Kid Safe

After a yearlong study, The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University has issued a report on “Enhancing Child Safety & Online Technologies”.  There are many news articles coming out this week from a variety of sources.

Like this one from the Associated Press, ANICK JESDANUN, http://tinyurl.com/NotTechnologyAlone ,  Anick explains that technology alone is not the answer and many other articles state that parent involvement is the number one deterrent to children practicing safe behaviors on the internet but what is missing from this report and the accompanying articles is EDUCATION.

Here is what our founder said today after reading the report:

“Everyone in the industry agrees that there is no fool-proof technology that 100% protects minors from inappropriate content, predators and cyber-bullying online,” says Greg Writer, CEO of the Children’s Educational Network. “However, parents and children have access to tools and educational content that creates a safer browsing experience on the Web. As a society we need to take charge and motivate children to become empowered and informed Internet citizens. Education is the solution. We need to take a page from the State of Virginia’s book and enact legislation that will implement mandatory Internet safety curriculum in schools nationwide.”

So far, only the State of Virginia has mandated Internet Safety Education into their curriculum and only Children’s Educational Network provides technology along with parent and child education.  Where is the outrage?  Educate to protect, that’s the solution!   That’s what this study says without saying it, and without mandating it.

ClubTUKI.com

Children’s Educational Network has been a leader in the industry for years by combining education with our cutting edge technology to protect and educate children on the internet.  We have found that it’s best to get to the kids directly so we have focused our efforts toward the children by creating a patented rewards engine tied to educational games.

Kids play our educational games and earn a virtual currency, TUKI Moola, that they can then use in our TUKI auction, to purchase real prizes, like Nintendo Wii’s, IPod’s, etc.  We work hard at getting and keeping the kids interested enough to keep coming back to learn and play more.

But again, parent involvement is key.  You may be asking yourself, “What can I do”? You may be saying “My seven year old knows more than I do about computers! How can I teach him?” Here are some tips to help:

•    Keep an open dialogue with your kids – make them feel comfortable about coming to you with inappropriate situations.

•    Create your own profiles on the kid’s social networking sites.  Have the kid’s help you create your profile and make it a family affair.

•    Check in on your kid’s profiles on a regular basis, post comments on their pages letting them and their friends know that you do check up on the profile.

•    Watch the videos on internet safety at sites like http://www.netsmartz.org or www.webwisekids.com.

•    Utilize the free technology that is out there like our Kid Safe Browser available at www.internetsafetyforchildren.com

•    Talk with your kids about what “private” information is and why they should not share this information.

•    Explain the long term consequences of posting inappropriate information, photos, comments, etc.

•    Remind them that once it is on the internet it takes on a life of its own and you no longer have control over who can or cannot see it.

Parents, educators, advocates, grandparents, the media and the like are paramount to protecting our children online.  We have to do a better job at educating our youth on safe internet practices.

I am sure by now you have heard of the heart breaking story about a young girl who took her own life in reaction to cyber bullying by an apparent peer, who unfortunately turned out to be another parent, attempting to protect her own child. This is another example of misguided intentions leading to devastating results for everyone involved. Can you imagine what the daughter of the “cyber-bully” mom is going through? Or how about the mother who has lost her daughter? How many “what ifs” are flying around their heads?

This news article was found at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1087376/Mother-tells-court-MySpace-cyber-bullying-led-13-year-old-daughters-suicide.html

Suicide victim: 13-year-old Megan Meier

A weeping mother has told a court how her 13-year-old daughter hanged herself after being ‘cyber- bullied’ on a social networking website.

Megan Meier took her own life after the mother of a classmate posed as a boy on MySpace and told her the world would be better off without her, it was alleged.

Lori Drew, 49, created the fictional identity of a teenager named Josh to find out if Megan had been spreading malicious messages about her 13-year-old daughter Sarah, jurors were told.

They also heard that in response to the remark that the world would be better off without her, Megan had responded: ‘You are the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over.’

On the first day of the Los Angeles trial, which is thought to be America’s first ‘cyber-bullying’ prosecution and which could set a legal precedent over online harassment cases, Tina Meier described the day her daughter committed suicide.

She said that a sobbing Megan had told her Josh and two other girls had been name-calling on MySpace.

Mrs Meier told her daughter she wasn’t supposed to be online and shouldn’t have become involved in the argument in the first place.

