[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16106]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 185--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE WITH RESPECT 
  TO RAISING AWARENESS AND ENCOURAGING EDUCATION ABOUT SAFETY ON THE 
   INTERNET AND SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF NATIONAL INTERNET 
                              SAFETY MONTH

  Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself, Mr. Stevens, and Mr. Inouye) submitted 
the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 185

       Whereas, in the United States, 48 million children between 
     the ages of 5 and 17 use computers;
       Whereas 5 to 17 year-olds in the United States currently 
     spend 5 billion hours on-line annually;
       Whereas 70 million youth under the age of 18 worldwide are 
     on-line;
       Whereas the majority of teenagers' on-line use occurs after 
     school, at home, when working parents are not at home;
       Whereas 90 percent of those age 15 to 24 use the Internet, 
     with almost half of them using it once a day or more;
       Whereas approximately 3 out of 4 young people have access 
     to the Internet at home, and nearly 1 in 3 has access from 
     their own bedroom;
       Whereas 9 out of 10 children between ages 8 and 16 have 
     viewed pornography on the Internet, with most being accessed 
     unintentionally when, often in the process of doing homework, 
     a child used a seemingly innocent sounding word in an 
     Internet search for information or pictures;
       Whereas 62 percent of parents of teenagers are unaware that 
     their children have accessed objectionable websites;
       Whereas 89 percent of sexual solicitations were made in 
     either chat rooms or Instant Messages;
       Whereas 30 percent of the girls responding to a Girl Scout 
     research study reported that they had been sexually harassed 
     in a chat room, but only 7 percent told a parent about the 
     harassment, most fearing their parents would overreact and 
     ban computer usage altogether;
       Whereas, in 1996, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was 
     involved in 113 cases involving Internet crimes against 
     children, but in 2001, the FBI opened 1,541 cases against 
     suspects of Internet crimes involving child pornography or 
     abuse; and
       Whereas June as National Internet Safety Month will provide 
     national awareness of the dangers of the Internet while 
     offering education about how to be safe, responsible, and 
     accountable on the Internet: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) National Internet Safety Month provides an opportunity 
     to educate the people of the United States on the dangers of 
     the Internet and the importance of being safe and responsible 
     on-line;
       (2) national and community organizations should be 
     recognized and applauded for their work in promoting 
     awareness of the dangers of the Internet and for providing 
     information on developing the critical thinking and decision-
     making skills to be safe on-line; and
       (3) Internet safety organizations, law enforcement, 
     educators, and volunteers should increase their efforts to 
     raise the awareness of on-line safety.

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