ABOUT YOUTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE INTERNET

The information on NetSafeKids.org is based on Youth, Pornography, and the Internet, a 2002 study from the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies in Washington, DC. In response to a law passed by Congress—the Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act of 1998—the NRC’s Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and its Board on Children, Youth, and Families formed a committee to study the issue of children’s exposure to pornography on the Internet.

The study was funded by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education, as well as the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, IBM, and Microsoft. The varied expertise of the study’s committee members included education, child development, technology, law enforcement, constitutional law, and religion.

You can buy Youth, Pornography, and the Internet from the National Academies Press. A free full-text version is available online.

The following workshop reports (also produced by the study committee) provide more details on the topics covered by the main report:

• Technical, Business, and Legal Dimensions of Protecting Children from Pornography on the Internet (National Academy Press, 2002)

• Nontechnical Strategies to Reduce Children’s Exposure to Inappropriate Material on the Internet (National Academy Press, 2001).

back to top