What 'DRM' means for music fans

The bottom line on digital-rights management, or DRM, is that it dictates what people can do with the music they share, rent (via an online subscription service), or purchase. "Most countries have what is called a fair-use policy enshrined in their copyright law. It allows a reasonable number of copies to be made for your personal use," the BBC explains. What's different now, with DRM, is that the *music companies* decide what you can do with a song. In fact, the new MTVu.com targeting university students doesn't provide music videos to Mac users because their computers can't access Windows DRM (see MTVu.com's FAQ ). Actually, though, "not all [music companies] think the DRM formats are a good thing. Many smaller independents, such as eMusic, which sells unprotected MP3s, think it only succeeds in driving customers away. [For more on DRM and an example of a large media company's struggle with it, see "Sony's nightmare could be ours" and "Don't install Sony's patch".]

Protecting our privacy

Probably the most significant result of the recent widely reported story about Google fighting a Justice Department subpoena to turn over users' search data was public awareness. Even if the federal court in Colorado orders Google to turn the data over, it's unlikely to affect any Web searcher's privacy, because names or family computers' IP addresses are most likely not associated with that DOJ-requested data, according to SearchEngineWatch and many other reports (Google was fighting the DOJ, it said, to protect trade secrets). But the greater public awareness that there is very little real privacy on the Internet is a very good thing. People of all ages – especially kids, of course – need to be very alert to what information they put into blogs, profiles, Web sites, IMs, emails, game chat, polls, and phone text messages. For more on all this, see "How to foil search engine snoops" at Wired News and the New York Times's brief roundup on this.

Winamp users take note!

Tell online music fans at your house to get the latest version of the Winamp media player, if that's the Web player of their choice. The old version of Winamp had a security flaw that could allow outsiders with bad intentions to take control of family PCs. Washington Post security writer Brian Krebs describes the sort of online activity that would be a problem in this case and links to the new version of Winamp.

Software P2P: Crackdown in UK

The tide against file-sharers in the UK appears to be getting stronger, at least for those sharing software files. [Music file-sharers in France and South Korea are reportedly getting some legal breaks (see the 2nd paragraph of "P2P legal news update," 1/20.] The UK's High Court has ordered 10 Internet service providers, including BT and NTL, "to hand over the details of 150 UK customers accused of illegally sharing software," the BBC reports, adding that "over the next two weeks, they are expected to provide the names, addresses and other personal details of the alleged file-sharers" for prosecution. This development follows a 12-month investigation by the UK-based Federation Against Software Theft. The BBC cites the Business Software Alliance, an international anti-piracy trade group, as saying that "about a quarter of software used in the UK is an unlicensed, counterfeit or pirated copy."

Parents playing videogames

More than a third of us, in fact. "Thirty-five percent, or about one in three parents, say they play, too, and 80% of that segment play videogames with their children," reports the Associated Press, citing a just-released survey commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the videogame industry trade group. Among other findings: The average 'gamer parent' is 37 and spends 19 hours a month playing videogames, roughly half that with his/her kids; almost half of gamer parents are women; two-thirds feel that playing videogames has brought their families closer together; 27% began playing videogames around the time their kids started. The AP adds that the ESA, "which is challenging various state laws banning the sales of violent video games to minors, noted that about two of every three parents surveyed agreed it is not the role of the government to protect kids from violent games." [Readers, do you agree with the parents in that last finding? Email me anytime via anne@netfamilynews.org.] Videogame violence was a fairly big topic in tech news last week, though in the sense of a number of smaller stories strung together. A commentary at Blogcritics.org rounds 'em up.

Record label helps family

Canadian record label Nettwerk Music Group is helping a family fight a file-sharing lawsuit from the RIAA. The label "that is home to Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies and Sum 41, is taking on the RIAA on behalf of Elisa Greubel, a 15-year-old Texan whose father was sued by the recording industry trade group in August 2005 for owning a computer that allegedly shared more than 600 music files," MTV reports. Nettwerk said it would pay all legal fees and any fines for the family if it loses, according to MTV. The RIAA is demanding that the family pay $9,000 to settle, or half that if they comply with its settlement agreement. Nettwerk gave two reasons for supporting the Greubels: 1) because a song by one of its artists, "Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne, was among the nine songs named in the lawsuit and 2) because "suing music fans is not the solution, it's the problem." Later in Nettwerk's press release, CEO Terry McBride added: "Litigation is not 'artist development.' Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love." The lawyer representing the family, Charles Lee Mudd Jr. in Chicago, has defended more than 100 consumers who have been sued by the RIAA, MTV says. He said he took on the case because he feels the RIAA is misusing copyright law, which he said should be used as a shield, not a sword, and the RIAA is - in a lot of cases - going after families that don't know their children are file-sharing.

A mom on her daughters' blogging

The other day a candid, anonymous comment from the mother of three teenage girls landed in this blog, clearly aimed at getting the word out to fellow parents: "I am a writing this as a concerned parent who has just discovered our children are in danger. I'd like to share what I have recently discovered about myspace.com…. When it was brought to my attention about … 2 years ago by my preteen girls, I was not concerned. I asked a lot of questions but was assured that it was very clean and well monitored, just like their xanga.com websites. What I did not do was explore it first. I [didn't] until about a month ago, when my 16-year-old stepdaughter began dating much older boys and behaving oddly. I also noticed the girls (I have three) seemed to be taking a lot of pictures of themselves in a variety of outfits. Of course, all of the [photos] they showed me … were very clean. I decided to visit my teens' 'myspaces,' based on the suggestion of another concerned parent...." For the whole story, please click either to her post or to this week's issue of my newsletter for her story, followed by other examples of teen blog content from news reports in Virginia, Iowa, and Florida.

