Facebook execs could use some adult supervision
I know that being a parent has got to be the uncoolest perspective in Silicon Valley. After all, it's much more cutting edge to be libertarian, 23 years old, working 24/7 and sleeping on a futon in your cube.
But no one stays that way forever (thank goodness), and I'd like to think that those of us who have moved down the road a few years have a lot to add to technology design. With Facebook's Beacon plans blowing up this week, you can really see what happens when new "features" are added by twentysomethings who are coding and rolling out products as fast as they can.
I'm proposing a new job title to add to Facebook's Executive Team: VP of Adult Supervision.
My suggestion is only half-joking. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg was called out for ageism earlier this year after he stressed the importance of "only [hiring] young people with technical expertise."
The problem is that Facebook's users aren't only people like their mind-blowingly young executives and programmers. A large proportion of their users are over 35. We don't appreciate having our privacy stomped on, and just because we want to participate in social networks, we don't necessarily want to live our lives in an exhibitionist fishbowl. Product design suffers when a grown-up perspective is not taken into account.
Those of us who are parents are are also concerned about our kids interacting with the online world. I can't emphasize strongly enough how much extra stress and responsibility this has added to the already challenging task of raising children. I was in a group of six women yesterday, all of us mothers with kids ages 7 to 13. We were meeting for a business networking lunch but we ended up having a lively discussion about our internet concerns. It would have made an excellent focus group for any product design team. Two people in the group had dealt with the problem of their eight-year-old sons being exposed to violent pornography while visiting someone else's house. The parents of the kids who showed their sons the porn were not aware of the problem. Talking about sex with an eight-year-old is already difficult enough. No parent wants to have to explain pornography and rape to their third grader.
Another Mom in the group had a situation that was less traumatic but still instructive. She found out that her seven-year-old was surfing YouTube on the elementary school library computer. The kids are barely old enough to read the safety message on the school computer that says that they are only allowed to go online with adult supervision, yet they can find YouTube on their own. I am not blaming any one company for these incidents, but as we wade through the implications of technology, it is frustrating to know that the products are often created by teams who do have access to a parent's point of view. I find it ironic that many programmers are incredibly concerned about network security but do not consider online safety to be part of their responsibility, and I've heard more than one programmer admit that his point of view changed dramatically once he had children of his own.
So while Facebook has been in the hot seat this week (see Kara Swisher's brilliant "decoding" of Zuckerberg's apology), this problem is endemic in fast-moving tech companies. Within the torrent of venture capital funding, code, and media glare, there needs to be more room for executives who are looking at the big picture, not just trying to be the next big thing.
Amy Tiemann, Ph.D., is the author of Mojo Mom: Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family and creator of MojoMom.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. 
I understand concerns as a parent, but can you truly blame Facebook execs for making a social network that's easy to use and that can be used to gather marketing information? If you do not want your information collected, don' t give it. That's a pretty easy solution for adults.
And as for kids - parental supervision and appropriate safety settings at home. If you kid is going over to someone's house who does not have that security, make sure your kid stays at home. Drive out to the friend's house and pick him up to come play at your own home, if you need to.
And the school library should really block sites like YouTube, or at least have some sort of filter that can detect certain tags. That is not the fault of YouTube of Facebook. It is a problem with security at the school.
I understand you can't control your children at all times, and they're going to see things they shouldn't. But that is a natural part of growing up. That's how we learn about the world. And it is not the responsibility of every website to be completely child-safe. It is the responsibility of the guardians of that child to protect him or her from dangers on the web.
Call me naive, but I know this is possible.
Lack of safety in Internet products isn?t a ?youth? issue, but for the sake of discussion let?s pretend it is. Extending m3ggiesue?s thoughts to their logical conclusion, why stop with websites? Parents should be responsible for all child safety issues ? don?t blame car seat manufacturers, the makers of toys, cribs, baby food, and so on for product flaws that harm children.
This attitude isn?t naïve as suggested; it merely reflects a flawed conclusion. Internet safety is NOT just a ?parent problem?, it?s a systemic problem. If a parent sat next to their child whenever they were online they still could not protect them from some online risks in flawed products ? any more than sitting next to a child in a faulty car seat can protect that child in a crash. Products with foundational safety flaws need to be fixed, and consumers need to demand they be fixed.
A second argument along these lines is that parents shouldn?t let their children use unsafe internet services. But here?s the catch?Exactly how is a parent supposed to know this? We don?t expect parents to know if the toy they are buying has too much lead in the paint or if it has a flaw that makes it a choking hazard, we rely on government oversight to ensure and enforce toy safety standards. But there is no government agency tasked with ensuring or enforcing online safety standards.
Do YOU know which products aren?t safe? Or which features in some products aren?t safe? There are fundamental safety flaws in online services as diverse as e-mail (http://look-both-ways.com/blogs/blog/archive/2007/06/07/962.aspx), your preferred search engine (http://look-both-ways.com/blogs/safety_news/archive/2006/12/11/53.aspx), baby registries (http://look-both-ways.com/blogs/blog/archive/2007/10/03/2984.aspx) in your child?s school?s website (http://look-both-ways.com/blogs/blog/archive/2007/06/17/968.aspx) , or even your county records website (http://look-both-ways.com/blogs/blog/archive/2007/11/21/4904.aspx).
In addition to expecting products to fundamentally be safe to use, we expect that products targeting youth have added safety precautions.
Should every new Internet site or service be kid-friendly? No. But every site that markets to, and offers products or services aimed at, children should be held to higher child safety standards ? just like products and services in every ?offline? case.
Unfortunately there is a significant gap between should be held to child safety standards and reality. Failure to provide even basic safety functionality is apparent in products targeting youth like MySpace (http://look-both-ways.com/blogs/blog/archive/2007/07/25/4903.aspx) and Facebook (http://look-both-ways.com/blogs/blog/archive/2007/12/08/5719.aspx). Then there are products who add insult to injury like Mugr who blatantly claim that any safety risks are the fault of users - read (http://look-both-ways.com/blogs/blog/archive/2007/11/06/4902.aspx).
Very few consumer safety protections are in place online and this is a real problem ? for everyone. Read Understanding Internet Risks 101 (http://look-both-ways.com/blogs/blog/archive/2007/06/04/956.aspx) to get a fuller understanding of how risks occur and the roles of stakeholders in creating a safer online environment.
The internet is a great place, and every stakeholder ? individual, family, company, government, law enforcement agency and school ? needs to do their part to ensure it stays that way. We will fail if we over-blocking access to products or set up confrontational environments with youth - read Why ?Parental Controls? Won?t Work, but Family Safety does (http://look-both-ways.com/blogs/blog/archive/2007/06/13/967.aspx). We will fail if we hype fear or enact ill conceived regulation that stifles new technologies. But it does require that governments set thoughtful safety standards (since the industry has failed to do so), that companies build safer products and honestly inform consumers of features and potential risks, and that families and individuals use appropriate tools responsibly.
Linda Criddle
www.look-both-ways.com