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Safety When children (also under thirteen) are permitted to use technology that would enable a child to share personally identifiable information with third parties (even if the sites terms of service prohibit children to do so) even for a split second (such as if a chat moderator would promptly remove the offending post), parents verifiable consent must be obtained prior to their child's being permitted to use this technology. Typical technologies include: chat (even moderated, although not time delay moderated chat), instant messaging or e- mails if the child can create their own messages or their screen name or electronic address is apparent, unscreened discussion boards, unscreened web sites & profiles, & video-chat. While some groups have criticized this provision, a survey we conducted at the seventeen.com site disclosed that 48% of the teens surveyed admitted to sharing personal information, such as name, address & telephone number with strangers online. Twelve percent admitted to meeting Internet strangers in person, off-line. Recently, the first case ever reported to our knowledge or the knowledge of the FBI group charged with Internet child molestation & exploitation crimes demonstrated that potential violent sexual offenders are using this personal information obtained voluntarily from children to stalk them & break & enter their homes to attack them when they return home from school. This recent change from docile seduction of children by Internet sexual molesters to violent breaking & entry attacks takes the risk of molestation from the previous 12% (kids meeting strangers voluntarily) to 48% (where their personal information is shared with strangers online). |