Internet for kids: threat or danger?

The New York Times yesterday published an article on the risks children face on the internet. Quoting from the article:

A task force created by 49 state attorneys general to look into the problem of sexual solicitation of children online has concluded that there really is not a significant problem.

Further:

Not everyone was happy with the conclusions. Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general, who has forcefully pursued the issue and helped to create the task force, said he disagreed with the report.

I'm in the somewhat ironic situation of being a past advocate of internet filters myself who uses them to fight spam, with some degree of success. So I would be the last person to advocate the elimination of filters. But we need to have an informed discourse about it, not a bunch of fear-mongering. There is a lot of money to be made in the filtering business. We need to be careful not to let that get in the way of our better judgement.