Classroom wikis & podcasts

Just what is a wiki? you might ask. Same basic concept as a blog, only better when you're talking about a whole class of students, collaborating on research, posting and needing to find information – usually, for student and school security, behind a password. Of course, the most famous example is Wikipedia.org, which – despite some pitfalls – gets some 60 million visitors a day. But in the school environment, "educators at all levels are finding ways to incorporate wikis into their teaching," TechLearning.com reports. "Take, for example, a collaborative writing project. With a simple wiki, students from one class, multiple classes, or even multiple schools can post their writing samples for comment. The wiki structure makes it possible for several students to work on an assignment concurrently. Most wiki software packages track changes to a page so students and their teachers can see when and by whom the writing was edited." Then there are class podcasts, produced by students. The New York Times reports that iTunes lists more than 400 podcasts from classes K-12, and Yahoo nearly 900. "Some are produced by teachers wanting to reach other educators with teaching tips, while many are created by students," such as seventh-graders at Longfellow Middle School in La Crosse, Wis., who have podcast about "a mealworm's metamorphosis" and "improving memory and making studying easier." Those 7th-graders have even podcast "a story about a classroom candy thief" (the Times links to their podcast page).

Not just Net safety

It's almost the West Coast version of the case Det. Frank Dannahey in Connecticut emailed me about: the story of 14-year-olds Valerie and Stuart and how their online socializing turned into a nightmare for Valerie's family, as told by the Petaluma (Calif.) Argus-Courier. Except that, fortunately, Valerie wasn't victimized by self-created and peer-distributed child pornography. She and her family were "only" the recipients of online threats never acted upon. But the article does a great job of laying out multiple perspectives on struggles over teen cybersocializing, at home and at school. Petaluma City Schools have identified Internet safety as a "major issue," seeing that merely filtering school computers is far from enough and that schools need to help educate parents in this area. The story also illustrates the role that social skills and street smarts are playing in kids' well-being online and how the Internet is demanding these of children at very young ages. For the view from Tennessee, see "Youngsters fuel the online journal boom" at Tennessean.com.

Net strengthens ties: Study

It's a debate as old as the Web: Do online communications isolate people or support socializing and networking? A just-released study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project says it's the latter. "Instead of disappearing, people's communities are transforming," says the study's summary: 1) They're not necessarily geographically based, but include local friends, relatives, workmates, and neighbors, so social networks are getting larger (you've probably noticed this with teenagers' "buddy lists," but this isn't just about teens); 2) the Net doesn't replace traditional communications, but rather supports regular contact by adding more options, more ways to connect (e.g., texting for confirming a date, IM-ing for gossip, email for more in-depth messaging, blogging for meeting new friends). The study uses the term "networked individualism" – how the Internet helps people move beyond networking with a single community to tapping into different communities (of individuals, not places) for different situations. There were some interesting numbers too: some 60 million Americans say the Net "has played an important or crucial role in helping them deal with at least one major life decision in the past two years," and that number has increased by one-third since 2002. Here's coverage from the BBC and the Associated Press.

Videogame pluses, minuses

One psychologist says gaming can be very effective for stress-reduction in both kids and adults. They're not chemically altering anything, and the sustained focus of attention can be good, Boston College psychology professor Joseph Tecce told the New Bedford [Mass.] Standard-Times (he recommends videogame play for kids with ADD). Indeed, one 30-year-old dad and avid gamer said he doesn't relax by going out drinking or driving drunk, he chooses to stay home with his family (but see "Cellphones disconnect us?" about "absent presence"). Professor Tecce stresses moderation, saying the difference between stress relief and obsession is the amount of time spent. And of course it falls on parents to set the time limits where young gamers are concerned. For a psychiatrist's perspective, see "A Virtual World of Their Own," by Jerald Block, MD. Meanwhile, the state of West Virginia is placing the game Dance Dance Revolution in all 765 of the state's public schools, AllHeadlineNews.com reports - to fight the "obesity epidemic" among West Virginia youth.

Female fighters in games

Female characters are taking the lead in some much anticipated new games. The downside of this is that they're pretty violent. See USATODAY's review of the much-anticipated "Perfect Dark Zero" for Xbox 360, featuring 2020 bounty hunter Joanna Dark (the game is rated "M" for Mature/17+ - "Joanna has an extensive arsenal of weapons"). Then there's Kokoro the fighter geisha in Dead or Alive 4. Reviewer Matt Slagle of the Associated Press says there's a reason for its M rating: "In learning how to play this game, I felt like Uma Thurman's "The Bride" in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, as she's beaten down by sadomasochistic master Pai Mei. Moving into gentler gaming fare, check out USATODAY's Mark Salzman on three games rated either E (for "Everyone") or E/10+ for the most popular handheld gameplayer, the Nintendo DS: Electroplankton, Lost in Blue, and Mario Kart DS. As for the game version of the box-office hit The Chronicles of Narnia, USATODAY's Ginny Gundmundsen says the E-rated version for Game Boy Advance "focuses too much on combat."

