1. Executive Summary

The global Internet offers exciting new opportunities for children and families to research their homework online, communicate with international penpals, and build personal websites to share their creativity with others. But with these opportunities come challenges: how can children remain safe within this ever-expanding global village? Risks range from sites filled with misinformation to sites which expose users to illegal pornography. The problem of pedophiles and others who target children online is also a concern. In order to address these issues, law enforcement, the Internet and online industry, and families, libraries, schools, responsible corporations and community groups must work together.

Children may not understand these online risks, and parents may not be familiar enough with current technological and other solutions to these concerns. Key to bringing more families online, and keeping them online, is educating the parents about the range of available options. There are things parents can do to protect their children. Should they wish to, they can make choices about what their children may access online.

Industry must also continue to address these concerns with inexpensive and easy to use solutions and "child safe" zones. Making broad access to quality content on the Internet must be a community top priority, where all schools, libraries, community groups, responsible corporations and parents join forces to identify and implement appropriate solutions.

2. INTRODUCTION

The development of the Internet has been called the most profound change in the way we communicate since the invention of the printing press. Users can access an almost limitless array of rewarding content at the click of a mouse. Familiarity with this technology is vital to our children's future. For today's children to lead tomorrow's world, they must acquire the skills to access the enormous benefits of the Internet, safely. It is especially important that they develop key job skills and an awareness of the increasingly global community. The Internet can empower our children, giving them the ability to communicate and share ideas and information on a worldwide basis.

As wonderful as the future of the Internet may be, the extensive media coverage of various "potholes" on the Information Highway is not an exercise in fiction - there are problems which cannot be swept under the rug. These problems must be addressed squarely in order to protect our children and maximize the potential of the Internet.

The Internet Online Summit: Focus on Children Mission Statement identifies our common goal - to make our children's online experience safe, educational and entertaining, while honoring constitutional safeguards. A diverse group has put aside their differing philosophies in order to further this important goal. The Summit enables us to work together to encourage the evolution of the Internet as a truly beneficial medium for our children.

There are many issues affecting children and the Internet. These include equitable access, marketing and advertising practices, quality content, privacy, and safety from harmful content and illegal activity, among others. Each of these topics needs to be examined thoroughly. The mission of this first Summit, and, therefore, the focus of this paper, is personal safety and protecting children from illegal and harmful material online - in particular, the twin issues of access to our children by pedophiles and access to pornography by our children.

3. Benefits & Risks

In 1996, 4 million children accessed the Internet from home, double the number from the year before. Recently, this number has been reported to have increased to 10 million, and is expected to exceed 20 million by the year 2002. The Internet is not a passing fad, like hula hoops or pet rocks. It will continue to grow because those who go online find it incredibly useful.

Nevertheless, it is important for this growth to take place safely. The vast majority of our 70 million U.S. children don't access the Internet from home. To reach its full potential, families as a whole must be encouraged to get online. But this won't happen unless the Internet industry can demonstrate to families that their children can venture into cyberspace safely. This is not an issue of public relations. It is an issue of substance, key to the growth of the Internet.

Although many of the risks encountered in cyberspace also exist in the "physical world," the interactive nature of the Internet - especially when the children often understand more about the Internet than their parents, teachers, librarians, and other care givers - makes it harder to protect our children online. In addition, many common sense measures used in the "physical world," are not applicable in the cyberworld. A pedophile could not enter a schoolyard disguised as a child, but can easily pretend to be a child in an online chat room. A child who could not browse through Hustler in a convenience store can view sexually-explicit images online, legal or illegal. For the Internet to develop its full potential, these risks must be realistically addressed.

The following areas are of substantial concern to parents and other care givers:

Access by pedophiles to children:

There are recurring press reports of pedophiles using chat rooms to lure children into physical meetings. According to a recent national newspaper report, chat rooms are the most popular activity for children online, yet most chat rooms are unsupervised. Many are "private," accessible only by invitation and special passwords (which may be provided to children by e-mail or "instant-type" messages to the screen of a targeted child).

Through use of chat rooms, adult strangers can have direct one-to-one access to our children. The "safe" home setting, combined with our children's natural trust, may lead them to forget that these people are strangers. This makes it easier for the pedophile to prey on children who would never talk to a stranger in the "real world."

Police investigators report that when they identify themselves as teenaged girls in chat rooms they are frequently approached by strangers making sexual advances. In addition, pedophiles have created a community online, where they can validate their behavior with other like-minded individuals and share information and "tricks of the trade."