2-24-2009 National:
Are you a child molester? I know I'm not. And yet U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Lamar Smith apparently think that there's a pretty good chance we both are. They've introduced bills that would require Internet service providers to keep customer records for two years. The law presents all kinds of creepy potential for abuse, and I don't see any reason to believe that it will be a cost-effective way to reduce the problem of molestation.
The Texas Republicans last week jointly introduced the Internet Safety Act of 2009. The law sets a sentence of up to 20 years, plus fines, for financial transactions that facilitate child pornography, and fines and imprisonment of up to 10 years for ISPs facilitating child pornography.
So far, so good. There's no reason to believe that stiffer penalties will do anything to deter child molesters. If a little prison time and a lifetime of public stigma won't stop someone from committing a crime, a lot of prison time probably won't do anything, either. However, I certainly can't argue with putting child molesters in prison.
The problematic section of the law requires service providers to keep records for at least two years, identifying the people temporarily assigned network addresses.
One problem with the law is that it's sufficiently broad that it could include anyone providing a Wi-Fi hotspot -- even your neighborhood coffeeshop. The way the law is written, even private, residential hotspots might be required to keep these records. Got a Wi-Fi hotspot in your living room? You might be required to keep two years of records on how it's used.
Also, the law lacks specifics on what the penalty for failure to keep those records should be.
The proposed law comes as the government is trying to get Internet companies to limit the amount of data they retain. Now, Cornyn and Smith are trying to reverse that effort, in a dubious attempt to protect children.
The law is scary for Internet service providers -- it creates a threat of criminal liability for the provision of routine services such as e-mail. How long would Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) continue to provide free e-mail service if they knew their executives could go to jail for failing to keep adequate records?
Smith's explanation of the justification for the law seems facile. In an op/ed in the Dallas Morning News, he writes: "How many times have we seen TV detectives seek call logs of a suspect in order to determine who he has been talking to? What if the telephone companies simply said to the detectives, 'Sorry, we get rid of that information after 24 hours?'"
We ought not to be basing criminal law based on what we see on television. We ought to base it on assessment of risks in real life, not on TV.
Moreover, existing law already includes provisions that allow the police to get access to information from ISPs, said Sidney Rosenzweig, visiting fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a think tank that studies digital policy.Current government regulations do not require ISPs to retain data about subscribers except on a case-by-case basis, Rosenzweig said.
"Instead, the government can send a letter to an ISP to tell them to retain the information for 90 days," he said. "This buys the government enough time to get a subpoena or a warrant. ISPs are not currently required to retain information unless they are actually requested to do so by the government."
How widespread is child predation online? Smith doesn't say. He cites a three-year-old case that resulted in 27 arrests worldwide, and another case involving a two-year-old girl where the predator wasn't caught after the Internet service provider purged the record. But here's what Smith isn't saying: The 27 arrests occurred without his new law. And he doesn't cite any reason to believe that the ISP records would have helped arrest the predator of that two-year-old girl.
Smith said in a statement that law enforcement officials have received reports of 600,000 images of graphic child pornography online, but only 2,100 of these children have been identified and rescued. What's the source of these figures? Again, Smith doesn't say.
Trading child porn over the Internet is an awful crime -- but if the best Smith can come up with is a three-year-old case involving 27 people -- out of all the billions of people who use the Internet -- that suggests that this is a rare crime, one where imposing new regulatory requirements on the Internet service industry is unwarranted.
As for those 600,000 images: Are those images of 600,000 separate children, or multiple pictures of the same child? And how, precisely, would tracking IP addresses of people accessing the Internet help catch the children? If a pervert downloads child pornography, that doesn't mean he knows, or is likely to know, any information that would help rescue the child portrayed in the image, any more than a person downloading legal, adult porn knows the real names of the models, photographers, or where the photos were taken.
Similarly, Conryn cites as evidence of the need for the law the fact that 90,000 sex offenders were kicked off MySpace earlier this month. But how many of those sex offenders were convicted of crimes involving children? And how many of those sex offenders were using MySpace to troll for victims, as opposed to keeping up with music and friends and other lawful MySpace uses?
Still, even if the law is imperfect, shouldn't we pass it? Even if it saves one child, isn't it worthwhile?
No.
The law would create massive databases of private information, and from what we've seen in data leaks of credit card information, financial information, and medical records, any massive database of private information has the potential for abuse.
