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NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
The study of which this workshop report was a part was supported by Grant No. 1999-JN-FX-0071 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education; Grant No. P0073380 between the National Academy of Sciences and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; awards (unnumbered) from the Microsoft Corporation and IBM; and National Research Council funds. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.
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Suggested citation: National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2001. Nontechnical Strategies to Reduce Children's Exposure to Inappropriate Material on the Internet: Summary of a Workshop. Board on Children, Youth, and Families and Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. Joah G. Iannotta, ed. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Engineering
Institute of Medicine
National Research Council
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. William A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
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COMMITTEE TO STUDY TOOLS AND STRATEGIES FOR PROTECTING KIDS FROM PORNOGRAPHY AND THEIR APPLICABILITY TO OTHER INAPPROPRIATE INTERNET CONTENT 2000-2001
RICHARD THORNBURGH (Chair), Kirkpatrick & Lockhart LLP, Washington, DC
NICHOLAS J. BELKIN, School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University
REV. WILLIAM J. BYRON, Holy Trinity Church, Washington, DC
SANDRA L. CALVERT, Department of Psychology, Georgetown University
DAVID FORSYTH, Department of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley
DANIEL GEER, @Stake, Cambridge, MA
LINDA HODGE, National Parent Teacher Association, Washington, DC
MARILYN GELL MASON, Independent Consultant, Tallahassee, FL
MILO MEDIN, Excite@Home, Redwood City, CA
JOHN B. RABURN, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Alexandria, VA
ROBIN RASKIN, FamilyPC Magazine, New York, NY
ROBERT SCHOLS, T.J. Watson Research Center, IBM, Yorktown Heights, NY
JANET WARD SCHOFIELD, Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh
GEOFFREY R. STONE, Office of the Provost, University of Chicago
WINNIE WECHSLER, Independent Consultant, Santa Monica, CA
Herbert Lin, Senior Scientist
Gail Pritchard, Program Officer
Joah G. Iannotta, Research Assistant
Daniel D. Llata, Senior Project Assistant
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BOARD ON CHILDREN,YOUTH, AND FAMILIES 1999-2000
EVAN CHARNEY (Chair), Department of Pediatrics, University of Massachusetts
JAMES A. BANKS, Center for Multicultural Education, University of Washington
SHEILA BURKE, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
DAVID CARD, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
DONALD COHEN, Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, Yale University
MINDY FULLILOVE, Columbia University
KEVIN GRUMBACH, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Primary Care Research Center, University of California, San Francisco
MAXINE HAYES, Department of Community and Family Health, Washington State Department of Health
MARGARET HEAGARTY, Department of Pediatrics, Harlem Hospital Center, Columbia University
RENEE JENKINS, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Howard University
SHEILA KAMERMAN, School of Social Work, Columbia University
HARRIET KITZMAN, School of Nursing, University of Rochester
SANDERS KORENMAN, School of Public Affairs, Baruch College
HON. CINDY LEDERMAN, Circuit Court, Juvenile Justice Center, Dade County, Florida
SARA McLANAHAN, Office of Population Research, Princeton University
VONNIE McLOYD, Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan
GARY SANDEFUR, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
RUTH STEIN, Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
PAUL WISE, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center
RUTH T. GROSS ( Liaison, IOM Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention ), Professor of Pediatrics (emerita), Stanford University
ELEANOR E. MACCOBY ( Liaison, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education ), Department of Psychology (emerita), Stanford University
WILLIAM ROPER ( Liaison, IOM Council ), Institute of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Michele D. Kipke, Director
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COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD 1999-2000
DAVID D. CLARK (Chair), Laboratory of Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DAVID BORTH, Communication Systems and Technologies Labs, Motorola Labs, Schaumburg, IL
JAMES CHIDDIX, AOL Time Warner, Stamford, CT
JOHN M. CIOFFI, Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
ELAINE COHEN, Department of Computer Science, University of Utah
W. BRUCE CROFT, Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
SUSAN L. GRAHAM, Department of Computer Science, University of California at Berkeley
JUDITH HEMPEL, Molecular Design Institute, University of California at San Francisco
JEFFREY M. JAFFE, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ
ANNA KARLIN, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
MICHAEL KATZ, Department of Economics, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley
BUTLER W. LAMPSON, Microsoft Corporation, Cambridge, MA
EDWARD D. LAZOWSKA, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
DAVID LIDDLE, U.S. Venture Partners, Menlo Park, CA
TOM M. MITCHELL, WhizBang! Labs, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA
DONALD NORMAN, UNext.com, Deerfield, IL
DAVID A. PATTERSON, Department of Computer Science, University of California at Berkeley
