Harvard creates Internet safety task force
The creation of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force is part
of an agreement that MySpace, a unit of News Corp., reached with
all attorneys general except Texas' in January.
Initial participants include leading Internet companies such as
Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Time Warner Inc.'s AOL
and MySpace rival Facebook, along with Internet access providers
and nonprofit groups.
The group will have a broad mandate to explore technical ways to
keep children safe - not only from sexual predators but also from
online bullies and adult content. Procedures for verifying users'
ages are expected to be among the task force's discussion.
Although MySpace was in charge of creating the group, naming its
members and choosing Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and
Society to run it, the task force will be independent of MySpace
effective Thursday, said John Palfrey, Berkman's executive
director.
