Helping Your Child Safely Navigate the Information Superhighway

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is very concerned about the increase of anti-Semitic and racist material on the Internet. Children who explore the Internet, whether visiting Web sites, reading E-mail messages, or conversing in chat rooms, run the risk of encountering hate propaganda. Many hate groups specifically target the young, and hateful messages can deeply influence and affect our children.

ADL's new report on Internet bigotry, Poisoning the Web: Hatred Online, presents an up-to-date, in-depth look at the growing presence of hateful groups and individuals on the Internet. ADL encourages parents to help their children deal with online hate through discussion and education.

ADL suggests that parents become active participants in their children's Internet exploration. Ask questions that foster discussion about what your child is seeing on the Internet. Show an interest by asking your child what he or she has found online or visit sites together. Encourage your child to ask questions about material he or she does not understand. Something as simple as having your child's computer face the door can give you information about your child's travels on the Internet.

While there is no substitute for direct parental guidance and involvement, parents can use ADL publications such as Poisoning the Web and the many resources at ADL's Web site to teach children how to recognize hate and help them understand why they should reject it. In addition, parents can choose to install ADL HateFilter ^TM on their home computers. HateFilter protects children by blocking access to World Wide Web sites of individuals or groups that advocate hatred, bigotry or violence towards Jews or other groups on the basis of their religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or other immutable characteristics. HateFilter offers users who try to access a blocked site the chance to link directly to a portion of the ADL Web site to learn more about hate's causes and effects. Parents can disable the software at any time to look at the sites it filters with their children.

Very. Using simple search tools, young Internet users can easily find hate propaganda if they are looking for it. They may also stumble upon such propaganda inadvertently. Searching for activity pages suitable for kids might land a child at a white supremacist site devoted to children, complete with coloring pages and a crossword puzzle. Misleading extremist Web sites that may lure unsuspecting children are on the rise. One site, created by a member of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, hides its racism behind "A Historical Examination" of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life. An informative and factual Web site concerned with the Holocaust, such as the site prepared by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, may be listed in Web directories alongside dozens of sites prepared by Holocaust deniers, who use the Internet to post thousands of pages of lies and distortions.

Hate propaganda, from subtle to heavy handed, is aimed at influencing both attitudes and behavior. At the extreme, anti-Semites and racists use the Internet to recruit new, young members. Online membership forms are found at several hate sites, making it easy to join. Likewise, it is simple to order hateful books, CDs, jewelry and other items using the Internet. Some hate sites offer links to bomb-making pages, which could potentially contribute to the kind of violence carried out at several U.S. schools in recent years.

The Internet operates across national borders, and regulation of speech on the Internet by the international community or any one government would be virtually impossible, both technologically and legally. In the United States, the Constitution protects the vast majority of extremist Web sites that disseminate racist or anti-Semitic propaganda. The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right of freedom of speech to all Americans, even those whose opinions are reprehensible. However, the First Amendment does not protect speech that threatens or harasses specific people or speech that libels individuals or organizations by name. A difficulty in enforcing laws against speech not protected by the First Amendment is the ease of anonymous communication on the Internet. For more information about these issues, see ADL's publication Responding to Extremist Speech Online: 10 Frequently Asked Questions.

Internet users need to let ADL and other responsible authorities know about threatening, hateful, and violent materials that they find. In addition, as in other settings, the best answer to bad speech is more speech. ADL hopes that the public will choose to use the Internet to promote tolerance and respect. As a powerful technological tool that permits instant communication between many populations across the globe, the Internet can help educate people, promote positive messages, spread truthful information and encourage the exchange of ideas.