Is It Really You?

Sep 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Ashley Roe

When Alex Hewitt, a Scottish software expert and entrepreneur, discovered that his 14-year-old daughter Kathryn could only verify the ages and identities of one-third of her 150 online friends, he became concerned about her safety.

Some of the screen names that appeared on her MSN Messenger Buddy List were friends of friends, others were people who had contacted her solely through an instant message and still others, Kathryn could not explain. British police estimate that as many as 50,000 sexual predators are online in the United Kingdom at any given time.

According to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, headquartered in London, one in 12 children have met up with someone they encountered first online. “The Internet is a great resource for children, but I was worried that my daughter was at risk to online predators and people who were not who they said they were,” Hewitt says. The father of three realized that other parents were facing the same dilemma when it came to their child's online safety. He decided to develop a product to calm parents' nerves.

The NetIDme card, manufactured by NetIDme Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland, is a virtual identification card that children can swap online when using chat rooms, instant messaging and social networks. At the beginning of a chat conversation, children swap their assigned NetID nicknames and take turns logging into the service's Web site. The system encrypts each nickname with details from the chat partner's account and produces a link to a virtual ID displaying the person's name, age, sex and general location. Each chat partner pastes the link into his or her message window. The IDs are confirmed and viewable only if both parties have entered their e-mail addresses and passwords into the service by clicking the link.

Hewitt says NetIDme will “substantially reduce the risk of young people being targeted by Internet predators.” “It removes the anonymity of the Internet and prevents predators from masquerading as kids to gain their trust,” he says. The product, which was released in August, is available in the U.K., U.S., Canada and Australia. Parents purchase a yearly subscription for $18.99 and register their child at netidme.com. Before it is accepted, an outside professional such as a teacher, doctor or lawyer must verify the application and child's identity. The company also uses software techniques similar those used by passport agencies to authenticate applications.

“Any measure that can help identify the real age of someone online is one more step to deterring people from assuming different online identities to exploit, groom and abuse children over the Internet,” says Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

NetIDme was tested at several UK schools for two years before its release and received positive feedback. Company officials expect to have 100,000 users by the end of 2006. Officials are also exploring ways to integrate the software with MySpace.com, Bebo.com and other similar social networking sites.

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