How, precisely, will knowing that a particular user connected to the Internet at an particular time help catch sex predators? As far as I can see, sex predators get found either when responding to a government sting, or when a computer serviceperson finds a stash of porn on the predator's hard disk.
The bill would put additional expenses on the backs of ISPs to store and manage customer records.
And, finally: It's a red herring. It distracts us, as a society, from the more significant risks posed to children.
Danah Boyd, a researcher at Microsoft Research New England, blogged about this eloquently when the MySpace news came out a couple of weeks ago. Rather than doing needle-in-the-haystack searches of Internet users to catch child predators after they strike, it's better to stop the crimes in the first place, by helping children stop engaging in dangerous, self-destructive behavior, on the Internet and in real life, says Boyd, a Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Boyd wrote her doctoral dissertation on how youth use social media. She finds that kids who are preyed on by adults aren't tricked or forced into it. The kids seek out inappropriate and dangerous situations knowingly, because they're psychically wounded. Help the kids, and predators lose their supply of victims.
She asks, "Why are we so obsessed with the registered sex offender side of the puzzle when the troubled kids are right in front of us? Why are we so obsessed with the Internet side of the puzzle when so many more kids are abused in their own homes? I feel like this whole conversation has turned into a distraction. Money and time is being spent focusing on the things that people fear rather than the very real and known risks that kids face. This breaks my heart." ..News Source.. by Mitch Wagner
February 24, 2009
Internet Child-Protection Bill Raises Too Many Questions
October 10, 2008
NCSAM: Kids and the Internet (Part 2)
10-10-2008 National:
Part one of the Kids and the Internet article looked at statistics, and explained that sometimes they are often overhyped. This article covers some tips and advice from various websites to help parents protect children online.
The first thing as a parent you have to remember when it comes to protecting the kids online, is that you are in fact the parent. You have to set rules and enforce them. However, the adage of “do as I say...not as I do…” makes you look bad in the long run.
Communication is the key to protecting kids online. You need them to understand what dangers there are online and how to look out for them.
The biggest fear most parents have is that their child will meet a predator online, and later meet them face to face. It has happened, and it is devastating. However, this can be avoided.
“In the majority of sex crimes against youth, offenders did not deceive the teens about the fact that they were older and were interested in sex. However, the attackers seduced the youth by being understanding, sympathetic and flattering, and by appealing to the teens’ interest in romance, sex and adventure.” – Crimes Against Children Research Center – Univ. of New Hampshire
Kids, teens especially, have angst and lots of it. They are quite positive that the world is against them, and that dear old mom and dad hate them. It happens. However it is because of these thoughts that most teens stop talking. As a parent of a pre-teen, I can speak from personal experience.
When you are unsure of what your child is doing online, ask them. Ask them if they have ever had someone hit on them, or if some “girl who is likely a fat hairy dude” (use exactly this phrase, more often than not it gets a laugh and breaks the ice) wanted to hook up before, and how they acted. Did they take the invitation for a hookup seriously, or did they flame the person for it?
(Flame is a term used online to depict the act of totally belittling someone. Often flames are rants against a person or topic; however it can also refer to simply making fun of someone, which teens do all the time online.)
Remember, you are the parent. You, despite the child’s instance otherwise, are older and wiser. You have been around the block a few times, and protecting your kids from internet perverts and pedophiles is no different than talking to them about taking candy from strangers or getting into cars and going off to look for kittens.
What if your child comes to you and tells you that they had a friend on MySpace who was special, but lately they have started to weird them out? They want to meet and they want to trade pictures. The normal MySpace pictures are not enough, they want to cam (steaming video chats) with your child. What do you do? Do you panic? Do you punish the child for their friend making such a request and ban them from the Internet, or do you take them out to dinner to get away and forget the whole thing for a little while?
The correct answer is to take them out to eat. The child came to you as a parent, and opened the door for a long and serious talk about internet safety. This is cause for a celebration, because the second your child stops talking, that is when they are in danger.
When you search online for cyber safety tips for parents and kids, you will constantly see mentions of communication. This point cannot be stressed enough.
Another aspect of communication is learning. Learn from your child, as you want them to learn from you. Consider this example exchange between a parent and child.
“What exactly is this Second Life, and why are you on a Teen Grid?” Even if all you get is, “Second Life is a game, where you create your own person and exist in a complete virtual world, the teen grid is for someone who is not 18.” You got an answer for one, and a way to ask other Second Life (www.secondlife.com) related questions.
For example, the child said you can create your own person, ask how, and ask if they mind showing you. Ask them what looks they like and what options there are. Ask them about this virtual world, are there limits, can you build things?
