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Who Will Protect the Children?

Started by Nick O'Neill · 7 months ago

So, the latest thing is age-verification for minors, where sites like MySpace and Facebook confirm the identities of members under 18 and restrict access only to other children or parent-approved adults. Sounds good and solves a basic online security problem, and a big one at that, right? ... Continue reading »

2 comments

  • andrew_feinberg

    7 months ago

    NYT is late to the game on this. ISTTF is, to put it bluntly, a load of crap cooked up to satisfy the State AG's.

    If you really want to talk to someone with a clue, go to the Family Online Safety Institute's conference on December 11th.
    reply
  • Rebecca Newton

    7 months ago

    Here's a novel concept. How about the parent or guardian protecting the children? Hopefully most parent s or guardians wouldn't drop off their child(ren) in Hyde Park in London or Manhatten, NYC and say "Have fun and don't give out your name to anyone!" The net is no different from a large city. You can't just turn kids loose on the web and expect the government and everyone else to take care of them. And giving out social security numbers to marketing sites to verify an age? good grief.
    The added problem is that many kids make up ages to stay "safe". My 11 year old nephew poses as a 38 year old man from Florida because he has learned it's not safe to say who you really are online. I can't fault him. I thought it was quite clever, in fact.
    This is a problem for PARENTS or GUARDIANS and not for the government or corporations.
    reply

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