We have reviewed Ms. Aftab's recent message (above), and want to clear up any
misunderstanding that may have developed. To clarify to the ICANN community:
1) Ms.
Aftab has never taken any position about endorsement. We did not mean to imply
that she endorsed the proposal in any way and would deny that she has, if asked.
2) Our
proposal has been directly supported by a number of people (see e.g., the Board of
Advisors section). However, the persons listed in Section D13.1.3 are NOT listed
as endorsers.
3) A word of explanation: The single section D13.1.3 (where
Ms. Aftab was mentioned) is the corporate history question. Our response to
that section was intended to display that the DotKids team broadly surveyed the field
in the course of researching and developing its proposal from a policy and public
interest perspective. This included studying various views and publicly expressed
thinking by persons who have spoken out about children on-line.
4) The
list in section D13.1.3 of some members of the public interest community who are
active regarding children on-line is not a reference to endorsement in any way.
We were simply saying that we had undertaken to understand the public interest issues
at play in part by writing to and in some cases communicating with some of the leaders,
many of whom had inspiring (if diverse) work. It was purely research.
To eliminate any questions, we are formally deleting the entire last two paragraphs
and all of the names from Section D13.1.3 of our proposal and will be communicating
that amendment to ICANN.
We hope that this clears up any confusion. We appreciate
this comment period, which can serve to communicate areas where there may be misunderstandings.
We
regret any confusion for anyone who may have taken away an understanding we did not
intend.
If you have any question, please contact us. We are eager
to see that direct attention to the interests of children on-line is not distracted.