BOCYF Projects: Non-Technical Strategies for Protecting Children on the Internet

Workshop on Non-Technical Strategies for Protecting Children on the Internet

The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and the Board on Children, Youth, and Families will conduct a workshop that will examine non-technical strategies for protecting children on the Internet. This workshop will feature speakers knowledgeable about children’s use of and experiences on the Internet (at school, in the community, and at home), different non-technical approaches to the issue of protecting children from inappropriate material on the Internet, efforts to encourage and support children from not accessing inappropriate information on the Internet, efforts to encourage and support children’s access to information from which they can learn and benefit, and efforts to discourage individuals and businesses from inappropriately engaging or soliciting children on the Internet. This first workshop could also be used explicitly to solicit public comment about this topic. Specific issues to be addressed by this workshop include:

How are children using the Internet and what are their experiences on the Internet?
What non-technical approaches are used today to protect children from inappropriate material?
How effective are known approaches to controlling Internet access to inappropriate material?
What strategies can be employed to encourage children to use the Internet in safe and appropriate ways?
What are some of the current "best practices" used in classrooms and by communities to ensure children’s safe and appropriate use of the Internet?
What research is needed to develop new social strategies to protecting children from inappropriate material on the Internet?
What are some of the non-technological strategies that might be used by educators, librarians, parents, and local communities to ensure children’s safe and appropriate use of the Internet?

Workshops at the Academy are opportunities to convene groups of experts to address issues of pressing importance and to advise the deliberations of committees. Presentations and discussions at the workshops helped committee members enhance their understanding of the matters before them. And, because workshops were open to the public (and in particular to staff from the executive and legislative branches), the papers presented at the workshops and the discussions conducted therein are opportunities for publicly airing information useful to the policy process before the release of a final report. Briefing books for workshop participants containing background information, commissioned papers, and papers by speakers were made available in advance of the meeting. A workshop summary has been prepared for this workshop integrates the presentation of papers with the ensuing discussion.