Nontechnical Strategies to Reduce Children's Exposure to Inappropriate Material on the Internet Summary of a Workshop (2001) / Chapter Skim
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3 Creating a Framework for Developing Effective Nontechnical Strategies
3 Creating a Framework for Developing Effective Nontechnical Strategies
Pages 17-41
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From page 17... ...
As noted earlier in this report, the number of empirical studies on the impact of sexually explicit material is extremely limited, and researchers are very cautious about the conclusions that can be drawn from existing studies. The second section reviews material on children's social, emotional, and moral development in light of what it suggests for creating effective nontechnical strategies and improving the quality of kids' online experiences.
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From page 18... ...
However, as this chapter discusses, researchers have been able to conduct some clinical studies using media content other than sexually explicit content research on violent material is one such example. This is because our society has more permissive attitudes about allowing young people to view violent material compared with sexually explicit material.
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From page 19... ...
In one study, college students who watched violent films for four days were more likely, when given the opportunity, to interfere with another individual's future employment chances (Zillman and Weaver, 19991. Repeat viewing of violent material seemed to create an enduring hostile mental framework that discouraged viewers from interacting positively with others, even those who had not provoked them.
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From page 20... ...
She was, however, more confident about extrapolating from research on violence to sexually violent material. Sexually Violent Material Ed Donnerstein, dean and professor of communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discussed research on the effects of viewing sexually violent images on college-age viewers, noting that effects were observed in these studies similar to effects in studies of violence alone.
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From page 21... ...
The outcome will depend on the personality of the viewer, the environment, and context in which the material was viewed (Huston et al., 19981. Sexuality and Sexually Laden Material While Cantor and Donnerstein focused on media that was violent and sexually violent, lane Brown, professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of North Carolina, centered her remarks on sexuality in the media, asking: What do we know about how teens learn about sexuality from the media?
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From page 22... ...
Many schools are also not providing the type of comprehensive sex education classes that they have in the past. For example, the state of North Carolina has stipulated that only abstinence may be discussed in sex education classes.
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From page 23... ...
For instance, in a Kaiser Family Foundation report reviewing existing research on the media, Huston, Wartella, and Donnerstein (1998) found no more than 15 empirical studies on this topic.
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From page 24... ...
Most studies of the impact of sexually explicit material in the media on adolescents' sexual attitudes and practices have been limited to the sexual content in mainstream media. These studies suggest that impact is shaped significantly by the specific messages contained in the content that is viewed (Huston et al., 19981.
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From page 25... ...
It may also suggest that sexually explicit material does not have the type of impact on behavior that some may suspect. Brown indicated some concerns about young people being surrounded by the explicit romantic heterosexual script through easy access to pornography on the Internet, but noted that the Internet is a powerful information tool for young people.
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From page 26... ...
Research on adolescent female responses to sexual content in mainstream media suggests that their experience and developmental stage have a great influence on their interpretation of the media's portrayal of sexuality. Research on violence in the media has been more consistent in finding negative impact on subjects, while the more limited body of literature on nonviolent, sexually explicit material has had less consistent findings.
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From page 27... ...
Finally, the section examines how the Internet may affect and shape social norms for young people and what impact this may have. Social and Emotional Development Dorothy Singer, co-director of the Yale University Family Television Research and Consultation Center, reviewed the social and emotional developmental stages children go through and the insight these stages suggest about how technology may impact development.
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From page 28... ...
Preschoolers are learning to differentiate between external and internal events, are highly imaginative, believe wishes can influence reality, enjoy role playing and what-if games, and are developing a sense of humor that often centers on burlesque and slapstick. They are learning how to concentrate, associate words and symbols with objects, perceive and discriminate, identify similarity and difference, classify objects, recognize order and relationships, and develop concepts.
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From page 29... ...
108-132; Carnegie Corporation of New York, 19961. The age group Singer suggested may be the most vulnerable to inappropriate online content is children ages 9-12.
