Parry Aftab (WiredSafety) Statement -
OSTWG Report (full version – aftab.com/ostwg)
It
has been an honor to serve on the OSTWG., a varied and stellar group. Each
brings something special to the table. Because WiredSafety and my experience,
especially our work with victims, parents and young people, differs from that
of many working group members[1], while we concur with most
of the conclusions reached in the Report, we differ on several others.
The most significant differences
relate to the importance of law enforcement and the scope and prevalence of
cyberbullying (where one minor uses digital technologies as a weapon to hurt
another minor), “sexting” (taking, sending or possessing nude or sexual images
of minors by minors, including of themselves) and sexual exploitation of minors
by adults that is facilitated by digital technology. Based upon our 15 years in
the field, we believe that more minors are victimized, victimizing each other
and putting themselves at risk than the Report reflects. Things that are
obvious face-to-face are less obvious online. While we agree that the education
of young people about safe and responsible digital technology use is critical,
under the right set of circumstances even a well-educated child could become an
unwitting victim. It is the role of our police to keep this from happening. That
is why we shouldn’t lose track of the importance of well-trained and equipped
law enforcement agencies and their role in our children’s safety online and off.
At the same time, we recognize
that the public (and parents, in particular) often over-estimate the risks
children face online, especially when sexual predators are involved. (We fear
what we don’t understand, which is why parental education is so important.) While
we have to correct their misconceptions, under-estimating the risks is not the
answer. In our opinion, the Report leaves the impression that our young people
are less at risk than our experience leads us to believe. How serious are the
risks? Sadly, we can only guess. When it comes to cyberbullying, sexting and
sexual exploitation of minors facilitated by digital technologies, we don’t
really understand the facts. We don’t know how often they occur, to whom they
occur and the seriousness of the victimization/harm. Why? Because our children
often don’t understand that they have been victimized, intentionally hide the
victimization from us or don’t share the truth when asked by researchers
conducting academic surveys. (Only 5% of students polled told us that they
would tell their parents if cyberbullied.) While under-reporting is an offline
reality, it is worse when young people feel they have been complicit in some
part of the digital abuse.
We are among the experts who
believe that cyberbullying is at “epidemic levels” especially in middle school,
and that more minors and at increasingly younger ages are engaged in taking,
sending or receiving nude or sexual images. (Our survey of children 10 -12
disclosed that 5% had sent a sexually provocative, nude or sexual image and 6%
had received one. Teenangels.org/sexting.) The MTV/AP survey conducted for the
digital abuse prevention campaign, athinline.org (for which one of my
Teenangels and I are advisory board members), shows a higher incidence of
sexting than reflected in the Report, as well. This is particularly concerning,
as those admitting to sending a “sext” also admitted to being more than 3 times
more likely to consider suicide. The more we know, the better job we will be
able to do. For that we have to engage young people, ask the right questions
and demand better answers.
[1] WiredSafety served on the
Harvard Berkman Center’s ISTTF. It and I bring knowledge of cybercrime, law,
privacy, best practices, victim-assistance, youth leadership and
peer-education, parent education, mommy blogging and issues involving
cyberbullying and the digital technology social and sexual conduct of minors. (To
learn more visit WiredSafety.org.)
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