The real story on filtering

The latest news isn't so much about filtering software on desktop computers plugged into household wall sockets. What parents need to be aware of is how hard it is to depend on technology to "filter" kids' experiences on an increasingly mobile Internet that can be found on a rapidly growing number of devices: handheld game players, cellphones, MP3 players, DVD players, laptops, palmtops, etc. Filtering software for desktops and laptops is still flawed but improving, according to CNET, in an update that doesn't break much new ground but does a great job of pulling together all we currently know on filters and their use by US families. It's just that filtering is less and less any kind of a solution for protecting online kids. The article is a followup to last week's news that the US Justice Department is seeking search-engine data as it gathers evidence for its next defense of the Child Online Protection Act of 1998 in federal court next fall (see last week's "COPA revisited"). The most interesting part is the info on p. 2 about how kids find work-arounds for filters: e.g., proxy servers and proxy sites. For example, Peacefire.org, which opposes filtering, offers a free software program that "takes just minutes to set up," CNET reports. It "lets Web users turn their desktop computers into Web proxies that fly under the radar of filter programs. Users can invite friends with computers protected by filters to use their machines to override" filters. Some two dozen copies of it are downloaded every day, its publisher, Bennett Haselton, told CNET.

Young hacker pleads guilty

We hear about "hackers" who take control of zillions of home PCs and use them to send out spam, but they're pretty shadowy figures. This week's news puts a "face" on one of these guys: 20-year-old "Jeanson James Ancheta, of Downey, Calif., pleaded guilty in a Los Angeles federal court to four felony charges" of hijacking hundreds of thousands of computers," the Associated Press reports. He faces six years in prison and a fine and will have to turn over his profits and a 1993 BMW he apparently bought with is earnings. Those earnings came from infecting people's computers with a virus that opened a "back door" allowing him to take control of them, then renting out the use of them to spammers. Hijacked computers are called "zombies" that are grouped together into "botnets" (zombie or bot networks) to do certain tasks like spamming or launching denial-of-service attacks that shut down large retail sites for the purpose of extortion or "protection" money. Working with an even younger malicious hacker in Florida (ID'd by his screenname "SoBe" because he's a minor), Ancheta advertised their botnets on Internet relay chat (IRC) channels. They reportedly made $58,000 during their "14-month hacking spree." Prosecutors say Ancheta wrote in IRC chat that he was hoping this could help him delay getting a job.

Coming soon: MySpace UK

I hope UK parents have been reading news coverage of risky teenage blogging, because MySpace is crossing the Pond. A British version will launch within 30 days, the BBC reports. Parents everywhere should know that MySpace now supports video, so "home movies" will join the millions of still pictures of teens at MySpace. The two-year-old US-based site now has 50 million registered users, among them about 32 million active ones, with about 1 million in the UK. [See also "Teen photos & a police officer's story" and some "Give & Take" on blogging between 14-year-old "Susan" and her mom at Staysafe.org (Susan talks about why she likes to post photos on p. 2).]

Virtual book talk

It's just another sign that the line between the "real" and virtual worlds is blurring. Author and Stanford law professor Larry Lessig gave a book talk in the virtual world, Second Life to promote his book Free Culture and talk about the government's approach to copyrights, CNET reports." He took the form of an avatar that looked like him, and he told CNET that, as far as book talks go, it was a freeing experience because, in a discussion about "complex legal, social and technological issues," he could actually read people's questions and type out the answers (probably in the comfort of his own home or office). The talk took place in "a digital amphitheater in a section of [Second Life's] virtual world known as Pooley. The audience [of about 100 avatars] was no normal book tour gathering. Instead, it comprised avatars such as a giant Gumby, a huge white cat, a lion and many other bizarre and unusual characters," CNET adds. Professor Lessig's audience was primarily adults, but think how much more appealing information delivered this way would be to kids, and think of the educational applications (I'm sure many educators already have)! BTW, Second Life is not really for kids. See also "Lively alternate lives" and "Second Life for teens."

iPods & privacy

Most people use iPods and other MP3 players to store music, and in some cases video. But did you know car thieves have used an iPod to store all the information that makes up people's identities? And used those identities to steal very Jaguars and BMWs? That's the true story told by CNET security writer Robert Vamosi. A few months ago, after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the New York Times ran a helpful how-to piece on the benefits of keeping household financial records, including account numbers and three years' worth of tax returns on an iPod or flash drive in case our homes are flooded or burned down. It's a great idea, but – if one happened to lose that little pocket-size repository of our personal info – where would we be? Just another thing for families to be aware of in this age of supreme "convenience." It's not about kid safety, really. A lost cellphone would be more of an issue where teens are concerned and how it could be used to find its owner. [Meanwhile, a panel at the Sundance Film Festival looked at the future of "cinema on the go," CNET reports, and the Washington Post told the story of iPods sold pre-loaded with movies and TV shows (find them on eBay, USATODAY reports.]

Teen photos & a policeman's story

The other day I heard from Det. Frank Dannahey of the Rocky Hill, Conn., Police Department about a tragic teen-blogging (and cell phone photo-sharing) case he wants parents to know about. "This case is one of my few that did not get media coverage," he wrote me. "We tried to keep it low-profile, since both the victim and suspect are minors (under 16). We also didn’t want to bring the incident to the attention of students who may not have known about it. My fear was that this could have some people looking for the photos." Please click to this week's issue of my newsletter for his story.

