SAN FRANCISCO--Marketers convened here this week to figure out how best to reach teens on the Internet. The answer: It's all about the mobile phone.
Advertisers are clamoring to reach teens in digital environments because that's where they're spending much of their time--either online, with cell phones or playing video games. What's more, teens wield an estimated $200 billion annually in discretionary spending.
Fuse, a marketing agency based in Vermont, talked in recent weeks to senior technology executives from companies such as Sony, MTV Networks, Yahoo, and Nokia to find out what the future of technology will look like for the teen market.
Among the predictions: Mobile phones in the United States will surpass the popularity of desktops for teens. Only an estimated 20 percent of teens currently own a smartphone such as the iPhone, but mobile phone and content companies are counting on the idea that smartphone adoption will spread fast among teens in middle America and other areas.
"The iPhone is just the beginning of the all-in-one device. Uses of mobile devices will expand to include all kinds of bar code applications and prepaid debit card payment methods," said Bill Carter, a partner at Fuse, who presented the findings here at the YPulse 2008 National Mashup, a two-day conference on teens and technology.
That's likely why geographic ad targeting to teens via the phone is expected to explode in the coming years. Right now, mobile phone providers analyze an estimated 4 billion Internet Protocol addresses to provide street-level targeting to consumers. Companies like U.K.-based Blyk, for example, are reaching teens through the phone with ads and information on nearby nightspots. Teens sign up for the service.
"When you combine this new technology with teens giving their permission to market to them, the growth could be exponential," Carter said.
But, he said, mobile phone providers likely won't succeed as the entertainment leaders for the phone, despite their efforts to sell ringtones, games, and music. Other companies like Apple, Google, and Yahoo will be more effective at "side-loading" the cell phone with services.
Case in point: Most teens download music to their iPod that's been ripped from a friend's collection as opposed to bought from the iTunes music store. "There's a natural gravitation to get content on a device that's different than the one the manufacturer intended," he said.
As a corollary, he said that most teens will eventually buy subscription-based music services, much like the cable TV model. He predicted that Apple's iTunes will offer an unlimited monthly download service for music. Mobile phone companies, too, will launch music subscriptions on the smartphone.
Another prognostication: Other technology platforms will save, not kill TV networks, Carter said. The analog-to-digital conversion will make it possible for teens to watch live TV on portable devices. The technology will help the television networks target programming to specific audiences, and that will buoy the cost of advertising, he said.
"The device is inconsequential compared to the content," he said.
More and more 2- to 6-year-olds are watching videos on YouTube. And even the most cautious parents could find it hard to stop their little ones from discovering clips in which Tickle Me Elmo kills Barney.
That's where Totlol.com comes in. The month-old Web site leaves it up to parents to moderate which YouTube videos their kids can see. Parents can join Totlol's community to pick and review YouTube videos that would be appropriate for 6-month-olds to 6-year-olds. They can also browse among the site's more than 1,000 videos of disco penguins, singing hippos, and leaping elephants--or about 42 hours of parent-approved content.
Ron Ilan, founder of Totlol, said he started building the site in March after YouTube released a new, advanced application protocol interface (API), which the site is based around. His impetus was to create a safe site for his 2-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter.
"I had to do something with my son while I was in front of the computer. It's every parent's new age problem," said Ilan, a longtime Web developer based in Vancouver, B.C. "I imagined that YouTube had a lot of good stuff. But I couldn't comfortably find it. You don't know what you're searching for."
Totlol is among a bevy of new Web sites that cater to toddlers. For example, KidZui, which launched earlier this year, vets YouTube videos for kids among a community of teachers to ensure that they're age appropriate, among other features. KidZui, which offers a downloadable application, recently lifted its monthly subscription fee in an effort to attract more parents and kids.
In contrast, Totlol is available directly online and looks like a cartoon-themed YouTube. Once parents join, they can search for child-friendly YouTube videos through an API-powered search engine. A search for "goat" via Totlol would yield similar results to one on YouTube. But once the parent found a kid-friendly clip, they would submit it to the community at large for approval. The API takes description video data from YouTube, but the parent can also add notes on why the video is either interesting or relevant to kids. After that, the video goes up for screening and a "certain number" of parents must approve the clip before it airs on the site.
