Joseph R. Pitts, September 25, 2003

What do your children look at online? Who does your child interact with in chat rooms? Where do your child’s emails come from?

Can you answer these questions? You should be able to.

Until now, the Internet has gone largely unregulated. While I support as little regulation as possible, this has left the door open for child predators to develop their strategy for luring children in compromising online relationships.

The Internet is a great thing. It has become a remarkable engine for the free flow of ideas. But sexual predators have learned how to manipulate parts of it, like chat rooms, to lure unsuspecting people into dangerous situations. They have used misleading domain names like "dinsey.com" to lure children into viewing pornography. They use misleading file names to lure children into downloading obscene images.

Studies have shown that children who are lured into viewing pornography are more likely to fall prey to a kidnapper or worse.

The law enforcement community and the corporate world have begun to slowly adapt to this new challenge; but parental awareness of this danger lags far behind.

I applaud a decision by Microsoft this week. It confirms that business leaders are starting to take notice. They saw that children are vulnerable, that pornographers were exploiting their network to prey on innocent Internet users and acted. The huge computer company announced Wednesday that it would shut down its Internet chat rooms in twenty-eight countries, stating the forums are a haven for junk e-mailers and sexual predators.

Children often go into these chat rooms to talk with friends, share music, or look for pictures. A parent may not even know that a chat room is taking their child directly into the hands of a predator.

Decisions like this should, therefore, be applauded. Others may not follow Microsoft’s lead. But the attention it draws to this danger is priceless.

Parents can use the opportunity to take a fresh look at what their children are exposed to online. They can install fresh filters and clear memory caches. Most important, they can talk with their kids about certain dangers of the Internet.

It is also a good time to get a grasp on what it means to let your kids surf the net.

Allowing children online is just like dropping them off at school or a friend’s house. We need to prepare them for what might happen. At school we may have to teach how to say no to strangers on the playground. When they are at a friend’s house we may need to remind them how to say no respectfully and call home if they feel uncomfortable.

In both cases, parents have a responsibility to make sure their children are in a safe environment. Failure to take that precaution on the Internet is a grave mistake.

These days, it seems hard to find large companies eager to do the right thing. New laws and regulations have helped clean up shady accounting practices. But with all the corporation bashing, we should single out and applaud companies that do the right thing without intervention from government.

Microsoft has sent a clear message that it will not permit people to use its network to prey on children. We should not view this decision lightly. While people do not have to pay to enter a chat room, Microsoft rakes in millions through user fees and selling advertising space on its websites. Closing chat rooms could drive customers away, hurting Microsoft’s profit margin. That is no small thing.

We should use this opportunity to follow Microsoft’s lead -- if our children are in danger online, we should act to protect them.

Congressman Pitts represents Pennsylvania’s Sixteenth Congressional District.