Safety on the Internet

SAFETY ON THE INTERNET

    Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise in support of this resolution expressing the sense of the Senate with respect to raising awareness and encouraging education about safety on the Internet and supporting the goals and ideals of National Internet Safety Month.

    The Internet has become one of the most significant advances in the twentieth century and, as a result, it affects people's lives in a positive manner each day. However, this technology is fraught with dangers that need to be brought to the attention of all Americans.

    Never before has the problem of online predatory behavior been more of a concern. Consider the pervasiveness of Internet access by children and the rapid increase in Internet crime and predatory behavior. Never before have powerful educational solutions—like Internet safety curricula for grades kindergarten through 12, youth empowerment Internet safety campaigns and community-based Internet safety awareness presentations with the formation of community action teams, such as what I-Safe America, a non-profit Internet safety foundation, does—been more critical and readily at hand. It is imperative that every community in every state be apprised of the increase in Internet-based criminal activity so that all Americans may learn about the Internet safety strategies which will enable them to keep their children safe from victimization. Consider the facts: Worldwide, 70 million youth under the age of 18 are online. This is considered to be a conservative estimate since it is projected that there are two million new Internet users per month in America alone. The Family/PC Survey in 2000 reported that 1 in 4 kids participate in real-time online chats. The Pew Study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association in June 2001 that 13 million youth use Instant Messaging and that 89 percent of sexual solicitations were made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages. One in five teenagers who are online note that they have received unwanted sexual solicitations, according to the Crimes Against Children Research Center in a study completed in 2000.

    It's important to note that while it's reported that 90 percent of teens and young adults ages 15 to 24 go online and half of them go online once a day or more, three out of four young people have access at home and nearly one in three has access from their own bedroom, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. According to a 1999 Arbitron New Media study, the majority of teenagers' online use occurs at home, right after school, when working parents are not at home. Thirty percent of the girls responding to a 2002 Girl Scout Research Institute study, "The Net Effect: Girls and New Media," said they had been sexually harassed in a chat room, but only seven percent told a parent about the harassment, most fearing their parents would overreact and ban computer usage altogether.

    From a parental perspective, 75 percent of parents say that they know where their children spend time online. The truth about kids' Internet habits, according to WebSense, USA Today, and the National Foster Parent Association show that 58 percent of teens say they have accessed an objectionable website. A 2000 Time/CNN poll indicated that 43 percent of children say they do not have rules about Internet use in their homes. Also, 62 percent of parents of teenagers are unaware that their children have accessed objectionable websites, according to a Yankelovich Partners Study. According to the London School of Economics, 9 out of 10 children between the ages of 8 and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet. In most cases, sex websites 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.

    Most disturbing, however, are the patterns of Internet crimes against children. In 1996, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in 113 cases involving Internet crimes against children. In 2001, the FBI opened 1,541 cases against people suspected of using the Internet to commit crimes involving child pornography or abuse. The U.S. Customs Service now places the number of websites offering child pornography at more than 100,000. Moreover, there was a 345 percent increase in the production of these sites just between February 2001 and July 2001, according to a recent study. The FBI notes that child pornography and the sexual exploitation of children through online means is the most significant crime problem it confronts.

    Now is the time for America to focus its attention on supporting Internet safety, especially now that children are now on summer vacation and will subsequently spend more time online. Recent Internet crime trends indicate a call to action as it pertains to national Internet safety awareness at all levels.