The system isn't foolproof, but the majority of material that surfaces on Totlol is child-appropriate, Ilan said. The main sticking point, however, is that parents can disagree about what kind of content their child should be exposed to. For example, Ilan said that his 1-year-old daughter loves a video in which Elmo and Grover sing a Numa Numa song. In that video, Grover tells Elmo to shut up--an act that ruffles the feathers of some parents.
That's why Ilan is working on new tools that will let parents block videos they don't want their kids to see or play only what they like from a "favorites list."
"It's the Internet--people can decide to watch it or not. It's all in the area of opinion and culture. That's why we need better and better tools," he said.
Ilan started the business with his own money, and without a clear business plan. He's not yet sure how he will make money from the venture, but he is sure how he will not turn a profit.
"No ads while kids are watching," he said. "I think there are opportunities beyond that. Worst-case scenario: I won't be able to move it forward."
You'd think Disney or the Cartoon Network would lure the most 2- to 11-year-olds scouting for video on the Internet. But the honors actually go to YouTube, with clips of Bugs Bunny, trains, and puppies (mixed in with "Twitter whores" and frat parties).
According to a new study from Nielsen Online, the largest number of tykes and preteens go to YouTube for video (or 4.1 million viewers aged 2 to 11), followed by the Disneychannel.com at a distant second, with 1.3 million viewers in that age bracket for the month of April. MySpace.com, NickJr, and Google Video also showed up on that list.
Their habits could signal TV's future. On average, the kids watched 51 video streams from home during April, spending almost two hours on video clips. That usage outstrips the average of nearly 75 million adults who regularly view video clips at sites like ESPN.com and CNN.com. On average in April, adults of voting age watched 44 video streams, for about 1 hour and 40 minutes of their time.
As you might expect, teens between the ages of 12 and 17 spent the most time with video in April, more than 2 hours worth; and they watched the most streams of all age groups (an average of 74 per person). Slightly disturbing, the site with the highest concentration of 12- to 17-year-olds, or 44 percent of this age group, was Stickam.com, a hub for live Webcams of people in their bedrooms. Atlantic Records and Epic Records were runners-up in that category.
But YouTube trumps all video usage among 2-year-olds, teens, and adults. In April, more than 73 million people watched as many 4 billion video clips on the Google-owned video-sharing site. That's more video streams than the combined volume of Fox Interactive Media, Yahoo, Nickelodeon Kids, MSN, ESPN, Disney, and CNN--the runners-up in the category of top video brands.
If YouTube wanted to keep its competitive edge with preschoolers and their parents, it could launch a kid-safe version of its site that filters out all those risque clips of Barbie and death threats to Elmo.
Lawmakers and Internet executives are perking up to the growing problem of kid bully fights on the Web.
Legislators are newly arming themselves with laws that will protect kids from being repeatedly harassed via the Internet, text messages, or other electronic devices. In recent weeks, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) proposed a federal law that would criminalize acts of so-called cyberbullying (PDF). And Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt was scheduled Friday to sign into state law a similar measure, but the event was postponed because of inclement weather in St. Louis.
Both state and federal laws were prompted by the suicide of Missouri 13-year-old Megan Meier, who was the victim of repeated harassment on MySpace.com. An adult neighbor was indicted in the case last month by a grand jury in Los Angeles not on charges of cyberbullying, but on charges of unauthorized access of a computer system with intent to harm another person. (Missouri litigators said they didn't have a law to prosecute the case at the time.)
The case has raised national awareness around the issue of cyberbullying.
"When you see adults preying on kids, we're learning how significant the risks are," said Parry Aftab, an attorney and founder of the nonprofit advocacy group Wired Safety.
Parents, teens, teachers, and Internet executives also came together this week to hash out issues of digital fights at Wired Safety's International Stop Cyberbullying Conference, a two-day gathering in White Plains, N.Y., and New York City. Executives from Facebook, Verizon, MySpace, Microsoft, and many others talked with hundreds of teens and parents about how to better protect kids online from harassment.
