How will kids favorite Internet [utilities], such as chat rooms, e-mail, and bulletin boards, be affected?
Bryan: Kids are extremely averse to friction of any kind, and once they encounter the cumbersome parental consent process, they’re certain to look elsewhere for these activities. The result is very likely to be more, not fewer, examples of kids encountering undesirable content and people at nonkid sites. Osmer: The biggest difference is that parents will become more aware of their kids’ activities online, which is what we want. Kids under 13 might have to wait a day or two before they can get into that chat site their friends keep talking about. But they’ll also be sure that nobody is collecting their personal information and distributing it without their permission. We’ve seen some sites simply remove interactive features that require parental permission. At FreeZone, we decided to continue with our interactive features, offering them in the safest environment possible. That said, we still think some features aren’t safe for kids — like e-mail and instant messaging, which can’t be mo
