Safe Internet Alliance

Here at the Safe Internet Alliance blog, we've talked about the precautions parents can take when protecting their children online. But how much responsibility is placed on the websites your children visit?

Australia's Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, thinks these sites should bear more responsibility. Speaking before the Youth Advisory Group, he and its members suggested that sites host an anonymous chat tool so that children could have instant access to site administrators if they run into any problems on social networks.

The Youth Advisory group has launched a CyberSmart website, which "consists of a number of resources for teachers, parents and students, including guides to assist schools in addressing cyber safety issues, information about how children of different ages engage with online technologies, advice for parents and safe social networking for teens." The group has also invested $3 million in battling cyber bullying in 150 Australian schools.

Over in the United States, cyber bullying continues to be a persistent problem. Lori Drew, the infamous mother who cyber bullied a teenager until she committed suicide, recently had a case dismissed against her because of the vague Terms of Service agreement found on Myspace:

"Letting the convictions stand would have made a criminal out of anyone who violates the often vague service terms of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, Wu wrote in his ruling."

People who lie about their age or appearance, students who post candid photos of their classmates without permission and parents who send mass messages about their children's Girl Scout cookie drives - all violations of MySpace's service terms - would be breaking the law, Wu wrote."

Often times, social networking Terms of Service agreements go unread or are not properly understood. Because of the legalese in which they are written, children may have a hard time understanding the rules and regulations that they set forth.

Earlier this year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on preserving digital freedom of speech, launched a site called TOSBack. As described by its website, it "was created to help you monitor the policies for the websites you use everyday, and show how they change over time." TOSBack monitors the Terms of Service agreements for over 50 websites, including Facebook, Google, Myspace, and Twitter. It marks the date that the agreement is updated and highlights any changes that are made.

As the Safe Internet Alliance president, Linda Criddle, noted in August, "[if] your kids or teens are using social networking sites, but you haven’t tried these sites out for yourself, you need to jump in. These sites aren’t ‘bad’ or ‘scary’ and you may discover you really enjoy reaching out to your own friends, family, and others that share your interests." Use this opportunity to read the Terms of Service of the site together with your child, so you can both understand the complex issues and rules that govern most social networks.

So to return to our original question: How much responsibility is placed on the websites your children visit? There is evidence that social networks are working to crack down on abuse being carried out on their sites (a few years ago, for instance, Myspace removed thousands of registered sex offenders), but in the end it will remain a careful balance. Website security isn't full-proof, so it's important to remain educated about the limits and regulations on the site, and what to do if your child experiences cyber bullying.