The FTC on Dec. 10 will unveil the results of its congressionally mandated examination of online virtual worlds like the popular platform Second Life, an agency official told a Commerce Department Internet safety working group Tuesday. Commission attorney Phyllis Hurwitz Marcus said the report will include recommendations for best practices for industry, parents and youth. The examination was required under the 2009 omnibus appropriations bill but Congress didn't give the FTC much guidance other than asking them to zero in on "explicit content," Marcus said.
The agency first had to decide what constituted "explicit content" and investigators decided to fold sexually explicit and violent material into the 90-day probe. The study targeted virtual worlds populated by those under age 13; those popular among older youth; and sites that are populated mainly by adults, she said. FTC employees traversed a sampling of virtual worlds in search of explicit content, which Marcus said was "really outside of our comfort zone."
The FTC will likely recommend in an upcoming report that virtual worlds like Second Life incorporate some sort of age-verification technology to keep youngsters away from inappropriate content, Progress and Freedom Foundation senior fellow Berin Szoka said at a Monday briefing on online child safety. Requiring a small fee paid by credit card to access areas of Internet communities intended for adults could do the trick, he and DLA Piper attorney Jim Halpert said. But WiredSafety.org Executive Director Parry Aftab, who also spoke at the event, argued such a mandate could disadvantage those who do not have credit cards. Others pointed out there are ways to circumvent age verification tools and they may not keep minors out of restricted areas.
Report language from the fiscal year 2009 omnibus appropriations bill required the FTC to study the availability of explicit content in virtual worlds and report to Congress by December. An agency spokeswoman said the FTC was on target to meet that deadline. Appropriators asked for the report and for the agency to issue "a consumer alert to educate parents on the content that is available to children on virtual reality Web programs," according to the omnibus language. The Commission's last major action in this arena was a September 2000 report that was highly critical of the entertainment industry. As a result, companies promised to impose tougher standards and voluntarily comply with the paper's recommendations.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will wade back into the debate over inadvertent file-sharing over peer-to-peer networks next Wednesday. The panel has scheduled a hearing that will focus on how popular platform LimeWire and other services could endanger citizens and jeopardize national security. Lime Group Chairman Mark Gorton, Tiversa CEO Robert Boback and Progress and Freedom Foundation Senior Fellow Thomas Sydnor are scheduled to testify. The committee held similar hearings in July 2007 and four years earlier. After the 2003 hearing, the P2P industry adopted a voluntary code of conduct to prevent inadvertent disclosures of sensitive information.
In March 2007, the Patent and Trademark Office released a report suggesting that inadvertent file-sharing may still be a serious problem and that the industry might not be living up to its promises. In response to the PTO report, committee staff conducted its own probe. Using LimeWire, aides ran a series of common searches during a one month period. They were able to easily obtain personal bank records and tax forms, attorney-client communications, corporate strategy documents for Fortune 500 companies, confidential corporate accounting documents, government emergency response plans, and even military operation orders.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., who is not on the committee, introduced legislation earlier this year that would help educate Internet users about P2P privacy and security risks. The bill came on the heels of reports that file-sharing software was implicated in a security breach involving Marine One, the helicopter used by President Obama. Bono Mack's measure, which was cosponsored by Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., and Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton, would ensure P2P programs cannot be installed without providing clear notice and obtaining user consent. It would also make it illegal for firms to prohibit users from blocking, disabling, or removing the software.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., will soon introduce legislation that would create a competitive grant program for state and local education agencies and non-profit organizations to provide Internet safety education to teachers, schools and parents. The measure, which would authorize up to $175 million over five years, would be administered by the Justice Department in collaboration with the departments of Health and Human Services and Education. Wasserman Schultz's bill will be a companion to one introduced earlier this year by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.
"There's no silver bullet, no one technology," Wasserman Schultz said at a Wednesday briefing on Capitol Hill sponsored by Point Smart, Click Safe -- a coalition of non-profits and companies like Comcast, Google, Verizon, and Yahoo. "Our bill recognizes that knowledge must be our children's first line of defense," she said. Wasserman Schultz, who has 10-year-old twins and a five-year-old daughter, said she hoped her legislation could provide the strong federal leadership called for in a new Point Smart, Click Safe report. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who also spoke at the event, said it is imperative that non-profits and high-tech firms "help us help parents understand."
The Point Smart, Click Safe paper asks policymakers to consider expanding online safety efforts to emphasize digital media literacy programs. It also calls for the president or Congress to lead a federal agency that would work collaboratively with all major stakeholders in marshaling resources for improved online safety. Additionally, the group urged policymakers to consider adopting a set of national goals for online safety, including minimum standards for a curriculum on digital literacy. Click here to review Point Smart, Click Safe's recommendations and here to read a new paper by Web safety expert Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation.