Senators blast porn industry

In a Senate Commerce Committee hearing yesterday, senators "blasted what they called an 'explosion' in Internet pornography and threatened to enact new laws aimed at targeting sexually explicit Web sites," CNET reports. It started with Chairman Ted Stevens (R) of Alaska, saying that the adult entertainment industry "needs to take swift moves to devise a rating system and to clearly mark all its material as 'adult only'." Online child protection is suddenly big news. The hearing came a day after news broke that the Bush administration was asking a federal court in California to force Google to turn over data on users' search results - data that other search engines apparently have turned over to the Justice Department. The DOJ says it's seeking this info to prepare for the Child Online Protection Act trial next October. As for yesterday's hearing, the senators' comments, CNET says, "were uncannily reminiscent of similar complaints from politicians a decade ago. In January 1996, Congress approved the Communications Decency Act, which was soundly rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. Congress also approved a ban on computer-generated child pornography - which was also shot down by the justices on free-speech grounds."

More P2P lawsuits coming

That's the word from IFPI, the London-based, global umbrella for all music-industry trade associations. Paid music downloads passed the $1 billion mark last year (triple the 2004 figure), but most of those sales are from people new to the digital-music scene, not file-sharers, the Financial Times reports the IFPI as saying. So the organization said it would step up the lawsuits, though it has reported that "illegal downloading was static, despite a 26% rise in broadband [Internet] use" in 2005. For file-sharers in the US (or any country), if the IFPI is saying this, it's likely that its member organizations, such as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), will follow suit.

Online child protection law revisited

The big story this week was only a piece of the ongoing saga about whether the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) of 1998 will ever be enforced. This week's big news was about Web user privacy – that of all Web users, not just kids. As it gets ready to defend COPA again before a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, the Bush administration has been gathering information, among other things, on how people use search engines and what percentage of search results is pornography. Months ago the administration subpoenaed several search companies for data on millions of Web searchers' results, and Google is the one such service that has completely refused to comply (saying this would reveal trade secrets and is a form of harassment) -see this clarifying post at a San Jose Mercury News blog. So this week the administration asked a federal judge in San Francisco to force Google to comply, reports CNET and major news outlets throughout the US, UK, Romania (interestingly), and a number of other countries. What all this also says is that the full-blown trial on COPA that the Supreme Court required of the Third Circuit Court in Philadelphia when, in 2004, it again sent the case back down to Philly, is nearing (it'll be next fall) and the world is watching. The law has been tied up in the courts ever since early '99, when a federal judge first issued an injunction against it on constitutional grounds.

The basic COPA question is whether a law or filters protect online children better (provided the law doesn't violate free-speech rights), and the Supreme Court required a full trial in Philadelphia so that filtering's *current* effectiveness could be thoroughly examined. COPA makes it a crime to publish sexually explicit content for commercial purposes that's accessible to minors; it requires porn producers to use age verification or some such technology to block children's access. So far, courts have ruled that COPA violates the First Amendment because its wording (i.e. "harmful to minors") is vague. The Philadelphia federal court's objection: "The judges said that even portions of a 'collection of Renaissance artwork' could be viewed as harmful to minors if a prosecutor was sufficiently zealous," according to a meaty FAQ at CNET on this week's news and COPA. Here's my item on the Supreme Court's most recent COPA decision.

Teen tech expectations: Study

Did we parents not know this? Teenagers are "completely comfortable with rapid technological change," MIT found in a survey of Americans' attitudes toward innovation. Among the findings, 33% of US teens predict the demise of gasoline-powered cars by 2015, 26% expect CDs to be obsolete by then, and 22% say desktop computers will be out of the picture. They're also optimistic about invention and innovation being able to solve global problems like hunger, disease, pollution, and needs for energy and clean water. However, Merton Flemings, head of the Lemelson-MIT program that conducted the survey, told USATODAY that he "wonders whether enough of today's teens are in position to invent such solutions, noting that engineering was teens' third-most attractive career choice, picked by 14% as the field that most interested them — and just 4% of girls. Only 9% of all teens said they were leaning toward science." Teen respondents' top two career picks were the arts and medicine (each got 17%).

Portable poker

Handhelds are becoming quite the grownup gaming devices, with plenty of adult content now available. Playboy was an early player, now the World Poker Tour videogame will be available for the PlayStation Portable March 15, CardPlayer.com reports. The Game Boy Advance, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 versions are already out. "Since the PSP is equipped for wireless gaming, World Poker Tour gamers will have the ability to connect wirelessly or through the Internet with other players playing the game on both the PSP and the PlayStation 2," according to CardPlayer.com. But PSP players get more: "Gamers who are able to build their career earnings can unlock custom clothes, accessories, and invitational events found only in the PSP version. Players can also create more than 4,000 custom variations of poker."

MySpace: Parents, parent company

To a lot of MySpace's 43 million members and some 660,000 member-artists, the presence of parents can put a real damper on things. That would go for parent companies as well, most likely. Reuters reports that MySpacers are nervous that News Corp.'s acquisition of MySpace last year will make it more like News Corp.'s space (after all, the company, "one of the most powerful news conglomerates on the planet," as Reuters put it, did pay $580 million for it). Co-founder Chris DeWolfe, now "making the rounds of News Corp.'s European territories," is trying to assuage those concerns. Clearly, the social-networking/blogging site has growth plans. It'll be interesting to see if that growth has an adverse affect on MySpace's atmosphere and regulars, since its ambience is supposedly a cross between a virtual bar, MTV, and "an online version of a teenager's bedroom, a place where the walls are papered with posters and photographs, the music is loud, and grownups are an alien species," as the New York Times put it last fall (see also "MySpace, the new MTV"). At least one 14-year-old Web publisher, gamer, and podcaster I know says MySpace has peaked already (see "Teen's-eye-view of tech in 2006").