Ask them if it is free or if it costs money. (You can use real-word money in second life, so this can lead to a sort of building block where they do chores or other tasks like a job, and earn money from you to spend in Second Life.)
Second Life example aside, the point was you took an interest in what they were doing. You even had a chance to let them enjoy it more by offering a bit of compensation for the game if they do chores or other little jobs around the house.
You can interact with your child when they are online without stifling them. Simply keep the communication lines open.
Another thing to remember is that children will be exposed to things online that are unsettling to them. These things can be advances from people, or pornographic emails and website content. Often they discover them on accident. As a parent, don’t over react to this, as most teens will see this as you coming down on them. Talk to them and figure out how it happened, and how to keep it from happening again.
Kids these days are so smart; you have to trust in your ability as a parent that you taught them right from wrong. You have to have the self-esteem to take a blow to the ego, and admit there is a level to the Internet you know nothing about and seek resources to learn about it. The first step to this ego busting is, again, open the lines of communication with your child, and learn.
Here are some websites for parents; these will come in handy as you learn the ways of the web only your child knows.
First the basics of online safety tips:
http://kids.getnetwise.org/safetyguide/privacy/
http://www.webwisekids.org/
http://www.webwisekids.org/our_software.asp?page=www
Learn the acronyms and terminology:(Do you know what IANAL or STFU or RTFM mean?)
http://www.gaarde.org/acronyms/
http://www.magicpub.com/netprimer/acronyms.html
http://www.urbandictionary.com/
MySpace information (Overview):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace
Facebook information (Overview):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
Twitter information (Overview):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
Instant Messaging information (Overview):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging
Internet Email information (Overview):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webmail
The tips and tools provided in this series of articles are a great preventive measure. However, nothing is foolproof, and if you have developed concerns that your child may have been approached or become involved in a dangerous situation, do not hesitate to seek assistance.
Getwise.org best explains what to do if you know or suspect your child is in danger or has been approached, “Once they have identified a serious problem, parents are often confused about who to turn to for help. Even though the criminal can't be seen and the crime happens over computer and phone wires, it is important to remember that most crimes on the Internet can be handled like crimes in the real world.”
Visit their website for more links and information. ..News Source.. by Steve Ragan
NCSAM: Kids and the Internet (Part 1)
10-10-2008 National:
If you are a parent, then you likely have one of two things, a child already on the Internet, or one who soon will be on the Internet. It’s a scary thought if all you know about kids and the Internet is what you learned by watching Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator” series. In this article, continuing the National Cyber Security Awareness Month coverage, The Tech Herald will look at some of the stats surrounding Kids on the Internet and one tool that is hands down one of the best for houses with kids online.
Statistical information: do the numbers lie to you?
To kick some things off, here are some statistics you might not know. These facts come from a PowerPoint presentation by PEW Internet in 2008.
Thirty-three percent of teens online have been contacted by a stranger. Of those contacted by a stranger, 23 percent of those teens were made to feel uncomfortable by the experience. Twenty-five percent of youth who have regular Internet access have had one or more unwanted exposures to sexual pictures within the past year. Of that 25 percent, 27 percent said the exposure was during IM sessions or e-mail and seventy-three percent said it happened while surfing.
Do those facts bother you as a parent? Did they scare you? Did they disturb you in some way? Before you get out a hammer and remove the Internet from your home think of this, according to Symantec, 19 percent of all Spam sent in October related to porn or medical treatments.
Male enhancement drugs, which often use graphic images, are the most common. Outright porn advertisements are severely graphic, and would expose kids online to images and acts often not taught in Sex-Ed at school. Now, look back at the earlier stats.
Remember those 25 percent of youth who have regular Internet access, and how 27 percent of them have seen sexually explicit pictures in IM or email? Think rationally. What are the odds that most of those contacts came from IM Spam or e-mail Spam? The odds are high, that most of the contact comes from Spam.
What about the 73 percent who saw the explicit images while surfing? Again, think logically about this, where were they surfing? What sites were they on and what were they doing online at the time they were exposed? The answers to those questions will not be found in any statistical report.
If you want an example, use something simple like Google Images search. When you search for an image, you will notice a link under the search bar that says Moderate SafeSearch is on. This means search terms are filtered. Search for "Georgia peaches" with no quotes, and notice the innocent image results.
Now, "Georgia peaches" is a rather random term, and not sexual in nature for the most part. Next, click the Moderate SafeSearch is on link and disable it. Search for the same thing again. This time you get some different results.