A number of U.S. and international business groups expressed concern to the Chinese government Tuesday about a Ministry of Industry and Information Technology notice mandating the installation of so-called "Green Dam" Internet filtering software on all computers sold in China, beginning July 1, 2009. "This mandate raises significant questions of security, privacy, system reliability, the free flow of information and user choice," the groups said. "A technology-specific mandate such as this also seems to run contrary to China's own goal of becoming a leading IT and information-based society." The signatories also urged "the use of effective and responsible parental controls" and said they would welcome a dialogue with China on how best to advance that objective.
Tech stakeholders signing the letter to Minister Li Yizhong included the Business Software Alliance, Consumer Electronics Association, Information Technology Industry Council, Semiconductor Industry Association, Software and Information Industry Association, TechAmerica, and the Telecommunications Industry Association. Broader business groups that joined them included the Business Roundtable, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, US-China Business Council, and the American Chamber of Commerce in China. Reports that the Green Dam software is compulsory on all computers are "a misunderstanding," according to China Daily. An official said the software's setup files must be present on all PCs or on an installation CD but installation is up to users.
Susan Crawford, special assistant to President Obama for science, technology and innovation policy, warned a federal advisory committee on Internet child safety on Thursday to be wary of several pitfalls as they begin their work. "Be reluctant to engage in overstated or overheated rhetoric. This issue makes tempers run high," Crawford told the inaugural meeting of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Online Safety and Technology Working Group. In offering what she called an "administrative benediction," Crawford urged them to beware of three pitfalls:
• Avoid exaggerated statements about the risks to kids online. "There are risks but these risks may not be more significant from risks they face offline. The risks are far more subtle than popular media would have us believe," she said. Crawford also urged the panel to steer clear of anecdote and focus on concrete evidence "and what we know is happening to kids." Additionally she warned them not to demonize the Internet, which is the locus of enormous economic growth.
• Pay attention to legal precedent. "There's been lot of litigation in this area," Crawford said. "You should avoid insensitivity to constitutional concerns that have given rise to those cases." The past 13 years have seen a multitude of challenges to the Communications Decency Act and the Children's Online Protection Act, which led to the striking down of portions of those laws.
June is widely known as National Internet Safety Month but Congress has yet to pass a resolution recognizing that fact. In 2008, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced a measure in May and it passed the chamber within days. The year before, her resolution was approved by unanimous consent on the same day it was introduced. Reps. Gene Green, D-Texas, and Melissa Bean, D-Ill., introduced similar resolutions in the House in 2007 and Bean's bill passed under suspension of the rules 12 days into the month aimed at protecting kids online. Last Congress, the House approved a measure giving a nod to Internet Safety Month and the FTC's OnGuard Online program -- in July.
This year, Green was early to act by introducing a resolution in January that points out, among other things, that 77 million children have Internet access; one in five youth who use the Internet regularly have reported receiving a sexual approach or solicitation in the past year; and one in 17 youth reported being threatened or harassed online in the past year. Only a fraction of all unwanted Web encounters were reported to authorities such as the police, an Internet service provider, or a hotline, the resolution stated. Green's bill has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Off of Capitol Hill, Internet advocacy groups offered statements Monday in support of Web awareness. Family Online Safety Institute CEO Stephen Balkam and FOSI Chairman Brent Olson, assistant vice president for regulatory policy at AT&T, urged government, law enforcement, industry, teachers, parents and children themselves to build a culture of Internet responsibility. "With the Internet playing a vital role in the lives of many teens and tweens these days, it has become especially important to teach them to make wise choices online," Balkam said. Olson said he looked forward to using Internet Safety Month to reach a broader audience to encourage online awareness and education. June is also Adopt-A-Shelter Cat Month, Dairy Month, Great Outdoors Month, and Turkey Lovers Month.
The Future of Privacy Forum is embarking on a research project that will examine different methods for communicating with Internet users about advertising and privacy practices, the think tank announced Tuesday. The study will explore potential tools and notices that companies could use to raise consumer awareness regarding the use of online behavioral advertising data and will offer more transparency about how information is used in relevant advertising practices. The initiative follows a recent FTC report that called on the private sector to examine the issue. FPF launched in 2008 to advance a national privacy agenda that promotes transparency and user control that is practical for businesses and ensures personal autonomy for online users.
In the coming weeks, FPF will work with experts to develop notices and begin to test them with users, officials said in a press release. Assisting in the efforts are AOL, AT&T, eBay, Facebook, Intel Corp., Verizon, Yahoo and others. FPF hopes to release materials from the initial phase of the research by late summer. "Privacy policies will continue to play an important role in legally binding companies to commitments and providing essential details regarding their data practices," FPF Co-Chair Jules Polonetsky said. "Widespread agreement now exists, however, that more candid, prominent, and engaging methods are needed to ensure that trustworthy and meaningful communications are provided to users."
A trio of cybersecurity groups launched a new initiative Tuesday to combat malicious software known as malware by establishing a "chain of trust" among all organizations and individuals that play a role in securing the Internet. The project developed by the Anti-Spyware Coalition, National Cyber Security Alliance and StopBadware.org will link together security vendors, researchers, government agencies, Web firms, network providers, advocacy and education groups in a systemic effort to stem the rising tide of malware, officials said in a press release. By creating a united front against the threat, the chain of trust will apply many of the same approaches used to bring nuisance adware under control, they said.
