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.

Voters Expect Next President to be as Internet Savvy as They Are, Survey Finds

Internet #1 Source of Candidate Info for Voters, According to Zogby/Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee Survey

Washington, DC, Jan. 30 -Voters sent a clear message to the presidential campaigns, make the technology a top policy priority. 44.7 percent expect the next President to be Internet savvy, according to a new poll conducted by Zogby International on behalf of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee in advance of its annual policy conference in Washington. The Zogby poll underscores how mainstream the Internet has become to Americans.

Not surprisingly, the Internet has dethroned radio and television as the primary source of candidate information for an increasingly Internet savvy electorate. 47.7 percent of those polled cited the Internet as the primary source of their knowledge of the presidential candidates. Only 31 percent and 13 percent cited television and radio respectively as the primary source. The poll also revealed that the next president should prioritize energy technology policy foremost with privacy and security policy next.

Despite the increasing pro-technology positions voters overwhelmingly rejected Internet voting, citing concerns over cyber security voting fraud.

“The Internet has become the ultimate tool for democracy,” said Tim Lordan, executive director. “The Internet as ‘fundraiser’ has been understood for some time, but the displacement of television and radio as top sources of voter information is a sea change that is destined to advantage the most Internet savvy candidate of the pack.”

The survey was released in advance of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee annual State of the Net policy conference in Washington, DC on Jan. 30. Representatives from the presidential candidates expected to discuss Internet policy on the opening panel called POTUS 2.0 ‘09.

Among the poll results:

· Concerns over voter fraud doomed prospects for Internet voting with 67.2 percent saying it was a bad idea.

· While Energy Technology (37.7 percent) and Privacy/Security (28.9 percent) placed first and second in issues to be addressed by the next president, Health IT surprisingly never rose above third in priority among any demographic including seniors. Digital divide remained a priority among those polled, yet placed only fourth.

The poll sheds light on the enigmatic state of privacy expectations among Americans. Americans uniformly share a visceral privacy concern when their geo-location (GPS) data is exposed (49.4 percent). Concerns over other exposures were overall much lower: 11.1 percent if someone posted a picture of them in a swimsuit; 10.7 percent if someone posted a picture of them visibly drunk; 9.2 percent if someone posted a video of them simply talking with their friends. The fact that there was a negligible difference in privacy concerns between the posting of a drunken photo and the posting of a seemingly benign video of them speaking with their friends indicates that video by its nature elicits a more visceral privacy concern than mere photos, regardless of the substance.

Among the age groups polled, 18-24 year-olds and those over 70 expressed the most privacy concern over the posting of a drunken photo. Remarkably, contrasted with the drunken photo, 25-34 year-olds were more concerned about the posting of a video of them speaking with their friends while 35-54 year-olds were more concerned with the posting of them in a swimsuit.

Despite the perception of being tech savvy, fewer 18-24 year-olds believed they could effectively do their job as well from home than any other age group except seniors over 70. Interestingly, more women (30.2%) believed they could always do their job as well from home than did their male counterparts (21.9%).

In yet another reproach of Britney Spears behavior, 83.3 percent of those polled condemned SMS or email as an acceptable method to break off a romance.

The Zogby poll surveyed 3,585 adults and was conducted from 1/21-1/23. It has a margin of error of +/- 1.7 percent. Conference sponsor 463 Communications helped conceive and develop the survey.

For more information, contact:

Danielle Yates, 949-280-0703,  arodway@neted.org

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/ .

On Thursday, December 6, 2007 Executive Director Tim Lordan moderated a panel at the first annual Family Online Safety Institute conference. The roundtable, called “What methods and messages do we need to effectively reach parents, teachers and children?” included Marsali S. Hancock, President, Internet Keep Safe Coalition, John Carosella, VP of Content Control, Blue Coat Systems, Marian Merritt, Internet Safety Advocate, Symantec, and Rudi Vansnick, President & CEO, Internet Society Belgium, & Treasurer ISOC-ECC Barcelona, Spain. The wide ranging discussion included issues related to federal funding of Internet safety education, appropriate messages for parents and children, and the role of schools in teaching Internet safety and media literacy.

Last week the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee partnered with the Oxford Internet Institute to convene a first of its kind international Internet policy dialogue in London. Distinguished policymakers from the U.S., U.K. and E.U. engaged on challenging Internet issues with a crowd of leading tech policy academics, industry executives and NGO representatives. Professor Bill Dutton and colleagues from the University of Oxford moderated dialogue on compelling issues such as telecom regulation, intellectual property protection, privacy/security and Internet governance.  Congressional Internet Caucus Co-Chairs - Congressmen Rick Boucher and Bob Goodlatte - shared their insight on the opportunities and challenges facing global policymakers, industry and consumers.

More information, including bios for principal participants, can be found at www.netcaucus.org/global.

The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (ICAC) has begun the search for technology demonstrators to present their innovative technologies at the 11th annual Kickoff Reception & Technology Exhibition — scheduled for Wednesday, January 30, 2008 from 5 to 7 PM in the Hart Senate Office Building. This event is the largest technology exhibition on Capitol Hill and kicks off the Congressional session each year. The event exhibits new and emerging technologies that illustrate the latest technology policy issues with interactive hands-on demonstrations.

More information and the event application now available or contact Allison Rodway at 202-638-4370.

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/.

Tim Lordan, Executive Director of the Internet Education Foundation, spoke at the Federal Trade Commission’s “eHavioral Targeting” Town Hall conference earlier this month. Lordan spoke on the final roundtable on the “Future of Behavioral Advertising.” Lordan spoke about the future of mobile location services and also discussed privacy issues relating to the use of social networking sites. Not incoincidentally, the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee announced yesterday that a panel at the State of the Net Conference 2008 will explore privacy issues related to social networking. The panel is titled, “Social Networking Privacy: An Oxymoron?” Panelists will be announced shortly.