Living in a post convergence world

4:22:42 PM EST
Time magazine has selected You as their Person of the Year.  All of you who blog, upload photos, videos, personal stories, web cam journals, cell phone photos of live events or just your dog out on a walk.  It seems we moved beyond being passive consumers of the vast wasteland and are contributing to it in digital bucketloads.



So you won't be surprised to hear that although the new year is only two days old, the New York Times has discovered the next big thing/threat to the net.  Live unfiltered video feeds from web cams.  We've had video feed before.  What makes sites like Stickam.com so different is their use of live feeds and their almost unrestricted display of them. 

Having spent an hour or so on the site today, I can see what some of the fuss is about.  The site warns a great deal that children under the age of 14 are not allowed, though in their Terms of Service they freely admit that although they have a 14 or over rule, it is "easy for children to lie about their age and thus gain access to Content which may be inappropriate and unintended for them."

This is MySpace without the filters.  The video feeds come up quickly and running alongside the 17 year old young women who was acting out infront of her cam, were live feeds of a half dozen (mostly male) members looking in, typing her comments and, after a while, calling her on the phone.  We could listen in to her conversation while also sending her text messages - some of which she responded to, most she ignored as they were lewd, crude and outrageous.  She seemed oblivous to all the taunts and suggestions that she lose her clothes, though she did show off her tatoos and piercings. 

This site is definitely not for the pre-teen crowd, nor for that matter the squeamish or easily offended.  It is quite hypnotic watching someone watch herself watch others watching her while on the phone while answering yours and others text messages.  Welcome to the new year!



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4:53:03 PM EST
There is a fascinating debate going on today at the Wall St Journal site that pits John Morris of the Center for Democracy and Technology against Richard Whidden of the National Law Center for Children and Families on the issue of legislation to protect kids online.  I have posted my response to the debate below:



You pose the question:  "Should parents or Web site owners shoulder the responsibility of keeping inappropriate content from kids?"  It is not an either/or solution,  but a both and more response that we need.  Yes, website owners should act responsibly when they create and post material that either is or could be considered to be "harmful to minors".  And, yes, parents must also act responsibly to shield their children from the worst of the web through a combination of filtering tools and family rules about how, when and where their kids can access the web.

And, of course, government has a critical role to play in providing oversight, enacting exiting laws and providing financial support - not for endless legal wrangling over unconstitutional laws, such as COPA - but for large scale public education campaigns.

As a member of the 2000 COPA Commission, these arguments were played out over many hearings over a period of nine months in many parts of the country.  It became obvious to us that the Internet was totally unlike any medium that has gone before.  It is not possible to use 20th century broadcast legal regimes on a medium that is not centrally controlled and that knows no boundaries.  The European Commission recognized this fact back in 1999 and set up the Safer Internet Action Program and made over 35 million Euros available for the development of labeling tools (such as ICRA), filtering tools and public education campaigns.  What a fantastic model for the US Government to emulate, rather than this steady stream of failed legislative attempts to regulate legal (though potentially harmful) material.

On a final point, let's not forget the difference between harmful and offensive.  Many (though not I) found the Janet Jackson display to be offensive.  I have yet to read an authoritative psychological study that suggests her displaying her breast caused actual harm.  Let's do the research and let's study the effects of this "objectionable" content, before we leap to make new laws.  In the meantime, parents - use the History button on your browser; select Strict Filtering in Google's Preferences and don't, whatever you do, put a web-enabled PC in your child's bedroom.



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5:30:26 PM EDT
This is probably the best story to emerge from our post-convergence world.  The international news agency, Reuters, now has a bureau chief working within Second Life, the online virtual world where ordinary individuals take on extraordinary characteristics.  Check out Reuter's regular reports here.



Adam Pasick is a real life journalist who has specialized in technology for many years.  He will now devote his time to reporting on and providing real time news to the world of Second Life.  For my first description of this new world, have a look here.  

Whether this is a news-generating gimmick or whether we are seeing the beginning of an extraordinary new development remains to be seen.  Naturally enough, Congress is now looking into whether to tax Second Lifers for their online gains as some folk are making quite alot of money (or Lindens) out of their online existence. 


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4:24:53 PM EDT
The following has nothing whatsoever to do with technology, parental controls, legislation or new kinds of digital content.  What it is about is an inspiring and incredible story of parental love and care and determination that is truly staggering.



Have a look at the remarkable (short) video at: http://cjcphoto.com/can/


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6:19:44 PM EDT
Congressman Mark Foley of Florida's resignation has sent shock waves across Washington, coming as it does in the run-up of mid-term elections.  And it has ramifications that cut to the core of the questions of protecting children and young adults  not only from harmful content, but, equally, harmful and inappropriate contact on the web.  Ironically, Rep. Foley had very close ties to this issue.  He chaired the House caucus on missing and child exploitation and played a key role in the recent Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.  Here is what the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had to say on their website:

"In response to the numerous media inquiries we have received, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is issuing the following statement regarding the resignation of Florida Congressman Mark Foley:

News reports regarding interactions over the Internet between former Congressman Mark Foley and Congressional pages are deeply troubling and convey strong suggestions of child sexual exploitation. NCMEC is not privy to the specific facts of the case and thus, it is inappropriate for NCMEC to comment or speculate about them.

