Parents who worry about the challenges their teenagers and young children face on the Internet should pay close attention to a congressional hearing today on Internet privacy. Computers and smart phones have provided us, and our children, with tremendous benefits and opportunities, but with that comes great challenges and worries about our privacy and our children’s safety. The amount of information that is being collected and the information available online about all of us is extremely troubling. The actions of Google, for example, which is nearly impossible to avoid when using the Internet or your smart phone, demonstrate the severity of this issue. Recently, 36 state attorneys general – Democrat and Republican – challenged Google’s new privacy policy, which would align data collected across its services to develop highly personal profiles of Internet users. Their new privacy policy gives consumers no opportunity to opt out and is a potential treasure trove for Internet predators and scam artists.

Google’s long history of having little concern for consumer privacy gives no comfort to consumers and families worried about the protection of their data. Over the last few years, there have been a number of disturbing incidents by Google. Just to mention a few: Google attempted to obtain partial social security numbers for children in an online Doodle for Google contest; they had to settle with state attorneys general for illegally collecting data from wireless networks with its Google Street View; settled with the FTC for deceptive privacy practices with Google Buzz and just recently were caught circumventing the privacy policy of Apple’s Safari web browser using a hack to collect information on the Internet usage of users without their knowledge. The Google Street View product itself has raised alarms among child safety groups and families worried about predators having instant online access to see children playing outside by themselves or scope out victims at other vulnerable times.

It’s great to see Congress and the federal, state and local governments taking steps to look more seriously at how our laws and policies can protect our online privacy and our children’s safety. The recent privacy framework from the FTC was an important step and today’s hearing will bring additional attention to this important issue. More, however, needs to be done and we need to see additional scrutiny of the leading companies that families are entrusting with their information, their personal searches and access to their children’s information.

Over the past decade social media websites have brought together people, causes, companies and organizations from around the world. From Facebook to YouTube, people in any time zone can connected with each other through status updates, direct messaging and picture and video sharing. But like so many new technologies, they’re not just being used by people who want to do good; people with ill intentions have also learned to utilize new media. From credit card scams to bullying, children are especially vulnerable and can be easily targeted by sex offenders, even though most states prohibit convicted sexual predators from using Facebook and other similar sites. Not to mention that catching a child predator using social media can be more difficult than passing the necessary legislation banning such behavior.

In the past few weeks, several reported cases of sex offenders contacting minors through social media sites, including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube have captured the attention of the news media. But catching a sex offender using one of these platforms is almost impossible, not that the social networks and law enforcement aren’t trying. There are few systems in place that monitor a sexual predator’s online actions. Most states require that convicted sex offenders install tracking software on their computer, however, some never do while others have found ways around it. Most of the time, sex offenders are caught using social media by mere luck. Just in the last two weeks, more than five convicted sex offenders were caught using social media sites to solicit minors. How were they caught….by anonymous tips.

Recently, new states have introduced legislation banning sex offenders from social media sites. Last week Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal endorsed a bill that would ban certain sex offenders from Facebook along with other new media sites. Governor Jindal attempted to pass a similar law last year, but a federal judge declared the bill unconstitutional.

In North Carolina, sex offenders are banned from using social media, but defining which sites are social networks is another problem. A convicted sexual predator was caught last week with an active Facebook page and YouTube account. The Facebook account has been suspended, but his YouTube account is still live. Lawmakers are working to identify which sites constitute a social media platform in order to make the Internet safer from predators.

So it’s clear that more needs to be done. More systems are needed to keep sexual predators off social networks and stronger verification protocols are needed to ensure sex offenders are installing full proof monitoring software on their computers.

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