We all have seen the headlines on sexting, cyberbullying and the problems with kids and social networking. Headlines that often warn families of the perils and dangers that kids will encounter when they surf the web. Add on the array of wireless capabilities with cell phones and video...

Our children are inheriting a digital world that did not exist a mere twenty years ago.

Websites and virtual worlds are now catering to children under five and the average age of a child in Europe getting her first cell phone is just eight and a half years old....

Where is Henry James when we need him? Or Carl Jung? Or Teilhard de Chardin for that matter? What all three of these visionary thinkers had in common was an intense fascination in the nature of consciousness. James gave us the phrase "stream of consciousness" to convey the flow...

School is nearly out and the long summer vacation beckons. Kids will soon have loads of time to hang out with their friends at the pool, the park and each other's houses. And they'll have plenty of time to hang out online. June is Internet Safety Month and it would...

Twitter is so ten minutes ago. Now there's Qik - an application that allows you to stream live video from your cell phone directly to the web or your Facebook account or to another phone. Don't have a video camera as part of your phone? No worries, the downloaded...

Sexting -- teens sending sexually explicit photos of themselves via cell phones -- has become the latest in a line of highly charged issues involving kids and the internet. A recent survey on sexting has claimed that one in five teens have sent nude or semi-nude photos of themselves,...

In November 2005 the junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, spoke at the Kaiser Family Foundation event, "Sex on TV 4." Making a reference to a report by that name, he said: "But the concern shared by so many parents today - a concern that frankly hasn't been taken seriously...

As part of Cyber Security Awareness Month, I spoke at a panel at the National Press Club to discuss "what's next" in online safety, looking at emerging threats and challenges we may experience down the road. I was joined by the chair of our FOSI board - Brent Olson, AT&T...

President Bush signed the Broadband Data Improvement Act on Friday. Also known as S.1492, it is coming into law, appropriately enough, on the Columbus Day weekend. Within it lies another piece of legislation sponsored by Senator Stevens of bridge-to-nowhere fame: Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act. This act is...

The school year is ending and kids are getting ready for weeks of sun, relaxation, camps and hanging out - online. From Club Penguin to MySpace, YouTube and the latest next big thing, Ning.com, children will be spending more time online than ever before. According to the Pew Internet and...

The case of 13-year old Megan Meier taking her own life after being taunted and harassed online has showcased a conflicting and confused picture of the potential dangers of social networking sites and what should be done about them. A court in LA has indicted a 49 year-old, Lori Drew,...

In the first event of its kind, over 200 of the world's leading experts on child protection on the Internet came together in Washington, D.C. last week for the inaugural Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) Conference and Exhibition. Held at the Ronald Reagan Building a block from the White...

When it comes to the Internet, the kids are fearless and the parents are clueless.

This is the first technology in human history where the children are leading the adults. During the agrarian age, we taught our kids to plant, to weed, to nurture and to harvest. At the...

The second Internet Governance Forum concluded here in Rio de Janeiro recently following four days of intensive debate about the current state and the future direction of the net. 1,500 participants from around the world attended this UN-sponsored gathering that including veteran Internet hands like Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn...

In a previous posting, I began to outline what a "new culture of responsibility" would look like in relation to online safety and child protection. I made the case against heavy-handed government regulation and censoring of what kids could and couldn't see. And I pointed out the best thing folks...

The Internet has changed everything -- including the Internet itself. This vast, global, organically growing online medium has seeped into every facet of our lives and upended how we work, learn and play. And it is changing the way our children experience the world -- for good and ill.

Picture this: Fifteen-year-old Lucy comes home from school and sits down on the couch with her laptop to do her homework. She turns on her beloved iPod, flicks on the TV and opens her Web browser to check her e-mail. Sure enough, her mom has just emailed from work and...