MySpace signs safety pact with States

MySpace Inc. has signed an agreement with the Attorneys General of 49 states to add approximately 60 new safety features on its website. A key issue is age verification. Members of the task force hope MySpace is just the first social networking site to sign up and this pact will set the standard for safety on other social networking sites.
MySpace is also in the news this week because they just patched a security problem that allowed users to access private pictures on a member's site.

New research on Internet Safety

I ran across a very interesting report this week on Internet safety. The report is a transcription of Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee Forum called “Just the Facts about Online Youth Victimization.” The Congressional Internet Caucus brought together several experts on issues of Internet safety. They discuss some recent research that calls into question many of the thoughts and ideas we have been teaching for years. This quote summarizes one of the studies.

"Our research, actually looking at what puts kids at risk for receiving the most serious kinds of sexual solicitation online, suggests that it’s not giving out personal information that puts kid at risk. It’s not having a blog or a personal website that does that either. What puts kids in danger is being willing to talk about sex online with strangers or having a pattern of multiple risky activities on the web like going to sex sites and chat rooms, meeting lots of people there, kind of behaving in what we call like an internet daredevil."

This research has much to inform our discussions of Internet safety. I encourage you to read the transcript.