Today the Internet Education Foundation declined an invitation to participate in a “task force” effort resulting from the “Joint Statement on Key Principles of Social Networking Safety” announced in January 2008 by MySpace and the Attorneys General Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking.

Our reasons for deciding not to participate are two fold. First, the Internet Education Foundation, as its name suggests, is generally focused on Internet safety education and we believe our time is best spent toward that charter. Over the next year our Internet safety workload — both through the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (CICAC) and through GetNetWise — is enormous. Our stakeholders are urging us to host Internet safety policy events in Washington and continue the educational work of GetNetWise.org.

Second, we feel very strongly the work of the task force is far too important to be hampered by task force participants that are age verification technology vendors.  From the outset we expressed our concern with financial interests of vendors clouding the sober judgment of this important work. That should be a cornerstone principle for the task force and we hope that it reconsiders that principle. We also hope that the process will be open and transparent, much like the work of the COPA Commission.

The work of this task force is important and will require significant research. We recognize that the results of the task force’s work could have serious repercussions for online safety. We sincerely hope that the task force will be able to conduct its research in a civil and sober manner, while recognizing the short timeline before the report is required.

The Internet Education Foundation has been selected as a participant in Google’s inaugural Policy Fellowship Program.  The purpose of the program is to “support students and organizations working on policy issues fundamental to the future of the Internet and its users.”  The program is open to undergraduate, graduate, and law students interested in learning more about Internet-related public policy issues by working with organizations that contribute to the public dialogue in both Washington and San Francisco.  The application deadline is January 1, 2008.  More information is available at www.google.com/policyfellowship/ .

CBS News is running a three part series for parents searching for resources to help them protect teens online. The piece takes an in depth look at the benefits and pitfalls of monitoring software: does this it invade teen’s privacy? Do monitoring and blocking technologies work for teens?  The Web version of the article also contains a section of recommended sites, linking concerned parents to GetNetWise.org and GetNetWise’s new Parental Empowerment Tools Training Webinars Series. The new webinars series can be found at kids.getnetwise.org/tools/webinars/.