An Internet Safety Task Force!!!

With "MySpace" getting frequent mention as the favored destination of pedophiles and sex predators, the site, in association with leading Harvard scholars, has taken the lead in creating an "Internet Safety Technical Task Force", whose mission will be to protect children and teenagers from online predators and pornography.Created by MySpace, the "Internet Safety Technical Task Force" will be headed by Harvard Law School's 'Berkman Center for Internet and Society'. Berkman Executive Director, John Palfrey, said the group will operate independently, while its recommendations will be non-binding on the members. Palfrey is aided by two Berkman scholars in this effort: namely, Danah Boyd, a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student, who is among the lead researchers on social-networking Web sites; and Dena Sacco, a former federal prosecutor in child-exploitation cases. Significantly, the "Internet Safety Technical Task Force" will see participation from the creme-da-la-creme of industry: Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, and MySpace; along with non-profit organizations -- especially those focused on Internet safety.In a statement, Palfrey said that the safety concerns posed by the Internet are part and parcel of the safety concerns that arise in human interactions in the physical world. These concerns are not unique to any one service or technology platform; they are shared by the companies that provide Internet services, and the individuals who use these services. MySpace said in its statement that they hope to identify the technologies and tools that will be made available industry-wide to provide a safer online experience for all Internet users. Among a whole lot of other things, the "Internet Safety Technical Task Force" will explore ways how children can avoid unwanted contact and unwanted content when using MySpace and other popular online hangouts.And while 'age verification procedures' continue to attract expert criticism, they will nevertheless form an important part of the task force's agenda. Time and again, age verification tests have come under fire for being flawed, and for giving guardians and parents a false sense of security as regards the online safety of their children. However, officials continue to use these as some form of benchmark to keep so-called adults and kids separated in the online world. The task force, it appears, is no exception to this norm. All said, MySpace, for all the notoriety it has by now acquired as hot-spot for all kinds of predators and sex pests, has actively been searching for solutions for its problems. The "Internet Safety Technical Task Force" is another such solution; incidentally, the outcome of several meetings the site had with various Attorneys General across the US -- with 50 of them adopting a 'Joint Statement on Key Principles of Social Networking Safety' at the beginning of this year.Commenting on the special task force, Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer of MySpace, said that the Berkman Center's impressive research on the challenges and opportunities offered by the Internet makes them the ideal leader for this task force.Meanwhile, the task force plans to offer quarterly reports on its findings, and present a final version next year.Source