Lori Drew, a Missouri woman who allegedly perpetrated a MySpace hoax that drove her daughter’s 13-year-old classmate to suicide

Choking back tears, Mrs Meier told the court: ‘The last words she said to me were, ‘You are supposed to be my mom, you are supposed to be on my side’.’

Megan, who was being treated for attention deficit disorder and depression, was later found hanging in her bedroom by her mother.

Drew, a businesswoman from Missouri, has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorisation.

Each count carries a potential sentence of five years in prison.

Prosecutor Thomas O’Brien said Drew had conspired with her assistant, Ashley Grills, 18, to invent ‘an attractive male teenager’ on MySpace to find out what was being said about her daughter Sarah, a 13-year-old classmate of Megan.

The defendant fully intended ‘to hurt and prey on Megan’s psyche’, he alleged.

However, Drew claims it was Grills who set up the MySpace account and that she was driving home when the message saying the world would be better off without Megan was sent.

District Judge George Wu told jurors the case, which is being held in Los Angeles because MySpace computer servers are based in the city, is about whether Drew violated MySpace’s terms of service, not about whether she caused Megan’s suicide.

What if there was a way to prevent this from ever occurring again? What if there was technology out there to monitor what your kids are doing online whether they are at home or not? What if there was a safe place on the internet for your kids to play – sheltered from the dangers of the internet.

Children’s Educational Network is focused on providing solutions to these questions. Fun, entertaining, protected solutions. It is our mission to make sure that no one else suffers from cyber bullies, predators, and unsupervised kids testing their boundaries.

We strive every day to ensure every child’s safety on the internet. We know that kids will be kids and that they want to be entertained and that they thrive on socialization and we are working to provide an environment that is conducive to their wants while protecting them from the dangers that come along with all that freedom.

We have gotten off to a great start with ClubTUKI and our kid safe browsers but there is more work to be done. We have a couple new technologies coming out soon that will help parents do everything they can to prevent that horrible question “What if I would have done more”. We are also rolling out some fun new additions to our Club TUKI site to keep kids interested, educated, entertained and most importantly, protected.

If you would like to join with us in our venture, or if you have any questions about Children’s Educational Network, please contact us at support@teamtuki.com. We are always seeking feedback, partners, joint ventures and investors to help us move forward with our mission.

Keeping kids safe in cyberspace

Pediatricians should talk to patients, parents about Internet dangers

Daniel D. Broughton, M.D., FAAP Children are spending more and more time on the Internet. We worry about the appropriate amount of time spent on this activity and its impact on other activities such as reading, exercising and socializing. Isolation can be a serious risk for some young computer users. However, the biggest concern many parents have is safety.

Dr. Broughton

What are the real risks to children, and what should pediatricians tell parents?

No such thing as privacy

One of the first things to understand is that being online is the same as being in public. While using the Internet at home may feel safe and secure, there are very real privacy issues.

Personal information can be obtained easily when children create “member profiles” with Internet service providers, on a Web site or in a chat room. “Cookies” allow outside sources to see inside one’s home computer. This information can be misused in a variety of ways, including marketing directed at children and by child predators.

Inappropriate sites

Pornography on the Internet is an area of concern for many parents. Kids unexpectedly come across pornography. A recent study showed that 25% of children find unwanted pornography, and about one-quarter of them find it quite distressing ( Finkelhor D, et al. Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation’s Youth. Alexandria, Va., National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, June 2000, page ix.). These sites generally are found while surfing the Web by mistyping addresses, misleading names to Web sites and links from other sites. Pornography also will show up in an individual’s e-mail in-box, usually from an unknown or anonymous sender.

In addition to pornography, there are many other inappropriate sites, including those that promote anorexia/bulimia, racism or misinformation on important health issues such as birth control and immunizations. The May AAP News (www.aapnews.org/cgi/content/full/26/5/1-a) reported that 1 million to 2 million teens may have a serious gambling problem. There now are more than 2,000 online casinos.

Online solicitation

Of even greater concern is that child molesters are contacting and luring children and teens with inappropriate intentions. Finkelhor found that one in five children and adolescents has been solicited over the Internet. While three-quarters of them were not upset by the encounters, one-fourth were frightened or quite upset by the episodes.

In 2004, more than 700 kids were abducted by someone they met over the Internet. Those most frequently involved are in the 12- to 17-year-old age group, especially girls. These contacts often are initiated through chat rooms or instant messaging, with contact continuing via e-mail. While the majority of perpetrators were male, women also can be involved. One striking finding is that nearly 50% of those doing the solicitation were under the age of 18.

