Children and Privacy
Many articles have been written about the safety and privacy for kids while they are online. Every networking site has different safeguards for keeping kids safe while online. This page explores the different ways that Troiano (2008) and Miyazaki, Stanaland, and Lwin (2009) suggest to keep children safe on the internet.
In Trioiano’s (2008) article, she states that, “By the mid-1980’s, the problem of child pornography trafficking in the United States was almost completely eliminated as a result of an intense crackdown by law enforcement” (p.4). People finally believed that children were done being exploited. Everyone’s views quickly changed when the internet became increasingly popular and the problem of child pornography arose. Federal laws were then put in place to prohibit all child pornography which quickly cut down on the production and distribution of child pornography. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) came about in 1998. This act regulates all Web sites that are geared towards children that are 13 and under. According to Trioiano (2008), "Any such Webs site that collects information online, regardless of the means, is required by COPPA to obtain parent or guardian consent- referred to as a "barrier safeguard"- before doing so" (p.80). (Trioiano, 2008).
After struggling to keep child pornography off the internet for years, Myspace and Facebook popped up and once again risked minor’s privacy online. When Myspace was in its prime, they conducted a voluntary review of their user’s profiles. During the review, they discovered that thousands of sex offenders had their own Myspace pages. While Myspace immediately deleted all registered sex
offender’s pages, they questioned whether they should divulge their information to legal authorities. This was a struggle for Myspace because technically if Myspace were to hand over their user’s information it would be violating the user’s privacy rights under numerous federal laws. Ultimately, Myspace did not reveal their information, but they executed new technologies that would block
children that were 14 and younger from having an account. Around this time, Facebook became popular. Learning from Myspace’s mistakes, Facebook applied an assortment of safety methods and mechanisms to keep children safe on their site (Trioiano, 2008).
Like Trioiano (2008), Miyazaki, Stanaland, and Lwin (2009) were also concerned about privacy online, especially when it was in regards to preteens. In order for them to fully understand how effective the safeguards on websites were for preteen children, they piloted a study that looked at how the type of online safeguard can sway information disclosure in preteen children.
In the study, Miyazake, Stanaland, and Lwin (2009) looked at whether safeguard warnings on Web sites and parental mediation discouraged preteens to divulge personal information online. They found that the preteens were less likely to disclose personal information when there was a warning on the website paired with a warning from their parents tell them to be careful of disclosing
their personal information online. When preteens were only shown the warning on the website or only had a warning from their parents, they were more likely to disclose their personal information online than when the preteens had a warning
on the website and a warning from their parents (Miyazake, Stanaland, Lwin, 2009).
In Trioiano’s (2008) article, she states that, “By the mid-1980’s, the problem of child pornography trafficking in the United States was almost completely eliminated as a result of an intense crackdown by law enforcement” (p.4). People finally believed that children were done being exploited. Everyone’s views quickly changed when the internet became increasingly popular and the problem of child pornography arose. Federal laws were then put in place to prohibit all child pornography which quickly cut down on the production and distribution of child pornography. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) came about in 1998. This act regulates all Web sites that are geared towards children that are 13 and under. According to Trioiano (2008), "Any such Webs site that collects information online, regardless of the means, is required by COPPA to obtain parent or guardian consent- referred to as a "barrier safeguard"- before doing so" (p.80). (Trioiano, 2008).
After struggling to keep child pornography off the internet for years, Myspace and Facebook popped up and once again risked minor’s privacy online. When Myspace was in its prime, they conducted a voluntary review of their user’s profiles. During the review, they discovered that thousands of sex offenders had their own Myspace pages. While Myspace immediately deleted all registered sex
offender’s pages, they questioned whether they should divulge their information to legal authorities. This was a struggle for Myspace because technically if Myspace were to hand over their user’s information it would be violating the user’s privacy rights under numerous federal laws. Ultimately, Myspace did not reveal their information, but they executed new technologies that would block
children that were 14 and younger from having an account. Around this time, Facebook became popular. Learning from Myspace’s mistakes, Facebook applied an assortment of safety methods and mechanisms to keep children safe on their site (Trioiano, 2008).
Like Trioiano (2008), Miyazaki, Stanaland, and Lwin (2009) were also concerned about privacy online, especially when it was in regards to preteens. In order for them to fully understand how effective the safeguards on websites were for preteen children, they piloted a study that looked at how the type of online safeguard can sway information disclosure in preteen children.
In the study, Miyazake, Stanaland, and Lwin (2009) looked at whether safeguard warnings on Web sites and parental mediation discouraged preteens to divulge personal information online. They found that the preteens were less likely to disclose personal information when there was a warning on the website paired with a warning from their parents tell them to be careful of disclosing
their personal information online. When preteens were only shown the warning on the website or only had a warning from their parents, they were more likely to disclose their personal information online than when the preteens had a warning
on the website and a warning from their parents (Miyazake, Stanaland, Lwin, 2009).