Anyone with children surfing the Internet is no doubt worried about just who may be watching their kids at the same time.A recent analysis by the Internet Safety Technical Task Force points out that child exploitation on the Internet and elsewhere is a concern, however online social networks, like Facebook and MySpace, are not at fault for the majority of it since most reported cases preceeded their existence.
Other findings from the report include:
* Children are unlikely to be propositioned by adults online unless they are willing participants and are already at risk because of poor home environments, substance abuse or other problems;
* Despite some high-profile cases, "bullying and harassment, generally by peers, are the most frequent threats that minors face," both online and offline.
The task force was formed a year ago by the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking, a joint effort of the 50 federal state attorneys general, led by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.
Finally, the task force evaluated age verification and identity authentication, filtering and auditing, text analysis, and biometrics technology that some feel could help strengthen the security of social networks. Ultimately, the task force discovered that many of the technologies had potential but that nearly all of them work in a way that some might see as invasions of their privacy.
The task force was comprised of organizations—including AOL, Facebook, Google, MySpace and Yahoo!
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