Online threat to children 'overblown'

CONCERNS about child safety on the internet and social networks may be overblown, a new report suggests.

The report, to be released this week, suggests that the biggest threats to children’s safety online may come from other children, and that their own behaviour could contribute to the trouble they encounter.

“Minors are not equally at risk online,” the report said.

“Those who are most at risk often engage in risky behaviours and have difficulties in other parts of their lives.”

The report, by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, is the product of the US Internet Safety Technical Task Force.

The task force was created to address the growing problem of sexual predators soliciting children online.

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“The risks minors face online are complex and multifaceted and are in most cases not significantly different than those they face offline, and… as they get older, minors themselves contribute to some of the problems,” the study said.

Peer to peer

The report suggests that the biggest threats to children’s safety online come from other children.

“Youth report sexual solicitation of minors by minors more frequently, but these incidents, too, are understudied, underreported to law enforcement, and not part of most conversations about online safety,” the task force said.

Online sexual predators are a concern, but the task force said that many of the studies it reviewed were based on law-enforcement cases that pre-dated social networking sites.

They said bullying and harassment, especially by peers, are the most frequent problem minors face both online and elsewhere.

Social standing

The Task Force includes executives from Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, Verizon and AOL, MTV Networks parent Viacom, AT&T, Symantec, Turner Broadcasting, Loopt and Linden Labs, creator of the virtual world Second Life.

The findings, if accepted by the law enforcement community, would be important for Facebook and MySpace, which is owned by the parent company of the publisher of news.com.au.

These social networks have signed agreements with the US attorneys-general to increase their efforts to protect their large numbers of youngest members from sexual predators.

MySpace, which helped fund the study, was the subject of a 2006 lawsuit by a 14-year-old girl who said she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man she met on the site.

The company said in a statement it fully supports the key conclusions of the report, noting that “there is no single technological solution to the problem of youth online safety and no single technology that fully addresses any specific risk minors face.”

Not all agreed with the findings. Task force member John Phillips, chief executive of Aristotle Corp, a company that makes software specifically intended to verify the identity and ages of people on the internet, said blaming children and their parents is not the answer.

“There is absolutely a role for parents and for minors themselves to be a lot more careful,” he said.

Mr Phillips said the industry also needs to do more to protect children from sexual predators.

Online threat to children 'overblown'

1. Online threat to children 'overblown'
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