"Strong security in any one organization or sector is not enough to combat an agile, fast evolving threat like malware, which exploits security breakdowns between entities," ASC coordinator and Center for Democracy and Technology Vice President Ari Schwartz said. "We all need to work together to build a system that withstand and repel the next generation of exploits." Leaders of the initiative have already begun reaching out to key players and identifying critical areas for collaboration. In the next six months, officials will produce a paper tracking the results of its initial work and propose recommendations for how to proceed. The project's launch coincided an ASC workshop in Washington.
Cynthia Logan, whose 18-year-old daughter took her own life after a nude picture of her was passed around by e-mail, will join Miss Utah: Kayla Barclay; Internet safety expert Parry Aftab; and Mary Heston, director of Teenangels & Wired Moms on Wednesday for a Capitol Hill conversation about "sexting" (sending sexually charged messages or images via text message), cyber-bullying, and youth behavior on the online marketplace Craigslist.org and Internet gaming sites. Among other topics in the news, the panel will address whether charging teens as felony sex offenders for sharing nude pictures online is the right approach. Attendees will also preview the Stop Cyber-Bullying Toolkit for schools, a free resource with videos, animations, games, presentations and risk management guides for educators, parents and students of all ages.
The event coincides with the introduction of legislation by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., that would authorize $175 million in funding over five years to programs educating children on how to safely, securely and ethically use the Internet and mobile technologies. The bill would create a competitive grant program for state and local education agencies and non-profit organizations that would be administered by the Justice Department in collaboration with the departments of Health and Human Services and Education. "The way to meet the challenges and opportunities the Internet presents isn't to deny our children access to this great resource but to make sure they know how to use it wisely," Menendez said in a press release.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration unveiled its Online Safety and Technology Working Group on Tuesday -- a panel of experts dedicated to keeping children safe on the Internet. More than two dozen private sector and child and family advocacy leaders will help evaluate industry efforts and make recommendations to promote education, labeling and parental control technology. Members will work with the Justice Department, FTC, FCC and others. "President Obama recognizes the importance of protecting the safety and privacy of our children as they use the Internet," Acting NTIA Administrator Anna Gomez said in a press release. "We are committed to helping foster a safe online environment for America's youth." Within a year of its first meeting on May 22, the group will submit a report to the administration on how to increase Web safety.
Members of the working group include:
Parry Aftab, WiredSafety
Elizabeth Banker, Yahoo
Christopher Bubb, AOL
Anne Collier, ConnectSafely.org
Bradon Cox, NetChoice Coalition
Caroline Curtin, Microsoft
Brian Cute, Afilias U.S.A.
Jeremy Geigle, Arizona Family Council
Marsali Hancock, Internet Keep Safe Coalition
Michael Kaiser, National Cyber Security Alliance
Christopher Kelly, Facebook
Brian Knapp, Loopt
New interim federal rules aimed at helping prevent Internet distribution of certain government-controlled prescription drugs took effect Monday, less than six months after former President George W. Bush signed into law the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act. The legislation, championed in the House by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and in the Senate by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was named for an 18-year-old who died after overdosing on a prescription painkiller he obtained on the Internet from a doctor he never saw. The statute amends existing laws governing controlled substances by adding new definitions for "online pharmacy" and "deliver, distribute, or dispense by means of the Internet." It also requires at least one face-to-face patient medical evaluation prior to issuance of a prescription drug and imposes registration, information disclosure and reporting requirements for online pharmacies.
"Now that this law has been put into force it will be harder for cyber-criminals to supply controlled substances over the Internet and easier for us to prosecute them," DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart said in a press release. Controlled substances such as narcotics, stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, and anabolic steroids and covered by the statute. Implementing the rule "will increase Internet safety and help prevent tragedies like Ryan Haight's death from happening again," Leonhart said. Nearly one in five teenagers has used a prescription medication to get high, according to a 2008 survey by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The same survey found that two in five teens believe the fallacy that prescription medicines obtained without a prescription are "much safer" to use than illegal drugs. For more information on DEA implementation, click here.
A total of 275,284 complaints were received by the Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2008 -- up from 206,884 or 33 percent over 2007, the FBI said Monday. Total dollar loss reported in 2008 was $265 million, an increase from $239 million the year before. The average individual loss was $931, according to a new report. The yearly study from IC3, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, details information related to the volume and scope of complaints, complainant and perpetrator characteristics, geographical data, most frequently reported scams, and IC3 referrals.
Non-delivered merchandise and/or payment was by far the most reported offense, comprising 32.9 percent of referred complaints. Internet auction fraud accounted
for 25.5 percent of referred complaints while credit/debit card fraud made up 9 percent of referred complaints. Confidence fraud, computer fraud, check fraud, and Nigerian letter fraud round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement. Of those complaints reporting a dollar loss, the highest median losses were found among check fraud ($3,000), confidence fraud ($2,000), and Nigerian letter fraud ($1,650).
