Ack! These kids!
SouthCoastToday.com – Age verification at social-network Internet sites could prove difficult – July 23, 2006 — This is never going to go anywhere. This upcoming generation is wild by nature. And, let’s face it, everyone lies on the Internet.
In June, the mother of a 14-year-old who says she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old user sued MySpace and News Corp., seeking $30 million in damages. The lawsuit, filed in a Texas state court, claims the 19-year-old lied about being a senior in high school to gain her trust and phone number.
MySpace has recently implemented policies designed to better separate kids from adults. Among the changes, adult MySpace users must already know a 14- or 15-year-old user’s e-mail address or full name to initiate contact or view a profile containing personal information.
However, because age is self-reported, as it is at similar sites, adults could simply sign up as minors.
There are tools to verify age, but they work best for porn, wine-sales and other sites meant for adults only.
Here’s a press release from the laissez-faire organization the Competitive Enterprise Institute:
Washington, D.C., July 26, 2006—The House is scheduled to vote today on the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), a bill that would restrict federal funding from libraries and schools that refuse to block chat rooms and social networking sites. This law is the latest legislative volley in the ongoing battle to regulate technology and tamp down on free speech.
Decisions as to whether or not to block these sites would be best done at a local level, where librarians and educators are intimately aware of the needs of their users. More importantly, the law would give the Federal Communications Commission broad power to define what constitutes a social networking site, setting up the likelihood that a vague, overly expansive definition could restrict far more than what is intended.
The DOPA vote comes on the heels mounting criticism of sites like MySpace, much of which has focused on calls for mandated age-verification schemes. Just as they did with video games and other technologies, legislators, attorneys general, and activist groups are pushing for a bevy of rules that would take parental authority and hand it over to the government.
Social networking websites may want to institute age verification programs on their own, but doing so should never be mandatory. Government mandates for such verification would require technological and logistical solutions that do not currently exist, as many teens do not possess the sort of identifying documentation that would be necessary for such a scheme to work. Moreover, calls to develop such identification would create the possibility for an array of unforeseen consequences, as there are inherent dangers in requiring minors to publicly register their identities.
The best age verification system is parental oversight, and parents should be wary of any rules that give the government more power over what their children can do. Proponents of such restrictions would do best to refocus their energies on encouraging parents to watch over their children’s activities rather than trying to turn that authority over to the government.
Yes!!! Lets block at myspace at the Library!
We all know EVERYONE uses myspace at the… LIBRARY…
Idiots.
Government mandates for such verification would require technological and logistical solutions that do not currently exist, …
Is that a problem?
I can give you my driver’s license number, SSN, and/or credit card # to “prove” I am an adult… What info do I give to “prove” that I am a minor..??
…scheduled to vote today on the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA)…
Another election year, another bull$hit bill with a sound-bite title…
geez … yes, whatever happened to parental oversight? I mean, talk about the Nanny State – you, not I, have to watch my kids.
two, as has already been noted – this is purely an applause line measure for the politcos, since no doubt the vast number of kids who go to MySpace do so from home.
three, and if I was at the the Gates Foundation, I would be shelling out $$$ to every library and school that refused to comply with this Federal mandate.
this is really making me reconsider my stance favoring net neutrality – what if those pinheads add this kind of rider to a NN bill? i.e. only ISPs that filter get the benefit.
Why are the parents so ill-informed of their children’s activities? And then to cover their own guilt of bad parenting, sue the media company… It’s as American as apple pie!
OK, so how do we verify age for online sites? Already we insist that younger people prove their age when trying to purchase alcohol or tobacco. They must be of a certain age to join the military or police. Many movies are age restricted.
There are places on the internet that I do not think are age appropriate for younger people. I have no problem with my 7 yr old playing games at Disney or Nick Jr, but I do not want her playing poker at some on-line casino or cruising some porn site. Is it a matter of parental oversight? Not that easy to answer. Too often it only takes one wrong click to end up somewhere she shouldn’t. I do check her email account to weed out the garbage that makes it through the filters, but what about when she curiously clicks on something before I saw it?
