AOL launches safety campaign with automated messaging buddy

NEW YORK (AP) _ America Online is launching a new Internet-safety campaign for kids built around an automated ``buddy'' that dispenses advice on the spot. <br><br>Kids can add ``AOLSafetyBot''

Tuesday, October 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ America Online is launching a new Internet-safety campaign for kids built around an automated ``buddy'' that dispenses advice on the spot.

Kids can add ``AOLSafetyBot'' to their buddy lists of friends on AOL Instant Messenger. It is programmed to answer, within seconds, such questions as whether kids should agree to meetings with online acquaintances or reveal such personal information as their address and age.

Some experts wonder, however, whether a scripted program can work adequately in the online world, given the wide age range of computer users and their parents' different preferences.

The SafetyBot campaign is being launched Wednesday. People who do not use AOL's instant-messaging software can also find the SafetyBot buddy on AOL's SafetyClicks.com site.

Automated instant-messaging buddies, or bots, are not new, but past ones have been mostly devoted to marketing and promotions.

AOL's instant-messaging software is the most popular on the Internet, with more than 150 million registered users.

According to a 2000 study by Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, one in five youths ages 10 to 17 received unwanted sexual solicitations over the Internet within the year. Only a quarter of them told a parent.

Parry Aftab, a leading Internet-safety expert, applauded AOL's efforts to make learning about safety fun.

``The kids will play with it, and if they play with it, maybe they will learn something,'' she said. But she cautioned that correct answers may depend on age and other factors _ for instance, some parents may want to handle meeting strangers differently.

``There is not always one clear answer,'' she said.