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August 2, 2002

Dear Subscribers:

Here's our lineup for these first days of August:

• Insights into online teens' world: Survey of research
  
• Web News Briefs: Web’s impact on libraries; ACLU vs. N2H2; Teen pedophiles victims too?; Responsibility on UK schools’ shoulders?; BBC privacy primer....

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Study: Insights into online teens' world

Though written for educators, "Emerging Risks of Violence in the Digital Age" makes some points about online teen behavior and attitudes that we think need to be available to parents too. The paper - by Profs. Ilene Berson, Michael Berson, and John Ferron of the University of South Florida - also helpfully pulls together what we've all learned from some of the best online-teen studies done in the past few years. We zoomed in on these points in particular:

• Pushing the envelope: In emails and online chat, teens - as they themselves reported - "insult each other, exchange sexual quips, attack the opinions of others, and engage in generally outrageous behavior."
• Fantasy 'me': Teens surveyed said they sometimes don't care if the person they flirt with is an adult or a young person. "They often view it as pretend, and they play the game of make-believe by stating that they are older, more popular, smarter, tougher, and/or more experienced than in the real world. Girls may pretend to be boys, and boys may pretend to be girls."
• Empowerment: Some girls reported that communicating online empowers them and helps them find a voice. "In face to face interactions, young women may perceive that body size, facial features, and other superficial characteristics are judged as more important than personality. Conversely, online exchanges take place in a context that often is devoid of these visual cues.... In cyberspace, the pressures to fit in and act a certain way are moderated by the perceived anonymity and false security of being protected behind the computer screen...."
• Secrecy: Teens have a tendency to maintain secrecy about their online activities, contributing to "a void of information [among adults] about the prevalence of Internet abuse directed toward children."
• Ethically challenged: Young people tend to believe there's little chance of detection for misconduct online, to minimize the potential harm their actions may bring others, and to equate the legality of behavior with the ethics of behavior (e.g., when they might say, "there is nothing illegal about lying about your age in cyberspace, sending sexually provocative messages regardless of age, or swearing online").
• What consequences?: Because of a perceived lack of consequences, stalking, death threats, and other violent fantasies and behaviors have become more prevalent among online teens. Computer hacking is also on the rise, despite serious offline legal consequences. "Since computer activities appear to be victimless and faceless crimes, the true repercussions may not be discernible in comparison to the potential benefits gained by a young person." [See "Student hacker gives herself 'As' " in last week's news briefs.]
• Risk-taking: People, including teenagers, often make online choices that are contrary to their offline behaviors. In other words, they tend to take more risks or engage in otherwise unacceptable behavior - which has increased the number of potential victims available to adults who would exploit that behavior, such as pedophiles.
• Online time a factor: "As adolescent girls spend an increasing amount of time online, they are more likely to participate in destructive or potentially dangerous acts."
• Parents needed: The interplay of anonymity, trust, and deception in cyberspace requires new knowledge and alertness on the part of parents and other caregivers about what kids can encounter online.

The authors' own research - a survey of online girls at Seventeen magazine's Web site in 1999 - offers some interesting, still very relevant insights into how teen girls (as opposed to boys) use the Net in general, and where their parents enter the picture.

In the survey of 12-to-18-year-olds (but mostly 14- and 15-year-olds), the largest percentage (30%) said they spend 3-5 hours a week online, with 12% spending 10-12 hours a week and 15% more than 12 hours a week online (20% said less than two hours a week).

As for what they do on the Net, 58% spend their time sending emails or instant messages to friends, 20% surf for new things, and 16% primarily spend time in chatrooms. Only 1% said they spend most of their time online building a web site, reading discussion boards, playing online games, or doing research for schoolwork.

Concerning parental engagement, 70% said their parents had discussed online safety with them and 35% reported that teachers had. But ongoing discussion was less common, with only 30% saying a parent, caregiver, or teacher engages them in at least periodic communication about their Net activities. While online, half said their parents or teachers directly supervise them at least occasionally by sitting with them when online or periodically checking their computer screen. Fewer than 9% reported that software is at least occasionally used to monitor their activity.

