra federal agents and beefs up prosecution, closing loopholes which have, in the past, made it tough to put away internet predators.
The bill now must go to the House for a final vote, but it is expected to sail through and go President Bush’s desk for his signature by sometime next week.
See another version of this story from a different station with video: New Law to Protect Children from Online Predators
New cybersafety program touted
By DAVID SCHULTE, World Staff WriterKeeping kids safe online is its goal.
A new Internet safety program that would help keep children from being exposed to sexually explicit material and predators will be available soon to area schools, churches and youth groups.
The Crime Commission is preparing to launch its “Cyber-Safety” program this fall to teach children the potential dangers of being online, program coordinator Kim Wiles said.
The program was developed after the commission surveyed educators about what crime-prevention programs were needed for children.
“About 85 percent said they wanted Internet safety,” Wiles said.
Many children’s after-school computer use is not closely monitored by an adult, and what they see online is not always suited for young children, she said.
Studies have suggested that one in five children has received a sexual solicitation or approach while online and that one in 17 has been threatened or harassed online.
The program, which is expected to be available by November, is geared for elementary and middle school students, Wiles said.
One of the biggest concerns for children online is the personal information they put on their profiles on popular Web sites such as MySpace, said Sgt. Tim Stadler of the Tulsa Police Department’s Cyber Crimes Unit.
Stadler believes that parents should not allow their children who are younger than high school age to place their profiles or personal information online, but officers in the Cyber Crimes Unit are seeing more children in elementary school post their profiles.
“Kids that young are going to do that stuff, so the best thing you can do is to teach them the dangers that exist on the Internet,” he said.
To stay safe online, children should keep their profiles private — that is, allow only family members and friends to view them, he said.
Stadler also advises parents to require their children to give them the names of everyone who can view their profiles, and they should know who those people are.
Children should never allow adults who are not family members to view their profiles, he said.
Unrelated adults’ interest in children’s profiles is “a huge danger sign,” Stadler said.
“Profiles should not be viewed to the world. That makes it difficult for an Internet predator to find them.”
The Cyber-Safety program will encourage children to report any sexually explicit material they receive while online to their parents or a trusted adult, Wiles said.
A recent study by researchers from the University of New Hampshire found that 42 percent of Internet users ages 10 to 17 have viewed pornography online. The same study showed that two-thirds of the 1,500 Internet users surveyed — most ages 13 to 17 — did not want to see pornographic images and did not seek them out.
Wiles encouraged parents to install software on their home computers to prevent their children from receiving sexually explicit material. She also urged them to require their children to give them their passwords and user names so they can view their “history” on the Internet.
_______Internet safety
Tips for parents and guardians on monitoring their children’s use of the Internet and e-mail:
- Place the home computer in a room that is frequently used so it can be seen easily by family members.
- Install blocking, monitoring and filtering applications on the computer.
- Set reasonable rules about the time of day and length of time children can use the Internet and people with whom they can communicate.
- Encourage your children to come to you when they encounter problems online. Reassure them that when they encounter something disturbing online, it is not their fault.
- Before signing up with an Internet service provider, research the effectiveness of its spam filters.
- Teach children not to open spam or e-mails from people they don’t know.
- Ensure that children don’t respond to any online communication in a sexually provocative way.