In general, the conversation among these groups is moving from a focus solely on sexual predators to the everyday harm that kids can inflict on each other in chat rooms, social networks, virtual worlds, or via text message. Researchers say that anywhere from 40 percent to 85 percent of kids have been exposed to some kind of digital bullying, whether it's a stolen password or being called "fat" via instant message.
Even in adult-monitored virtual worlds for kids, children have been known to get around dictionary controls by naming a virtual room after a peer that he or she wants to ridicule, e.g., "Mary is fat." And while calling someone "fat" is not a crime, parents and legislators are trying to prevent the behavior before it leads to tragedies like Meier's.
"It used to be that adults would pooh-pooh bullying as a phase, but we're seeing increasing violent actions resulting from it," Sanchez said in an interview.
"The problem with cyberbullying is that kids aren't even safe in their own home, because they're being harassed through the computer or cell phones 24/7 potentially," she said.
Lawmakers are seeking to address cyberbullying with new legislation because there's currently no specific law on the books that deals with it. A fairly new federal cyberstalking law might address such acts, according to Aftab, but no one has been prosecuted under it yet. The proposed federal law would make it illegal to use electronic means to "coerce, intimidate, harass or cause other substantial emotional distress."
When signed, the Missouri state law will update existing regulations on harassment and stalking to include instances of those acts over the Internet, text message, or other electronic device. It will make cyberbullying punishable by up to four years in jail.
Stopping harassment
This week at an Internet conference, Scott Arpajan, founder of kids' virtual world Dizzywood, backed up this notion. He said that more than sexual predators, the company needs to watch out for cyberbullying in its growing community of 8 to 14 year olds. Dizzywood hires outside moderators to keep an eye on interactions among children.
"The biggest thing is keeping kids from getting in fights," Arpajan said.
Middle-school kids and teens said this week that they want more technology and response from adults and Internet companies when it comes to these issues, according to Aftab. At the conference, which hosted as many as 200 teens, kids said they want to be able to report instances of cyberbullying online and not have them "go into a black hole." Teens also said that they want Web sites to write easy-to-understand terms of service and privacy policies. That could mean creating policies that are animated or graphical.
To the consumer electronics industry: The teens also said they want new and better tools to stop harassment on cell phones. That would include buddy lists that block anyone besides approved senders from reaching their text message in-box.
As for the industry, more groups are creating Internet safety programs for K-12 kids that address bullying. Microsoft, for example, is sponsoring the Anti-Defamation League's program to train teachers, students, and parents on how to stop cyberbullying. Google also recently sponsored an Internet safety guide from Common Sense Media.
Sites like MyYearBook and Facebook have hosted pages that call on teens to pledge against cyberfighting, in honor of Meier. Wired Safety's group of teen Internet safety volunteers put a page on MyYearBook and there's a similar page on Facebook.
Tina Meier, the mother of Megan, said that change has to start with the kids, but parents need to talk more to their children. "The biggest thing I tell parents is to communicate and know what's going on with their child. They have to know what apps they're using and be on those sites," Meier said.
Computer companies are pushing to swap the violence in video games with messages of social change.
Next week, Advanced Micro Devices plans to announce a project designed to teach kids how to build video games that promote social causes such as fighting poverty or protecting the environment. Called Changing the Game, the project will fund nonprofit organizations that inspire kids with video games, and it will develop curriculum for youth to build their own software for games. Changing the Game is the first initiative funded by the chipmaker's newly formed AMD Foundation, a grant-making organization.
At the same time next week, Microsoft will show off the first of the environmental education games developed by high school and college kids participating in Microsoft's Imagine Cup, a global competition around software for social change. (The Imagine Cup winners will be announced in Paris in July.)
Why the coincidence? The two companies are participating in the fifth annual Games for Change Festival next week at the Parsons The New School for Design. The 4-year-old nonprofit Games for Change gets support for its conference from Microsoft and AMD.
Of course, both companies have a stake in the video game business. AMD's technology powers high-definition game consoles, and Microsoft sells the Xbox 360 and related games. As part of its competition, for example, Microsoft asked students to use the company's XNA Games Studio Software to develop a socially minded computer or Xbox game.
