House Moves Bills to Improve Internet Safety for Kids

Though it may seem that Congress coasts from holiday break to holiday break without getting much accomplished, there seems to be some movement afoot in the House to fund efforts to target and prosecute cybercrimes against kids and to better educate them about online safety.

Here's a look, via the AP, at some bills that have passed the House and will move to the Senate for consideration:

• A $1 billion bill, funded over the next eight years, to create a Justice Department office to coordinate prosecution efforts; fund state programs fighting cybercrimes against kids; and hire more federal agents to pursue more exploitation cases.

• $5 million a year for five years for Internet safety programs for children. Another $5 million a year would go to competitive grants for similar initiatives.

• A bill to authorize courts to require as part of probation that convicted sex offenders cooperate in installing Internet filters and monitoring systems.

• A few bills aim to make it easier to prosecute child pornography cases. One would make knowngly accessing child porn on the Internet legally possession of child pornography even if the person does not download or save the content. It also would open those who profit from child porn to money laundering charges. Another would clarify that child pornography images moved on the Internet constitute interstate commerce.

• A bill to require the Federal Trade Commission to increase education efforts on Internet safety.

It's great to see our elected leaders paying attention to (throwing money at) Internet safety efforts for kids. But Chris Null's post earlier today about a troubled girl pushed to suicide by calculated, masked, and nasty comments on MySpace—by adults and kids she knew in real life—is a painful reminder that all the money in the world can't replace good judgment. 

The first line of defense against cybercrimes and cyberbullying is at home, where parents need to talk with their kids about how and what they are doing and saying online. Friends are people you know and trust in real life. Period.  

LINK: House focuses on Internet sex predators [AP]

Related: The Inside Story of One Tragic MySpace Suicide