Companies and Industry Organizations

• Children's Advertising Review Unit – oversees industry self-regulation of children's advertising for the Better Business Bureaus. CARU's Web site offers full copy of the Guidelines along with the association's history and current press releases (www.caru.org).
• Direct Marketing Association – an industry trade association working with its members on privacy. DMA publishes "Get Cyber Savvy: The DMA's Guide to Online Basics, Behavior and Privacy" (www.cybersavvy.org and www.the-dma.org).
• Online Privacy Alliance – a group comprised of 80 corporations and industry trade associations in an effort to promote privacy practices among its business members. The Alliance has a specific set of principles around children's privacy. (www.privacyalliance.org/kidsprivacy)
• Privacy & American Business – publishes reports detailing consumer opinions on data collection in the context of electronic commerce. Specific areas of past reports have addressed parents' views concerning their children's online privacy (idt.net/~pab).

Child Advocacy and Educational Organizations

Well-respected educational and child development organizations also have shifted the focus of the work they have traditionally done to incorporate the roles that media play in shaping young people's development. Parents, teachers and others concerned with children are turning to these organizations for advice on what they should do regarding young people and technology. Wanting to meet the needs of their core audience and recognizing the danger of overly broad legislation, many of these groups, like the National Association of the Education of Young Children and the National PTA, are developing recommended rules for parents and children, much like schools are developing acceptable use policies. Other listings in this section are collaborations with companies.

• Parry Aftab – author of The Parents' Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace, executive director of Cyberangles.org and working with UNESCO on its worldwide children online program (www.aftab.com).
• Alliance for Childhood – a new group of educators, doctors, psychologists and others that has written a draft statement on technology literacy. The group questions the value in exposing children to technology at such an early age, arguing that critical thinking skills are not being fostered among the young. (www.allianceforchildhood.net and www.oreilly.com/people/staff/stevet/netfuture/1999/Dec0999_99.html)
• America Links Up (www.americalinksup.org).
• American Library Association and KidsConnect (www.ala.org and www.ala.org/ICONN/kidsconn.html).
• Children's Partnership – publishes " The Parents' Guide to the Information Superhighway: Rules and Tools for Families Online." (www.childrenspartnership.org).
• Get Net Wise (www.getnetwise.org).
• Just Think Foundation (www.justthink.org).
• National Association for the Education of Young Children (www.naeyc.org)
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (www.missingkids.com)
• National Education Association (www.nea.org).
• National PTA (www.pta.org).
• One Click Away (www.neted.org/oneclick).
• SafeKids.com – Larry Magdid is syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, author of The Little PC Book and host of SafeKids.Com and SafeTeens.Com. His sites offer the Net Family Newsletter, which is published in conjunction with Net Family News (www.safekids.com, www.safeteens.com, and www.netfamilynews.org).

Research and Surveys

In the last year, several universities and foundations have announced research efforts with the goal of better understanding the role technologies are playing in people's lives. At the same time, a number of new think tanks and coalitions have emerged that seek to not only study information and communications technologies, but formulate policies around their use. Some of these studies have been structured to give special attention to children and families.

• Annenberg Public Policy Center – in May 1999, Joseph Turrow released "The Internet and the Family: The View from Parents, The View from the Press," which analyzes interviews conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide of 1,100 parents with children ages 8-17. (appcpenn.org/pubs.htm).
• Internet Policy Institute – a Washington-based nonprofit research institute, that aims to assess the Internet's impact in areas including the economy, privacy, security, government, society and innovation. Members of the board include representatives from Netscape, ICANN, MCI Worldcom, as well as former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, perhaps giving the Institute's work a conservative bent.
• Kaiser Family Foundation – in November 1999, the Foundation released a study, "Kids & Media @ The New Millennium," which looked at young people's media use. The study involved 3,000 children ages 2-18. (www.kff.org/content/1999/1535/)
• The Markle Foundation and University of Texas, Austin – as part of its Interactive Media for Children Program, the Foundation has funded a group of researchers under the direction of Dr. Ellen Wartella at the University to create a research agenda to study the impact of interactive media on children. The research agenda aims to address the potential for interactive technology to meet children's cognitive, social, emotional and physical needs. (www.markle.org/programs/imc/Project.19990621.1497.html)
• UCLA Internet Study – announced in June 1999, this international project will study how computers, information technology and their users are shaping and changing society. The project will be conducted by the Center for Communication Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, with support from several companies including America Online, Microsoft and Disney. The study will survey both computers users and non-users in the United States, Singapore and Italy, and will expand to an additional 15 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa over the next 3-5 years (www.ccp.ucla.edu).