Child sexual exploitation via the Internet has become an enormous problem, reaching into every aspect of society. It is imperative that every person become more vigilant and that we enhance steps to keep children safe online.

Congressman Foley has been an effective and dedicated Member of Congress. Nonetheless, if it is determined that he has engaged in acts which have harmed children or put them in jeopardy, like any other person, he must be held accountable. If he has violated the law, he should be prosecuted."

Very well said.  Of course, as a parent, I am appalled that a respected and long-term public representative could have carried on in this way and, seemingly, with the full knowledge of others in Congress who could have acted, but didn't .  This is not a party political issue.  This takes us back to the reality that child sexual predators have no obvious profile, apart from (mostly) being male.  Once again, we need to ask ourselves what are the mixture of biological, social, psychological and emotional factors that lead ordinary men - many of them in positions of power and high responsibility - to act out in this way?  A good deal of soul searching and much greater psychological research is needed to unearth this elusive and difficult question. 


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4:37:47 PM EDT
Last week was fairly momentous in the life of the Internet Content Rating Association.  We held our fifth Roundtable, entitled, "Rate Speech, Labeling, filtering and regulating in a converging, digital content world" in the Time-Life building in New York City right opposite Radio City Music Hall on 6th Ave.  With over 30 leaders in their field, we had an intensely interesting discussion about how the issue of child protection will shift and change as we enter a post convergence world - a world where it is taken for granted that digital content shows up on all kinds of devices, anywhere, anytime.  An excellent summary of the event can be seen at Adam Theirer's blog at the Progress and Freedom Foundation site:
http://blog.pff.org/archives/2006/09/summary_of_late.html



After an all day ICRA Board meeting held on Thursday, I traveled back to DC to sit on a panel organized by the Internet Education Foundation to speak on the new mandatory labeling bill that is currently attached to no less than three pieces of legislation in the US Congress.  The video podcast of the event can be seen here. 





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10:17:30 AM EDT

This blog has taken a long summer break.  Here are some thoughts that occurred to me while hiking in Jackson Hole, WY and Yellowstone Park in August:

The Internet is not what it used to be.  We have moved from a Web 1.0 world, where websites were mostly static, published material with limited abilities for downloads to a Web 2.0 world of dynamic, interactive, social networking sites.  Where users are more likely to upload, produce, publish and mash-up then simply consume content.  The web has also gone mobile with a high degree of convergence across all kinds of screens.  Always on.  Anytime.  Anywhere.  Kids are walking around with the Internet in their pockets.

The Internet Content Rating Association and those of us working in the child protection arena have a unique and historic opportunity to seize on the heightened global awareness of this issue and the increasingly loud calls for “something to be done” by lawmakers – particularly in the United States, but also across Europe.  We all believe in protecting children from the worst of the web.  What is at dispute is how to do this. Should governments censor certain types of content or mandate the use of an adult label?  Or can the international internet industry rally round a comprehensive and cohesive set of policies, technologies and public education messages and demonstrate beyond any doubt, that it is capable of rising to the challenge of child protection?  This is the critical question that we must respond to.  

 The primary motivating force impacting our work today is what is widely known as Web 2.0.  This rather imprecise term has come to mean a world of social networking sites such as MySpace, Xanga and Facebook.  It also refers to the converging worlds of television, games, mobile devices and online content and services that have blurred the traditional notions of regulation, control and child protection.  Not only is everyone a potential publisher, but the technology to create and post videos, for instance, has made film producers of us all.  And it is a world where children are leading the way in terms of adoption and take-up. 

This is not to say that the legislators have not been trying to catch up.  In the US, the Department of Justice created language in a bill, now taken up by Congress that would create a government-mandated labeling regime for sexually explicit content, to be run by the Federal Trade Commission.  EU Commissioner Vivian Reding has called, at our own Roundtable in Brussels, for the regulation of all digital content, no matter what platform it appears on.  The Germans continue to implement the Youth Protection Act, approved two years ago, that would approve specific labeling and filtering methods as providing a safe harbor for sites with adult material.

In 2000, the US Congressional COPA Commission looked in much detail at the tools and methods, then available, to protect children from potentially harmful material on the Internet.  The ensuing report suggested that we needed a broad-based approach that employed technology, public education and greater law enforcement of existing laws.  Six years later, the need to find and implement the right balance of government oversight, comprehensive industry self-regulation and much greater parental education and involvement is greater than ever.

With all of this in mind, what are the key drivers and the required actions to address this new world.  Here are a few:

Ø      If there will always be a demand for legal, “adult” material and, it will not go away, then we need to find new and innovative ways to shield children from it.

Ø      If we can’t escape the politics associated with this work, then we must engage and educate lawmakers and policy makers around the world in this field of work.

Ø      If metadata is critical to the success of our work, then we must continue to lead in our specialist areas of the Semantic Web work within the W3C and other venues.

Ø      If  the technology changes constantly and governments cannot keep pace, then industry needs to be at the cutting edge of new technologies and invest resources to stay on the leading edge.