In talking about Internet use, we need to broaden our advice to “Be careful and behave.”

Cyber-bullying

Another area of considerable concern is bullying.

Kids are using e-mail and instant messages to intimidate or send unflattering messages to individuals or to others about these individuals. Likewise, embarrassing information, photos or stories about someone can be posted on Web sites for others to see. In some cases, Web sites have been created for this purpose.

Another potentially damaging technique is to obtain someone’s password and then send inappropriate material to someone else using the victim’s e-mail account.

While reliable statistics on Internet bullying are not available, estimates range from 6% of U.S. kids having been bullied in this way in 2000 to as high as 25% more recently in Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand.

Ubiquitous access

When we think of Internet use, we think of computers, namely desk- and lap-top computers. That thinking should be broadened to include hand-held devices, such as iPods, personal digital assistants and, most notably, cellular telephones. Phones already are being used to send text messages, and some have limited connection with the Internet. Shortly, devices will combine all of these activities in a single sophisticated package that is 3.5-by-5-by-1 inch.

When talking about the Internet, we now are talking about everyone, everywhere, any time.

Internet advice

Pediatricians need to be aware of these issues and be prepared to talk to patients and parents about them as part of anticipatory guidance. Pamphlets are available from the Academy and other advocacy organizations. (See resource box.)

While there is obvious need for concern, there also are things families and others can do to help the situation.

Parents need to learn about computers, understanding that their children often know more about them than they do. Children should be supervised whenever using a computer, especially when on the Internet. It is best to keep computers in a public place in the house and never in a child’s room where a door can be closed.

The time allowed for Internet use should be included in the two hours daily of screen time recommended by the Academy. Parents also need to know how to trace what Web sites have been visited and should check frequently. Software that enables detailed tracking of these sites is available.

Parents also can consider filtering devices to control computer visits. These products can restrict Internet travels to chosen sites or can be used to block unwanted sites or materials. While they can be helpful, there are some limitations. For example, they block indiscriminately, prohibiting access to appropriate sites that contain a blocked word, such as Klan on a civil rights site or breast on a health site. Also, they are not good teaching tools and do not replace parental involvement.

Older children and teens are likely to use computers outside home or even cell phones to connect to the Internet. Parents need to be sure their kids understand the possible dangers and practice the following basic safety rules:

• Keep identity private, don’t share personal information.
• Never get together with someone you “meet” online.
• Talk to a parent or trusted adult if uncomfortable or frightened.
• If uncomfortable, don’t respond.
• Never send any message you would not want to say face-to-face.

Dr. Broughton is a member of the AAP Committee on Communications.

If You Are The Victim of a Cyberbully What Can Be Done Now?:

 Don’t reply to messages from cyberbullies -even though you may really want to, this is exactly what cyberbullies want. They want to know that they’ve got you worried and upset. They are trying to mess with your mind and control you, to put fear into you. Don’t give them that pleasure. Do not keep this to yourself!

You are NOT alone and you did NOT do anything to deserve this! Tell an adult you know and trust! Inform your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or cell phone/pager service provider Inform your local police.

 Do not erase or delete messages from cyberbullies -You don’t have to read it, but keep it, it is your evidence. You may unfortunately get similar messages again, perhaps from other accounts. The police and your ISP, and/or your telephone company can use these messages to help you.

You might notice certain words or phrases that are also used by people you know. These messages may reveal certain clues as to who is doing this to you, but don’t try and solve this on your own, remember, tell an adult you know and trust.

GET HELP! Protect yourself -Never arrange to meet with someone you met online unless your parents go with you. If you are meeting them make sure it is in a public place.

You may need to delete your current e-mail accounts, cell phone/pager accounts and set up new ones. I am working with the Canadian Telecommunications Service Providers to support you in making such changes at no cost to you.

If your cyberbullying problems persist, I would recommend that you do this as soon as possible, unless you are working with the police and your Telecommunications Provider to keep the account(s) active to try and catch the cyber bully

If you are more technically inclined, you can do a little cyber-sleuthing of your own to provide the police and your Telecommunications Provider with more information, but NEVER try and meet someone personally who you suspect might be the cyber-bully This is best left in the hands of the legal authorities.

 If you receive and unsolicited harassing e-mail message from a cyber-bully, you can often use your mouse to right-click on the header of the offending message and choose the “Options” section of the menu. This will often reveal greater details about the message and where it came from. 

