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CNN Sunday Morning

Cyber Angels/Law Enforcement Block Inappropriate on Computers

Aired July 29, 2001 - 09:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: When it comes to the World Wide Web, keeping children from accessing inappropriate material can be very difficult, if not impossible. To help parents with that tough job is Cyber Angels and our guest this morning Perry Aftab who is with us from New York.

Welcome to the show.

PERRY AFTAB, CYBER ANGELS: Thank you, good morning, Vince.

CELLINI: I have a question. How exactly does Cyber Angels work in terms of helping law enforcement track these sites that may be inappropriate for children and make sure they don't get to kids?

AFTAB: Well, we have 9,600 volunteers in 76 countries around the world, which is a big help. And we help parents by spotting sites that are inappropriate for children and real dangers to children, like predators and child pornography as well.

CELLINI: Well, even now with the new file sharing, it makes it very difficult for parents who have blocks set up to prevent their children from somehow stumbling on to these sites. Can you talk about that issue?

AFTAB: Yeah, well, there was a recent report that came out of a congressional investigative committee and what they did is recognize that there is new file sharing, similar to Napster, but in this case you can actually download videos and photos, and a lot of the pornographers are using this to lure anybody to their sites.

There are lots of reports of parents not being able to even understand the technology, much less block it.

CELLINI: Really, what can parents do to totally prevent their kids from really getting on some of these bad sites? And maybe, Perry, we can't do that other than really strict supervision.

AFTAB: And I think you've got it exactly right. You can't do it. And although the report talked a lot about filtering software, you should recognize that very few parents are actually using that software. Aside from AOL's parental controls, which is built into AOL and available to their subscribers, parents talk about it but they're not using it. I think the most important thing you can do is help bolster the filter between your children's ears. Teach them how to make the right decisions on-line and that they can come to you when things go wrong.

CELLINI: Perry, I understand your organization is training teens to help. Is that because they're so Web savvy?

AFTAB: It is. And their cheap labor. We have a program called Teen Angels where we have teenagers who have been trained by the FBI and the ACLU and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and then they go out and run their own on-line safety and educational programs. It's terrific. We have a group here in New York. We have one in training in Silicone Valley. We've got one coming up in Washington and hopefully one in Atlanta. We'll get you guys involved on that one.

CELLINI: OK. We have lots of cheap labor down here, kids all over the place that want to help. I'll let you mention the Web sites quickly before we let you go, just to help folks guide them there if they need help.

AFTAB: Thank you. It's CyberAngels.org and CyberLawEnforcement.org and .com. So, if you're a law enforcement officer and you want to help, we've got lots of those. We actually put them into their own group where law enforcement can help other law enforcement investigating and reporting cyber-crimes.

CELLINI: All right. Thank you, Perry Aftab. Keep up the good work. We appreciate your time.

AFTAB: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

CELLINI: Bye.

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