Monday, July 26, 2004

Parry's article Cyberdating safety column > Looking For Love In All The Cyber Places > July 26, 2004

InformationWeek > Cyberdating > Looking For Love In All The Cyber Places > July 26, 2004How to cyberdate and stay safe at the same time.

Parry's InformationWeek column: Cyberdating > Dating Online: The Basics > July 26, 2004

InformationWeek > Cyberdating > Dating Online: The Basics > July 26, 2004 The basics for cyberdating novices.

Katie Tarbox and Katie.com (the book, not the site)

I first met Katie many years ago, while she was still in high school. She has recently graduated from college and will be devoting the next year of her life to helping kids who have been victimized by online sexual predators.

Katie met an Internet predator when she was only 13, thinking he was a teenage boy. He managed to book a room at the same hotel she was staying in, while she was competing as a swimmer for her school team. She arranged to visit him in his room, and the rest is a sad, but all too typical story about how young teens are lured by child molesters posing as young boys.

Katie took him to court and then wrote a book to help others avoid and handle the continued pain of exploitation and molestation. The book was called katie.com (although she doesn't own that domain name). I highly recommend the book, especially to teen girls.

When I recently met up with Katie again, I was very impressed with how well she has matured and how much she continues to care about others. While she hopes to become a lawyer someday, she wants to take a little bit more time to develop a place where kids and teens can turn to for help and support. Katie wants to create a place that cares, where kids can go to feel whole again.

While I can tell you all about the law and online privacy and security, few can really understand the pain of being victimized in the special way victims of Internet sexual predators have been- only Katie can. While as painful as many offline sexual molestations, there is a special betrayal that is shared among online victims. The victims also feel stupid, and in many cases as though they deserved what they got. They berate themselves for not seeing through the masquerade.

The studies show that at least 20% of the teens online have been solicited for sex online. But I suspect the numbers are far higher than that. And the sexual attacks of kids by Interent predators is also woefully under-reported.

Until Christina Long was killed two years ago, all of us experts thought that the typical victim was a loner. But Christina, a bubbly honor-roll cheerleader, didn't fit that description. Upon further investigation and polling, we learned that there are at least two major categories of Internet sexual victims: the loners (who had monopolized the reports until then) and the risk-takers (often competitive in school, highly successful and looking to let off steam). The former group rarely, if ever, reports the molestations. We only hear about them when they are killed or kidnapped.

Katie's dream to create a safe haven for these kids is a wonderful idea. We think it's so wonderful that we are going to help her build it.

If anyone wants to help, let us know. You can drop by wiredsafety.org and volunteer. Let them know you want to help build Katie's program.

we can use all the help we can get.

thanks,
Parry

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Spiderman and Parry Aftab: Archives: St. Petersburg Times

Archives: St. Petersburg Times

Spiderman, Parry Aftab amd WiredSafety.org

Tonight at an event held at Capitol Hill, together with Senator Stevens and other key members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as Commissioners Thompson and Harbour of the FTC, Parry and Marvel announced an exciting collaboration.

Marvel has agreed to allow WiredSafety.org and Parry to use their super hero characters, including Spiderman, to help deliver their online safety, privacy and responsible surfing messages, worldwide. The program will include special comics with themes such as cyberbulling, privacy, predators and piracy. They will also include live character appearances using the super hero characters.

to learn more, visit InternetSuperHeroes.org.

Library media specialists...the secret to safe suring :Online Safety at School

Online Safety at SchoolParry's article for PC Magazine praises the unsung heroes of education, library media specialists!

Thursday, July 08, 2004

the story of how Parry transformed her group Wired News: Second Coming of Cyberangels

Wired News: Second Coming of CyberangelsBut note that the gorup is now called wiredsafety.org. Parry gave up trying to fix what is now run by the Guardian Angels. so if you want what you have read about, reach out to Parry at wiredsafety.org.

About Parry's Cyberlawenforcement.org group - note the parents group is now called wiredsafety.org, not cyberangels.

Optimize Magazine > Square Off > Should I.T. Have To Report Child Porn? > May 2002

Optimize Magazine > Square Off > Should I.T. Have To Report Child Porn? > May 2002

Parry featured in Asia's Computer Times - Technology

Computer Times - Technology

Jack Meyer's (media consultant) talks about cyberporn with Parry

WiredSafety's PSA with The Young and the Restless Behind the Scenes by Soap City

The Young and the Restless Behind the Scenes by Soap City

MNet Receives International Internet Awareness and Safety Award from Parry

MNet Receives International Internet Awareness and Safety Award | News Release

Singapore's safe surfing initiatives given Parry's award

Welcome to PAGi

Innocence in Danger- Parry's UNESCO appointment

Innocence in Danger

CyberLawEnforcement.org - WiredCops- Parry's law enforcement help group

CyberLawEnforcement.org - WiredCops

About Parry's Teenangels and their online safety program, teenangels.org

FTC privacy technology conference with Parry as a featured panelist

Parry's comments re: CIPA

Aftab email

COURT TV ONLINE - CHAT with Parry

COURT TV ONLINE - CHATNotwithstanding the typo stating that the interview is with Dr. Henry Lee, it's Parry on court tv.