I want these adult only sites to have an age verification process. Unfortunately I don’t have any easy answers on how.
@Fusion
“I do check her email account to weed out the garbage that makes it through the filters, but what about when she curiously clicks on something before I saw it?”
I think you are online enough to catch pretty much about anything.
I think that there should be a XXX area of the net, where you must prove you are an adult(not just click a button that says *yes, I’m 18*)
Then create a specific url for all non-porn adult sites with the same requirment.
Maybe MYSPACE should stop allowing adults on it’s site, period. Surely they have millions of under 18’s, more than enough to make huge profits for itself and it’s advertisers.
>
What gets me is that everyone uses there REAL NAME on the internet. They give there real info. There is no reason to give real information to anyone on the interenet including filling out forms with the exception of buying something online. Then hopefully it’s a secure site.
That being said, there will be no way to keep adults off of myspace. They will use fake credentials to get on.
Ah…you can keep majority of adults off if you only allow sign-up through school e-mail addresses…
Facebook does this now to segment the college students and the high school students…
9 …if you only allow sign-up through school e-mail addresses…
Which is funny, because I did a search on Google for “MySpace blocked” – and see lots of advice for how kids can use proxies to attempt getting around their schools efforts to prevent them from accessing MySpace…
You have to have a school email account, but your school won’t let you access MySpace… does the school also block the confirmation email when you signup?
Do the schools want their email systems used to be used as a identity/age certification system?
#10 – I understand that it would also prevent some kids who have schools blocking confirmations from MySpace from getting on. But the point would really be to weed out the adults.
Schools really don’t block sites if the sites are geared solely for people who are not adults and the content of the site is deemed appropriate for the age group. Of course, it’s all based solely on what the school has as it’s accepted use policy. No method is perfect, but using school e-mail addresses can be effective in blocking adults.
Why are we weeding out adults?
So called sexual predators are just a phantom problem. We see a small number of anecdotal cases, but those are abberations… Not the norm. Further, the overwhelming number of adult users are using it to meet adults.
Plus, on John Dvorak’s own silicon spinoff, Crankygeeks, he’s had guests (whom I agree with) point out that MySpace is rapidly becoming an essential part of any youth focused marketing plan, particularly for emerging musical acts.
MySpace is a fad. It’s going away. Social networking is not a fad. It isn’t going anywhere. Besides, how do you prove you are not adult? Claim to have bad taste in music and use creative grammer in all your emails?
11 No method is perfect, but using school e-mail addresses can be effective in blocking adults.
I’m just curious how detailed the review of email addresses is…
Rhetorical question: How are they verifying that the email address is from a legitimate school domain?
Personally, I don’t think MySpace should block anyone. I was just saying that it is possible to block adults without some elaborate electronic authentication method.
#13 – Assuming there is a finite number of schools in this country, start off by school by school in each particular area, as people sign up, check each EDU domain against what’s it’s registered under and checking that it’s registration is in fact belonging to some educational institution. Depending on how strict you make this verification process and the levels of proof you would consider adequate, it can be pretty accurate… Once a domain is verified, you can pretty much assume that almost all users registering through the domain are enrolled (students) in the domain registrar’s institution (except perhaps faculty and staff).
Forrest, while I like your idea, I don’t think it would be workable. OhForThe Love makes a very good point that the actual number of incidents are blown out of proportion by news hype. I have no problem with sting operations catching those who do try though.
I am more worried about the surreptitious garbage out there. While I don’t think my kid should be totally sheltered, there is a limit and degree to what I think any seven yr old should be exposed to.
“And, let’s face it, everyone lies on the Internet.”
I don’t lie on the internet. Seriously, I don’t.
I use pseudonyms and fake address for privacy but that’s it. In chat rooms, on blogs, on my web sites, etc, I tell the truth as I believe it.
I’m not out for sex or to rip somebody off, so what is the point of lying?