A 250-page report released by the Internet Safety Technical Task Force (ISTTF) released last week is highly-criticized, and that's because it suggests the threats to children online are overblown. Basically, according to the report, even if online sex predators remain a concern, most of them are not adults, they're just minors.

The report also said the Internet increases the accessibility of pornography, but it does not always increase exposure, as the numbers of minors propositioned online has decreased in recent years. This report is part of a multi-state working group of attorneys general and Internet companies like MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo!, Google and AOL.

It would appear that Utah has led the nation in arrests involving sex predators. The Utah Attorney General's Office has undertaken a number of initiatives in order to protect children, including a child protection registry that blocks adult-oriented e-mails. However, attorneys general from across the nation have criticized the task fore report, as it contained encouraging information, but failed to provide any remedies to increase reporting and stop sexual predators.

It seems that the report's conclusion, that some of the common concerns about those threats may be overstated or misplaced, is drawing sharp criticism from some quarters. The report says that, contrary to popular perceptions, the biggest risks kids face on the Internet are cyber-bullying and online harassment – not sexual predators. The most frequent threat to children on social networking sites and the Internet in general come not from predatory older adults, but from their peers and young adults.

As a conclusion, the report states that the online security risks faced by children are most of time overblown. For example, social networks just give children a healthy environment in which to interact with one another.