The point is to show you that by even using something as innocent as “Georgia peaches” as a search term, and simply removing search filtering, you can be exposed to sexual images. Anyone can access the search options in Google Images, even a teen wanting to expand search results. How relevant are those stats from earlier now?
Do you remember the 33 percent of teens online who earned attention from a stranger? How do we know if the 23 percent of teens who said they were uncomfortable by the experience, didnt simply tell the person who made contact to piss off, and placed them on ignore in their IM client?
We don’t know the questions teens are asked in most cases, all we see are the stats and answers given. In this case, the teen could have been uncomfortable simply because that was the only option given to them when asked about random contacts from strangers.
Another report from PEW Internet says that, “Some 93% of youth are online and 94% of their parents are online.” So the teens online are often in the same house as an Internet using parent. What this means is that as a parent, you shouldn’t take most of the stats you see with complete gospel.
Question the stats, and use your own online experience as a judge as well. Remember, they are your children, so you know them better than anyone. Talk to them; get interested what they are doing online. Also, as a parent you have to regulate the rules, but more on that in part two.
One tool to rule them all
There are dozens and dozens of parental control applications online for parents to use to protect their children. One tool is often left out of parental control reviews. Everyone knows of NetNanny, yet how many parents can recall K9, when talking about parental software?
K9 Web Protection is developed by Blue Coat. The program is free, and offers excellent control for your children. The content filtering aspect offers a continuously updated category list of over fifty categories. The content filter is more than “Keyword” based; it uses AI to determine a Web page’s content on the fly.
You can allow or deny access to the Internet based on time of day, the day of the week, or both. There are options for you to allow sites, and block select ones, without blocking an entire category.
Now, like other parental control applications, K9 can be defeated. It can be hard, but it can be defeated.
No, there will be no tricks listed here to explain this. Suffice to say, protecting your children online requires trust. K9 should be used as a tool to help protect children from wandering off the beaten path into a Malware laced Internet. It should not be used as a method of “big brother” monitoring.
However, some parents do restrict access to the point of “big brother,” and for that there is a report in K9’s admin panel that shows every URL visited.
If you are using K9 in a restrictive fashion, then you need to take other steps to lock down the computer that the child has access to. These methods can differ from one operating system to another, but the basics listed below are all the same. You can also find help with these lockdowns online and in the user manual for your operating system.
Restrict the account your child has access to. When you create their account in Windows, ensure that it has only the basic permissions, and is what is called a “limited account”
Use passwords, which the child cannot guess, on your accounts as well as the Administrator account. (Yes there is a user known as Administrator on most systems, and often the password is P4ssw0rd, password, or the field is left blank.)
Deny access to system services, limited accounts will cover most of them but double check them.
Prevent boot from USB.
Another method comes from a Microsoft created tool, which you can get here. ..News Source.. by Steve Ragan
October 7, 2008
Cyber Expert Details Internet-Safety Dangers
10-7-2008 National:
It took computer safety expert Linda Criddle only nine minutes to snag the phone number of a teenage girl in Nebraska who had posted just a little information about herself on a social networking Web site.
Criddle is a former Microsoft employee who specialized in online safety and is the author of a consumer-safety book, "Look Both Ways: Help Protect Your Family on the Internet."
She spoke at the Economic Crime Conference sponsored by the Utah Attorney General's Office on Thursday -- with a message that would send shivers down any parent's spine.
Criddle said social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, can be useful tools, as are other things such as online banking and shopping, which she uses regularly. But she strongly urges consumers to protect themselves with the best safety software available and to be extremely cautious about revealing personal information.
Criddle on Thursday focused primarily on how criminals profile victims through the Internet. The Nebraska teen, Brittany, offered a sobering example.
The girl offered scant written material but posted two photos that could be a road map for crimes -- not only for sexual predators but also for other types of criminals. The first showed a young girl sitting on the porch of her house. Another photo showed the view from her home, with a car and her father in the foreground.
What's the problem?
Criddle pointed out that the girl's socioeconomic status could be determined by the house, car and the child's manner of dress; the house address numbers were visible; the view from the house showed an easily identifiable business; and a railing suggested an older person might live there.
Thieves might want grandma's valuables. Someone could stake out the house from the business across the street and burglarize it. As for Brittany, what little data she provided was enough to reveal... ..Source..
About Linda Criddle and her book "Look Both Ways: Help protect your family on the Internet"