 You can then look at the root-domain of the sender, which in this case is the fictitious “cyberbully.hurt”. You can then go to do a “WHOIS” search with a domain name registration company such as CIRA if the last two letters of the cyberbullies e-mail address end in .ca (this means it is a Canadian domain name and was registered in Canada). If the last letters are something other than .ca, such as .com, .org, .net etc. you can do a “WHOIS” search internationally with Internic.com,

 This Web site was been established to provide the public information regarding Internet domain name registration services and is updated frequently.  The “WHOIS” search will often provide information as to who owns the domain name, and their contact information. Share this information with your local police and your telecommunications or Internet service provider. You can also use software to help protect and/or find out who is sending you harassing messages.
 www.cyberbullying.ca DOES NOT OFFICIALLY ENDORSE the products:: eMailTrackerPro — allows you to track Internet e-mails back to the IP Address of the sender, with country/region results displayed on a World map. Provides tight hyperlink integration with VisualRoute, allowing full Internet traces on demand.
McAfee Parental Controls -offers chat filtering protection for both instant messaging and chat rooms. Your child won’t be exposed to unsuitable discussion or send personal information inadvertently Security Soft has developed a new product – Predator Guard – that scans all text on the computer screen, in any software program (Microsoft Word, Outlook Express, or any IM application), “notices” when that text could be threatening to the user’s well-being, and ends the IM or chat session if the user tells it to.
The software also captures and logs “violations” – messages that contain language a sexual predator would use – for use as evidence by law enforcement. The product that allows it to do these things: 1) a “library” or database of about 250 terms and phrases typically used by sexual predators or pedophiles (e.g., “Are you home alone?”) when they’re trying to engage chatroom participants and 2) technology that monitors, detects, and logs that text, checking it against the database.
 If you are receiving harassing messages from cyber bullies through Web-based mail services like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail etc., it becomes very difficult to trace such accounts as cyber-bully@hotmail.com. You may have to delete your current e-mail account and start a new one.

Tell only a select few people you trust about your new e-mail account when, and if you choose to reestablish one.  If you are receiving harassing messages from cyber bullies through Instant Messaging (IM) software such as ICQ, MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger etc. such programs usually have a “Block”, “Ignore” or “Ban” feature.

Use this feature to try and “Block”, “Ignore or “Ban” the cyber bullies If you are the victim of a cyber bully who has set up and Web site that is defaming, or mocking you, contact the Internet Service Provider and inform them about what is happening, also inform the police. Use the “WHOIS” search tool to help you in the manner describe above.

If this is a large Web hosting company, it may take a long time to get a response and a promise of action. ISPs are often very reluctant to act in such cases. Unfortunately, some people have only received a response, or seen such cyberbullying Web sites taken down after the threat of legal action. www.cyberbullying.ca is trying to work with the Canadian telecommunications Industry to act in a more responsive, proactive way.

Suzanne Stanford – My Internet Safety Coach
Internet Safety Education Speaker – (949) 644-9650; (949) 295-9650
and Vice President Internet Safety Affairs – Children’s Educational Network
My Internet Safety Coach will educate and empower you and your children on how to be safe from online predators

The Internet is a valuable and necessary tool in today’s world.  It continues to explode in population (computer users) due to affordable computers and connectivity, and ever improving “user friendly” technology.  Unfortunately, this has resulted in increased child predation.  Every day, “somewhere”, children are being victimized.  Predators are being “unwittingly” invited into your home.  They hide behind the anonymity of the Internet and prey upon unsuspecting youths.

It is imperative that every adult, teen, and child know the strategies to be safe online, know how to recognize danger, and not be afraid to report it should it occur.
 
As you review the following facts and statistics, be aware that the studies indicated below are not conducted on an annual basis thus, you will notice information prior to 2006.  Best efforts have been made however, to provide you with the most up-to-date “validated” information available.

If you have any questions, or would like me to speak at your event, business, or school, please call.

