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A new Internet Safety Technical Task Force will be led by the Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The task force includes Internet businesses, identity-authentication experts, nonprofit organizations, academics and technology companies. Among the members are AOL, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Google, the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), Second Life's Linden Lab, Microsoft, Symantec, Verizon and Yahoo.

The task force will prepare quarterly reports and submit a final report at the end of the year. It intends to focus on identifying effective online safety tools and technologies, said Berkman Executive Director John Palfrey.

"The safety concerns posed by the Internet are part and parcel of the safety concerns that arise in human interactions in the physical world," Palfrey said. "These concerns are not unique to any one service or technology platform; they are shared by the companies that provide Internet services and the individuals who use these services."

An Industry Challenge

The group is charged with the implementation of safety principles for social-networking sites that MySpace and the attorneys general of 49 states and the District of Columbia posed in a joint statement in January.

"The principles we have adopted set forth what the industry needs to strive toward to provide a safer online experience for teens," said MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam. "The Berkman Center's past research on the challenges and opportunities offered by the Internet makes it the ideal leader."

The task force will review some of the authentication tools available for verifying age requirements "alongside whatever other techniques they can come up with, both things that exist right now and what they can hypothesize," a spokesperson said.

Since few minors have credit cards or driver's licenses, new identity-authentication tools must be developed. "We hope to see technology like this implemented on all social-networking sites," said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha...

A new Internet Safety Technical Task Force will be led by the Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The task force includes Internet businesses, identity-authentication experts, nonprofit organizations, academics and technology companies. Among the members are AOL, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Google, the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), Second Life’s Linden Lab, Microsoft, Symantec, Verizon and Yahoo.

The task force will prepare quarterly reports and submit a final report at the end of the year. It intends to focus on identifying effective online safety tools and technologies, said Berkman Executive Director John Palfrey.

“The safety concerns posed by the Internet are part and parcel of the safety concerns that arise in human interactions in the physical world,” Palfrey said. “These concerns are not unique to any one service or technology platform; they are shared by the companies that provide Internet services and the individuals who use these services.”

An Industry Challenge

The group is charged with the implementation of safety principles for social-networking sites that MySpace and the attorneys general of 49 states and the District of Columbia posed in a joint statement in January.

“The principles we have adopted set forth what the industry needs to strive toward to provide a safer online experience for teens,” said MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam. “The Berkman Center’s past research on the challenges and opportunities offered by the Internet makes it the ideal leader.”

The task force will review some of the authentication tools available for verifying age requirements “alongside whatever other techniques they can come up with, both things that exist right now and what they can hypothesize,” a spokesperson said.

Since few minors have credit cards or driver’s licenses, new identity-authentication tools must be developed. “We hope to see technology like this implemented on all social-networking sites,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha…

As if Microsoft's takeover bid wasn't enough, Yahoo now faces two more lawsuits from Chinese dissidents. In November Yahoo settled with the families of journalists Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao, who were jailed on information provided by Yahoo China.

Zheng Cunzhu and Guo Quan filed the suits in federal court in California, although neither has been arrested by Chinese authorities.

Business Interests Lost

Zheng alleges he lost control of his business investments in China that included factories and a trading company. He was a member of the China Democracy Party, as was dissident Li Zhi, and Zheng moved to the U.S. in early 2006 after Li Zhi's arrest on information provided by Yahoo.

Since Zheng used a Yahoo e-mail account to join the CDP, he was afraid to return to China and lost "the real control of the two factories, and his investment and property were under danger of being defrauded by others," his suit says.

Guo Quan, on the other hand, isn't complaining about Yahoo's e-mail policies. Guo, a former associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, lost his job after calling on Chinese leaders to allow multiparty democracy. Guo complains that Yahoo blocked his name and his company's name from the Internet -- or as much of it as is available in China.

Aiding Torture

Li Zhi is also part of the suit, which claims that at least 60 other people were "arbitrarily imprisoned" in China for advocating free elections, democracy and human rights, and they were possibly identified when Yahoo turned over user information. Li has served four years of an eight-year sentence for working on behalf of the CDP.

"By providing Internet user identification information to the People's Republic of China, [the] Defendants knowingly and willfully aided and abetted in the commission of torture and other major abuses violating international law that caused Plaintiffs severe...