By Sarah Severson
With the end of the school year, youngsters soon will have more time on
their hands to surf the web, especially as they try to stay in touch
with friends. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is cautioning
parents to be aware of the dangers for kids using social networking
websites including Facebook and MySpace.
Madigan
announced last month that Facebook would make changes to help protect
children and teenagers from sexual predators and from viewing
inappropriate content. Facebook came to this agreement after working
with Madigan and attorneys general from the other 49 states who voiced
concern for kids’ safety online.
The changes resemble steps taken by MySpace earlier this year and include restricting users’ ability to change their listed ages, displaying safety tips, and requiring those younger than 18 to read Facebook’s safety tips when registering on the site. Also, Facebook will remove groups whose content covers incest, pedophilia, or cyberbullying or otherwise violates the company’s terms.
From May 2007 to March 2008, Madigan served 11 subpoenas to obtain names or other identifying information of registered sex offenders in Illinois who had created profiles on MySpace. She found 2,644 profiles created by 1,812 registered sex offenders, which means some created multiple profiles. A subsequent subpoena to Facebook revealed that 123 MySpace Illinois sex offenders also had created profiles on Facebook, which has since removed them from its site.
The attorney general’s office also has established the Illinois Cyber Crimes Location Database, which this month begins collecting and storing Internet protocol (IP) addresses from sex offenders once they are registered. In addition, the office runs the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which investigates child exploitation crimes and provides Internet safety education.
Most teens network online
According to research published in December by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 are engaging in at least one type of content creation. Also, 55% of online teens in this age group have created a profile on sites such as Facebook and MySpace, 47% have uploaded photos where others can see them, and 14% have posted videos online. Many restrict access to photos and videos, however, by controlling who has access to the content.
“Our kids are growing up and living in a world that is outside the sight of their parents,” said Cara Smith, deputy chief for Madigan. “Kids think they are invincible, and we are up against tremendous challenges to make the world safe for them. We need to place an effort on educating them how to be safe on the Internet.”
Smith said that, in the last month, more than 9,300 IP addresses in Illinois were observed trading child pornography.
“You think you know someone online, but you really don’t know who they are—it could be a 70 year old man, a convicted felon, a sex offender,” Smith said.
A comprehensive piece of legislation—IL House Bill 5469, the Child Exploitation Protection Act—now making its way through the Illinois General Assembly would require lifetime supervision for child pornographers, create specific parole and probation conditions for sex offenders to stay off of social networking sites, and require computer technicians to report child pornography. By federal law, Internet service providers must report child pornography, but this bill would provide a new, secure way to transmit such reports and encourage compliance with the law.
In February, all but one of the state attorneys general in the U.S. reached an agreement that included creating an Internet Safety Technical Task Force. Agreement participants also include representatives from Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Time Warner’s AOL, and Facebook, along with nonprofit groups and Internet service providers. Leading Internet scholars from Harvard Law School will head the task force and examine users’ safety on MySpace and other online hangouts.
While online predators may cause concern, social networking sites do offer numerous benefits.
Social sites can help
Caroline Loeb, MD, is a Chicago psychiatrist who works with children and adolescents. She said sites such as MySpace and Facebook can help socially anxious kids by giving them a forum to connect with others and sidestep social anxieties. If taken to an extreme, though, these sites can reinforce the problem. Loeb recommends parents make sure their kids are communicating with people who actually are friends and who are members of a junior high or high school community rather than a set of kids who live in a different area.
“Otherwise, I think that gets complicated,” she said. “It’s an avoidance of real peer relations, and you don’t know who you’re dealing with. If it’s a local community online, talking to friends can be healthy.”
Melvin
Soto, assistant principal over technology at Whitney Young Magnet High
School, said during or after the sophomore year the student population
with profiles on Facebook can reach as high as 80%.
“It’s very prevalent and much bigger than MySpace with our group of students,” he said. “I’ve been amazed at the power Facebook has at organizing groups.”
Last year, after a Whitney Young student was murdered, Soto developed a new respect for online social networking because it allowed the students to cope with the loss together.
Currently, the Chicago Public Schools' filtering service blocks MySpace but does not block Facebook, so students can log on to Facebook on the school’s campus. Whitney Young runs drop-in computer labs, where students can go before school, during lunch, or after school to use the Internet or computer programs.
St. Barbara’s School, which educates students in grades kindergarten through eight, uses filters that block both MySpace and Facebook and encourages parents to do the same.
“We’ve notified our parents of the dangers of such spaces,” said Dorene Hurckes, principal. “We tell them they need to be as proactive as they can of what their kids do online.”
Hurckes feels the greatest challenge is teaching youngsters that once they have posted something online they lose control over that content. “It’s a hard concept for kids to understand—they think they are having a personal conversation one on one, but that’s often not the case,” she said.
Chris Oddo, director of computer service at De La Salle Institute, said in his school, "We have a filter that blocks access to all of those social networking sites on campus. We have a brochure that we give to parents that talks about the dangers in these types of web sites."
Oddo said he has seen both ends of the spectrum in regard to parents' awareness of what goes on with these sites.
"There are some who are very aware and involved, who are constantly checking with their sons and daughters about what they are doing online," Oddo said. "But others are completely unaware, probably because of their own lack of knowledge--they don't know they need to look at it for their own kids' protection--and those kids are really at risk."
The Illinois Attorney General’s Office has six tips for teaching children about Internet safety that encourage them to think before they post on an instant message, blog, social network, chat room, or text message:
1) Never post personal information online; 2) Make sure buddy lists include people you are really friends with, not strangers; 3) Ask yourself what grandma would think when you post online images; 4) Remember that blogs are web pages and anyone can read them if they are public; 5) Text message only with family and close friends; 6) Tell parents immediately if you receive anything online that makes you feel uncomfortable.