“The safety of every child is the heart of my business”

                    Suzanne Stanford

  My Internet Safety Coach

INTERNET FACTS

• The rate of growth of Internet use in the United States is currently two million new Internet users per month.
  (According to:  A Nation Online:  How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet, 2002)

• 13 million youth use Instant Messaging.
  (Pew Study reported in Journal of the American Medical Association, a.k.a. JAMA)

• Ninety percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 (or 48 million) now use computers. 
  (According to:  A Nation Online:  How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet, 2002)

• 1 in 5 youths receive unwanted sexual solicitation online.   (National Center for Missing And Exploited Children, a.k.a. NCMEC, 2000)
  89% of sexual solicitations were made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages.                                                                                                                                             (Pew Study reported in Journal of the American Medical Association aka JAMA, 2001)                                                               
  87% of U.S. teens ages 12 to 17 currently use the Internet, representing about 21 million youth. Of those, approximately 11 million teens go online on a daily basis.
  (Pew Internet and American Life, “Teens and Technology,”July 27, 2005.)

• The size of the wired teen population surges at the seventh grade mark. While about 60% of sixth graders use the Internet, by seventh grade the number jumps to 82%.
  (Pew Internet and American Life, “Teens and Technology,”July 27, 2005.)

• 47% of children received e-mails with links to pornographic websites.
  (Symantec market research report, June 9, 2003)
• Over half (51%) of parents either do not have, or do not know if they have, software on their computers to monitor where their teenagers go online and with whom they interact.
  (Cox Communications and The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, “Parents’ Internet Monitoring Study,” February 2005).
• 57% or more of parents were unable to correctly decipher the meanings of several common instant messaging abbreviations.
  (Cox Communications and The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, “Parents’ Internet Monitoring Study,” February 2005).
• 28% of teens said they use code words on a daily basis to hide their online conversations from their parents –example: “PIR” means “parent in room”
  (Teen Research Unlimited, “Topline Findings from Omnibuss Research,” October 2005.)
• 81% of parents and 79% of teens state that teenagers aren’t careful enough when giving out information about themselves online. 65% of parents and 64% of teens say that teenagers do things online that they wouldn’t want their parents to know about.
  (Pew Internet and American Life, “Protecting Teens Online,” March 17, 2005.)
• Some 57% of parents worry that strangers will contact their children online. These worries are well grounded. Close to 60% of teens have received an instant message or email from a stranger and 50% report emailing or instant messaging with someone they have not met before. Despite this, teens themselves are not particularly worried about strangers online; 52% of online teens say they do not worry at all about being contacted online and only 23% express any notable level of concern.
  (Pew Internet & American Life, “Teenage Life Online,” June 20, 2001)
• 30% of teenage girls polled by the Girl Scout Research Institute said they had been sexually harassed in a chatroom.  Only 7 %, however, told their mothers or fathers about the harassment, as they were worried that their parents would ban them from going online.
  (Girl Scout Research Institute 2002)
• 86% of the girls polled said they could chat online without their parents’ knowledge, 57% could read their parents email, and 54% could conduct a cyber relationship.
  (Girl Scout Research Institute 2002)

• 44 percent of children polled have visited x-rated sites or sites with sexual content. Moreover, 43 percent of children said they do not have rules about Internet use in their homes. (Time/CNN Poll, 2000) While 75% of parents say they know where children spend time online, the truth about kids’ Internet habits show 58% of teens say they have accessed an objectionable Web site: 39 % offensive music, 25% sexual content and 20% violence. (Source: WebSense, USA Today, 10/10-12/99)

• Online teens admit that they frequently communicate with people they have never met: 54% have Instant Messaged a stranger, 50% have emailed a stranger, and 45% have participated in a chat room discussion with a stranger.
  (Teen Research Unlimited, “Topline Findings from Omnibuss Research,” October 2005.)
• 27% of teens said that they have known a friend to actually meet someone whom they only knew online. (Teen Research Unlimited, “Topline Findings from Omnibuss Research,” October 2005.)
• In late 2004, teachers at Montevideo Middle School in Virginia, surveyed 178 sixth grade students at their school.  The resulting data was alarming: 1 in 4 had become friends with a stranger online and 1 in 10 had attempted to meet an online friend face to face.
  (Montevideo Middle School, “Sixth Grade Computer Survey,” December 9, 2004)
• Study of 4 million children aged 7-17 who surf the net, 29% would freely give out their home address and 14% would freely give out their email address if asked.
  (NOP Research Group, 2002)
• One in five children who use computer chatrooms has been approached over the Internet by pedophiles. (Detective Chief Superintendent Keith Akerman, Telegraph.co.uk January 2002 )
• Sex is the #1 searched for topic on the Internet. (Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times 1/26/2000)
• Nine out of 10 children aged between eight and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet. In most cases, the sex sites were accessed unintentionally when a child, often in the process of doing homework, used a seemingly innocent sounding word to search for information or pictures. (London School of Economics January 2002)

Among the 95% of all 15-17 year-olds who have ever gone online:
• Seventy percent have accidentally stumbled across pornography online, 23% “very” or “somewhat” often.
• A majority (55%) of those who were exposed to pornography say they were “not too” or “not at all” upset by it, while 45% were “very” or “somewhat” upset.
• A third (33%) of those with home Internet access have filtering technology in place there.
• Among the 76% of all 15-17 year-olds who have sought health information online:  Nearly half (46%) say they have been blocked from non-pornographic sites by filtering technology.