The authors conclude, among other things, that communication with and monitoring by adults make a difference: "None of the teens who had a significant adult spend time with them while they surfed reported engaging in cybersex, while almost 60% of the adolescents in general reported experiences with sexually explicit exchanges online," the paper reports.

We welcome your comments and experiences! Do you see any of the above scenarios in your family or school? Email us anytime - via feedback@netfamilynews.org.

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Web News Briefs

1. Web's impact on libraries

   It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. The Internet wasn’t going to be good for libraries, books, magazines, and research. However, the Christian Science Monitor reports, “last year, $686 million was spent on library construction - the second-highest dollar total ever spent, and a 15% increase over a decade ago, American Library Association data shows. Aside from the construction of 80 new libraries, 132 existing ones underwent renovations: creating new space, wiring old buildings for high-speed Internet access, and buying computers.” The Monitor adds that, certainly, there are causes other than the Internet for all this growth, but “what tickles library officials across the nation is the contradiction: that thousands of new visitors come in seeking access to Internet, the medium once expected to make libraries irrelevant."

   Meanwhile, libraries in the United Kingdom are getting seriously wired even as we write. The UK is in the middle of a 100 million-pound project - “the People’s Network” ­ designed to turn its more than 4,000 libraries into “access-and-learning centers” by the end of the year. “The project will see 30,000 terminals installed, stuffed with digital delights like e-mail, browsing, office applications, digital imaging and video conferencing,” Wired News reports.

2. ACLU v. N2H2

   On behalf of a Harvard Law student, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit in the US District Court of Massachusetts asking for the court’s judgment on whether student and tech analyst Ben Edelman can “hack” the N2H2 filtering program. The lawsuit raises a basic question quite relevant to our readers: "whether the public - in this instance, school children and their parents, residents of various states across the nation, and the scholarly community at large - has a legal right to uncover and to share information about what filtering programs do," suggests Corante.com. Edelman wants to hack the software for research purposes. In its suit, the ACLU is also asking the court if Edelman can publish the results of his research and distribute the technology he used to hack the software. “Mr. Edelman maintains that N2H2, through its software-filtering programs, has an enormous influence on Internet viewing habits, and that the public has a right to know what methods the company uses to block access to certain Web sites,” reports the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here’s Reuters’s coverage of this development.

3. Responsibility on UK schools’ shoulders?

   UK researchers who just completed a five-year study on Internet pedophilia are calling on schools to take more responsibility for teaching children how to stay safe online. The study, at the University of Central Lancashire, “found that not only did paedophiles use chat rooms to contact children, but the children most likely to meet up with online acquaintances were those least likely to understand the dangers,” reports The Guardian. The project’s lead researcher said parents and teachers are misunderstanding the problem. The study showed clearly that children view parents and schools as their main sources of advice, yet neither are equipped to provide it where the Internet is concerned, and parents are assuming that schools are filling the vacuum. Our thanks to QuickLinks for pointing this piece out.

4. Teen pedophiles victims too?

   As police worldwide have stepped up their investigations into online child pornography, “increasing numbers of young people are [being] caught in possession of child porn,” reports a commentary in The Guardian. It’s difficult to understand but, the commentator suggests, it’s important not to equate these young people’s actions with those of adult pedophiles. “These young people are themselves being brought into the framework of sexual exploitation, and should be seen primarily as victims rather than offenders. They are at considerable risk.”

5. BBC's privacy primer

   In “Keeping your cyber self safe and sound,” the BBC suggests that it’s about as intelligent to gives one’s personal information out online as wearing a big sandwich board around a busy downtown city street advertising one’s name, address, and phone number. Metaphors like that can be very helpful in family discussions about online safety and privacy. There are a lot of useful tips in the article, including what software applications are both most likely to compromise a home PC’s security and protect it.

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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Anne Collier, Editor

Net Family News

 

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