Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 11:54:48 -0600 From: bladex@BGA.COM(David Smith) Subject: 1--CyberAngels FAQ file CYBERANGELS: FAQ The Guardian Angels "CyberAngels" project is an all-volunteer Internet patrol and monitoring project started by senior members of the world famous "International Alliance of Guardian Angels", whose HQ is in New York City. We are a worldwide informal group of volunteers, whose mission is to be a Cyberspace "Neighborhood Watch". THE INTERNET IS OUR NEIGHBORHOOD - LET'S LOOK AFTER IT! 1) How did the CyberAngels project start? The Cyberangels project was born in June 1995, after a discussion between senior Guardian Angels about the apparent lawlessness of the Internet world CyberCity. Guardian Angels leaders on the West Coast of the USA (Los Angeles and San Francisco) had been online for the previous 2 years, and when Guardian Angels Founder and President Curtis Sliwa himself went online in New York City and got his email address, we began a serious discussion about CyberCrime and how the Guardian Angels might respond to it. Curtis Sliwa has a daily talk radio show on WABC in the New York state area. Once he had an email address, he made the announcement over the radio, and his email box immediately started to receive letters telling stories of online harassment (stalking), hate mail, pedophiles trying to seduce children in live chat areas, and complaints from worried parents about the easy access their children had to hard core pornographic images. Realizing that there was a big issue at stake here, Curtis began discussing the Internet issues on his talk show, and as the debate raged daily, and the letters kept pouring in, we realized that perhaps we were being asked to DO SOMETHING. We sat down and discussed what we the Guardian Angels could do to help reassure parents and to make the Net a safer place for kids and others. The answer was simple - we should do what we do in the streets. The Internet is like a vast city: there are some rough neighborhoods in it, including "red light" areas. Why not patrol the Internet, particularly in these "rough neighborhoods" just like a Neighborhood Watch? Just like our own Guardian Angels Community Safety Patrols. And why not recruit our volunteers from the very people who inhabited this vast world CyberCity? Who better than to cruise the Net watching out for people's safety than members of the Internet community themselves? After all, who else could do it? Never an organization to blame it on, or leave it to the government, we decided to do something ourselves. So the CyberAngels program was set up - an all volunteer team, providing a CyberSpace Community Safety Patrol and an Internet monitoring service. Current CyberAngels Chief Coordinator is Colin "Gabriel" Hatcher. 2) What is the purpose of the CyberAngels project? The purpose of the project is a) To promote and protect the idea that the same laws of decency and respect for others that apply in our streets should apply also to the Internet. b) To protect our children from online abuse. c) To pressurize service providers to enforce their Terms of Service. d) To give advice and assistance to victims of hate mail, harassment and sexual abuse online. e) To watch out for users violating terms of service by committing cybercrimes and to report them to relevant authorities (Sysadmins, or even Police). f) To help to make unnecessary Government legislation by showing Government that the World Net Community takes the safety of our children and the well being of all its members seriously. 3) How does the project work? Volunteers send their information to Gabriel at ganetwatch@aol.com and we send them a copy of our FAQ. Each volunteer volunteers to spend a minimum of 2 hours per week cruising the Net and looking for places where they believe there may be unacceptable activity. It is up to each member where they go and what they look for, although sometimes we may send a bulletin to all members advising them to search a particular area. If a volunteer finds criminal activity on the Net, GANetWatch functions as a clearing house for information. We do encourage members to report violations themselves, but we ask that copies of all actions taken are forwarded to us. Members may choose instead to simply report the problem to us and leave it to our more experienced members to deal with. We keep our members informed via email, with a regular update on what's going on. 4) Why do we need volunteers? The Internet Community is huge - around 40-50 million people, and growing every day. There are hundreds of new Web sites each week. The more volunteers we have, the more effective we can be. And by giving a little of your time to looking after the welfare of the Net, you can make a real difference! WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS! Anyone can be a CyberAngel. The only requirement is that you commit a minimum of 2 hours per week to the project. No previous experience or special skills are necessary...although a computer and an Internet account would be useful! :) JOIN US NOW! LOOK AFTER YOUR CYBERCITY! We are anonymous in cyberspace. Noone cruises with a Cyberangels badge. And we do not encourage our volunteers to identify themselves online. We DO NOT advise our volunteers to challenge cybercriminals directly, neither by arguing in live areas, nor by flaming in emails, nor by counter-postings on message boards / newsgroups. Being a CyberAngel involves no risk or danger. You are volunteering only to be eyes watching the Net. 5) What should volunteers be looking out for? We are searching to uncover and prevent: a) Child abuse and pedophilia; b) The trading in images of child pornography; b) Sexual harassment; c) Hate crimes, including harassment; d) Fraud schemes operating on the Net (particularly credit card fraud); e) Software piracy; f) Computer virus developments; g) Terrorism, bomb-making, weapons trading