So I read (some of) the report recently compiled by the Online Safety Technology Working Group, which has been given the monumental task of evaluating all current online safety education, technology, crime prevention efforts, and record keeping.

The first thing I learned is that kids today need a lot more computers. It has to be hard to learn when they are seven deep to a laptop.

The second thing that I learned is that the report did not come out and say that using blocking software or blocking sites is somehow bad for kids, as many media outlets initially reported. They did say that “an ethic of responsible choice and skills for appropriate behavior” needs to be instilled in children and young adults, but insisted the technological solutions are very necessary for a complete solution to online safety problems:

Social and educational strategies are central to such development, but technology and public policy are important as well – and the three can act together to reinforce each other’s value.� The report encapsulated this finding into the oft-quoted and succinct “swimming pool analogy,� acknowledging the protective value of fences around pools while asserting that such “technology� could never replace the life-long protection of teaching kids how to swim.
—OSTWG

The committee split into subcommittees because, well, that’s what committees do, and one of the subcommittees was specifically tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of available technology provided by the private sector to keep kids safe online (eg Safe Eyes). While the subcommittee noted that there is no “silver bullet” that protects kids from all online dangers, they did say that the best solutions are the ones that encourage discussion and communication between child and parent:

The best of these technologies work in tandem with educational strategies, parental involvement, and other approaches to guide and mentor children, supplementing but not supplanting the educational and mentoring roles. These products and services need to be designed with the needs of families in mind, being easy to use, accessible, flexible, and comprehensible for the typical parent.
—OSTWG

So basically, parental control software should work the way Safe Eyes does, by being transparent and not stealth, and parental control software companies should provide educational guidance along with the product, much like our Internet Safety Gameplan, and awareness efforts which seek to inform all parents of potential threats.

Do you agree with the group’s findings, that the perfect combination is good parenting combined with good technology?

Filed under: Internet Safety News