Sorting the vast, unruly Web space for children

Michael Hedges February 16, 2009

The Web gives and it demands. Its very lack of discipline is its greatest attraction. Making the Web safer for children is a worthy undertaking. Borrowing language from age-old criticism of television’s affect on children, making the Web a healthy place means forging into the convergence of privacy, social networks and curiosity.

Safer Internet Day (February 10) was widely promoted in Europe with serious commandments from consumer and child protection activists and admonishments from political leaders. Tech companies, ISPs and social networking sites signed up to an agreement with the European Commission (EC) to make children and young adults’ exposure to abusive behavior through the Web more difficult for the bad guys.

Facebook and others will introduce several measures designed to thwart if not curb abusive internet behavior targeting young people. There will be ‘report abuse’ buttons, though it’s not clear what exactly happens with the inputs. Privacy controls and information will appear prominently. Profiles and details of under 18 year olds will be private by default and not searchable. Mirroring US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA - 1998), social networking sites will be prohibited from collecting data from under 13 year olds. Those controls presuppose that young people will always state their correct age.

The German Federal government is looking into other corrective measures, investing €1.5 million in ‘One Web for Children’ (Ein Netz für Kinder), an initiative to identify and promote safer websites for children.

International Telecommunications Union (ITU) joined the EC in calling for safeguards against cyber-bullying, often called cyber-mobbing in Europe. "Child online safety must be on the global agenda," said ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré in a statement. The ITU initiated its own Child Online Protection (COP) program. This years ITU sponsored World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, May 17th, is themed “Protecting Children in Cyberspace.”

Cyber-bullying typically means harassment, insults and threats. Lurking with school-yard bullies along the darker corners of the internet are perverts and criminals, says the conventional wisdom. Traffic to social networking sites last year eclipsed traffic to porn sites. Aqualung may have moved to a new park-bench.

Responsible parents recoil at the notion of their children being bullied, in cyberspace or otherwise. Incidents reported have been horrific. Yet a recent study in the US suggests cyber-bullying is far less prevalent than tabloid headline writers suppose.

When MySpace settled a civil action brought by all 50 US State Attorneys General it was required to undertake an initiative for protections against cyber-bullying. Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society undertook the project and reported its findings earlier this year (January 14). Cyber-bullying happens, said the report. Just like school-yard bullying it is an extension of the off-line social world of children. 

“The psychosocial makeup of and family dynamics surrounding particular minors," said the report, "are better predictors of risk than the use of specific media or technologies.”

Less mentioned is the far more troubling potential of cyber-bullying – and worse – via the mobile phone. A UK study indicates that cyber-bullying by mobile phone has increased each year since 2002. Children are “sending nasty, offensive or even threatening messages with their phones,” writes York St. John University behavioral scientist Nathalie Noret, co-author of ‘Text Messaging as a Form of Bullying: An Analysis of Content”. “Teachers and parents need to realize that a child’s mobile phone or computer isn’t just a communication stool – it’s also a way for a bully to reach a child in their own home”

Criticism of television for its unwholesome effect on children (and all other living things) has a history dating, nearly, from its inception. Though not speaking directly about children and TV, US Federal Communications Commissioner (FCC) Newton Minnow in 1961 attached forever the term “vast wasteland” to the medium.

"When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better,” he said before the US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). “But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.”

Little about television has changed in 48 years. The good parts are excellent. The bad parts are miserable. And there are a lot of bad parts. The same applies to the Web.

Young people still gravitate to media tipped to their curiosities. The Web has opened that realm further than they – or their guardians – can easily comprehend. Policing it all is a vast impossibility. Commissioner Reding’s Safer Internet initiative treads carefully but firmly in the direction of thwarting abuse enablers without turning to direct censorship. 

"Social networking has enormous potential to flourish in Europe,” said Commissioner Reding in a statement (February 10), “to help boost our economy and make our society more interactive, as long as children and teenagers have the trust and the right tools to remain safe when making new 'friends' and sharing personal details online. I will closely monitor the implementation of today's agreement and the Commission will come back to this matter in a year's time.”

Media in Spain - Diverse and Challenged – new

Media in Spain is steeped in tradition. yet challenged by diversity. Publishers hold great influence, broadcasters competing. New media has been slow to rise and business models for all are under stress. Rich in language and culture, Spain's media is reaching into the future and finding more than expected. 123 pages, PDF. January 2018

Order here

The Campaign Is On - Elections and Media

Elections campaigns are big media events. Candidates and issues are presented, analyzed and criticized in broadcast and print. Media is now more of a participant in elections than ever. This ftm Knowledge file reports on news coverage, advertising, endorsements and their effect on democracy at work. 84 pages. PDF (September 2017)

Order here

Fake News, Hate Speech and Propaganda

The institutional threat of fake news, hate speech and propaganda is testing the mettle of those who toil in news media. Those three related evils are not new, by any means, but taken together have put the truth and those reporting it on the back foot. Words matter. This ftm Knowledge file explores that light. 48 pages, PDF (March 2017)

Order here

More ftm Knowledge files here

Become an ftm Individual or Corporate Member to order Knowledge Files at no charge. JOIN HERE!