HENRY (HANK) PERRITT, Chicago-Kent College of Law
CHARLES SIMONYI, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA
BURTON SMITH, Cray Inc., Seattle, WA
TERRY SMITH, Department of Computer Science, University of California at Santa Barbara
LEE SPROULL, Stern School of Management, New York University
Marjory S. Blumenthal, Executive Director
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Contents
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Preface
In response to a mandate from Congress in conjunction with the Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act of 1998, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine established a committee of experts to explore options to protect children from pornography and other inappropriate Internet content. In June 2000, the Committee to Study Tools and Strategies for Protecting Kids from Pornography on the Internet and Their Applicability to Other Inappropriate Internet Content was established. Support for the committee's work came from the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, Microsoft Corporation, IBM, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the National Research Council. The committee has been charged with exploring the pros and cons of different technology options and operational policies as well as nontechnical strategies that can help to provide young people with positive and safe online experiences.
On December 13, 2000, the committee convened a workshop to provide public input to its work and focus on nontechnical strategies that could be effective in a broad range of settings (e.g., home, school, libraries) in which young people might be online. With primary support provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families assumed responsibility for planning and organizing the workshop. The workshop brought together researchers, educators, policy makers, and other key stakeholders to consider and discuss these approaches and to identify
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some of the benefits and limitations of various nontechnical strategies. The workshop was organized around four topics: developmental considerations for defining inappropriate material and the effects of exposure to sexually explicit and other harmful materials; children's use patterns and experiences on the Internet; innovative approaches and existing efforts to use nontechnological strategies; and opportunities to bridge research, policy, and practice. The overarching goal of this activity was to provide a forum for discussing the implications of this research with regard to policy and practice and identifying research needed to advance and inform policy and practice.
This report summarizes the proceedings from the workshop, and, while it offers insight from the presenters on the strengths of nontechnical strategies, it does not contain conclusions or recommendations. Rather, it suggests that the approach or combination of approaches that best serve young people need to be based on the context, needs, and manner in which they are using the Internet. In addition, this report represents a distillation of the presentations of the speakers and the dialogue that ensued, highlighting key issues and viewpoints that emerged from the rich discussions that took place. Every effort has been made to accurately reflect the speakers' content and viewpoints. However, because the report reflects the proceedings of the workshop, it is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all the issues involved in Internet use by young people, nor is it a complete documentation of all the nontechnical strategies that communities, schools, parents, and libraries might use.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the Report Review Committee of the National Research Council (NRC). The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making the published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report: Susan Curnan, Center for Youth and Communities, Brandeis University; Sari Feldman, Deputy Director, Cleveland Public Library; Sara Kiesler, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University; and Christine Peterson, SRI International, Arlington, VA.
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Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Ulric Neisser, Department of Psychology, Cornell University. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Many individuals deserve recognition for their contributions to the workshop and this report. Joah Iannotta served as the research assistant for this project, contributing to the development of the agenda and identification of speakers; she also contributed substantively to the content and structure of the report. Mary Graham, associate director for dissemination and communication of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, provided feedback on numerous drafts and helped improve the clarity and readability of the report. In the Division on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Christine McShane's editing skills provided the polish to complete the report and ensured that the report traversed all the right steps toward publication. Committee members Sandra Calvert and Robin Raskin devoted extra time at committee meetings to provide extremely thoughtful critiques of the report. Sandra and Robin's comments along with those of Jane Ross, director of the Center for Social and Economic Studies, significantly improved the quality of the report. We thank them for their efforts.
Michele D. Kipke, Director
Board on Children, Youth, and Families
Herbert Lin, Senior Scientist
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board