Still, it's for a worthy cause. "We have a tremendous opportunity to harness the passion that kids have for gaming while teaching the skills they need to be successful in our 21st century digital economy," AMD president Dirk Meyer said in a statement.
As part of its initiative, the AMD Foundation plans to grant money to Girlstart, an Austin-based nonprofit focused on girls; Global Kids, a New York-based nonprofit; the D.C.-based Institute for Urban Game Design; and Science Buddies, a Silicon Valley-based group for kids in science.
The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) said Monday that it has filed a complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft, alleging that its new Office 2007 file format will impede educational initiatives because it does not natively support open standards.
At issue is Office 2007's interoperability with the OpenDocument format (ODF), a rival office format that's largely supported by governments and educators. Instead of offering native support, Microsoft has released a converter that will let Word users open documents saved in the OpenDocument format. It has also funded other open-source translator tools
The government agency Becta, along with other groups such as the nonprofit OpenForum Europe, said that that's not good enough. In January, Becta even told British schools not to upgrade to Microsoft's Vista operating system and Office 2007.
"The lack of interoperability denies students and families access to free or low-cost software alternatives, including open source," OpenForum Europe Chief Executive Graham Taylor said in a statement.
A Microsoft representative replied that the company is committed to education and interoperability; and that more schools are upgrading to Windows Vista and Office 2007 for educational programs.
"We have funded the development of tools to promote interoperability between Office 2007 and products based on the ODF file format. We will continue to work with Becta and the Commission in a cooperative manner to resolve these issues," according to a company statement.
PALO ALTO, Calif.--Hewlett-Packard wants to get hip to teens.
At an event here this week focused on teenagers and technology, Ameer Karim, director of HP's future and innovations group for consumer PCs, said that it plans to introduce a new line of devices this fall that will be designed by teens, for teens.
"We've used this teen council to help us with everything from the design of the products, the user interface and the box design, even including how the Web site will look," Karim said on a panel of executives talking about marketing to the younger generation. Representatives from Sun and Microsoft were also panelists.
"That's a major transformation for a company like HP, which has been much more focused on an older crowd," Karim added.
Karim did not detail what devices the company will unveil this fall. Ann Finnie, an HP spokeswoman, wasn't familiar with the product line that Karim referenced. But she said the company generally has been trying to cater to a younger audience with products like the TouchSmart PC, a desktop with a touchscreen interface that's designed as a home entertainment hub. It was introduced in January 2007.
Karim's comments came during SD Forum's second annual Teens and Tech conference, a one-day event focused on how teens are using technology to innovate, start companies, and organize around causes. The event also delved into marketers' approach to the market, given that kids are spending more and more of their time online.
Matt Thompson, director of technology outreach and Sun's open-source programs office, said that Sun has made a play for teens by spinning out the site Freshbrain.org, an activities Web site for teens. He said the other way Sun reaches out to kids is by making everything free. Teens, he said, are extremely sensitive to free.
"My job is to literally give things away," Thompson said to a crowd of about 150 people at the conference, which was held on HP's campus. "We make a long term investment in those (kids) interested in technology."
It's doubtful that HP will be giving anything away for free. But according to Karim, the company is hoping to define a new generation of products with the help of its teen council. And some of those products might include gaming. Karim referenced the company's acquisition of computer game company Voodoo two years ago during his talk.
"We're very excited. Our core focus is on how we design for this space in way that we believe will define the next generation of products," he said.
JD Lewin, a Microsoft executive on the panel, was much more cavalier to the question of teens: "I don't know how we market to teens."
PALO ALTO, Calif.--Just yesterday I received a review copy of the book The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.
In fairness, I've just started reading the book and am looking forward to it. But what I've gleaned so far from the cited research is that kids today are so busy texting friends, downloading content, playing video games, and socializing online that they're losing touch with reading (even online), civic engagement and a solid work ethic.
That profile--especially the last item--doesn't apply to the Silicon Valley teens here Tuesday at SD Forum's second annual Teens in Tech confab.
