KIDS' PRIVACY ON THE NET

 

As educators and parents we want kids to use computers. We want them to take advantage of all resources available on-line. The Internet is full of good information and sites that kids can learn from and use. The Internet connects kids globally to other kids. The number of kids using the Internet grows rapidly each day. However, there are risks involved when kids are online, they become more vulnerable.

Introduction:

What risks are involved when kids are online? Kids are vulnerable to several things online including commercial sites, chat rooms, web content and pedophiles.

Businesses want to market to kids because they have a major influence over what their parents or grandparents will buy. Kids impact greatly on our economy and business leaders know that, so they target adds to entice kids. There are risks associated with commercial sites. Many of the commercial sites that kids visit ask for personal information from kids such as their names, addresses, and email accounts so that the business can spam or target their household to buy their products. Many times this is done by offering gifts or games if they tell the personal information. The gathering of too much personal information with out parental consent is not a good thing. Businesses should not be allowed to entice kids by giving them a toy or prize for giving away their right to privacy.

Kid safe sites do exist that are set up just for kids. These sites are great because parents do not have to worry about their child being asked personal information questions. This is not always true. Some of the kid safe sites actually extract personal information from kids too. Most, if not all "kid safe" sites have very good intentions for their producing a site such as the site Vice-President Al Gore set up so that he could communicate with kids through email correspondence. But according to the wire services article entitled, " Web site altered to remove questions to kids", Mr. Gore had to change his site because in order to correspond with the Vice-President children were asked their name and email address. This goes against the law that President Clinton signed and will be in effect in 2001 that "prohibits such questions to children on commercial web sites unless companies first obtain a parent's permission." (10) This new law will help protect children from giving away personal information and thus giving up their privacy.

COPA (Child Online Protection Act) is a law that states that it is a "crime for commercial sites to give minors access to harmful material, defines as any communciation that depicts simulated sexual act or sexual contact and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value". (3) However, this law was found unconstitutional because it was non effective, the least restrictive, and burdened protected speech. Children are protected by the FTC Federal Trade Commission Consumer Protection Bureau under Section 5 of the FTC Act. The FTC "considers the collection and sale of information from children without due disclosure and parental consent to be an unfair practice" under this section.

The vast amount of content available on the Internet is overwhelming. Kids love to learn about new and exciting things. Are there sites on the net that are not suitable for kids? Yes, there are many sites that contain material that would be deemed harmful to children such as pornography, sex, violence, and hate groups. It is easy to accidently pull up a site that contains these items. According to the "Parents, Kids, and Pronography on the Internet" article written by the SuperKids site, there are 12,896,710 pages that include the word sex. The SuperKids article also believes that it is the "high frequency of unintentional exposures" to this material that is alarming. Kids do not have to seek out pornography to find pornography.(7)

Chat rooms are yet another risk that kids take when they surf the net. Chat rooms filled with kids were setup initially so that kids could communicate and hang out with kids from all over the global community. Chat rooms allow kids to freely express themselves and build good communication skills. However, chat rooms are a means for pedophiles to prey upon kids and commit acts that are illegal. If you want to know more about pedophiles and what risks are involved for kids see the Computer Crime and Hackers white paper.

Ways to Protect Kid's Privacy:

Banning the use of the Internet entirely is the only sure way to protect your child from online risks, but this is not realistic. Kids will compare the Internet to the library with its vast amount of information and sources. There are several other ways to protect a child online. The best protection is by guiding or supervising their navigation. There are also tips or guidelines you can follow.

Tips or guidelines on using the Internet:

• "Never give out identifying information such as Name, Home address, school name, or telephone number in a chat room or on a bulletin board.
• Never send a picture of yourself to anyone without checking with your parents.
• Tell a parent or guardian if you come across information that makes you feel uncomfortable.
• Never plan a face-to-face meeting alone with someone you met online.
• Do not accept email, files, links, or url's from people you do not know.
• Follow the ground rules for using the Internet set up with your parents in your home." (taken from SAFEKids.com & Safety Tips for Kids on the Internet) (1,2)

Look for privacy policies stated on the sites. A privacy policy will tell you what type of information is retrieved and what the site will do with that information. Make sure that the privacy policy is stated clearly and not written in technical lingo.

Filtering systems are blocking agents that allow only certain types of information and sites to come into the computer browser. These systems are not always 100% reliable and can also block out some "good" information as well. There are many types of filtering systems available. If you want more information about filtering systems check out "Filtering Sites".

Educational Ramifications:

Privacy issues affecting the school setting are much like those affecting parents at home. Just as we teach our own children the do's and don't of navigating the web- as teachers we have a responsibility to teach proper web usage and guidelines in the classroom. We want our students to use the Internet and explore the vast amount of information that awaits them.

The best way to protect our students is by teaching web responsibility. Showing our students how to search responsibly will elevate many concerns and problems in the future.

In the younger grades setting up bookmarks for the sites that you want them to visit and only allowing these sites will help them understand and value what a "good" site looks like.

Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) are a step to teaching both parents and students what responsibilities they have as web users.

Privacy policies stated on the web site as a prerequisite for viewing would also set up a valuable practice for finding credible sites.

Teach children that all the information on the web is not accurate and teach them how to judge credible web information. If you want more information regarding web credibility read the Credibility group's white paper.

Filtering systems are used in many schools to block the unwanted material that is many times deemed "inappropriate" for children. Remember to teach web responsibility even if you have a filtering system because a student needs to be responsible outside of school as well where filtering systems are not the norm.

Surfing cautiously and not casually will help to reduce the number of problems kids will encounter when using the Internet.

1) Federal Bureau of Investigation Educational Web Publication, "Safety Tips for Kids on the Internet"

2) "Kids' Rule for Online Safety" adapted from the Child Safety on the Information Highway written by Lawrence Magid.

3) Macavinta, Courtney CNET News, "Child Protection Hearing Held Up", Philadelphia January 20, 1999

4) McCullagh, Declan "CDAII Has its Day in Court" Wired News, Philadelphia, January 20, 1999

5) News and Events Daily Briefing "Protecting Minors or Curbing Free Speech?" Thursday, February 4, 1999

6) Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, "Fact Sheet No. 21: Children in Cyberspace", San Diego, CA December 28, 1998

7) SuperKids Educational Software Review, "Parents, Kids, and Pornography on the Internet: A SuperKids Special Report" Saturday, February 27, 1999

8) Scheivits, Tanya "Schools Cope with Keeping Kids in Line While Online Internet smut Challenge Educators" SanFrancisco Chronicle, Tuesday, February 2, 1999

9) Swartz, Jon "How Best to Protect Kids Online" San Francisco Chronicle, Monday February 1, 1999

10) Wire Services, "Web Site Altered to Remove Questions to Kids" Springfield State Journal Registar March 1999.