High-tech intruders thought to be in China recently hacked into computers in Sen. Bill Nelson's Washington, D.C. office. Two attacks on the same day this month and another last month targeted work stations used by three of the Florida Democrat's staffers -- a key foreign-policy aide, the deputy legislative director and a former Nelson NASA adviser. The hackers didn't make off with any classified information, which isn't kept on office computers, a Nelson spokesman said in a press release. Similar incursions on Capitol Hill IT networks are up significantly in the past few months, according to various congressional information systems offices.
Nelson, a member of the Senate Intelligence, Armed Services and Finance committees, has joined Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, in cosponsoring legislation aimed at bolstering U.S. defenses against such attacks. "The threat to our national security, to be sure, is real; and, it will require significant investment and inter-agency coordination at an unprecedented level to gain an upper hand against would-be cyber criminals and spies," Nelson said last week. "These are anxious days, when you consider the threat from such espionage facing our country and recent developments on this front."
Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, are crafting legislation that they hope will improve the country's cybersecurity posture in the face of increasingly sophisticated global attacks against U.S. government networks as well as the nation's broader critical infrastructure. Rockefeller indicated he was working on the bill at a Thursday hearing where he also pledged to make cybersecurity a committee priority this year. He called cybersecurity "a profoundly and deeply troubling problem to which we are not paying much attention." CongressDaily's AM Edition has more coverage of the hearing (subscription required).
"We presently have systems to protect our nation's secrets and our government networks against cyber espionage, and it is imperative that those cyber defenses keep up with our enemies' cyber capabilities," a draft summary of the Rockefeller-Snowe proposal obtained by CongressDaily stated. "However, the threat of cyber attack on our private sector's critical infrastructure - banking, utilities, air/rail/auto traffic control, and telecommunications is equally alarming and protections must be put in place." The document goes on to say the proposal would "bring new high-level governmental attention to develop a fully integrated, thoroughly coordinated, public-private partnership."
Follow the jump for a detailed rundown of what the bill could include...
The U.S. government has a range of praiseworthy cybersecurity efforts but many of them continue to suffer from a lack of coordination and funding, Former FBI Director Louis Freeh told the FOSE information technology summit on Thursday. He said turf wars over safeguarding government networks are the 21st century manifestation of a centuries-old dilemma. "It is still same debate that we were having 200 years ago: Is the military going to be responsible for this war or do we need to stand up an independent civilian facility?" That debate is not easily resolved and the problem is "too large and too complicated to relegate into the typical bureaucratic pigeonhole," he said.
His comments echoed those made by witnesses at a House Homeland Security Emerging Threats Subcommittee hearing earlier this week that was intended to inform the Obama administration's 60-day examination of federal cyber efforts. Part of the answer is breaking down silos at the National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies that have a cybersecurity role, Freeh said. "There have got to be centers of expertise that can interface in efficient and practical ways," he said. "There has to be strong, essential executive leadership that lends its genius and persuasion to building types of structures and inter-relationships where information can be shared, expertise can be borrowed and common objectives... can be achieved."
The FTC on Wednesday will expose bogus Web sites and other scams claiming they can help individual consumers qualify for a share of the $800 billion economic stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed into law last month. Many sites use photos of Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to give the appearance of authenticity, the consumer protection agency said in a Monday e-mail. Sites also use logos from ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, FOX, NBC, MSNBC, and other major media outlets to make them appear legitimate. Bureau of Consumer Protection Acting Director Eileen Harrington will speak at the event.
In related news, the Small Business Administration recently issued a warning about fraudulent letters printed on what appears to be an SBA letterhead that were sent to small businesses around the country. The letters tell recipients they may be eligible for a tax rebate under the economic stimulus plan and that the SBA is assessing their eligibility for such a rebate. It then asks them to provide bank account information. The scheme is similar in many ways to e-mail scams often referred to as "phishing" that seek personal data and financial account information that enables another party to access and individual's bank accounts or to engage in identity theft.
High-tech and child safety advocates are giving new Internet safety legislation introduced last week by House Judiciary Committee ranking member Lamar Smith and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a chilly reception. Their bills, which were publicized at a Thursday press conference, direct Internet service providers to retain subscriber information for up to two years to help law enforcement identify users who upload and view explicit child pornography. The measure also makes it a crime to financially facilitate the sale, distribution and purchase of child pornography and would provide more resources to the FBI to fight the scourge.
"It's ironic that at a time when so many in Congress seemingly want online providers to collect and retain less data about users, this bill proposes that ISPs be required to collect and retain more data," Progress and Freedom Foundation Senior Fellow Adam Thierer said, wondering how the conflicting legislative priorities will be reconciled. "It's good that Congress is taking steps to address the scourge of child pornography... Extensive data retention mandates, however, would be unlikely to help much anyway given the ease with which bad guys will likely circumvent those requirements using alternative access points or proxies," he said.