Take Anshal Samar, the 14-year-old inventor of chemistry card game Elementeo, who at last year's conference said he wanted to earn his first million dollars by the time he graduated middle school. Now on the verge of selling his fantasy-education game to the public, he could meet that goal out of 8th grade. (He already has 5,000 orders, but he hopes to raise as much as $1 million to distribute 50,000 sets by next fall.) Samar used the Web and photo-editing software to create his game.
Anshul Samar, the 14-year-old inventor of chemistry card game Elementeo
(Credit: Stefanie Olsen/CNET News.com)Or Sejal Hathi, a 16-year-old at Notre Dame High School in San Jose, Calif., who founded the nonprofit Girls Helping Girls to inspire young women around the world to affect social change in their communities. The Internet is central to Hathi's push to get the word out about her organization.
Or Jonathan Wilde, a 15-year-old programmer who recently won Google's Highly Open Participation Contest for work on open-source document management software called Plone. He said during the conference that he's developing his own open-source software that he hopes to launch soon.
Sure, all of these teens loosely fit the mold of a wired generation. They spend multiple hours online every day on sites like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and YouTube. And they're no stranger to texting friends or creating content online. But they're behavior is more indicative of an uber-ambitious class of kids (likely raised by tech-savvy parents) that's bending technology to their will rather than staying beholden to it.
The teens were invited here Tuesday to Hewlett-Packard's campus as part of a day-long event focused on how the young generation is using technology to innovate, start new companies, or organize around causes. Marketers and investors were naturally in toe to talk about efforts to reach younger audiences online and scout for fresh ideas.
The panelists were arguably among the cream of the crop of their generation, so you could hardly consider them dumb. Their ideas and drive could turn them into the next Catherine Cook or Mark Zuckerburg. But that tech prowess and ambition could have as much to do with their genes as their geographic location.
"Being in Silicon Valley makes it impossible not to be an entrepreneur. I didn't want to wait 10 years," Samar said during an opening presentation of his company. Dressed in a power-blue shirt and blazer, you could hardly tell Samar from the executives in the crowd, except that he barely cleared the podium.
Most of the teens had behaviors unlike what you read in most research reports.
For example, during a panel at the conference (which I moderated), all of the kids said that they had abandoned MySpace in favor of Facebook. Among the reasons: Facebook lacked MySpace's gaudiness, offered superior privacy controls, and could better connect an upwardly mobile teen to professional contacts. Hathi, for example, uses Facebook "cause" groups to market her nonprofit.
Still, given the choice of another, simpler social network, most of the teens said that they would have no problem switching if their friends were there.
Most of the panelists said that they don't use instant chat, despite popularity of tools like AOL Instant Messenger among teens. Instead, most of them said that e-mail was the best way to blast out a message to friends; and then catch up with responses when they're not busy later. None of the teens seemingly had the time for the micro-blogging service Twitter.
In response to a question about whether e-mail's utility will stay relevant in the age of MySpace and Facebook, they all said that it would.
"E-mail will survive because it's far more professional than other forms of digital communication," said Hathi.
Another apparent anomaly among these teens was that they were all concerned with their privacy online. The group said that they try to avoid leaving any digital tracks and use high privacy settings in social networks.
Wilde, for example, attributed this behavior to his parents. Wilde said they made an impression on him while young to avoid sending e-mail or posting anything online that he wouldn't be comfortable with the world reading.
As for books, most of the teen panelists lamented that they didn't read as much as they would like, apart from school assignments. Yet they do get much of their news online. Hathi said she regularly reads The Economist and The New York Times online. Deanna Alexander, a 17-year-old from Mountain View, Calif., said she read about the recent earthquake in China online. Wilde, who writes his own blog on robotics, said he likes to keep up with industry sites like Engadget.
So what's missing in all this technology? Oddly enough, most of the teens said that personal connections are getting lost in the time spent with software built to connect people. When asked what they would do without MySpace and Facebook, for example, most of the panelists said with some regret that they would probably spend more face time with their friends and family.
