Federal Trade Commission releases "Virtual Worlds and Kids..."

Alerted once again by my fine PLN on Twitter, I took the time to read this extensive report and I believe it is so worth sharing that I am herein expending even more attention on a brief review. The report is entitled "Virtual Worlds and Kids: Mapping the Risks." One might think that the Federal Trade Commission would have other more pressing topics to pursue than underage exposure to adult materials in virtual worlds, but considering some of the committee's findings I have to commend that body for its efforts here. I think the report is not only accurate assessment of the current state of the field but also balanced and objective beyond reproach. I'm sure we can look forward to further explorations by government agencies considering that: *"The number of youth participants in online virtual worlds is projected to grow to over 15 million by 9. 2013, with the most significant growth among the pre-teen (ages 3-11) segment of users. See Virtual Worlds News, Teen, Pre-teen Migration to Virtual Worlds On the Rise, supra note 8." and *"Virtual worlds consultancy kZero estimates that the number of registered accounts in the virtual 8. worlds sector totaled 579 million globally in the second quarter of 2009. This figure represents an increase of 38.6% from the previous quarter when global registered accounts totaled 417 million." 

 This report, available online in a 92 page .pdf, is the result of a direct assignment from Congress:"The Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act (Public 1. Law 111-8, enacted March 11, 2009) directed the Federal Trade Commission to submit a report to the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations regarding “virtual reality web programs.” Specifically, the statement read: Concerns have been raised regarding reports of explicit content that can be easily accessed by minors on increasingly popular virtual reality web programs. The FTC is directed to issue a consumer alert to educate parents on the content that is available to children on virtual reality web programs. In addition, no later than nine months after enactment of this Act, the FTC shall submit a report to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations discussing the types of content on virtual reality sites and what steps, if any, these sites take to prevent minors from accessing content."

The report itself runs only 34 pages, but I advise the careful reader to take the time to explore the exhaustive endnotes as well. Anyone who has any interest at all in the educational uses of virtual worlds needs more than a passing acquaintance with the information in this document. I would go further: Any parent of a child with access to a computer connected to the internet needs to read this document.

The methodology of the investigation is itself a model for further researchers. An initial survey of virtual worlds yielded 187 possible targets, which were pared down to 30, mostly on the criterion of popularity, based on reported number of unique visits. "Because one of the worlds, Adventure Rock, could not be accessed by the Commission’s researchers, and two other worlds, Webkinz and MyePets, required the purchase of a plush toy for registration, the Commission excluded these worlds from its survey, resulting in a sample of 27 online virtual worlds." Researchers also communicated directly with the hosting companies of six of the worlds, gaining further insight into policies and procedures. Here's a list of all the worlds included in the sample:

9 Dragons1

9dragons.acclaim.com

AQ

www.aq.com

Bots1

bots.acclaim.com

Buildabearville

www.buildabearville.com

Dofus

www.dofus.com/en/

Gaia Online

www.gaiaonline.com/

Habbo

www.habbo.com

Handipoints

handipoints.com

IMVU

www.imvu.com

Kaneva

www.kaneva.com

Maid Marian

maidmarian.com

Meez

www.meez.com

Millsberry

www.millsberry.com

My Diva Doll1

www.mydivadoll.com

Neopets

www.neopets.com

Pixiehollow

pixiehollow.go.com

Poptropica

www.poptropica.com

Red Light Center

www.redlightcenter.com

Runescape

www.runescape.com

Second Life

www.secondlife.com

Secret of the Solstice2

solstice.outspark.com

Stardoll

www.stardoll.com

There

www.there.com

Vivaty

www.vivaty.com

Wind Slayer2

windslayer.outspark.com

YoVille

www.yoville.com

Zwinktopia

www.zwinky.com

Directed to explore for sexually explicit content and violently explicit content for set amounts of time, utilizing any means possible, the researchers did so registered as adults, then registered as teens, and finally registered as children. They recorded their efforts using Camtasia software and in an extensive Access database form, then their findings were replicated by another researcher to ensure a "99.5% accuracy." Findings are reported in text accompanied by charts and tables, with screenshots of registration screens and more.

Again, this is not as much a review as it is an invitation for you to read and understand committee's findings for yourself. That said, I don't think it's a spoiler to share the report's introduction to its concluding recommendations to Congress and the industry:

As reported above, the Commission found very little explicit content on virtual worlds open to children under age 13. The Commission found a greater concentration of explicit content in worlds that permit teens to register, and where teens are likely to congregate. Although some of the teen- and adult-oriented online virtual worlds in which the Commission observed explicit content have taken steps to restrict minors’ access to explicit content, their efforts have not fully succeeded. Virtual world operators can do more to limit youth exposure to explicit content. Given important First Amendment considerations, the Commission supports virtual world operators’ self-regulatory efforts to implement these recommendations.

The report goes on with recommendations that include establishing more effective age and content filtering mechanisms, creating better age-segregating structures, employing full-time inworld moderators with policing tools, and creating better parent and youth education. All good measures, all contributing to the value of this timely and informative report. My own recommendation? Read it!

crossposted from Oh!VirtualLearning!

