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Chatting On-Line: A Dangerous Proposition for Children
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
Ms. Caroline Curtin
Chairman Upton and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify before you today on issues relating to child safety in the online environment. As Director of Children's Policy for AOL, I am responsible for coordinating child safety and privacy protections across the AOL Inc. properties, as well as educating parents about online safety and the importance of parental involvement. I am pleased to have the opportunity to describe AOL's efforts to educate our members about online safety, the tools and resources we provide for our members - such as our easy-to-use, powerful Parental Controls - as well as our ongoing partnership with law enforcement and other stakeholders to help keep the online environment safe for children. AOL
has played a significant role in the development of the online medium and we
have always shared a special appreciation of its enormous potential to benefit
society ‑ especially children. Learning
how to explore and understand the online world is an essential skill for our
children in today's wired world, but we all agree that kids need and deserve
special protection in this new medium. AOL
recognizes that parents must have the ability to ensure that their children can
enjoy a rewarding and safe interactive experience online. It has therefore been our challenge to craft rules of the
road for children's online safety, enabling parents to protect their children
while at the same time helping them take advantage of the wonders of the online
environment. By
promoting major public education campaigns and closely cooperating with elected
officials and government agencies on outreach and enforcement efforts, we have
tried to offer strong proactive leadership in every area of children's safety
online. In some ways even more
important than those efforts, however, has been our commitment to providing our
member families with the resources and tools they need to make informed
decisions. No law, no technology, no corporate initiative can ever take the
place of an educated and involved parent when it comes to their children's
online safety. That's why we've dedicated significant energy to providing AOL
parents with the most useful information, content, tools and safety tips to help
protect their children, as well as a list of the resources available for
families both on AOL and the Internet. By doing so, we've tried to empower
parents so they can ensure that their children's online experience is the best
it can be. Industry
Efforts to Educate the Public We
have always believed that the industry must lead the charge in giving parents
the tools they need to protect their children online. AOL has been a leader in
organizing industry efforts to educate consumers about online safety and is
committed to continuing this leadership role. Among
those efforts, AOL was a leading corporate host of the America Links Up national
public education campaign, designed to give parents information to help their
children have a safe, educational and rewarding experience online. In
addition, AOL created and distributed a special video for kids -- called
Safe Surfin' -- that features online safety tips presented by some of the
younger generation's favorite celebrities. This video was developed in
partnership with the National School Boards Association and has been introduced
into schools across the country. Furthermore,
AOL, in conjunction with the American Library Association, launched the Internet
Driver's Ed program. This program is a traveling Internet education and safety
class for children and parents, hosted in children's museums and other prominent
venues in major cities nationwide. AOL
was also a key partner in forming the GetNetWise.org website - a resource
designed to provide consumers with comprehensive online safety information that
includes guidance from some of the major industry leaders, such as AOL.com, the
AOL subscription service, and Netscape. Finally,
AOL works closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)
to support its mission of recovering missing children and to combat online
exploitation of children. Since July 1997, AOL and NCMEC have maintained an
online program called "Kid Patrol" which helps locate abducted and
missing children. AOL also helped to launch NCMEC's Cyber Tipline and has
participated in an ongoing partnership to operate this service. In addition, AOL
has helped develop a training video and a nationwide service of hands-on
training seminars for law enforcement officers to teach their agencies how best
to adapt traditional investigation and enforcement techniques to the online
environment in order to effectively pursue and prevent cybercrime.
We believe this type of cooperation with law enforcement and
investigative organizations is critical to supporting AOL's online safety
mission. Tools
and Resources for AOL Members In
addition to our leadership in industry efforts to educate families about online
safety, AOL devotes significant resources to developing tools and resources for
our own members to protect their children in the online environment.
a.
AOL's Parental Controls AOL's
Parental Controls are the foundation of our child protection package and a key
offering of our subscription service. While
providing kids with entertaining and educational experiences has always been an
important mission for AOL, we strongly feel that it is also our responsibility
to help parents manage their child's online experiences. AOL's Parental Controls
put the power in the hands of parents, enabling them to make informed decisions
about their kids' online activities by selecting the appropriate level of
participation for each child. Parents also have the ability to customize
additional features ‑ such as chat, e-mail and Internet access ‑
based on their children's online savvy and maturity. AOL's
Parental Controls are a server‑based technology. This delivery mechanism
allows us to provide the most secure experience to our members because the
Parental Controls settings are actually attached to the child's individual
screen name. No matter where that child signs online ‑‑ from home,
school or a friend's house, the Parental Controls follow with the child's
screen name. In
1998, we changed our registration process to require parents to set Parental
Controls for each screen name upon screen name creation. When we integrated
Parental Controls into the Create A Screen Name process; we saw a dramatic
increase in adoption as a result. There are up to 7 screen names available on
one AOL account, enabling even larger families to give each child in the
household his or her own screen name with customized Parental Control settings.