"We might spend more time with people on a more personal level," said Alexander, who builds art-focused Web sites in her free time.
Wilde agreed. During his work on the Google contest, he said he met some of the event organizers. But ultimately he felt a lack of a real connection to them through email or a social network.
"You don't really establish a relationship until you actually talk to that person or shake their hand," he said.
Sounds smart to me.
Parry Aftab wants to make the Internet safer--one social network at a time.
Founder of Wired Safety, a global Internet kids-safety nonprofit, Aftab is turning her passion for protecting kids online into a consulting business for the fast-changing world of Web 2.0 widgets, social networks, and virtual worlds. In July, she plans to launch Wired Trust, an Internet security business and certification program designed to act like an insurance policy for social sites.
Among other things, Wired Trust will advise companies on best practices involving spam, phishing attacks, member safety information, and moderating communities. It will also run a new best-practices seal program that, if effective, could give parents at least one clue about which social networks to trust.
CNET News.com talked to Aftab, a longtime attorney, before her planned announcement of Wired Trust.
(Credit:
Courtesy of Parry Aftab)
Q: So what will Wired Trust do?
Aftab: (Last year) I started thinking about creating a consulting company that would assist everyone in the Web 2.0 space with managing all of the risks--from spam to phishing; to securing their networks; to creating safety information for their users; to creating safe content for kids; to reviewing age-verification technology; to creating and screening their moderation practices.
We will go in and kick the tires and tell companies what they need to do. If they need help writing their safety policies and practices, we'll do it for them. Or we'll do the moderation for them in six languages on a 24-7 basis. We'll develop the technology for them one time, and we'll spread that technology among all of the sites and spread the cost.
And we will certify best practices for the industry. So if a site, a Web 2.0 technology, or a widget meets our standards of practices, we will upload the Wired Trust seal from our site. What we're doing is professionalizing safety in the Web 2.0 space.
What that means is we'll have a course that you can take online to get certified for risk management in a Web 2.0 world. We're working on courses with Pace University in New York right now in the field. You can get credits for college, and eventually we'll have courses on sexual predator management or cyberbullying management.
Why do you think this is important now?
Aftab: Everyone is moving into the Web 2.0 market--brands like Nike, Disney, and Procter & Gamble. They've always controlled their brands, but now they're creating Web 2.0 networks, and they're finding out they can't control anything. So a lot of them don't know what to do. The big consulting firms don't know what to do either.
We've had a lot of venture capitalists and big companies in acquisition mode, looking at $500 million to $700 million acquisitions, ask us to look at a company and assess how safe it is, and help them find better cyber citizens in the Web 2.0 space.
Which company, which acquisition?
Aftab: I can't say. But one of the largest entertainment companies in the world approached me about a teen Web site. I reviewed the teen Web site and thought it was doing a good job.
What does "doing a good job" mean?
Aftab: They were paying attention to their users, they made it easy for people to report abuses, and they were responsive when the abuses were reported. Everyone has a Web 2.0 network these days and having one that is safe and responsive is crucial.
What was the genesis of Wired Trust?
Aftab: It came about from a conversation a year ago with a friend at an ISP I trust who wanted my help to deploy Wired Safety volunteers and help monitor their networks for risks. (Through my nonprofit), I've got thousands of volunteers to assist the networks in handling risks. But I explained that Wired Safety is a charity and not for profit and we typically don't help companies that can hire these people. We're a charity with unpaid volunteers.
The problem is that the people who are generally the one moderating the networks are offshore. They work remotely, they don't have much training, and they may not have background checks, so quality control is a real issue and so is price. If you move the task to where the consultants are trying to do it, it's very expensive, so it's a lot cheaper to it in the Philippines or China.
What kind of risks are we talking about?
Aftab: It's the risks of a Web 2.0 environment, which is an interactive Internet. It's users talking to each other while using the site as a tool; it's user-generated content where people are taking their clothes off, etc. In the Web 2.0 environment, it's like herding cats. You don't know who your users are and you can't control what they do. But you can try to control the risks.
But what are the biggest risks on social sites?
