There was a time when any good Internet venture could be managed with some creativity, good editorial, financial know-how, and solid server maintenance. That was before massively popular social networking sites like MySpace , Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), YouTube Inc. , and the World of Warcraft came on the scene.
While there are many definitions of Web 2.0, mine is more simple than most. Before Web 2.0 technologies, sites communicated with the user. CNN, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and others would post content and users would view it. Perhaps users would post a comment or two, or send an email, but it was essentially one-way site to user.
Web 2.0 bypasses the site, except as a conduit for user-generated content and direction. Instead of site-to-user (or user-to-world) content, it is user-to-user content. Web 2.0 technologies allow users to share thoughts, video, images, audio, and anything else -- real or imagined, true or false, good or bad.
In February 2005, I received a call from a friend whose 13-year-old niece had her full name, address, telephone number, school, and photo posted on MySpace.com. The entire family was upset and worried. I offered to visit his niece’s school and speak to the students about cybersafety, and decided to reach out to MySpace and deliver a well-deserved lecture.
It took me a few hours to dig up a phone number for MySpace’s corporate office. I called and asked for their general counsel’s line. I was routed to his voicemail. I left a hateful message, telling him who I was, that I ran WiredSafety.org , one of the largest and oldest cybersafety help groups, and that we were watching them closely. I also dropped a bombshell. “By the way, you are out of compliance with COPPA.” I never expected a return call.
When the general counsel called me back, I was shocked. “Parry, I know who you are and we need your help. We don’t want kids on our site. We’re designed for independent musicians between the ages of 18 and 34, not kids. It’s like herding cats! Make them go away!” (Or, at least, that’s the way I remember it.)
I told him I wasn’t calling in cyberlawyer and risk management consultant mode. I was representing WiredSafety.org, which helps people, not businesses. He asked if we would point out things on MySpace that needed to be changed. If we did, he explained, millions of people would be safer in one fell swoop.
It was a novel approach, but it only had potential as long as I was willing to share my expertise for free, through the charity. But the carrot was keeping millions of people safer. I bit. Nevertheless, I needed to sell it to the volunteers acting as WiredSafety.org’s key executives. Getting past the “sharing personal information online is dangerous” point was a real challenge, but it was essential if we were going to influence the creation of safer networks.
MySpace grew 1000 percent from 6 million users to 60 million within months. We were overwhelmed with requests for help. To their credit, MySpace reacted quickly when we made suggestions. They also fixed the COPPA problem within minutes. We helped institute privacy settings and better abuse reporting, and they adopted my pro-law-enforcement Investigator’s Guide and procedures.
Other sites approached us, such as Facebook, Bebo, Piczo, and Xanga, and additional sites reach out daily. Even VCs and investors call us. Everyone wants their network be the poster child for safer networking.
Why did these and other leading sites turn to a cybersafety group to help them handle safety issues? It is because no company, regardless of how well-staffed and trained, is ready for what users of all ages will throw at them -- cyberstalking and harassment, ID theft, and underaged kids posing in the nude, to name a few problems.
Real or perceived anonymity by millions of unauthenticated users and lack of accountability is a serious risk management problem for sites. So, we’ve taken everything we learned about protecting kids and adults online, and merged that with old-fashioned risk-management, compliance, and privacy consulting and coaching. Early next year, with the first Web 2.0-support center, The WiredTrust will open its doors to teach companies how to herd cats, kids, and wayward adults. It will also allow networks to outsource moderation and abuse-management to have it done for them. Luckily for me, safety is now more than good business -- it’s essential to staying in business. I knew if we hung in there long enough, things would come around.
— Parry Aftab, Cyberlawyer, privacy and security expert, and Executive Director, WiredSafety.org (the world’s largest and oldest cybersafety and help group)
A young co-valedictorian was murdered after answering an ad on craigslist for babysitting.
I have seen other murders of young adults by people they met online, but each one stands alone.
I don't know why an ad online seems riskier. Perhaps the fact that you have to pay for one in a newspaper and provide some contact information makes it appear a bit safer. Anyone can log onto any networks, anonymously (with their IP perhaps leaving a trail of cyberbreadcrumbs) and get broader response. But is offline safer after all?
What could we have done to save this young woman's life?
She was warned by her family and friends, but ignored the warnings.
Offline job-offers are among the most popular of sexual predator grooming lures. It's one of ten categories of plys used more commonly. Does the fact that it was made on Craigslist, where we all go for used hotubs and cars, or apartments, make it different?
Does the fact that young people (and some older ones and kids too) are becoming desensitized to talking to and meeting strangers in real life that we first encountered online have a role here?
It is a tragic and horrible event. And her family and loved ones deserve our sympathy and this lovely young woman should be mourned and her loss felt deeply. I extend my thoughts and prayers ot them in this time of loss. Her death should not be trivialized in any way.
But, at the same time, people are pointing fingers at Craiglist, saying it is to blame. Is that fair? Or accurate. Is this an Internet crime at all? Or merely someone using the technology to broadcast for potential victims, rather than paying for a print ad?
