), covering the U. S. and Canada designed a plan to reach experts in eight groups: the internet industry (content providers, service providers, and technology companies); schools, libraries, and community groups; legal, law enforcement, and regulatory experts; online child advocates; offline child advocates; community action groups; opinion makers (such as the media and sponsors); and child health advocates (encompassing both mental and physical health issues). Each of these groups is represented on NAAC by a task force and an advisory board.
The program, called Wired Kids, will be managed largely online through the use of interactive sites, extranets, and database networks. The first site is a collaborative effort where many groups will contribute quality content and online safety information. It is the largest network of experts devoted to the issue of children online ever created. Its goal is to create one place where experts and advocates for children can find each other, learn from each other, and combine forces. Libraries and librarians are being recruited because libraries are a place where all families can find the internet and the information experts to teach internet navigation, information literacy, and critical-thinking skills.
The need to chat over the internet seems to begin around 10 years of age and peaks around 13 to 16 years of age (Meltz, 2000). Generally, e-mail and instant buddy messages are more popular than chats, but an amazing number of children - estimated to be around 12 million - engage in cybertalk with strangers. Teens and preteens prefer using the internet to using the telephone for several reasons, says Meltz: parents can=t overhear conversations; parents are less likely to monitor how long conversations last; and shy children find it a less judgmental medium, are some of the reasons given.
One problem with all this cybertalk is that, at a time in their lives when they should be increas...