DC-area schools: Action on blogs

Facebook.com has been the main focus of schools' actions against student blogging, the Washington Post reports, but MySpace.com and Xanga.com have also gotten school officials' attention. So far, private schools in the Washington, D.C., area have been the most aggressive: Sidwell Friends School "prohibited students from using their school email addresses to register for access to Facebook"; the Barrie School "asked a student to leave over the misuse of a blog"; and, before the holidays, Sidwell, Georgetown Day School, and the Madeira School "wrote to parents to warn them" about Facebook. But area public schools are now joining ranks, with blog-focused Internet safety meetings for parents. Examples of blog posts schools want parents to know about, according to the Post: "an Alexandria girl with an abusive mother confides that she wants to have a baby, even though it would 'most likely make everything 5,000 times harder'; a girl from a Fairfax County school posts photos of herself in a bikini, inviting boys to comment." Page 3 of the Post's article looks at the attraction of these blogging sites for teenagers. Here's Sports Illustrated's "A Quick [2-pp] Guide to Facebook.com," as in "Sure, there is a lot of posturing on Facebook. It's the college bar scene [although there are high school Facebooks], and you want to send out the right vibe."

School news: Via P.A. or iPod?

Edgewater High School in central Florida wants to make tech work for students. Principal Rob Anderson podcasts his daily announcements, the Orlando Sentinel reports, and "within a few months, about a dozen teachers will begin podcasting lectures," as well as taking InterWrite SchoolPads (wireless keyboards) home to do "virtual tutoring" - "so students at any computer can get real-time answers. Connected by the school's network, they'll converse by instant message or email," reports the Sentinel, indicating that podcasting, blogging, and virtual tutoring, which started at the university level, are now "creeping into elementary and secondary schools across the country." Edgewater High School has a science, technology and computer magnet program. Across the country, here's the Arizona Republic on the technologies teachers are testing – iPods, handheld computers, and blogs – and how it's working.

AOL issues patch

Yes, you read that right – AOL, not Microsoft. "America Online today released a free software update to plug what experts are calling a 'critical' security flaw in software used by millions of people to surf the Web," reports Washington Post PC security writer Brian Krebs, adding that "the problem affects AOL version 8.0, AOL version 8.0+, and AOL version 9.0 Classic." The good news, Brian says in an update to that reports, is that users who log on to AOL at least once a month probably automatically got the patch. But if you want to be sure, go to Brian's post for instructions on how get the patch. In a separate special report, Brian also looks at how Microsoft is doing with its patching process. The one-word verdict? "Better." He explains why.

Protections for file-sharers

Not in the US, but lawmakers and courts in two countries – France and South Korea – are making clear distinctions between file-sharing for personal use and doing so for money. The former activity is now seeing some legal protection in those countries. In Korea, personal file-sharers "will not be accused" under guidelines issued by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, the Korea Times reports, while "Internet users who share music files for commercial purposes will be subject to criminal charges." Net users who encourage illegal file-sharing "will also be punished," the Times adds. In France, a new digital copyright-protection bill is being reworked "to notably enshrine the right of consumers to make private copies of music and film disks and mete out smaller penalties to small-time downloaders," Agence France Presse reports. The changes came on the orders of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and follow a surprise effort last month, on the part of a small group of both ruling-party and opposition members of Parliament, "to legalise peer-to-peer file-sharing." [Thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing these stories out.]

Teen exploited while gaming

This is the first report I've seen of predation in the gaming environment, which only further confirms that wherever kids are, online predators soon will be too. A 26-year-old man in California has been accused of grooming a 14-year-old gamer via Xbox Live, Microsoft's service for real-time game chat (voice and text). "Microsoft says that the safety and security of Xbox Live users is 'a top priority' and that it works closely with global law enforcement to ensure child safety," reports Eurogamer.net. "Grooming" is when a pedophile makes contact with a minor and tries to establish an online relationship with the goal of sexual exploitation. In the California case, "police say that in November the [14-year-old] gave [26-year-old Ronnie] Watts his home address and phone number and they met in a Santa Rosa park, where the molestation allegedly took place." Eurogamer adds that the new Xbox 360 has a "wide range of parental controls [that allow] parents to disable Live access entirely on specified profiles and limit access to games and DVDs based on particular ratings." The forthcoming Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Revolution will also have parental controls. The Nintendo DS, available now, "took a different tack when launching Wi-Fi Connection, the new service that allows DS owners to play online. Players must swap their 'Friend Code' - a series of digits unique to their DS unit - offline before they can play together over the Internet, and there is no way of communicating directly with others," Eurogamer earlier reported. To understand how grooming works, see pp. 7-8 of the British Home Office's "Good practice guidance for the moderation of interactive services for children."

Porn 'revolution' & teen girls

Remember the desktop publishing revolution? "Anybody" could publish "content" because it could all be done on a personal computer and the Net? The only problem was, not everybody could actually write - content *quality* was an issue. But production values are no barrier where porn is concerned, and of course all the digital-video enabling tools are in place, so porn is literally everywhere, parents! USATODAY spells it all out – including the part about how there is now no lack of teen porn stars. "The world of teenage-girl 'models' … is huge. Suzy parades around in her underwear, someone takes a lot of photos, and men pay $10 or $20 or $30 a month to look at them. Creeps me out, and I don't even have a teenage daughter. These girls have found a niche and they're all over it. No magazine, porn or otherwise, would publish photos of 15- and 16-year-old girls, let alone the 10- and 11-year-olds who also have such sites." Teenage boys are not exempt, of course. See "Kids & Webcams" and "Results of Webcam kid going public." With all the free Web services, from blogs to video-hosting to payment systems to wish lists, there just are no barriers to anyone of any age to post, view, solicit, or be solicited.

