According to a recent report released by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, children are far more likely to be bullied by their peers than approached by an adult predator online. Shocking? No, not really.
The report is the product of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, created in February 2008 in accordance with the Joint Statement on Key Principles of Social Networking Safety announced in January 2008 by the Attorneys General Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking and MySpace. The scope of the Task Force’s inquiry was to consider those technologies that industry and end usersincluding parentscan use to help keep minors safer on the internet. However, the findings on the types of threats minors face are the interesting part. Sadly, the report makes no real recommendations for technologies to improve online safety.
The report finds that kids interacting on social networking sites are relatively safe from online predators. Although sexual predation on minors by adults, both online and offline, remains a concern, “the image presented by the media of an older male deceiving and preying on a young child does not paint an accurate picture of the nature of the majority of sexual solicitations and Internet-initiated offline encounters.” BoardBuzz thinks the report is trying to say that our kids are pretty sophisticated online. Nevertheless, there is some controversy over these findings.
As the Washington Post reports:
In other words, children are about as savvy online as they are offline, said Ernie Allen, president of the Alexandria-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which contributed to the report.
“The vast majority of kids in this country have heard the messages about the risks online and are basically dealing with them as a nuisance, as a fact of life, and aren’t particularly vulnerable,” he said. “This report should not be read as saying there are not adults out there doing this.”
But some state attorneys general are upset about a report that, they argue, lulls parents into a false sense of security. One, South Carolina’s Henry McMaster, recently blasted the report, saying its findings are “as disturbing as they are wrong.”
“Rapid technological advances with mobile phones, PDAs, video gaming systems and online social networking sites place our children more at risk from predators than at anytime before,” he wrote in a letter posted online. “Our arrest rate is only limited by the amount of resources.”
BoardBuzz thinks the issue here is one of media exposure. For the most part, the everyday bullying and harassment of children online goes largely unreported even though they “are the most frequent threats that minors face,” the report says. Children concede that sexual harassment and propositions occur between minors, but such incidents “are understudied, underreported to law enforcement, and are not part of most conversations about online safety,” it adds. BoardBuzz was intrigued by some of the statistics the study provides in this area:
- Children identify most sexual solicitors as being other adolescents (48%; 43%) or young adults between the ages of 18 and 21 (20%; 30%), with few (only 4%; 9%) coming from older adults and the remaining being of unknown age (Finkelhor et al. 2000; Wolak et al. 2006).
- Not all solicitations are from strangers; 14% come from offline friends and acquaintances (Wolak et al. 2006, 2008b).
- Youth typically ignore or deflect solicitations without experiencing distress (Wolak et al. 2006); 92% of the responses amongst Los Angeles-based youth to these incidents were deemed “appropriate” (Rosen et al. 2008).
- Of those who have been solicited, 2% have received aggressive and distressing solicitations (Wolak et al. 2006).
- Though solicitations themselves are reason for concern, few solicitations result in offline contact.
- Social network sites do not appear to have increased the overall risk of solicitation.
Too little is known about the interplay among risks and the role that minors themselves play in contributing to unsafe environments. So says the report, and BoardBuzz wholeheartedly agrees. If you keep up with the news, you’re probably familiar with the story of six high-school students in Greensburgh, Pennsylvania arrested on child pornography charges. Three were girls who allegedly took pictures of themselves, and were charged with manufacturing, disseminating, or possessing child pornography. Three were boys who were found with the explicit photos on their phones and were charged with possession of child pornography. Apparently, this is a new and alarming trend called “sexting” where teens send nude or provocative photos to one another via mobile phones. We’re not sure if legal prosecution is the best strategy though. Research conducted by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy last month revealed that 20% of teens in the U.S. say they have sent or posted lewd photos or video of themselves.
BoardBuzz is left wondering what we should do with such information? According to a 2006 National Crime Prevention Council study, 40% of teens surveyed had experienced some form of cyberbullying in their lifetime. Clearly, anti-bullying and online safety efforts are a must. The Post says that the feds will be looking at this issue more than ever this year. “Under recently passed bills, the Department of Commerce and the Federal Communications Commission have been assigned roles to begin online safety awareness programs and evaluate technologies that filter inappropriate content away from children. What’s more, the Obama administration is planning to appoint the nation’s first chief technology officer, and the topic of online safety is likely to be a priority for that office.” That sounds like a good start.
NSBA’s Legal Clips recently reported that California has joined the growing number of states that have passed laws against cyberbullying. According to U.S. News & World Report’s “On Education” blog, as of January 1, officials in California schools may suspend or expel students who harass their peers through cyberbullying. Like California’s law, anti-cyberbullying laws passed in other states call on school districts to develop policies regarding cyberbullying detection and punishment. Other states with cyberbullying laws include: Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, and Washington.
NSBA’s Technology Leadership Network (TLN) has posted free resources on cyberbullying and state laws, including a free package of materials offered in partnership with CyberSmart! to “offer schools the opportunity to begin a dialogue with students and build a sustained cyberbullying prevention campaign to continually remind the school community about safe, ethical online use.”
There are certainly new alarming ways for children to get into trouble online. What do you think? How does your district deal with cyberbullying and other online safety issues?