Parry's COPA Commissioner testimony: note cyberangels is now known as wiredsafety.org


The program and vlunteers formerly operating under the former name is now operating under the wiredsafety.org name. The guardian angels now operate the old site.

Teachers.Net Chat with Parry Aftab

Teachers.Net Chat with Parry Aftab

The Privacy Lawyer: InformationWeek > Parry Aftab > The Privacy Lawyer: Unscrupulous Marketing Practices Of Online Porn Purveyors > March 1, 2004

The Privacy Lawyer: InformationWeek > Parry Aftab > The Privacy Lawyer: Unscrupulous Marketing Practices Of Online Porn Purveyors > March 1, 2004

The Privacy Lawyer: Parry Aftab's Privacy and Cyberlaw Site

The Privacy Lawyer: Parry Aftab's Privacy and Cyberlaw Site

ABCNEWS.com : Chat Transcript: Parry Aftab on Protecting Children Online

ABCNEWS.com : Chat Transcript: Parry Aftab on Protecting Children OnlineParry's live chat about online safety with ABC news and Good Morning America. Note that the group is now called wiredsafety.org.

Blogger: User Profile: Parry Aftab

Blogger: User Profile: Parry Aftaball of Parry's blogs. Note her cyberdetective series web novel and her privacy lawyer blog.

Family Guide Book

Family Guide BookParry's earliest online safety site, long before cyberangels or wirekids were conceived.

Parry Aftab's Privacy and Cyberlaw Site

Parry Aftab's Privacy and Cyberlaw SiteParry's main site.

MSNBC - Japan�s chilling Internet suicide pacts

MSNBC - Japan�s chilling Internet suicide pactsArticle about suicide sites that encourgae others to commit suicide, featuring Parry.

MSNBC - Cyberporn�s internal struggle

MSNBC - Cyberporn�s internal struggleArticle about the cyberporn industry, quoting Parry on child exploitation. Note that the group formerly known as "Cyberangels" is now called WiredSafety.org. The Cyberangels site is ow run by the Guardian Angels, not Parry and her volunteers.

MSNBC - What you don�t know can hurt kids

MSNBC - What you don�t know can hurt kidsBob Sullivan's article, very inciteful, quotes Parry and her book.

MSNBC - Parents crack down on Internet time

MSNBC - Parents crack down on Internet timequoting Parry

MSNBC - Government agency exposes day-care data

MSNBC - Government agency exposes day-care dataBob Sullivan's article, quoting Parry.

MSNBC - Pornographer to sell Whitehouse Web site

MSNBC - Pornographer to sell Whitehouse Web sitePornographer decides he doesn't want his son to know he's in the business, and vows ot sell his whitehouse.com adult site at auction. Article quotes Parry.

MSNBC - Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet

MSNBC - Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet A report featuring Parry and WiredSafety about protecting children and how to monitor your children's communications online.

Monday, July 05, 2004

David Winer and his blog

So many have, IMHO, unfairly attacked this man for closing down his free blog hosting service. I understand how this could have happened.

When a "good idea at the time" and "I can do it if others can't" project gets going, it often takes on a life of its own.

And sometimes real life gets in the way.

I know, in 1995 I set up AOL's legal discussions, where hundreds of lawyers would answer legal questions and provide legal information about almost any legal issue, for free.

It had all started when I started using AOL (I have told you all I am not a technology expert :-)) in 1994 and people kept asking me a/s/l in chats.

Instead, since I was looking for conversations and networking instead of cybercrimance, I would steer the conversations to what do you do and how can we help each other. After the word spread that a lawyer was hanging out in channel answering business law questions, the channel's popularity grew quickly. Since I had always been a corporate lawyer, I needed other lawyers to answer all the lease, divroce and traffic ticket questions, among others. Friends and acquaintances agreed ot help and Legal Discussions was born, with hundreds of different discussion topics. Court TV Law Center followed, when Steve Brill asked me to replicate what I had done with AOL.

All of us donated our time. In some cases it helped lawyers find clients, but in most it only created headaches with our malpractice carriers and legal ethics boards that were uncomfortable with lawyers providing answers to legal questions online and providing them to residents of other states. (Lawyers are licensed state-by-state).

I became a well-known early adopter and cyberlaw expert. But the two projects took up so much time that I couldn't take advantage of the new fame.

I suspect that the blog service was something Winer did when others weren't. Now with blogspot.com and the new race to set up the next free and easy blogging service, it isn't as important as it once was. And creating a business out of this was not what Winer had in mind.

While he could and should have given everyone a bit more advance notice, no one should fault him for wanting to live his life and get on with projects that he wants to pursue.

Sometimes volunteers online can get something going, but at some point either others need to take it over, the creator changes their life to focus entirely on this volunteer project and find ways to supporting themselves and the project or it ends.

It's hard to move on. Stop-gaps should be just that.

We should thank Winer for having donated so much for so long.

Parry