Only "Master" screen names controlled by the parents can create a new
screen name or set or change Parental Control settings. When
creating a separate screen name for their child, parents are given the
opportunity to choose one of three different standard age "category"
settings: Kids Only, Young Teens, or Mature Teens. A
Kids Only setting (recommended for 12 and under) restricts children to the Kids
Only Channel, which has been specially created and programmed for children 12
and under. The child also receives a customized Welcome Screen. A child using a
Kids Only screen name can access age‑appropriate content on AOL and the
Web and interact with others online through e‑mail and in special
supervised kids' message boards and chat areas, but is blocked from taking part
in general audience chat rooms and message boards on AOL, sending or receiving
Instant Messages and visiting any Web site that has not been approved as
age‑appropriate. A
Young Teen (recommended for ages 13 ‑ 15) category provides more freedom
than a Kids Only screen name, but does not provide full access to more mature
content and interactive features. The Teens also receive a customized Welcome
Screen. Young Teen screen names can access most AOL content, and can visit Web
sites that have been approved as age appropriate. They may communicate with
others online through e‑mail and in a range of message board and chat
areas, Including Teen chats and message boards that are monitored by background
employees. Teens are restricted, however, from accessing newsgroups, visiting
inappropriate Web sites, or taking part in private chat rooms. A
Mature Teen (recommended for ages 16‑17) setting allows older teens the
most freedom of any of the Parental Controls categories.
Mature Teen screen names can access all content on AOL and the Web except
sites that have been classified for an adult (18 plus) audience. They can locate
others and communicate online through Instant Messaging, all chat areas,
e‑mail, private messaging and AOL's Member Directory.
Each
of these category settings has a pre‑selected set of "defaults"
for different features such as chat, e‑mail, Instant Messages and Internet
access. A parent can choose to customize any of these defaults within a category
to ensure the experience best matches his or her child ‑‑ so even on
a Kids Only screen name (our most
conservative), a parent may choose to further limit access to e‑mail to an
"approved" list, or, alternately, may decide that the child is mature
enough to participate in Instant Message conversations.
A parent may choose to modify their child's access to content (Web,
newsgroups, file downloads) or way to communicate with others online (e-mail,
Instant messages, chat). For example, if you don't want your child to chat,
you can customize Parental Controls and block all AOL Chat or you can choose
only monitored AOL Chat. We
continue to evolve our Parental Controls to meet consumer needs for safe,
easy-to-use tools. In response to consumer request, we introduced our latest
feature, the Online Timer, in the spring of 2000. This feature allows parents to
determine how long and when their children can be online, and was among our most
highly requested features. b.
Educational
Tools and Member Outreach We have found that education of our members is an ongoing process. As
new consumers come online every day and as our existing customers' lives evolve,
their parental controls needs may change as well. AOL members spend an average
of 76 minutes online per usage day (Source: Media Metrix March 2002) so we have
ample opportunity to remind parents about their choices, and about online
safety. This is important not only for new members to our service, but for
existing parents as well. We believe that every family should periodically
review new information, check their child's Parental Controls settings and
update them as appropriate for that child's age and maturity. Also important, we
have worked to quickly and effectively notify our members of significant news
and developments in the area of children's safety, like the Children's Online
Privacy Protection Act or new Parental Controls offerings that may impact their
family's online safety decisions. We
reach our members through several key vehicles online. Neighborhood Watch and
Parental Controls are our central "online safety" information areas.
These areas are always available online to our members through easy‑to-find
mechanisms including: 1.
Keywords:
We use logical "keywords" such as "child safety,"
"Parental Controls," "safety," "Note to Parents,"
and "help" to lead our members to online education areas about child
safety and privacy. Online safety for kids is a topic in our AOL Help A‑Z
area. And we educate our newer members about keyword use early on, through
Welcome Screen promotion of our Member Benefits Area. 2. Prominent
Placement: Parental Controls is an icon on the Welcome Screen of our service
which every member passes through each and every time they sign online.
Additionally, Parental Controls are integrated into our Create A Screen Name
process. 3. Kids Only & Teens Channels Reminders: Both our Kids Only Channel, directed to children 12 and under, and our Teens Channel, created for younger teens 13 to 15, have online safety tips integrated into the experience. In fact, kids and teens must pass through these safety reminders before entering interactive chat and message board areas. In the "Kids Help" area, AOL's "Online Safety Tips" remind children not to give out their home address or other identifying information to anyone online and to notify AOL and their parents if they encounter anybody that make that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe. There is a special "Tell AOL" feature that children can use to alert AOL of any such concerns. An
essential part of AOL's commitment to families, of course, is to provide great
content for children. The AOL Service reaches over 3 million children ages
2‑11 (Source: Media Metrics, March 2002). For almost 10 years now, AOL's
Kids Only Channel has been delivering fun, engaging and educational programming
to children 12 and under. In addition, all Kids Only chat rooms and message
boards are monitored by background checked and specially trained AOL employees.
And Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine's 2001 awarded the Kids Only Channel the
"Best Kids Community" for "kid-friendly games, chat and homework
helpers." Conclusion To
briefly summarize, AOL's commitment to families and child safety includes three
key elements: Educating consumers about online child safety, including our
collaborative efforts with other companies in the industry; providing great age
appropriate content for young audiences; and offering parents easy-to-use,
flexible tools to customize their children's online experience. We
are constantly enhancing our offerings to families and work closely with others
in the industry to fine‑tune our technological tools so that they are the
most up to date and effective. Filtering, rating and labeling technologies are
essential parts of the toolkit that can be used to protect children on the
Internet. Finally,
it bears repeating that there is no substitute for parental involvement online.
Raising consumer awareness about parental controls, choices and child online
safety is a collaborative effort. AOL believes that the industry and we have
made great strides in this arena and are on the right path to continue doing so.
We look forward to working closely with you on this important issue. Thank
you again for this opportunity; I would be happy to answer any questions that
you may have.
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