The Center for Democracy and Technology General Counsel John Morris said a robust data preservation regime is already in place and new efforts in that arena pose privacy concerns. Meanwhile, the head of the U.S. Internet Service Provider Association said before advancing new legislation, it is crucial to see how current law will change with the implementation of another child safety measure, which former President George W. Bush signed in October. USISPA Executive Director Kate Dean, whose group represents AOL, AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and others, said the new statute made great strides to improve investigations and prosecutions and provided more resources to law enforcement.
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Lamar Smith and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation late last week that directs Internet service providers to retain subscriber information for up to two years. The bill helps law enforcement officials identify users who upload and view explicit child pornography and would impose record-keeping requirements similar to those already in place for telephone companies, Smith said. ISPs routinely work with authorities and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on this front and have made strides to bolster industry efforts in recent years.
"Of the nearly 600,000 images of graphic child pornography found online and reported to law enforcement officials, only 2,100 of these children have been identified and rescued," Smith said in a Thursday press release. "Law enforcement officials have reached a digital dead end," he said, noting they need ISPs to help identify users and distributers of illegal content. "While the Internet has generated many positive changes in the way we communicate and do business, its limitless nature offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children," Cornyn added.
In addition to record retention, the measure also makes it a crime to financially facilitate the sale, distribution and purchase of child pornography. The bill would provide additional funds to the FBI's Innocent Images program, which is the backbone of federal law enforcement's fight to eradicate child porn. Smith and Cornyn made the announcement at a press conference in Austin where they were joined by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. "Innovative legislative responses to high tech crimes are vital to the ongoing success of our crackdown on cyber predators," Abbott said.
Adult film performer/writer Stormy Daniels, who caused a stir when she came to Washington last May to advocate for online child safety, wants to give Sen. David Vitter, R-La., a run for his money. She's contemplating entering the 2010 Louisiana Senate race and has reached out to Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt to run her campaign, according to press reports. Daniels told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that while Flynt had nothing to do with the "Draft Stormy" movement she has "reached out to him in the last couple of days."
In recognition of National Internet Safety Month, Daniels appeared at the National Press Club alongside Joan Irvine of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection. The group was created more than a decade ago with the goal of eliminating child pornography from the Internet and to help parents prevent children from viewing "age-inappropriate" material online. Their press conference showcased a public service announcement campaign that promoted ASACP's "restricted to adults" label for applicable Web sites and encourages parents to use filtering software. Daniels was presented with ASACP's annual service award Thursday.
If elected, Daniels will join a list of porn stars turned politician, according to the Washington Examiner: "Ilona Staller, better known as Cicciolina, was elected to Italian parliament in 1987. Mimi Miyagi, a Filipina porn star, filed as a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Nevada in 2006. And many Californians are already (more than) familiar with the infamous Mary Carey, who made a very well-publicized run for Governor in 2003."
Popular social networking destination MySpace revealed it has identified about 90,000 convicted registered sex offenders on the Web site, which is about 40,000 more than previously acknowledged. The admission was made as a result of a subpoena from Connecticut Attorney General Robert Blumenthal who co-chairs a task force on social networking with and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. Blumenthal called the revelation powerful evidence refuting a recent task force report downplaying the threat of sexual predators on social networking sites.
Blumenthal's office plans to identify Connecticut offenders with MySpace profiles and inform appropriate law enforcement authorities so they can determine whether terms of probation or release were violated. In a Tuesday press release, he urged all states to take similar actions and vowed to "continue to fight for reforms and safeguards at MySpace and other social networking sites to protect children." Recent reports indicate that offenders also maintain profiles on Facebook, which Blumenthal has also subpoenaed. Washington has been grappling with how to deal with online predation in recent years as well. A series of hearings were held in the 109th Congress.
"Technology companies and social networking sites must do more -- and do it now. Blaming the victim is appalling and outrageous," Blumenthal said. "Parents remain the first line of defense against social networking abuse, and I urge the industry to adopt technology and tools that empower and enable parents to better protect their children." MySpace's disclosure comes on the heels of a report by a panel created by 49 attorneys general that concluded the issue is exaggerated. The paper argued that youth bullying was far more serious than online sexual solicitation.
The economic stimulus package expected to come before the Senate next week could include $50 million for grants to state and local law enforcement agencies to bolster efforts to fight Internet child exploitation, CongressDaily reported Thursday. The language was championed by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who chairs the Senate Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee. She was integral in an effort last Congress to pass legislation that would ratchet up funding for Justice Department-sponsored Internet Crimes Against Children task forces. Overall, the House and Senate stimulus bills contain close to $4 billion in law enforcement funding.
Republicans have questioned the size and scope of the spending plan but Mikulski said in an e-mail that her provision would create jobs while keeping kids safe from predators. "I'm hard pressed to think of twin goals more worthy than that," she said. A spokesman for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said his boss will work with House Appropriations Chairman David Obey and other appropriators on the best approach to protect children's safety. Parents' groups have asked Wasserman Schultz to push hard for the funding when the House and Senate stimulus bills go to conference.
An Internet safety task force made up of state attorneys general offices, academics, nonprofits and high-tech and telecommunications giants -- who had been under pressure from Congress to enhance online child protection capabilities -- capped off a year's worth of work Tuesday by releasing its final report. The 278-page document, which was shared with 52 attorneys general in December, makes a number of recommendations to the Internet community and parents.
