A topic that has been discussed a lot and one that my friends and ex colleagues at the National Centre for CyberStalking Research at the University of Bedfordshire. It is also something that concerns me as I have a daughter who is coming up to the age where she will be more active online and my partner has a son who who is already interacting with online social sites but having a mild form of Asperger's syndrome can making him vulnerable to online interactions.
The news that Government are changing the regulatory framework in the UK to make it easier to trace cyber bullies and cyber trolls is good news, but further work is required to ensure prosecution of those involved succeeds quickly.
What is disturbing are article such as the ones about Habbo Hotel http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18433471 used by children to interact with each other being used by sexual predators despite as the company behind it state the use of 200 moderators.
However the range of forums for children is growing, many not well know by authorities or by parents. A lot of books now have an online connection, take the "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness" a series of books for children that has an online site http://jointheclan.com/ for children to share and take part in the world of the clans. The site has an FAQ and a section on being safe online http://www.jointheclan.com/forum/faq.php?faq=clanrules#faq_clan_rules_inner but how many children read it, how many parents know their children are using the site. This site is reasonable good there are moderators and links to alert the administrators, but how many other fan sites are responsible.
The sad thing is children start in such forums and then progress onto using the video and online gaming sites where the abuse continues http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18280000 at the moment as the BBC article puts it
"If you set up a website and allow third parties to publish things or to interact
with each other you have to acknowledge that, absent any authentication of their
true identities, some people will shelter behind the apparent anonymity of
cyberspace and behave badly, even criminally. "
The question is how do you prevent people hiding their identities on the Internet? how can you authenticate true identities? people have being faking ID since the beginning of time probable. Under 18's use fake ID to get into pubs, clubs and over 18 films at the cinema, young children under the age of 13 have facebook accounts, most children know more about online usage and IT then their parents.
At the moment governments rely on self regulation by the owners of the sites, but are strong regulations required, they may not be enforceable due to the nature of the website but will set a baseline for the management of sites and could make prosecutions easier of those individuals who are the source of the abuse and those sites that don't act to try and reduce the activities of such individuals or fail to work with authorities in trying to trace and prosecute them.
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