18-year-old blogger

Teen blogging is definitely on parents', educators', reporters' radar screens now (it has been on law-enforcement ones a while longer). Stories about it - good, bad, and somewhere in between - are popping up in local news sites nationwide. In my newsletter this week, you'll find a sampler of the latest news and resources on the subject and, much more interesting, a blogger's own perspective on it all - that of Amanda, 18, an American au pair in The Netherlands and user of three blogging sites. She emailed me in response to "A mom writes: Teen solicited in MySpace," a feature I ran last August.

Student reporters catch sex offender

A 22-year-old man occasionally visits a Minnesota high school and poses as a 17-year-old "prospective student" and British royalty - until smart school newspaper reporters do a little Web research on him. That's the story told by KARE TV in the Twin Cities. "At the school newspaper, they thought, if Caspian's story were true, it certainly would make an interesting feature." They found his MySpace.com page, headed the "Earl of Scooby." Next he turned up in Florida's registry of sex offenders. He turned out to be Joshua Gardner, of Austin, Minnesota, "convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in Winona County in 2003." Though the principal said there were no reports of any student harassment during his three visits to the school, KARE reports that he's been charged for violating probation, and " his probation officer is recommending that he go to prison for 21 months, which is the sentence that was stayed after his conviction back in 2003."

iTunes issues

Privacy concerns have surfaced with the latest version of iTunes, CNET reports. In the new iTunes, when you click on a song in your playlist, a little "MiniStore" window on your screen turns up links to tunes you might like to buy. "To provide those recommendations, the software sends information about the selected song, such as artist, title and genre, back to Apple," according to CNET, which adds that the iTunes software is also sending Apple "a string of data that is linked to a computer user's unique iTunes account ID." There's speculation it includes info like credit card numbers and email addresses. However, an Apple representative told CNET that the company "does not save or store any information used to create recommendations for the MiniStore." Meanwhile, because video iPod users are going to be more and more itchy to download video beyond the so far meager offerings in iTunes, CNET's Declan McCullagh looks at the software options for otherwise downloading TV shows or copying ("ripping") them from DVDs (it looks like, for now, the options are either pricey or legally murky).

Whither childhood?

If you're one of many parents a bit puzzled about "KGOY" ("Kids Getting Older Younger" - kids wanting iPods at age 8 is part of it), you might find two New York Times commentaries interesting. In her "Domestic Disturbances" blog, Judith Warner (author and XM Radio host) writes about how girls are ditching (sometimes violently so) their Barbies at younger and younger ages. She asks, "With competitive soccer now starting in kindergarten, academic tutoring beginning in preschool, and catty parlor games now a part of girl life as early as the third grade, what’s left of the years that can properly be called childhood? Does little-girlhood end now at 4?" [Don't miss the many parents' responses below her post.] And in a column about how we took the child out of childhood, Peter Applebome asks the questions: "How did we get to the point where few kids ever get to play with friends outside of a play date, to walk to a neighbor's house without parental escort or to have free, unsupervised time in which they're not tethered to a television set, computer or Xbox? How is it that Mr. Bernstein's friends in their 40's go out to play soccer every Saturday but their children wouldn't know how to organize a game on their own without parents around?

The thing about texting

…is it's asynchronous, teens will tell you. When they're on the fly and don't want to talk to somebody because that could suck up sooo much time - but there's something brief they *have* to tell that person - they'll text. That's what 16-year-old Cybil told the Sacramento Bee, in a story that starts out being about the jaw-dropping cost of teen texting to parents not yet familiar with its attractions to teenagers. So, as with phone bills for parents, ironically, texting is all about control and predictability for teens. They can control the length of the connection when they're busy - they don't get sucked into the black hole of a phone conversation. As for parents' control over phone bills? Well, there's the prepaid option, so that when the communicator runs out of minutes and text messages paid for upfront, that's it. Parents can actually budget for that amount. The other option, which I looked for but didn't see in the article, is not allowing texting. I asked my service (Verizon) to turn off texting on our family plan, so we don't have to pay the $.02 for every incoming message, the $.10 for every outgoing one, or the $7-10-or-so/month for unlimited texting. Something to look into, anyway. [See also "The appeal of text to teens."]

For music-loving families

Making iPods work when there are several in one house is not an easy task. Out of the box, it won't help copy a music collection to multiple computers, and it won't help you put multiple music collections on a single computer. But the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg reviews low-cost software programs that can help. For the multi-computer problem, he explains how these apps help: CopyPod for Windows, PodWorks for Mac, and PodUtil for both. For the problem of copying parts of a family music collection to Mom's, Dad's, and Junior's iPods, he suggests a workaround or a $10 utility program called Libra. BTW, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced this week that 42 million iPods have been sold so far, 14 million of them just in the last few months, the Washington Post reports. In the UK, a study by researchers at Leicester, York, and Surrey Universities found that, because of easy and constant exposure to music (via iPods and the Internet), people today don't value it as much as they did in the past. Reporting on this, a commentator at The Register writes that the findings were predictable. "Still, it's good to have it down in black and white, all statistically verified and everything. And it keeps academics off the streets."