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From page 30... ...
As this age group is developing an interest in exploration and independence, it may be more difficult to prevent them from going to an inappropriate web sitebe it pornography or a site devoted to hate speech. Most beneficial would be relationships in which children felt they could come to their parents and talk about having viewed a disturbing web site whether entirely accidentally or because they went there out of curiosity and were not prepared for what they saw.
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From page 31... ...
Singer suggested that programs show positive role-models of teens contributing to society in their own way, creating a wide spectrum of life possibilities so that adolescents can fantasize about what may exist for their futures. Ideally, these positive programs would be much more prevalent than negative alternatives that construct future realities that are not productive, that feed into adolescents concerns, or that offer solutions that represent risky behavior or have negative social consequences for example, "solutions" to racial tension that center on themes of separatism or dominance.
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From page 32... ...
This age group will automatically share a toy with another child, take turns, and talk to other children in a turn-taking fashion, all of which are early signs of moral development (Dunn, 1987; Youniss, 19801. School-age children continue their moral development through their interpersonal relationships, although the precise way in which children learn about morality changes with their cognitive, social, and emotional development.
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From page 33... ...
How should the Internet be considered in light of moral development? Youniss noted that one of the most important factors directing moral development is feedback from relationships with others (Youniss and Yates, 19991.
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From page 34... ...
A balanced approach to adolescent online exploration was warranted, although Youniss preferred that the most lurid images (e.g., sexually violent images) were not readily accessible.
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From page 35... ...
When most people think of pornography on the Internet, they imagine static web sites with sexually explicit images that appear on their computer screens in a similar manner to a magazine. Web sites of this type are available online and can range from images equivalent to those viewed in an it-rated movie to quite graphic, sexually violent images.
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From page 36... ...
In addition, individuals online can "instant message" one another, and those comments may be an innocuous introduction or something more lurid. Chat room talk can also be a source of sexually explicit material, although the nature of both chat and instant messaging is quite different from a sexually explicit web page: chat and instant messaging are interactive and textual, while web pages are static and image-oriented.
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From page 37... ...
When can young users' experiments with different personas and forms of sexual expression be productive, and what, if any, interactions may lead to permissive attitudes toward sexual, aggressive, and prejudiced behavior, as well as the potential for early sexual priming before sexual maturity has been reached? Some basic content analyses are needed to document the types of cybercultures that exist and the way in which adult involvement can positively or negatively influence the social norms in these online .
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From page 38... ...
This section reviews material on young people's Internet and media use, for what purposes young people use the Internet, and how marketing may influence children's online activities. Citing the Kaiser Family Foundation's report, Kidis drMedlia @ the New Millennium: A Comprehensive National Analysis of Childiren~s Medlia Use (1999)
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From page 39... ...
School access is expected to surpass home access by 2003 as classroom wiring initiatives are actuated. This study found that family decisions to purchase Internet access were centered on their children's educational needs, and, interestingly, children also cited education as their leading activity while online.
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From page 40... ...
A young person who is taught strategies to stay in control of their online experiences, to be critical and skeptical about the underlying messages in advertising and romanticized and sexualized images, and to report users soliciting personal information brings that training to any device she or he uses and any venue in which she or he is getting online. Some speakers felt that filtering and monitoring under certain circumstances could be helpful, but for developmental reasons they were very careful to describe a specific context in which these strategies should be used.
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From page 41... ...
CREATINGA FR~EWORKFOR DEVELOPING NONTECHNICAL STRATEGIES 41 ability for their actions by sharing the responsibility of the decision to keep the filter on while also providing a little leeway as a young person moved into adolescence and began to seek information about sexuality independently, information that might otherwise be screened out by a filter. Youniss emphasized that monitoring is best done by maintaining open communication and a trusting relationship between parent and child so that a parent could discuss online activities with the child and receive honest answers.
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