I feel bad because I still haven't written up the SXSW Child Protection panel, but here I am again at a great panel on the same subject.
Moderated by CBS' Larry Magid (who wrote a book on Prodigy that I read when I was 7 years old and using my parents computer), this one features (Left to Right in the above picture) Rachel O'Connell of Bebo, Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer of MySpace, Joan Irvine, CEO of the Association of Sites Advocating the Protection of Children, and Adam Theirer, Senior Fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation (and one of our loyal, awesome CV readers).
One of the first topic to come up was how many child protection issues come up across borders in Web 2.0. Ms. O'Connell pointed out that the distinction between the online and offline world has blurred significantly in social media, and we need to stay up to speed on how young people use these technologies and make sure they are used in a positive way. She wants to mitigate risk, instead of taking the attitude that risks can be eliminated. Very smart.
One concern she brought up (keep in mind she's from the UK) is cyber-bullying and social exploitation using offline information, and used a triangle metaphor for securing information:
Location - What are the laws and social circumstances?
Users - emotional and mental health support for some
Mitigation of Misuse - get the message across to ill-doers that they are not anonymous.
Magid segued into while Web 1.0 was about protecting kids from bad adults, Web 2.0 has young people as the bad guys. Examples - Cyber Bullying, "Child created child pornography," etc. How do we deal with this?
Nigam (MySpace) said that "we don't want to compete on safety" and are working with everyone. He said that users need to be educated, and in a way that matters to them. Also, they want to educate non-users (parents). Right now, MySpace is running a campaign to get parents to talk to kids about online safety. It drives traffic to experts on these issues, such as their MySpace Safety website, which educates about things like what to post and what not to post (and that it's forever), Cyber bullying, etc.
"Education has to be relevant to the users you are trying to reach" -- Hemanshu Nigam
Adam Thierer pointed out that a vast majority of "solication" is "teen-on-teen" and that we shouldn't be so shocked. Adam suggests developing methods for intervention when it escalates from what used to be in the hallway to being full-fledged bullying and harassment.
Magid revisited the idea of Government regulation, and asked the panel what the role of Government should be in protecting children.
Ms. O'Connell (Bebo) pointed out that Gordon Brown (PM of Great Britain) has commissioned a psychologist to figure out what the real risks are, if the media is exaggerating the risks, and finding out if there is even a need of intervention. Her report came back (possibly today) and said that many of the doomsday scenarios are propagated by media, and that private industry's solutions are working. The role of the government should be to monitor and to possibly set standards for educating certain professionals, like teachers.
"If we are to educate young people...the department of education has a duty of care to...educate teachers...there is a positive role for government..."
Magid again plays devils advocate and asks what the response is to the constant calls for more regulation. Mr. Nigam hits back and says that the most important role the Government can play is to enforce the laws that already exist. Some money quotes/excerpts:
"A crime is a crime is a crime...enforce the laws against the criminals."
"It is easy...to create fear...it is a much more honourable task to inspire dialogue..."
He points out that one law that is needed is mandatory online education, and that only two states have mandatory online education laws.
When Mr. Nigam was questioned by a father about an incident when a "friend" copied his daughter's information and gave it to a predator after his daughter had taken her site down. He claims the FBI believes he should be suing MySpace, and asked what MySpace is doing to prevent this kind of "mirroring" or "identify theft." Nigam noted that MySpace has options to prevent some copying and privacy settings, and that the legal responsibility probably lies with the third party. He also (correctly) stressed that this another example of a need for education. Nigam is totally on top of this. "If someone calls you and tries to kill you, you call the police, not sue the phone company."
Magid wrapped things up by pointing out that there is information that maybe he wouldn't put online himself, and education is definitely a solution.
Great panel. Hopefully more from some of the panelists later.
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