iPod-compatible jeans

Jeans and iPods are now sharing more than their universality, according to news reports from the US, UK, India, Romania, Germany, Australia, the fashion industry, and Geek.com. That last media outlet says this new line of Levi's jeans (due out next fall) will include "a watch pocket with a special joystick that allows for the operation of an iPod within." The iPod itself will have its own special pocket that includes a built-in docking cradle. The BBC adds that the jeans will also sport retractable headphones. But never fear, parents, they're washable (after the iPod's removed). What is a little scary is the price: about $200. I can't resist quoting Levi Strauss's own description (from the iLounge, news site for iPod users): “The new Levi's RedWire DLX jeans have been developed to be practical and leading-edge in their aesthetic. A crisp white leather patch and joystick, bluffed back pockets with hidden stitching, and clean minimalist buttons and rivets allude to the iPod's famously pure design.” But what the fashion-conscious will *really* be glad to hear, thanks to Geek.com, is: "Levi Strauss has designed the jeans to hide the iPod 'bump,' so as not to injure the aesthetic appeal of the jeans." Whew!

More 'everywhere TV'

The trend snowballs (already). We're barely into the "Everywhere TV" era, and already there are tools for putting TV on the video iPod and Playstation Portable, The Register reports. First it cites TiVoToGo and blinkx.tv To Go, adding that "four other US companies, Hauppauge Computer Works, InterVideo, Proxure and Bling Software have launched products this week that do something similar, mostly citing the Video iPod, but all able to work just as well targeting the Sony PSP." [Watch out, programmers! Only TiVo provides any copyright protection so far.]

Microsoft to debug its software

Last week's PC security flaw that caused a storm of confusion and controversy, as well as an early patch from Microsoft, is causing the company to treat such flaws differently from now on. MS said it will scour all its software for similar bugs, ZDNET reports. Last week's flaw was different from anything that went before in the world of Windows PCs, Microsoft says. "Typical flaws are unforeseen gaps in programs that hackers can take advantage of and run code. By contrast, [this flaw] lies in a software feature being used in an unintended way." So MS is "pledging to take a look at its programs, old and new, to avoid similar side effects." Here's my latest coverage of how PC security has gotten even more complicated (and don't forget the 3 basic rules: firewall, anti-virus, and up-to-date patches on family PCs!).

Everywhere TV

Move over, iTunes - now there's Google Video. The online video store, already offering popular CBS programs like "Survivor" and NBA basketball games 24 hours after they aired, is bringing the goal of everywhere TV a little closer. But with Google Video, TV-producer wannabees can also upload their own video and set their own prices for their shows (including free). It's a remarkable opportunity for creative young media mavens to experiment with TV as they're learning to be actors or journalists or animators. And they can do so in the comfort of their own homes, as well as other places, where parents may not be aware of what they're uploading. As with all technology there's a huge upside, but also a downside of which parents will want to be aware. Here's the BBC on the Google development, and a 1/6 item in my newsletter about several Web sites where video can be uploaded and stored for free (Google says it screens all videos, the other two have anti-porn policies but do not screen).

Teen's-eye-view of tech in 2006

Ironically but predictably, just as teen blogging arrives on the radar screens of parents and the mainstream news media (and not long after it's acquired by News Corp. for $560 million!), it's beginning to peak out among teenagers. That's according to smart and articulate 14-year-old podcaster, Web publisher, athlete, sports fan, and honors student Corey Durkin in New Jersey. Please check out this week's issue of my newsletter to see what Corey's predicting for teens' use of technology in the coming year.

'Convergence' in our homes

They're after our family rooms, you know. Our whole houses, in fact, not to mention our lives, since the convergence they keep talking about in all the coverage this week of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is highly mobile, of course. There's all the competition among music providers for real estate on our cellphones and throughout our homes (see this in the New York Times). Then there's news that Google and Yahoo plan to move onto our TV screens, with music videos, news, weather, etc. (see this front-page Times piece). That would be scary for the good ol' TV networks, except that CBS reportedly plans to sell downloadable TV shows through Google. If you can't lick 'em, join 'em, must be the strategy, since Google and Yahoo will certainly sell advertising associated with their TV programming. The Times's team of reporters in Vegas describes how it all works. But all that wheeling and dealing for our ears and eyeballs is behind the scenes. In its "Best of CES Awards," CNET presents the finalists among all the gadgets on the actual show floor: several in every category, from camcorders to MP3 and portable video players to "Emerging Tech."

Patch update!

Microsoft announced today it would issue a patch early "in response to strong customer sentiment that the release should be made available as soon as possible," ZDNET reported. To get the patch, go to http://update.microsoft.com or look into automating patches, if you haven't already. The Washington Post provides background. Please see two posts down for more detail on this week's PC-security craziness.

Parents pay for school laptops?

That's what's expected of parents in Fullerton, Calif., USATODAY reports. "The public school system in this quiet city 27 miles southeast of Los Angeles is pushing the frontiers of computer technology in the classroom with a program that puts a laptop computer into the backpacks of children as early as first grade. It is pushing the boundaries of financing, too, by asking parents to pay $500 a year for three years so each of more than 2,000 elementary and middle school children can have their own Apple iBook G4 laptop." The program, at four of the district's 20 schools has created a storm of controversy, USATODAY adds, quoting a number of Fullerton parents. District officials say parents who can't afford the $1,500 can get financial aid.