The key takeaway from the group, which had representation from big names like America Online, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Verizon and Yahoo: Attorneys general should not "endorse any one technology or set of technologies to protect minors online." State officials should continue to work collaboratively with stakeholders "to help enhance safety for minors online and reach out to some -- like those involved in mental health and social services -- who are not currently involved in helping find solutions to protect minors online."
According to the report, members of the Internet community, including social network sites, should continue to develop and incorporate a range of technologies as part of their strategy to protect minors from harm online. While they should consult with experts, technologists and law enforcement, they should not overly rely upon any single technology or group of technologies as the primary solution to protecting minors.
A trade group representing Google, Time Warner's behavioral advertising subsidiary Tacoda, and Yahoo on Tuesday unveiled an upgraded self-regulatory code of conduct, which has guided Internet advertising providers since 2001. The updates come on the heels of increased scrutiny by lawmakers, the FTC, and privacy watchdogs. But critics argue the Network Advertising Initiative's updates fail to adequately protect consumers because its member companies still rely on obtuse privacy policies and an antiquated definition of "personally identifiable information."
The revisions neither ensure that financial-related information be classified as "sensitive" nor include strict enough restrictions for targeting Web users based on health concerns, according to the Center for Digital Democracy's Jeff Chester. NAI's update says its members will "continue their commitment to respect appropriate fair information practices" and to preserve a self-regulatory environment. But privacy advocates, who were slated to meet with members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, said they would press for more government oversight of the industry.
The Center for Democracy and Technology said the Internet advertising industry "took a meaningful step toward protecting consumer privacy" by updating its code of conduct but the effort "falls short on several issues, leaving holes in consumer protection that must be plugged by federal privacy legislation." Like Chester, CDT's staff was disappointed that NAI retained its definition of "opt-out." In eight years, the group had time to develop an easy-to-use and accessible standard that honors consumer choices, the think tank said.
The Family Online Safety Institute, whose members include AT&T, Comcast Corp., Google, Microsoft, Verizon and other high-tech firms urged the Obama administration on Thursday ramp up government efforts to protect children on the Internet. The group proposes naming a national safety officer to serve under the yet-to-be-named national chief information officer within the White House; creating a U.S. Internet safety council; and establishing a federal program to fund a range of online safety research and education projects.
"We need a paradigm shift in what we do, say and teach about online safety," FOSI CEO Stephen Balkam said in a release issued in conjunction with the institute's second annual summit in Washington. "We look to the next administration to provide leadership and support at the highest levels to help make the online world a safer place for children," he said. MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam, who keynoted the conference, said FOSI's call to action "is opportune with new leadership taking charge of the online safety for our nation’s children in a Web 2.0 world."
Read more about FOSI's recommendations here.
Microsoft researchers have concluded that Internet search engines have the potential to heighten Web users' medical concerns and that escalation is influenced by "the amount and distribution of medical content viewed by users, the presence of escalatory terminology in pages visited, and a user’s predisposition to escalate versus to seek more reasonable explanations for ailments." The new study of "cyberchondria," which Microsoft describes as "the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomatology, based on the review of search results and literature on the Web," involved 515 individuals.
"Our findings underscore the potential costs and challenges of cyberchondria and suggest actionable design implications that hold opportunity for improving the search and navigation experience for people turning to the Web to interpret common symptoms," the researchers stated. Search engine architects have a responsibility to ensure users do not experience unnecessary concern generated by ranking algorithms their engines use, the study concluded. Web engineers must be "focused on serving medical search results that are reliable, complete, and timely, as well as topically relevant," they said.
So-called Internet phishing gangs are concentrating their efforts within specific top level domains (TLDs) but anti-phishing policies and mitigation programs by domain name registrars and registries are having a significant and positive effect, according to a new study by the Anti-Phishing Working Group -- a group that monitors and attempts to decrease the online practice whereby scammers trick users into giving up sensitive information.
For the study, APWG surveyed 47,324 unique phishing attacks located on 26,678 unique domain names. The group found the number of TLDs abused by phishers expanded 7 percent from 145 in the second half of 2007 to 155 in the first half of 2008. The proportion of Internet-protocol number-based phishing sites decreased 35 percent in that same period, declining from 18 percent in the second half of 2007 to 13 percent in the first half of 2008.
“We’re seeing a trend away from fixed IP-based URLs which are readily shut-down to use of more domain based URLs,” said Internet Identity's Rod Rasmussen, co-chair of APWG’s Internet Policy Committee. “Many of these are on compromised servers which already have established ‘good’ reputations, while others are on fraudulently registered domain names supported by botnets or other throw-away hosting resources."
