ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE 10-BILL PACKAGE TO IMPROVE INTERNET SAFETY
Comprehensive Package Stems from Attorney General Milgram’s Initiatives Would Enhance Penalties and Laws to Protect Children on the Internet
(TRENTON) – Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein and 13 other Assembly Democratic lawmakers today announced they’ve introduced a sweeping 10-bill package that would give law enforcement enhanced abilities to crackdown on child Internet crimes.
The 10-bill package, among other things, would upgrade penalties and crimes for offenders who communicate in a harassing, sexually offensive or abusive manner with minors on Web sites and through electronic communication.
The bills are part of Attorney General Anne Milgram’s Internet safety initiatives.
“This 10-bill package would give law enforcement the tools they need to better protect children who use the Internet for education and recreation,” said Greenstein (D-Middlesex/Mercer), who is sponsoring each bill. “No longer will Web sites be the playgrounds of criminals looking to prey on vulnerable children.”
“My office combats Internet threats by employing an aggressive, multi-pronged approach ranging from criminal and civil investigations to cooperative efforts with networking sites and service providers to education initiatives aimed at teachers, school administrators, parents and students,” Milgram said. “But as we pursued our initiatives, it became clear that it was essential that our criminal and civil enforcement statutes address evolving threats posed by bad actors online. This comprehensive Internet safety legislative package addresses those issues."
Also sponsoring the legislation are Assembly members Wayne P. DeAngelo, Nelson T. Albano, Gary S. Schaer, Matthew W. Milam, Frederick Scalera, John J. Burzichelli, Peter J. Barnes III, Elease Evans, Valerie Vainieri Huttle, Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., Pamela R. Lampitt, Gordon M. Johnson and Douglas H. Fisher.
“It’s a parent’s worst nightmare to realize their child’s safety has been jeopardized simply by using a computer,” said DeAngelo (D-Mercer/Middlesex). “It’s time New Jersey upgrades its crimes and penalties to assist law enforcement in preventing, investigating and cracking down on Read more
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The real dangers in cyberspace
Reports reveal surprises on what is awaiting teens
Monday, February 02, 2009
By MELISSA HEALY, Los Angeles Times
Since emerging from the primordial ooze, parents have wrung their evolving appendages over ways to shield their offspring from hungry predators, lurking maniacs and strangers from without.
Again and again, they’ve learned, the threat to their children lies uncomfortably closer to home: Lion fathers would sooner eat their unprotected young than hunt wilier quarry; children pictured on milk cartons were more likely to have been snatched from home by a parent than by a stranger.
It was a lesson brought home again in a recent report, when parents learned that the roughly 6 in 10 adolescents who socialize on the Internet have relatively little to fear from potential perverts lurking in the anonymity of cyberspace.
A Harvard University-led task force on Internet safety, ordered by the nation’s attorneys general and meant to expose the full extent of the danger, found instead that kids trading gossip, photos and plans on social networking sites such as MySpace are relatively safe from adults cruising online for sex with minors.
The report, released Jan. 13, counters political calls to protective action with a generally upbeat look at the effectiveness of measures developed by Internet companies to protect kids. It douses parental fretting with research showing that few kids have been subject to such unwanted advances when socializing on sites aimed at the youth market.
Those findings come on the heels of several studies showing that online social networking appears to be a perfectly benign practice for the vast majority of kids, even for those most consumed by the pastime. After a steady diet of warnings that their children’s growing Internet use is a likely cause of academic failure, attention disorders and obesity, a parent could be forgiven for welcoming the news with an audible sigh of relief.
Those parents might want to read to the report’s end, however. The perpetrators of psychological wounds and the stalkers who would steal their kids’ innocence are probably Read more
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Should You Let Your Child Post Pictures and Videos Online?
Are you the parent of a child or a teenager who uses the internet, namely social networking websites like MySpace? If you are, your child may be interested in posting pictures or videos of themselves online, if they haven’t already done so. Should you let them?
When it comes to determining if you should let your child post personal pictures and videos of themselves online, you, as the parent, should have the final say. With that said, it is first important to examine the pros and cons of letting your child post these items online. Pictures and videos are common on social networking websites, like MySpace and Facebook.
In all honesty, the only true pro or plus side to letting your child post videos or pictures of themselves online is because it is what your child wants to do. Letting them post their pictures and videos online will likely make your child happy. They can easily share videos and pictures with friends, as opposed to actually bringing them to school.
As much as your child or teenager may want to post personal pictures or videos of themselves online, it is also important to know that Read more
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