Ø      If  industry prefers self-regulation over government mandated “solutions”, then it is critical to get the major industry players to agree to and support a coordinated course of action.

Ø      If kids are leading their parents in the use and uptake of the new technologies, then they need to have a voice at the table and parents must learn from, yet not abdicate their responsibilities to, their children.

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8:14:29 PM EDT
I attended the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) Dialogue on Social Networking Web Sites conference today.  Ernie Allen, the National Center's President and CEO amassed an impressive array of industry, NGO, law enforcement and policy makers in one room to debate the phenomenom that is MySpace, Xanga, Facebook and all the other compelling sites that combine blogs, e-mail, instant messaging and the uploading of photos and videos of (mostly) kids of all shapes, sizes and ages. 



We heard from leading pediatricians about the dangers lurking in these new virtual spaces for kids to reveal too much about themselves, become attached to total strangers and go and meet them at the local mall.  Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called  for an outright ban of anyone under 16 being able to access such sites and Adam Theirer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation asking why we let these "creeps" out of jail after serving only three years for molesting young kids.

Allen did a masterful job of summing up the major themes he detected during the 8-hours of discussions.  These included:

1)  That kids get it.  They (mostly) understand the risks and, in general, protect their identity.  The many public safety messges are having a real effect, but more needs to be done.

2)  We need to find the right balance.  How can we keep the kids safe on these sites, without driving them away with onerous safety checks and over zealous warnings. 

3)  Social networking sites also get it.  MySpace has hired an ex-prosector to head up their safety efforts.  Xanga have launched a unique labeling system.  Others are coming up with new and ingenious ways to keep their users safe.

4)  Peer education makes sense.  Teens teaching teens and providing a role model to other kids about having fun and staying safe.  Much more needs to be done to bring young people into the dialogue and be part of the planning process.

5)  Law enforcement needs more help.  There needs to be more in the way of data retention to go after the bad players when trouble arises.

6)  Best practices need to be shared.  We must learn from each other and, in particular, from companies and associations overseas that have already established robust models to follow.

7)  Self-policing is part of the mix.  Much more can be done with self-labeling, third-party labeling and using the collective wisdom of the group or community to keep others in line.

8)  We need better data.  While the press are making a great deal of noise about many of the scare stories, what is the actual, statistical basis for all this fear and foreboding about social networking sites?  More research is needed.

My own impressions left me with the feeling that the technology will continue to disrupt and upend our best efforts to keep kids safe while also allowing them the freedom and privacy to explore themselves and their online alter egos.  It also feels to me we are overdue for a follow up to the COPA Commission (which I served on) and the Commission report which did a balanced job to assess the tools and methods then available in 2000 to protect kids online while remaining respectful of free expression rights.  It's time for some wise heads to get together to scope out the new Web 2.0 world of blogs, mash-ups and YouTube and to create a new consensus on the right balance of reasonable government oversight, industry self-regulation and parental empowerment.


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8:08:24 PM EDT
Have a look at the report from Tom Espiner of ZDNet of our Roundtable entitled, "Mission Impossible" in Brussels yesterday:

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39275180,00.htm


And here is Adam Thierer's excellent write-up of the event on his PFF blog:

http://blog.pff.org/archives/2006/06/reflections_on_3.html



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1:11:53 PM EDT

EU Commissioner Viviane Reding to Offer Opening Address

The Progress & Freedom Foundation and the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) will be co-hosting a private roundtable discussion on Wednesday, June 14th in Brussels near the headquarters of the European Commission to discuss issues surrounding digital content. "Mission Impossible? - Protecting Children and Free Expression in Our New, Digital Content World," will assemble content providers and communications industry representatives to discuss the role of private content controls and governmental regulation in light of today's converging media platforms.

Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media for the European Commission, will give the opening address at the roundtable. In her position, Commissioner Reding oversees the regulation of audiovisual content, and has proposed a new Audiovisual Directive to reform the "Television Without Frontiers Directive". Reding also leads the "Safer Internet plus Programme," that attempts to address "harmful" online content throughout the European Union.

"The challenge of protecting children while also safeguarding freedom of speech has always been a difficult balancing act," explains event co-host Adam Thierer, PFF Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Digital Media Freedom. "With this event, we hope to find new, self-regulatory solutions that can help us achieve this balance while also avoiding excessive government intervention." Thierer has written extensively on content controls and government media regulation. Recently, Thierer published, "Parents Have Many Tools to Combat Objectionable Media Content," a Progress on Point that provides an extensive list of tools available to parents to block objectionable content, illustrating that federal legislation is not needed.

"As ever more digital content flows across borders and devices become increasingly mobile, protecting children from potentially harmful content is more and more difficult," said Stephen Balkam, CEO at ICRA. "Bringing together representatives from all areas of the global digital media industry, as well as law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies, to candidly debate the topic, enables us to help shape the new tools and methods needed, in order to better protect children online, whilst maintaining the rights of free speech."

Links

• Press contact
• Progress and Freedom Foundation website
• Recent (relevant!) blog entry by Adam Thierer
• Viviane Reding's EU homepage

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