• 26 popular children’s characters, such as Pokemon, My Little Pony and Action Man, revealed thousands of links to porn sites. 30% were hard-core.  (Envisional 2000)
• “Child abusers have been known to seek out unsuspecting victims by posting seemingly innocuous messages in computer chat rooms.”  (BBC News, June 16, 1999)
• “Sex on the Net is like heroin, it grabs them and takes over their lives. And it’s very difficult to treat because the people affected don’t want to give it up.” (Dr. Mark Schwartz, Masters & Johnson Institute, St. Louis, MO) The Internet is Never before in the history of telecommunications media in the United States has so much indecent (and obscene) material been so easily accessible by so many minors in so many American homes with so few restrictions.  (U.S. Department of Justice, Post Hearing Memorandum of Points and Authorities, 1996)
• “Pornography is one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the Internet.”                                                                                                           (Christopher Young, President/C.O.O., Cyveillance)
• “… in April 2001, there were 22.9 million unique visitors to porn sites.”                                         (Neilsen/Net Ratings, Inc.)
• 87% of girl-child molesters and 77% of boy-child molesters studied admitted to regular use of hard-core pornography.  (Report on the Use of Pornography by Sexual Offenders, Dr. William Marshall for Canada Federal Department of Justice, 1993)
• Experts in Internet crime estimate there are about 23,000 Websites dedicated to pedophilia.
• The U.S. Customs Service estimates that there are more than 100,000 websites offering child pornography – which is illegal, worldwide (Red Herring Magazine, 1/18/02)
• According to recent Forrester Research figures, pornography sites generate $700 million to $1 billion a year in gross revenue. (Forrester Research)
• Estimates for the number of X-rated sites on the net range from 20,000 to 7 million.  (CNET.com, “Sex on the Web,” April 28, 1999)
• 60% of all website visits are sexual in nature.  (MSNBC Survey 2000)
• The Adult Internet industry says some traffic is 20-30% children.  (NRC Report, 2002)
• A primary pornography consumer group is boys between ages 12 – 17.  (Attorney General’s Final Report on Pornography, 1986)
• 345% increase in child pornography sites between February, 2001 and July, 2001.  (N2H2, 8/01)
• The online pornography industry generates approximately $1 billion annually with growth projections to $5-7 billion over the next 5 years, barring any unforeseen change.  (NRC Report 2002)
• 74% of adult commercial sites display free teaser porn images on homepage.                                                                                                             (Child-proofing on the World Wide Web: A survey of adult web servers 2001, (NRC Report 2002)
• 25 million Americans visit cybersex sites between 1-10 hours per week.  (MSNBC Survey 2000)  
• Cyber-sex is the crack cocaine of sexual addiction.  (Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times 1/26/2000)
• Cyber-sex reinforces and normalizes sexual is orders.                                  (Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times 1/26/2000)
• Cyber-sex is a public health hazard exploding because very few are recognizing it as such or taking it seriously.                                  (MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study; Associated Press Online, 2/29/2000)
• “Sex on the Net is just so seductive and it’s so easy to stumble upon it, people who are vulnerable can get hooked before they know it.”  (Dr. Jennifer Schneider, physician, Tucson, AZ)
• “In my clinical practice, I have treated both children and adults who have been unequivocally and repeatedly injured by exposure to pornography. If anyone still has doubts about pornography’s effects, I would suggest that he or she get invited to some meetings of “Sexaholics Anonymous” and personally witness the pain and trauma first hand.  (”Pornography’s Effects on Adults and Children”, Victor B. Cline, Ph.D.)
• “600 American males and females of high school age and above were interviewed about their “out in real life involvement with pornography.” 91% of the males and 82% of the females admitted having been exposed to X-rated, hard-core pornography. Two-thirds of the males and 40% of the females reported wanting to try out some of the behaviors they had witnessed.”  (1986 Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, study by Dr. Jennings Bryant)

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