Aftab: It depends on the demographic. But for kids, it's cyberbullying. It's the biggest single problem that I have and the Web 2.0 industry has. Because 85 percent of middle schoolers I've polled--that's 40,000 of them over the last year--indicated that they've been cyberbullied at least once. The important part is not asking, "Have you been cyberbullied?" but, "Has anyone ever stolen your password, changed it, and locked you out? Or posted a picture of you online, and altered it to embarrass you?"
So back to the start of Wired Trust...
Aftab: So in February 2005, I reached out to MySpace at the time, when it only had about 5 million members. I was screaming that they had 13-year-olds on the site sharing information and their general counsel said, "Help us make it safer." And I said, "Call me on my expert attorney line and not the charity line."
After we talked to them (from the charity perspective), we agreed to give our safety tips to them and spot risks for them and make MySpace safer. Their privacy settings came out because we asked them to. I told them what to do, and it would have cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. The time came that they didn't listen as well, but we were inside MySpace, Bebo, and all the leading social networks.
So when I got this phone call from friend at an ISP, I started to think it's better for a for-profit company to advise the industry instead of a watchdog group. The industry is more likely to share what's really going on with me if we have a nondisclosure agreement and they know I'm not going to pick up the phone and call you or the Federal Trade Commission.
How is your certification different from Trustee's privacy seal?
Aftab: I was on the board of Trustee for eight years, so I know that organization. Wired Trust deals with all aspects of best practices. If someone has a Trustee seal, we will accept that on privacy. I'll just look at everything else, and that is: What have you done about reporting different types of abuses on your site? Do you have a technology that lets people report abuse when they find them? Are you handling the abuses reported...with the most important things getting priority?
We're making sure people who are doing this and are trained in how to do it have had background checks and are consistent, so if Mary gets an e-mail, you'll get the same response from her every time. We're ensuring that they have a policy for dealing with parents, and that it's articulated. And that they have a policy for dealing with schools, so if you have a school issue involving bullying that moves online, that someone from the school can easily contact you and inform you that it's going to explode on your site. You want to make it easier for schools to control you when something hits.
We want to make sure that there's a law enforcement policy--teaching the law what information you have and what people can do on your site. How does law information get information from you in any investigations they have on a 24-7 basis? So if you have a missing child that could have anything do with your site, the last thing you want to do is tell someone to call back at 9 a.m.
Another thing is responsible advertising practices, so that you're not putting Victoria Secret ads on a profile of someone who's told you that they're 13. A good part of this is making sure that their users are educated about how to protect themselves. Another requirement of the seal is that the company will have to register with us their after-hours contact information that we will share with all the attorneys general in the United States so that if an emergency hits, the AGs can contact who's in charge.
All of these things are common sense: How safe are you? How responsive are you to the risk? And do you have a place to report abuse?
How does your group fit in with what Facebook and others are already doing with the state attorneys general?
Aftab: I'm on the task force already for MySpace and the 49 state AGs, and Facebook is on that task force with me.
It's a good fit because we have the AG in New Jersey who has come up with things she thinks are best practices. We'll keep on top of that and we'll fold that into our requirements so that you know that by qualifying for my seal, you will comply with everyone. We kind of fit on top of all of this and put it all together and make it easy to do what's right.
How much will the seal cost?
Aftab: It will start at $25,000. The price depends on how many users you have, the level of risks, how professional you are, and whether you're dealing with kids. Because when you're dealing with kids, I want to make sure they're as safe as possible.
Now you're seeing these sites where 3-year-olds can share their stuff with others. It sounds nice, but once you allow a 3-year-old to click and send, things will go wrong. Once you allow someone who's too young to judge something, you want to make sure there's a control in place that they're not going to get spammed, and parents need to know what to do to keep their kids safer. So you need tutorials.
Parents should be able to go to the parents page and get a straightforward list of five points of what the site does and what it permits kids to do--and where to go if something goes wrong. If the site charges for something, let people know what it will cost them. Everyone really is so busy trying to make money and survive in this space that safety gets short shrift.
I'm happy to let them make money and survive; and they can hire us and we'll make them safer. We created this to meet a need, but more importantly to make people safer.
