Facing Online Threats: Children on the Internet

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Facing Online Threats Children on the Internet

• By
• James Knudsen

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Introduction

• What is out there?
• Congressional Acts
• Foundations and Task Forces
• Ways to prevent
• What can parents do?
• Child Internet Crime Statistics

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Congressional Acts

• Communications Decency Act (CDA)
• Child Online Protection Act (COPA)
• Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
• Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

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Communications Decency Act

• Passed in the U.S. Congress Feb. 1, 1996 as part
  of the Telecommunications Reform Bill
• Involved internet content providers distributing
  indecent or patently offensive materials to
  minors
• Law breakers subject to fines around 250,000 and
  sentences up to 2 years

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Communications Decency Act

• Immediate controversy
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) firmly
  against
• Safe sex
• Aids
• June 26, 1997 declared unconstitutional violating
  1st Amendment with patently offensive

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Child Online Protection Act (COPA)

• Passed in 1998
• Made commercial Web sites with material harmful
  to minors subject to criminal action
• Prison sentences up to 6 months and fines up to
  50,000
• Declared Unconstitutional in 1998

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Child Online Protection Act

• Or so we thought..?
• Actually temporarily banned by Supreme Court till
  given enough information on the filtering of
  software
• Brought back in 2007
• District Judge Lowell Reed stopped prosecutors
  from enforcing COPA

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Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA)

• Senator John McCain introduced bill in 1999 and
  signed in December 2000
• Aims to protect children from pornography or
  other harmful materials on the Web
• Required schools and libraries to use
  technological protection on computers with
  internet access to visual depictions that are
  obscene, child pornographic, or harmful to minors

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Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA)

• Again, of to the Supreme Court we go
• Verdict Different upheld June 23, 2003
• Constitutional on institutions in exchange for
  Federal Government funding
• CIPA successful step in protection of children
  from explicit or harmful material on Web

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Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

• Went into effect on April 21, 2000
• Protects childrens privacy of personal
  information
• Collection limited for children under 13
• requires parental consent for first and last
  name, address, email, phone number, and social
  security

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Operation Blue Ridge Thunder

• Works under Bedford County Sheriffs Office in
  Virginia
• Cooperates with law enforcement agencies on all
  levels
• Active and working force apprehending criminals
  and protecting potential victims

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Safe Surfin Foundation

• Began in 2000 supporting Operation Blue Ridge
  Thunder and the Bedford County Sheriffs Offices
  Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force

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Safe Surfin Foundation

• Mission Statement
• to provide people with the information and
  resources necessary to keep children safe and
  allow for children to explore the Internet in a
  fun safe way

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Safe Surfin Foundation

• Works to educate the public about Internet crimes
  against children and how communities can protect
  children from becoming victims
• Allows people to report Internet Crimes directly
  to authorities

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Whats all this Shaq about?

• Shaquille ONeal is the official spokesperson for
  Safe Surfin Foundation
• Underwent training session with Operation Blue
  Ridge Thunder to become Virginia-certified
  law-enforcement

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Ways To Prevent Internet Crimes

• Educating teachers, children, and parents is a
  great way to prevent Internet Crimes
• Understanding how the Internet works, what
  websites children visit, and how pedophiles
  exploit children helps parents and communities
  protect children

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What can Parents do?

• Speak to their children
• People arent always who you think they are
• Participation
• Show how easy it is to lie about identity
• Show what is expectable and unacceptable to post
  on profiles
• Never provide personal information
• 75 percent of children and teens report sharing
  of personal information to strangers in chat
  rooms
• Filtering/monitoring software

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Statistics

• Online pornography/child sex exploitation is the
  most significant crime problem confronting the
  FBI that involves crimes against children
• According to the FBI there is a 100 percent
  chance kids will encounter a sexual predator in
  one of the 40,000-plus chat rooms that criminals
  visit

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Statistics

• Children are reported missing into FBI computer
  program systems at a rate of
• 825,600 kids per year
• 68,800 kids per month
• 16,100 kids per week
• 2300 kids per day
• 96 kids per hour
• 3 kids per minute