It seems Congress may be getting the message that Internet safety education — rather than mandatory censorship or burdensome regulatory regimes — represents the brightest hope for protecting kids online. In recent weeks, we’ve been pleased to see bills introduced in the House and Senate that direct the Federal Trade Commission to conduct a public awareness and education campaign on Internet safety.

Representative Melissa Bean (D-IL) introduced the SAFER NET Act — “Safeguarding America’s Families by Enhancing and Reorganizing New and Efficient Technologies Act” (H.R. 3461) — that directs the FTC to create a program to educate “families, businesses, organizations and other users” about how safely to engage in e-commerce, and protect “against threats to financial information and privacy, threats from cyber-crime, and threats to juveniles, including cyber-predators and material that is inappropriate for minors.”

Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) introduced a bill (S. 1965) with nearly identical language. His “Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act” also directs the FTC to conduct a public awareness and education campaign, but with the narrower focus of promoting “safe online activity for children,” protecting “children from cyber-crimes, including crimes by online predators,” and helping “parents shield their children from material that is inappropriate for minors.” (Although CDT supports the education provisions of this bill, we have serious concerns about other parts of the legislation.)

Both the SAFER NET Act and the Stevens bill would provide substantial funding for these education campaigns: approximately $10 million over the next two years.

CDT has consistently advocated educating parents and children about how to be safe and smart online; and about what technological tools are available to help them tailor a family friendly Internet experience. A 2002 study by the National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences) entitled “Youth, Pornography and the Internet” strongly emphasized the need to cultivate media literacy in young people and to specifically teach them “what constitutes safe Internet behavior and how to recognize dangerous, inappropriate situations” (p. 222). Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation recently published a report that similarly focuses on Internet education, and also discusses parental controls for the Internet and other communications platforms.

Teaching kids to make smart decisions for themselves and encouraging parents to become involved in their children’s lives is certain to be more effective than government-mandated website blocking, age verification, parental consent, or other similar web censorship regimes. CDT encourages Congress (and state legislatures) to fund programs aimed at educating parents and minors about the benefits and risks of the Internet, and how they can have positive online experiences.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Free Expression. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.