Internet safety group broadens mission

INTERNET SAFETY GROUP BROADENS MISSION
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Dibya Sarkar]
The explosion of social networking sites such as MySpace.com and Second Life, along with free video sharing sites like YouTube.com, is making it increasingly difficult to protect children surfing the Internet, says Stephen Balkam, who founded a voluntary Web site rating system seven years ago. To deal with this new Web terrain, Balkam relaunched his group Tuesday as the Family Online Safety Institute with a broader mission of improving online child safety and protecting free speech through public policy, education and events. The institute, originally called the Internet Content Rating Association, or ICRA, was originally formed to promote voluntary self-labeling through a rating system. Industry is becoming more involved in this effort, Balkam said. He expects the institute's budget to double to $1 million in one year. It has 15 full and supporting members, including AOL Europe, AT&T Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
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