The report finds some correlations between registry policies and the prevalence and duration of phishing activity in their TLDs. APWG researchers’ analysis of phishing site uptime and other metrics showed that anti-phishing policies can help reduce phishing activity. Specifically, the .cn, .info, and .biz TLDs, whose managers have implemented counter-phishing programs, had phishing site uptimes notably below the industry average.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison on Monday praised the U.S. wireless industry for partnering with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to combat child pornography. Trade group CTIA's Wireless Child Safety Task Force, which was announced earlier in the day, is specifically directed at keeping wireless devices free from the illegal content and barring Web sites that contain the material from being hosted on their servers.
The group will work with NCMEC to "identify, review and support actions to further deter child pornography" and explore solutions that can be lawfully executed while safeguarding consumer privacy, officials said. "Wireless devices have become an important tool for many Americans and it is critical that this new partnership takes an aggressive approach to stop the spread of child pornography on wireless systems," Hutchison said in a statement.
CTIA President Steve Largent noted that innovative wireless firms "are always changing and always evolving to meet the demands of their customers" and in order to combat unlawful activity, they fully intend to "channel the same dynamic spirit and energy" into protecting America’s youth. The campaign comes on the heels of considerable attention to online child protection in the 110th Congress. Read more about the effort here.
The Justice Department unveiled a national public service announcement campaign Wednesday aimed at educating parents about the potential dangers their children face online and, for the first time, warns potential Web predators that exploiting a child online is a serious federal offense. The four PSAs were developed jointly by DOJ's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and Project Safe Childhood partners INOBTR (“I Know Better”), iKeepSafe and the Hispanic Communications Network.
“One of our highest priorities at the Department of Justice is combating the sexual exploitation of children," OJJDP Administrator J. Robert Flores said in a release. “Our message to parents is--know where your kids go on the Internet, and to would-be predators we say--your illegal activity will have lifelong consequences."
▪ iKeepSafe developed one of the PSAs, ntitled “Know Where They Go,” to highlight the risks children face on the Internet. For more on the advertisement, which has television, radio and print components, click here.
▪ INOBTR created a PSA ntitled “Exploiting a Minor Is a Major Offense." Elements of this campaign include television, movie theaters, print, radio and Web banners. For more details, click here.
▪ The Hispanic Communications Network produced two series of Spanish-language PSAs for television, radio, print and the Web. The first targets parents and the second targets potential predators. The ads can be found here and here.
The Business Software Alliance recognized the contributions of two Justice Department officials with its annual cyber safety champion award on Thursday. The honor, presented in conjunction with National Cyber Security Awareness Month, was bestowed upon Michael DuBose, who heads the agency's Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section and FBI special agent Don Good, each of whom has led aggressive, cutting-edge efforts to fight cyber crime domestically and abroad.
DuBose has supervised the prosecution of numerous high-profile software piracy cases, including many of the best-known cases, BSA said. Good is assigned to the Washington D.C., Field Office, where he manages the criminal computer intrusion squad and leads several high-priority investigations. He previously led the InfraGard Program, an association of businesses, academic institutions, and state and local law enforcement agencies working to protect cyber infrastructure.
BSA President Robert Holleyman issued a statement saluting the winners "for going the extra mile to strengthen our economy and security." "Both of these individuals have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to solving problems and forging partnerships for progress," he said.
Beyond high-tech safeguards employed by software and hardware vendors and Internet service providers, the Homeland Security and Defense Departments can provide unique opportunities to test new tools in controlled environments, a Thursday report from electronic commerce trade group NetChoice said. The paper, released in observance of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, also recommended agencies that deal with financial institutions should ensure that proper authentication techniques are being used within the industry.
Law enforcement agencies should devote sufficient resources to implementing existing federal anti-fraud laws and, where Web providers handle personally identifiable information, the FTC should hold companies accountable to the privacy promises they made to users, the paper said. Furthermore, the group that represents AOL, eBay, Yahoo and others, said agencies with oversight of key Internet infrastructure should hold contract partners to a high standard on security and stability. "Responsibility for cybersecurity lives at all layers of the security stack, not in any one layer," the paper concluded. "Simply put, there is no silver bullet."
The report's authors, Steve DelBianco and Braden Cox, were on hand for a Capitol Hill briefing. Also speaking at the event were Ken Silva, chief technology officer VeriSign and Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance.
Legislation signed by President Bush on Monday that requires sex offenders to provide Internet identifiers to state sex offender registries and tasks the Justice Department with creating a system that lets social networking sites compare their users' identifiers with those provided to a national sex offender registry may not achieve its intended aim of protecting children, according one high-tech policy expert who tracked the bill. That official, Center for Democracy and Technology general counsel John Morris, said Tuesday that the statute may prove "almost entirely worthless" and warned that it may also carry with it serious unintended consequences.
The bill was introduced in January 2007 by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz., now the GOP presidential nominee, and a companion measure was sponsored in the House by Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D. Pomeroy revised and reintroduced his bill after hearing concerns from CDT and other groups, but that version of the bill did not win Senate approval. Instead, the Senate version won out and minor modifications were made to alleviate critics' biggest fears, Morris said, acknowledging that "we have fewer concerns than we once did." Pomeroy's retooled measure would have let probation officers who supervise sex offenders install software on offenders' computers to monitor their Web whereabouts and target supervision to those who actually pose threats to kids.