When is a crime that uses the Internet cease being an Internet crime and just become a crime?
When someone calls in a ransom demand on the phone, it's never categorized as a phone crime. Why is the Internet different?
As soon as I am back in the states, I plan to take my NY Teenangels (Teenangels.org) and do a briefing for the AG's office on social networking.
Facebook has been more careful than most. I would have targetted several other networks before Facebook, but the end result seemed like a win/win.
The WiredTrust will do it for the networks, adopting the best practices, replying to inquiries, even building their safety procedures and policies. But until it is ready to roll, we're still working with the networks, one by one.
Kids can explore the Internet safely. They need supervision, parents who can decide when they are old enough, and good communication. It's rarely about technology. It's almost always about communicating values, common sense, cautions. It's about making sure that when they mistype a domain name, when young, they don't end up at a porn site. And when older, we need to beef up the filter between their ears when traditional filters outlive their value.
We've got lots of our animations up at youtube.com. search for "parryaftab" and most will come up. How old are your kids? We are building a series of cyber fairytales now, starting with Little Red Riding Hood and her webcam.
When it comes to safety, most of us are hoping that we will run out of business. :-) It's our goal to make users smart enough and the technology secure enough that no one will need us. It will someday, I hope, be like looking both ways when you corss the street. No one buys books about crossing the street safely, nor are websites built on the reasons for looking both ways. No one books speakers on the topic or watches TV alerts about the best way to look both ways. In England, for those of us confused about the direction of traffic, notices are painted at crosswalks warning us to look right, before crossing.
I would like to know more about the wiredmoms initiative. I have young kids, but it won't be long before they're online. How can children explore the Internet safely?
It looks like your work to raise child safety awareness is paying off at Facebook. I just read a report where they announced plans to strengthen warnings about child safety on their site.
The NY Times article: Facebook to Strengthen Child Warnings, explains how Facebook's initiative is part of a settlement with New York State Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo.
Is your organization working with Cuomo's office? Have you considered contacting them?
Many social networks are trying to grapple with issues such as spam and ID theft, but are struggling with the basics on sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, etc. That's one of the reasons we are creating The Wired Trust, to do it for them and show them how.
Many porn spammers are pretending to be other teens looking to friend a member of myspace.com and other similar sites. When the teen friends them, the image that appears on their friends list is a porn ad.
Other sites pretend to offer quizzes and multimedia materials that the teens can use without charge on their profiles. To use them, you have to register at those sites. Many teens never change their login or passwords, from site to site. (Few adults are careful about this, either.) It's easy enough for this fake site to then log into the profile page at the site where the images are hosted on the teen's profile and take it over for spamming purposes, ID theft, etc.
I always say that what Web 2.0 companies need to know, we learned from kindergardeners.
thanks for being my first comment. We should get you involved in our new wiredmoms initiative.
I have a teenage daughter so the topic of Internet safety is always on my mind. I think it's great what you are doing on wiredsafety.org. It seems that social networking sites like myspace still don't have a handle on spam and hacking. Do you think that will ever change or are we just expected to accept it as a way of social networking life?
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you... Wrong! Mean words do hurt you. They can cause emotional devastation and drive some to suicide or murder. In some ways, mean words contributed to the death last year of a sweet and troubled 13-year-old, Megan Meier. It all revolved around the scandal of a parent who lived in Megan’s neighborhood posing as a cute teen boy named Josh on MySpace. The parent wanted to trick Megan into trusting him and sharing confidences. Megan committed suicide after "Josh" turned on her, calling her names and attacking her reputation.
The quest for Webpage clicks and ad impressions is creating a market for sensational truths and lies in equal measure. How are we going to get to the bottom of any real issue online – like what's really going on with Carrier IQ, for example – if we can't separate hype from reality?
More companies are trolling social networks to find and vet potential job candidates. Beware the pitfalls of blurring the line between personal and professional lives.
ITRC found that more than 600 security breaches took place in 2012. Flaws were found in some of the nation's most respected companies: Apple, Citibank, and Wells Fargo. So, it seems the bad guys are doing better than the men in the white hats.
Michael Brutsch, a.k.a. Reddit's Violentacrez, is a creep who posted borderline kiddie porn to the Internet anonymously, and got fired when outed by a media outlet. It's a cautionary tale even for people who aren't jerks and predators.
The Murdoch/News International scandal has all the elements of the digital age, from phone-hacking through embarrassing emails to agile digital reporting.
The plan for unmanned police drones to patrol traffic and other city conditions in Seattle has sparked a new set of legal concerns about privacy. Law traditionally lags technology, but we can expect now to see a new round of activity in the courts as legal definitions begin to emerge on what "next-gen privacy" will look like.
Big-data and analytics tools enable marketers to understand customers as individuals, identifying unmet needs and addressing each customer as a "segment of one," says John Kennedy, VP corporate marketing, IBM.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Monaco kicked into high gear today, and we've already begun to see news emerging from that lovely city-state by the sea.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
Email This
