Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies: Final Report of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force

This document is the final report from the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, part of the multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States. The Task Force brought together leaders from Internet service providers, social network sites, academia, education, child safety and public policy advocacy organizations, and technology development to determine the extent to which today’s technologies could help to address the issue of online safety risks, with a primary focus on social network sites in the United States. In addition to this final report, the Task Force produced two other documents: a Literature Review of relevant research in the field of youth online safety in the United States, and a report from its Technology Advisory Board (TAB) that reviewed the 40 technologies submitted to the Task Force. The Final Report is divided into eight sections that include a review of the Task Force’s other two documents: Introduction; Methodology; Summary Report from the Research Advisory Board; Summary Report from the Technology Advisory Board; Overview of Online Safety Efforts Made by Social Network Sites; Analysis; Recommendations; and Conclusion. Major findings from the research indicate that in broad terms: sexual predation on minors by adults, both online and offline, remains a concern; bullying and harassment, most often by peers, are the most frequent threats that minors face, both online and offline. The Internet increases the availability of harmful, problematic and illegal content, but does not always increase minors’ exposure. The risk profile for the use of different genres of social media depends on the type of risk, the common uses by minors, and the psychosocial makeup of minors who use them; minors are not equally at risk online; and although much is known about these issues, many areas still require further research.