The Pros and Cons of Social Networking

My apologies for the long post, but I'm not feelin' the love here and need to share that.

Always on the lookout for dialog on this topic, I followed a link in my email newsletter from Technology and Learning this morning to an article by podcaster and Web 2.0 advocate Terry Freedman. It's an interesting, casually phrased defense of social networks by an author who is clearly even more embedded in the phenomena than I. He admits/claims to be a member of no less than 63 networks (I haven't counted--should I?).

What to me is most interesting about the post, however, is not the article itself, but the first (and as of this writing the only) comment upon it, from renowned social network critic and self-proclaimed expert on children and the internet, Douglas Fodeman. Fodeman is founder and CEO of "Children Online, LLC" and Director of ChildrenOnline.org.

Fodeman, in his response comment, points Freedman and the rest of us to his recent article at the National Association of Independent Schools' "Resources" page, to read his article The Impact of Facebook on Our Students (January 12, 2009, Doug Fodeman & Marje Monroe). In this lengthy and extremely well-written article, the authors systematically make their case that online social networking is bad for children (Monroe, btw, is Co-Director of ChildrenOnline.org.

We have Facebook accounts and actually see it as a wonderful, and valuable, resource. However, just because Facebook says that anyone 14 years or old CAN use Facebook, doesn't mean that they should. It isn't an age-appropriate or developmentally healthy place for our children and younger teens to hang out. Facebook is not working to protect our children and the laws in our country are terribly inadequate to safeguard our children online, in general.

These are pretty hefty charges, and, by the way, the allowable age for a Facebook account is not 14 years, but rather 13. I know this both because by noon the day of his 13th birthday, my son had established his fb account and had nearly as many friends as I have on mine. It's also pretty clear at the extensive "Facebook Safety" page the folks at fb offer at their website. Let me quote from that site, to support the counterpoint I'm about to make:

Facebook aspires to be an environment where people can interact safely with their friends and the people around them. We have implemented many safety and privacy controls on Facebook as part of our goal to enable people to share their information with only the people they want to see it. And we are constantly improving our systems for identifying and removing inappropriate content and people from the site.

Children under 13 years old are not permitted access to Facebook. In addition, parents of children 13 years and older should consider whether their child should be supervised during the child's use of the Facebook site.

And here, friends, is my point: Families need to talk with their children, monitor (not constantly, sheesh, but sporadically) their children's use of the platform, just like they would any online activity. As interesting as ChildrenOnline's arguments can be--and I truly do not disagree with many of them--their conclusion that I don't believe that social networking is inappropriate or damaging to our children. I FIRMLY agree with one of Fodeman/Monroe's proclamations: "We need to help our students become more media-savvy, understand the value of personal information, and how to protect it." I just don't think that the way to do that is to label good tools "inappropriate." I have absolutely no doubt that the ChildrenOnline folks are well-intentioned, or that they have carried out the years of research they lay claim to at their website. I just have seen too much good connection to agree with their conclusion. It's simply not that simple.

An odd aside: When looking for information about Mr. Fodeman past his own organization's website, I came upon a page about using videoconferencing for distance learning put up long ago by my friend Steve Bergen, upon which my name appears in a list of educators directly after Douglas Fodeman's. I really did LOL at that one! It's a small world, smaller than we might sometimes think.

I have recently shared some resources for parents at our independent school, which can be found in wiki form at usnparentsdigitallife.wikispaces.com. I don't have a book (link to Mr. Fodeman's and Ms. Monroe's book, which btw I own and highly recommend) or a speaking program (link to ChildrenOnline's speaking programs--uses frames so click "Programs" in the sidebar)to sell with it, nor grants to support it, but it's there for one and all. There are many more resources about online safety available at the Facebook safety site noted above, and I'm going to just paste those in here as I take my leave--temporarily I'm sure--from this discussion...

• OnguardOnline.gov
• WiredSafety.org
• Commonsense.com
• Ncmec.org
• TRUSTe.org
• ConnectSafely.org
• NetSmartz.org
• WebWiseKids.org

Opening Night! and USN Parent Workshop on Teens and the Internet

It's opening night! Can't WAIT to see the whole play, though I'll of course be focused on me boy-o as Young York.

In other news, I had a wonderful chat--along with USN Tech Director Kathy Weiczerza and Middle School Tech Coordinator Jake Wilson, after school yesterday--with 8 or 10 parents of USN 7th graders, on the topic of Teenagers and the Internet. In preparation for that, I created a free wiki at http://usn7thparentsnight.wikispaces.com to use as both a presentation tool and as a repository for further dialog. Please feel free to visit that site and use the "Edit this page" link on any page to which you'd like to contribute (especially the "Questions" and the "Comments" pages!

Thanks to the parents who came by. This was truly an enjoyable experience for me, since I'm one of you. I'm all to familiar with how challenging it can be for a parent, even one as geeky as I, to keep up with socio-technological change and I deeply appreciate your concern and your contributions to my own learning...