Internet Blocking

Privacy Concerns

Both the issue of objectionable content and the concern with sharing personal information raise questions about privacy. The extent to which these issues are contentious varies across societies as well as within them. In the United States, legislative, business, and advocacy groups have accepted the importance of considering the nature of incoming and outgoing material when children make up the online audience. They broadly agree that two key privacy rights are involved. The first involves the right to be left alone—that children should not be bothered by potentially exploitative material—and the second asserts the right to control one's personal information. Nevertheless, legislative, business, and advocacy groups do not always agree on what incoming or outgoing material is unacceptable for what age of children, how it should be blocked, or who should take responsibility for blocking it.

Digital interactive technologies are increasingly playing a central role in the lives of children and young people in the United States. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that, in 2004, 74% of children aged 8 to 18 were living in homes with available Internet access, compared to only 47% of children in 1999 (Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005). The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that, in 2004, approximately 11 million teens (aged 12 to 17) went online daily, compared to about 7 million in the year 2000 (Lenhart, 2005).

A 1999 nationwide survey conducted by Turow of parental attitudes toward the Web noted the tension between the potential value of the Internet and the dangers it can present for child users. The survey found that 70% of parents with computers in the home said that the Internet is a place for children to discover “fascinating, useful things,” and nearly 60% said that children who did not have Internet access were disadvantaged compared to their peers who did. At the same time, more than 75% of parents expressed concern that their children might give out personal information and view sexually explicit images on the Internet. Subsequent studies note that parents' conflicted vision of the Web for their children continues. Many of these hopes and fears reflect a desire to [Page 423]properly calibrate the permeable boundaries between the family and the world outside it, particularly when it comes to the protection and socialization of children.

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