Children and the Internet: Not so bad?

Two recent developments seem to indicate that children might not require as much protection from the Internet as public policy makers once thought.

On December 31, the Internet Safety Technical Task Force released its Final Report. This group was created in February 2008 by the "Attorneys General Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking and MySpace" to consider technologies that industry and end users, including parents, could use to help keep minors safer on the Internet. The Final Report concluded, however, that the problem of bullying among children (online and offline) is a more serious challenge than the sexual solicitation of children by adults, and that minors are actually unlikely to be propositioned by adults online.

Then on January 21, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which was enacted by Congress in 1998 and immediately challenged in the courts, died a quiet death when the US Supreme Court rejected the Act without comment. COPA would have required US-based websites displaying anything that might violate "contemporary community standards" to block minors from accessing the material, but the court system repeated found that COPA was over-broad and violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution.

Australia's Internet filtering in the news

Australia's plan to mandate nationwide Internet filtering is attracting a lot of attention and significant opposition.

The proposed system filters the Internet at two levels. First, all Australian Internet service providers (ISPs) must block access to around 10,000 Web sites on a list maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Second, ISPs are required to provide an optional filter that individuals could use to block other Internet material deemed unsuitable for children. The government has allocated 45 million Australian dollars ($30.7 million) for the filtering.

Now, however, some Australian ISPs have expressed reservations about participating in tests of the filter system. Two of the largest ISPs have refused altogether to join trials and others will only commit to testing less extensive filtering.

Additionally, a government report commissioned in 2007 and released just before Christmas points to many difficulties with implementing such a scheme. Children's safety organizations seem to be split in their opinions of the plan, with some supporting it while others question its effectiveness and cost.

Other nations have other approaches to controlling dangerous content on the Internet. In Egypt and Iran, bloggers have been imprisoned; in North Korea there is virtually no Internet access; China has a pervasive filtering system; and Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have filters, but they are voluntary. In the United States, Pennsylvania briefly imposed requirements for ISPs to block child-pornography sites, but a federal court struck down the law because the filters also blocked legitimate sites.