On May 6, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing to examine the implementation of the kids.us Internet domain, which was established under the Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-317). The purpose of the law is to create an Internet domain that contains material suitable only for minors.
Praising the establishment of the child-friendly Internet domain, which was officially launched on September 4, 2003, Chair Fred Upton (R-MI), likened it to “the children’s section of the library. A place where parents can send their kids and know that they will be protected from the inappropriate material which is otherwise abundant to the entire World Wide Web. Kids can play and learn online without having to worry about online predators who lurk in the dark shadows of the chat rooms.”
Ranking Member Edward Markey (D-MA) agreed about the importance of a child-friendly site: “The Internet often appears to be a veritable jungle of websites…Pages are laden with content not appropriate for children.” Noting that the site was not “designed to censor,” but rather to “organize content into a kid safe cyber zone,” he added that it also is not intended to “diminish in any way private sector efforts.”
Detailing the Department of Commerce’s efforts to implement and promote the site, Michael Gallagher of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said that since the creation of the site, over 1,700 domain names have been registered in the kids.us space. “Currently, kids.us is home to thirteen active websites. These websites showcase information about arts and entertainment, computers and technology, sports and recreation, science and government, and much more,” he said. “For example, the Smithsonian Institute hosts information about the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and America’s Presidents and First Ladies. The General Services Administration website provides kid-friendly information about the U.S. Government.”
Mr. Gallagher told the subcommittee that the site was initially launched at a Capitol Hill briefing in July 2003; President Bush highlighted the availability of the site during “Protection from Pornography Week,” and the department has sent over 70 letters to federal agencies encouraging their participation in the site. “NTIA has additional plans to develop the kids.us domain. We plan to host a forum this summer highlighting the kids.us domain as well as the filtering and blocking technology available to parents and teachers to use in conjunction with the domain,” he said. The NTIA also is working to promote “the availability of kids.us in child-friendly publications such as the Boy Scouts’ ‘Boys Life’ magazine, and within the Department of Justice’s ‘Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety.”
Richard Tindal of NeuStar, Inc., the company charged with operating the kids.us domain, detailed the company’s technical efforts to launch the site, noting that the site was launched three months ahead of schedule. “At the close of the first hour, the registry had successfully registered over 400 kids.us names,” he said.
Speaking to the site’s content policy, Mr. Tindal said, “To date, Neustar has had very positive experiences in the process of content management and enforcement. The content received is generally appropriate for the domain. In addition, any content violations found have typically been inadvertent hyperlinks or a link to an e-mail box that was missed in the registrant’s effort to make a site compliant with the kids.us Content Policy.”
Additionally, on June 1, NeuStar plans to launch a multifaceted marketing campaign. “This new program is designed to: (1) broaden consumer awareness and use of the kids.us namespace; (2) encourage the activation of content by registrants; and (3) increase the number of kids.us domain name registrations,” stated Mr. Tindal.
Cynthia Johanson of PBS discussed their participation with the site. The “PBS activities on the dot-kids site span our wide audience range for kids between the ages of 2 and 12, and focus on skills and themes such as language acquisition, math, early literacy, problem solving and early science,” she said. While praising the creation of the site, Ms. Johanson made several suggestions for improving its implementation. “First, keep in mind that for many of us who currently have deep, interactive sites, the dot-kids domain presented a unique challenge. With limited resources of our own, we needed to come up with a way to construct an entirely new site, maintain it, and keep it fresh and interesting. The reluctance of some to participate may be due in large part to this resourcing issue,” she said. Additionally, she noted that PBS broadcasting is commercial free and urged the subcommittee to “examine the potential for commercialism within the dot-kids domain.”
Speaking on behalf of i-SAFE America, Inc., which is dedicated to implementing a standardized Internet safety education program and launching an outreach campaign that empowers students with respect to their online activities, Teri Schroeder detailed results from their “Parents Internet Assumptions” survey, as well as their “Youth Preceptions/Behavior Regarding the Internet” survey. “An overwhelming 88 percent of parents, who participated in the survey, felt that they knew ‘some or a lot about where their children go or what their children do on the Internet.’ Ninety-two percent stated that they have established rules for their child’s Internet activity.” She continued, “But this perception is contradicted by the students themselves as 33 percent of the students do not share what they do or where they go on the Internet with their parents and 40 percent do not discuss Internet safety with their parents. What is most important is that 34 percent said their parents had not established any rules for their Internet activity.”
Ms. Schroeder recommended the adoption of digital certificate technology to better protect children on the Internet. Such technology is already in existence for online financial transactions, and businesses use the technology to protect their monetary assets. Ms. Schroeder noted that i-Safe is launching a Digital Credential program through its Safe School Program. “The Digital Credential is in the form of a small USB token, which can be carried on a key chain and used at school, home, or on any computer with a USB port. The Digital Credential allows the kids and teens to enter an age-centered chat room, or conduct two way communication, with confidence that everyone logged in will be who they say they are—chatters’ actual ages and genders can be confirmed from the digital credential token.”