Nevertheless, Morris believes the new law will not be effective because sex offenders who want to subvert or circumvent their conditions of probation, release or supervision -- which already typically stipulate that they cannot interact with minors -- will forge ahead regardless of the registry requirement. "If they're already intending to violate provisions that apply to them, why wouldn’t they also register a real e-mail and then go create another account," he said in an interview. "It is so trivial to create a new identifier, create a new e-mail address, or social network page. Anyone who is going to pose a risk to minors that this system trying to screen against can easily circumvent it."
Continue reading New Web Law May Be 'Worthless,' Watchdog Warns.
(Photo Credit: FBI)
President Bush signed legislation on Monday that bans sending live images of child abuse via the Internet and authorizes money to hire FBI agents who work on child exploitation cases. Funds would be used for the development of a nationwide program to fight Web-based child exploitation through a grant program and support for Justice Department-coordinated Internet Crimes Against Children task forces.
The legislation passed the House just before lawmakers left Washington and was approved by the Senate a short time earlier after months of negotiations and an on-air endorsement by talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Nick Lampson, D-Texas, introduced a pair of bills that served as the foundation for the final legislation while the Senate's original versions were sponsored by Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware and Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona, respectively.
In related news, Bush also signed legislation that requires sex offenders to provide Internet identifiers, including e-mail addresses, to state sex offender registries; and tasks the Justice Department to establish and maintain a system that allows social networking Web sites to compare Internet identifiers of its users with those provided to the national sex offender registry. The bill was introduced by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D.
Phoenix Police Department Sgt. Frank Kardasz, who heads up the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, offers some fresh thoughts on the legal, systemic, societal and psychological hurdles related to Internet crimes against children in a new paper posted on his blog. He suggests a new law enforcement paradigm that better recognizes such crimes. The document comes on the heels of a recent Senate Judiciary Crime Subcommittee hearing on online child sexual exploitation.
A few of his recommendations:
(1) Citizen Internet users may be willing to designate a dollar from their monthly Internet service bill to be dedicated specifically towards the investigations of crimes against children.
(2) Law enforcement basic training academies need to recognize Internet threats by providing a block of instruction regarding Internet crimes against children for entry-level employees.
(3) Permanent funding sources specifically designated for the purpose of supporting proactive investigative (not citizen education) efforts should be designated. As of 2008, the ICAC program remained an optional congressional earmark with no guarantees of continuation.
(4) ISPs should be legislatively mandated to retain subscriber data and required to respond promptly to legal process from law enforcement.
(5) A small luxury tax on ISPs with the proceeds dedicated toward supporting investigative (not citizen education) efforts to apprehend Internet sex offenders.
Cable television giant Comcast announced a partnership with the Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe) at the Family Online Safety Institute conference on Thursday. The new relationship will provide parents and teachers with tips, tools and resources to promote cyber safety awareness.
Comcast and iKeepSafe will also partner with state attorneys general, local community groups and with medical and public health organizations to bring a Web safety campaign to communities served by the cable provider.
"The Internet is a great place that can bring people and communities closer together, but we also want to make sure that young people grow up knowing how to use the Internet safely and responsibly," Comcast Vice President Joe Waz said in a press release. Waz also spoke at an afternoon panel at the FOSI conference.
To promote the partnership, Comcast's booth at the summit was staffed by a life-sized McGruff the Crime Dog and Faux Paw the Techno Cat. The characters also roamed around during lunch, posing for pictures with attendees -- including one journalist who will remain nameless (It wasn't me. I'm freaked out by giant, costumed humans.)
A Verizon Communications executive told a Family Online Safety Institute summit on Thursday that "kids who do risky things in the real world, do risky things in the virtual world" and those who know better, stay away from Web destinations that can get them into trouble.
Nevertheless, Kathryn Brown, the company's senior vice president for public policy, said parents, educators and other adults have an obligation to educate themselves. "We don’t have a lot of experience" in teaching children the do's and don'ts of the Internet age.
"We've equipped our kids pretty well about smoking, drugs [and] drunk driving … because it was part of the experience of our youth and the dangers we saw," Brown said. "We've got to catch up. If we lack experience, we need to learn."
Read more coverage from the FOSI summit in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
The Internet Education Foundation, through its GetNetWise initiative, attempted to make the Web a little safer during the late August lull in Washington. The nonprofit group unveiled a new parental education and empowerment campaign featuring weekly interactive webinars.
The series of streaming videos, which will take place on Thursdays at 2 p.m. ET starting later this month, will focus on a variety of filtering, monitoring, and blocking tools that can be employed to aid in protecting children and families online, officials said.
The project aims to "demystify these tools for parents and policymakers alike" on the heels of two recently passed Senate Commerce Committee bills that highlight growing interest in learning more about the latest, greatest Web safety devices.
GetNetWise already hosts the largest searchable database of parental empowerment tools on the Internet, IEF Executive Director Tim Lordan said in a press release. The group hopes to enhance its repository of resources with "more media-rich information," he said.
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