Harvard Joins Forces with Chris Hanson. Sort of
We here at Boston Daily love the internet. Anything that allows us to shop without wearing pants is okay in our book. But the Web has a seedy side that can allow predators to exploit teenagers without putting on their pants. Not okay.
As any channel-surfer who finds himself mesmerized by a marathon of To Catch a Predator can testify, these people do get dressed and then they try to meet the unsuspecting kids. But that may happen less now that Harvard has been enlisted to help keep kids safe.
A group of Internet law scholars from Harvard Law have joined the Internet Safety Technical Task Force. The group was created as part of an agreement with 49 attorneys general from around America to investigate ways to verify Web user’s age, and to keep kids away from inappropriate content and people.
Internet giants like MySpace, Facebook, and Google are participating in the investigation. Even AOL is helping out. But where’s Chris Hanson’s name on that list? When all the technological innovation fails, he can be there to chide the pervert into giving up his computer.
Photo by SilentJay74.
February 28th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
This is great, and needs to be done. My Space and the rest of them to change their sites to stop all the 10-14 year old kids from signing up. What does it say about the parents who actually know their child has a page, and has allowed that child to lie about their age to have that page??
Make it harder to have a page, such as having to give a valid credit card number or something…or have a completely separate “teen” site, where at the very least the ads would be appropriate. Of course, nothing is stopping an older person from pretending to be a teen in that sense, but it is a start.
March 1st, 2008 at 1:27 pm
FROM DR. LARRY ROSEN Professor of Psychology and Internet researcher: When I originally read the press release I had to stifle hysterical laughter. I’m sure that they have finally figured it out!!! An electronic solution! Wow! That is sure to stop those young kids from being online…. Yep .. that’s right. Let’s provide parents and social networks with more unusable electronic leashes. What happened to providing “parenting” instruction to these parents so that there is no reason for the kids to do anything bad without being aware of the consequences? I don’t know what the task force costs but it is a band aid solution at best (and a leaky one at that). Do they really think that better electronic solutions are going to do anything at all to this generation of techno-savvy kids? You may as well try to hold your hands up to stop a tsunami. Within a few minutes of instituting any electronic barriers, the kids will have a “work-around” posted on their MySpace page and on a variety of websites that already have work-arounds for other electronic “solutions.” Perhaps parents would be better served to read my book: “Me, MySpace, and I: Parenting the Net Generation” for information on “real” solutions that involve no electronic barriers. More information about my work can be found at http://www.Me-MySpace-and-I.com