Youth Safety Online

by Jayne Cravens from the Virtual Volunteering Project

Most people, including youth, have a fun, safe trip on the information superhighway. Although most online experiences are positive, cyberspace does have a dark side: It includes people who attempt to exploit children and others through the Internet as well as materials on the Internet that are adult-oriented and inappropriate for children.

Fear of exploitation and abuse or fear of exposure to inappropriate material shouldn't prevent a school, youth group, community-based organization or parents from allowing youth to use the Internet. An organization can use various simple measures to ensure the safety of youth online.

Although some highly publicized cases of abuse involving computers have occurred, reported cases of harassment and abuse because of a child's online activities are infrequent. Of course, like most crimes against children, many cases go unreported, especially if the child is engaged in an activity that he or she does not want to discuss with a parent. Child Safety on the Information Highway by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, notes that the fact that crimes are being committed online is not a reason to avoid using these services. To tell children to stop using these services would be like telling them to forgo attending college because students are sometimes victimized on campus. A better strategy would be for children to learn how to be "street smart" in order to better safeguard themselves in any potentially dangerous situation.

A fear-based approach to online safety guidelines is not advisable for organizations; a culture of fear can lead to so much distrust that it defeats the purpose and benefits of the Internet and positive online interactivity. There is risk in any program, whether online or face-to-face. Exercising common sense, adapting your existing offline prevention systems to cyberspace, following the law, educating participants, establishing good tracking of children's online activities, and supervising online interactions are the best online safety measures. Most important, the most effective way to prevent youth from using the Internet for inappropriate activities is to teach them how to use the Internet and related technologies within the context of well-organized, purposeful and engaging activities in an adult-supervised environment. In other words, if children learn how to use the Internet and multimedia technologies in ways that are positive, constructive and meaningful, they will have considerably less interest--and opportunity--to use the Internet for negative or meaningless activity.

Protecting Children's Privacy

As a result of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which was passed by Congress in 1998, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted new rules on how privacy policies should be posted and what companies need to do to comply with the new prohibition on collecting personal information from young people without a parent's permission. The rules took effect in April 2000 and require that all Web sites that gather information from children under age 13 first gain "verifiable parental consent." For computer use in schools, the rules allow teachers to act as parents' agents or intermediaries.

The FTC allows Web sites to vary how they gain permission, depending on what information is being gathered and how it will be used. For example, Web sites will be required to use reliable forms of consent, like postal mail, fax, credit card or "digital signatures" before children can participate in chat rooms or give out personal information that will be made available to third parties. If the site is only using the information internally, however, the operators will be able to accept email from parents, as long as a follow up email or call is made to them. Several exceptions to the rules exist; for more information about the FTC's rules, visit the FTC Web site.

Safety Guidelines for Youth Online

An organization's online safety program should have four goals:

    • To protect participants' privacy and personal information (participants include staff, volunteers, clients, parents and youth)
    • To screen out participants in your program who would abuse or exploit other participants or your computer programs
    • To prevent opportunities for abuse or exploitation of participants by anyone outside your program
    • To protect youth from inappropriate online materials or information.

It's up to you, the sponsoring agency, to decide what role online activities will play as part of your formal youth development or after-school program. This role, in turn, will guide you in your online safety measures. Ask yourself the following questions to help determine the kinds of online safety guidelines you need:

    • How will online activities that youth undertake as part of your program enhance your overall program mission?
    • Will online activities involve youth simply surfing Web sites, or will youth be interacting with others online?
    • Will a person be designated to supervise youth while they are using computers?
    • Will youth be allowed to engage in program-related activities from a home computer?

Starting Place: Establishing a Code of Conduct

Just as you do with onsite, face-to-face activities, your organization needs to establish and communicate a code of conduct for online activities for youth and adults involved with your program.

Start with your code or standards for onsite, face-to-face activities, and let that guide you in creating online standards. For instance, what's your policy regarding youth contacting other youth, volunteers or staff outside of program hours? What's your policy regarding youth sharing contact information (home phone numbers, home addresses) with each other? What is your organization's standard for inappropriate communications? What are youth supposed to do if they witness illegal, harmful or other inappropriate activity while participating in your program? Use those standards and consider your organizational culture to build your online code of conduct.

It is crucial to involve youth participants in creating your code of conduct. Talk about what online behavior youth themselves would define as inappropriate. Allowing youth to explore the issues will encourage them to accept your suggestions for their Internet use. It also will provide material for a rich and interactive conversation or project about behavior, societal codes, different forms of communication, and so forth.

Other Safety Suggestions

Not every program will be able to incorporate all of the following suggestions. The key to online safety is communicating your online safety policies to ALL participants and parents and helping them understand exactly what to do and whom to contact if there is ever any question concerning young people's safety or the material they are encountering online as part of your program.

    • Encourage phone calls and face-to-face meetings with parents to discuss online activities, and make sure all parents are aware of your online safety practices.

    • Advise participants to not respond to messages that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or threatening or that make them feel uncomfortable. Encourage participants to tell a designated staff member if they encounter such messages.

    • Most organizations advise online volunteers to never tell anyone online personal information (e.g., where they live or work, their phone number, their full name). Some organizations even have special email or bulletin board "alias" systems, in which no real email addresses are used and only the forum moderator knows which alias goes with what email address. These stricter systems usually are used for online interactions involving children or for people discussing a particularly sensitive, personal subject matter.

    • Most organizations tell their participants to never meet anyone in person they have met online, even in conjunction with their online program, except at agency-sponsored events. At the very least, participants should be advised to notify the program director and their parents about any offers that involve another participant coming to a meeting or having someone visit their house. If your agency has a policy against such meetings, make sure this is clearly communicated to all participants and their parents.

    • If your program is going to allow participants to communicate using a system that can receive email from people outside of your program, you should learn how to read email headers so that you can tell what Internet Service Provider (ISP) people are using. If someone receives an inappropriate e-mail, it may be a violation of the sender's ISP terms of service (TOS), and the ISP will want to know about this misuse of their system. The ISP also will help identify the person who sent the inappropriate e-mail.

    • People online may not be who they seem, even youth participants from another organization, and everyone needs to be reminded of this fact. Participants also should remember that people may not be telling the truth online.

    • All participants should be instructed to notify someone at your organization if they encounter inappropriate situations in your online program -- if someone violates your codes of conduct, encourages other participants to engage in an illegal activity, engages in online harassment, and so forth. You should have plans of action for any of those situations. SafetyEd International has research papers and resources on cyberstalking, gender issues in online situations, and online harassment; staff and volunteers at your agency should become familiar with those resources.

    • Filtering software is controversial and often ineffective. It may work temporarily for young children, but it can be bypassed by teenagers creative enough to understand the application, and such software often arbitrarily excludes Web sites. The Virtual Volunteering Project suggests that instead of relying on filtering software, parents, teachers and program leaders should become active participants in their students' Internet exploration. The key is to ask questions that foster open discussion about what youth are encountering on the Internet.

    • Program managers should encourage parents to show an interest in their children's online activities. Encourage parents to ask their children routinely what they are seeing online, whether at school or at home, and encourage parents to visit sites with their children. Program managers should do the same with youth in their charge.