etc. Activities between consenting adults (providing they are within the law) are not our concern. Searching for the above violations our volunteers are encouraged to visit: a) Live talk sites (Chat Rooms, IRC areas, MUDs etc); b) Kids and Teens sites of all types; c) Message boards, where visitors can leave postings; d) Newsgroups (particularly "alt." newsgroups); e) Any sites providing material / discussions / images / contacts of a sexually explicit nature (there are thousands!) These are unsupervised areas of the Net where children may roam. For example, parts of the World Wide Web are online porno stores with the doors wide open, and with no staff inside. Kids can easily surf by.... The only warning says "Don't come in here if you are under 18". But there is noone there to check what is happening. And naturally enough kids are wandering in and looking at the merchandise. This is not acceptable on the streets of our cities, and yet we are allowing this on the Net. When discovering suspicious or criminal activity, CyberAngels should record the date, time and place and nature of the violation and write down the user's full ID and InterNet address. Mail can be forwarded to ganetwatch@aol.com, or volunteers may copy and paste information to send. Please follow our advice and DO NOT attempt to challenge cybercriminals directly. Simply report the violations to us at Netwatch, and also to the System Administrators, or Service Providers, of the cybercriminal. Email can usually be sent to "Postmaster@..." or "Sysop@..." or "Sysadmin@...", or find out by writing to/calling the company (the cybercriminal's Service Provider) and asking them who you contact to report a violation. As far as Web Sites are concerned, w e are encouraging parents to use some of the new filtering software, that can screen out chosen areas of the WWW. Organizations like **"Safesurf"** are campaigning for Websites to register as "child friendly", and are on the cutting edge in helping to develop new software for parents to regulate their children's access to the Internet. We fully support Safesurf and are working together with them. Together we believe that CyberAngels and Safesurf will form an irresistible alliance for Good on the Net! 6) How will the project develop? The first stage of our project is to involve volunteers in pressurizing Internet Providers to enforce their terms of service. This involves the accumulation of information and the reporting of violations to Service Providers. The second stage of our project involves the Police. Information about crimes will be passed to the relevant Police authorities, particularly Sex Crime departments and Fraud departments. For the third stage of our project we will have a section on our Web Site where we will be offering rewards for information about various cybercriminals. There will be the equivalent of "Wanted" posters, asking for further information about people who have already been reported to us, and whom we have verified as cybercriminals. 7) Is this a US First Amendment Issue? What about Freedom of Speech? Don't people have a right on the Internet to express their views freely? Are the CyberAngels proposing censorship? CyberAngels support the First Amendment of the US Constitution. We are not trying to abolish free speech, but we believe that freedom of speech should not be exercised if by exercising it you are violating someone else's basic rights. For example I could claim freedom of speech to justify talking sexually and obscenely to a young child - but we all know that that is wrong. This is not a First Amendment issue. Breaking the law takes precedence over "freedom of speech". We are all granted our freedom, but not the freedom to hurt, corrupt, abuse or harass innocent people. The First Amendment was not written to protect pedophiles. No criminal can claim "freedom of expression" to justify a crime. Child pornographers on the Net are criminals and should be brought to justice. 8) The Internet is huge and unregulated. Surely such a project is an impossible task? The fact that the Net is impossible to maintain crime-free is no reason for us to do nothing. Each person does their part. If everyone picked up their own trash, there would be no need for garbage collectors. The same could be said of our streets. We are not naively hoping to eliminate crime from the Net, only to play our part in protecting the innocent majority from the violations of the tiny tiny minority. The Internet Community consists of millions of people. That is millions of potential CyberAngels. TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! 9) What kinds of changes would the Guardian Angels / CyberAngels like to see? a) We would like to see an improvement in User identification. User ID is impossible to verify or trace back. The very anonymity of Users is itself causing an increase in rudeness, sexual abuse, flaming, and crimes like pedophile activity. We the Net Users must take responsibility for the problem ourselves. One of our demands is for more accountable User IDs on the Net. When people are anonymous they are also free to be criminals. In a riot you see rioters wearing masks to disguise their true identity. The same thing is happening online. We would like to see User ID much more thoroughly checked by Internet Service Providers. b) We would like to see Websites registering as "Child Safe" or "Child Friendly", so that parents can use the new software to restrict children's access. We support Safesurf in their campaign on this issue. c) We would like to see Internet Service Providers enforcing their Terms of Service. d) We would like to see a worldwide blacklist of known cybercriminals, circulated to all Providers and regularly updated, so that these people could be denied access to Internet accounts. e) We would like to see the whole Internet Community united together to protect the Net from all crimes and violations. JOIN US, NOW!