Hi,
Thanks to my course requirements I can now say that I am an active member of the participatory web, and here is my contribution, enjoy.
In this post I will discuss two online sources of two different organizations that deal with children privacy (from different angles). The first: ParentalRights.org focus on the parents 'role' and the potential legal danger of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The second: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Fact Sheet 21 is a Children’s Online Privacy Resource Guide for Parents, which provides tips and resources for parents on how to be pro-active in protecting their children privacy online.
ParentalRights.org (PR) is an American NGO, which advocates for parents’ right to direct the upbringing and education of their children. PR sees the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as an International law that seeks to empower the government to intrude upon the child-parent relationship.
According to PR although, the UNCRC seems like a harmless treaty, it has dangerous implications for American families. PR argues that treaty empowers the government to intervene in any child's life. Therefore, it poses a serious threat both to parental rights and to US sovereignty, as the UNCRC dictates "not only that the federal government must intrude into the family sphere to an unprecedented degree, but also how the federal government is to monitor and govern the actions of our families. Parental rights would be replaced by ‘the best interests of the child’ as defined, ultimately, by an international committee of 18 people in Switzerland” (PR website).
Article 16 of the official UNCRC document has two sections: (1) “No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation”. (2) “The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks”.
Although some of the links on PR’s website are broken, the American NGO’s examination of the UNCRC comprehensively explains why article 16 invokes the power of the government in ways that the America’s legal and political history has never seen.
PR explains that the US Supreme Court has been trying to balance between the privacy rights of the child and the role of parents. However, in contrast to UNCRC’s article 16 the Supreme Court never stated that children have an absolute right to privacy (even from their parents…). Therefore, the article presents a conflict between the parents’ responsibility to guide and direct their children and the children right for privacy (ParentalRight.org – article 16)
Since Somalia announced its plans to ratify the UNCRC (as reported by Reuters a few dats ago). The United States is about to become the only country at the UN that does not ratify the UNCRC. Canada however, was one of the first nation to sign the UNCRC and a leader in its development.
Another interesting American NGO that deals with privacy issues is the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC), which is a nonprofit consumer organization that focuses on consumer information and consumer advocacy. PRC aims to raise consumers' awareness of how technology affects their personal privacy, and empower consumers to become proactive in matters concerning their personal information by providing practical tips on privacy protection ('about us' page).
PRC’s Fact Sheet 21 - Children’s Online Privacy: A Resource Guide for Parents (the guide) deals with children related online privacy issues. The guide goals are to “provide resources for parents to maximize the benefits of cyberspace for children and minimize the dangers”. As PRC explains many web sites collect significant amounts of personal information from the large percentage of American’s school age children, which use the World Wide Web.
[A "warning" about that kind of marketing-practices can be seen on this youtube video].
The guide privacy tips section focuses on a number of pro-active activities for the parents, and it explains that there is no technology-based solutions since there are no substitutes for “parental involvement in children's exploration of cyberspace”. The guide articulates the importance of knowing and understanding the site’s privacy policy statements, and provide parents information about the American laws and other “web seal programs” such as TRUSTe.
The guide mentioned the importance of establishing a contract between the parents and the child. Such an action may encourage the child to take responsibility for his or her online activities. The guide provide a couple of links for templates of such contracts (however, one of those links are broken).
The guide discusses the main items that should be included in the “family rules for online computer use”. Such as: protecting identifying information; not sharing passwords; online credibility; what to do when child encounters a threatening message; setting limitation for the child usage of the computer; making the online use a family activity; and 'knowing' the children online ‘friends’.
As the guide articulates, “the interactive world of cyberspace is a highly seductive and potentially manipulative environment for children". Therefore, in order to protect children form that kind of manipulative online marketing, the guide discusses the browsers privacy settings adjustments and the US Congress Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which dictates the requires from web sites and online services directed to children under age 13.
To conclude, the guide names a few parents-control software and applications that block advertisements, and provide further resources for parents to learn about the privacy laws and other related organizations.
I believe that the PRC’s guide can be very useful tool\resource for parents. Personally I really like its new-media literacy approach, especially the Internet Use Agreement (contact) between the parents and the child. Even if the child will not follow the contact completely (as I would expect), establishing such a form provides the opportunity for both the parents and the children to discuss together the issue online privacy. I believe that the activity of working together in order to articulate the contract enables a space for discussion and mutual understanding between the child and his or her parents.
As I was watching the “Privacy and Social Networks” youtube video, which explains the way corporate uses personal information from the social web, I was concern about how much of those marketing-practices are known to the average social networking users. I believe that providing that kind of New-Media literacy and the tools\skills for 'critical consumption’ of the social web is CRUCIAL as learning to cross the street is...
Thank you for reading.