PC patch confusion

If you feel confused, you're in good company. The latest Windows security breach, the unofficial patches, and the official patch Microsoft has promised for next week even has Washington Post PC security writer Brian Krebs scratching his head (see "Patch or Pay?")! In short (believe it or not), Microsoft announced it would patch this major security flaw next week; at least two unofficial patches have been released by security code writers (one actually endorsed by the SANS Institute, which usually advises people to wait for the PC maker's patch), Brian reported earlier; and a beta version of the official patch was, Microsoft says, inadvertently leaked to the Net at large, CNET reports. Some experts say it's crazy to wait for the official Microsoft patch (see this ZDNET security blog), but Brian says that may mean forfeiting Microsoft help: "Microsoft says Windows users who have questions, concerns or problems surrounding this issue can call 1-866-PCSAFETY. Keep in mind, however, that if you do apply this third-party patch, Microsoft will in all likelihood refuse to help you return your PC to its previous pre-patch state should the patch somehow muck it up." There just is no final or fool-proof solution to the family PC security problem, though the three cardinal rules (an antivirus service like McAfee or TrendMicro, a firewall, and keeping up with MS patches) help hugely. So what's a PC owner to do in a confusing situation like this? Probably the best thing is trying out the free beta version of Windows OneCare (here's its security info page). Then, if your PC gets infected, it's Microsoft's fault and the company might help you.

Music players No. 1

Even as The Who guitarist Pete Townshend's warning about earphones echoes around the world, the organizers of the giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas release figures showing that MP3 players will be huge in 2006. The BBC cites Consumer Electronics Show figures showing that sales of music players "soared by 200% in 2005 to $3bn (£1.73bn)," with the projection for 2006 being $4.5 billion. Keep an eye on the volume level of those earbuds, people! BTW, the Beeb adds that Nos. 2 and 3 at CES are game consoles and flat screens, respectively.

iPods & ears

Everyone using an iPod or any MP3 player needs to read this story. Undoubtedly because of the iPod's popularity, Pete Townshend's warning was picked up by news outlets worldwide. The Who guitarist said it was his use of earphones in the recording studio, not the loud music he played on stage, that caused irreparable damage to his hearing (he "has to take 36-hour breaks between recording sessions to allow his ears to recover," the Associated Press reports). But earbuds are the worst. "In a study published last year in the journal Ear and Hearing, researchers at Harvard Medical School looked at a variety of headphones and found that, on average, the smaller they were, the higher their output levels at any given volume-control setting." Because tiny phones in ears so far don't do a good enough job of blocking outside sounds, people compensate by cranking up the volume. Northwestern University audiologist and professor Dean Garsecki told the Scripps Howard News Service that he has a colleague at Wichita State U. who pulls earbuds out of students' ears and asks them if he can measure their output. He often finds them listening at about rock concert level - "enough to cause hearing loss after only about an hour and 15 minutes," Scripps Howard reports. And an Australian study found that about a quarter of iPod users 18-54 listen at volumes sufficient to cause hearing damage. The BBC quotes an entry in Townshend's Web site as saying, "I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal proponents deaf. My intuition tells me there is terrible trouble ahead."

What to do? "The rule of thumb suggested by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital is to hold the volume of a music player no higher than 60% of the maximum, and use it for only about an hour a day," Scripps Howard reports.

Texting's appeal to teens

"Presence," convenience, and a degree of anonymity are three big reasons why teenagers love text messaging on phones, computers, and other devices. The article in the Detroit News blurs any distinction between the devices pretty much the way teenagers do. "Presence" is simply the ability to know if friends are available for chatting - the way instant-messaging services (as opposed to telephones) let users know that. Convenience is obvious - kids say IM and texting is more convenient than talking (and a bit less "formal," apparently). The anonymity issue is interesting. Teens like texting because they can communicate directly but slightly indirectly at the same time. The Detroit News quotes a psychologist who helps parents and teens negotiate cyberspace, Dr. Michele Ondersma, as saying that teenagers say things online that they wouldn't say in person. A middle-school tech expert I spoke with last year told me about the sense of control IM-ers have when conducting, say, five separate conversations simultaneously (see "IM anthropology"). The Detroit News article has a sidebar: "IM-speak," a directory of acronyms, or text shortcuts, IM-ers use, like GAL ("get a life") and CUL8TR ("see you later").

The latest on kid phones

Regular cellphones and young children don't mix, many parents find, for security reasons (another way to talk to strangers) and financial ones (still more uncontrolled minutes!). "No, if you're going to issue your child a cellphone, it had better be ultra-simple, ultra-limited, ultra-rugged and ultra-parent-controlled," writes New York Times tech writer David Pogue in his review of Verizon's LG Migo, The Firefly, and the Enfora TicTalk. Fortunately for parents, they look pretty much like "real cellphones," so kids who like electronic toy that mimic grownup ones will probably like them. But they're all about parental control, so no one over the age of around 9 or 10 is going to want one. They connect with only a handful of pre-programmed phone numbers, and "they're designed exclusively for voice calls; they can't download ringers, send text messages, do email, take pictures, check voice mail or get on the Web," David says. One divorced mom emailed me because she wanted a phone for her daughter to go with the child on weekends she was with her dad - a phone no one at the dad's house would want to use. I told her these phones were pretty perfect for that, but there would be limited appeal for her daughter beyond a certain age!

2006: 'Golden Age of gaming'?

That's the view of UK gamemaker David Braben. In a commentary at the BBC, he likens this juncture in the gaming industry to the 1930s for filmmaking, when movies went from sheer spectacle to serious artform. He says that now, for gaming, the artistic content is becoming "the main driver." The BBC's gaming editor adds that, with the release of Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Revolution (the Xbox 360 was available before the holidays), "over the next 12 months, the most powerful piece of technology in the home is likely to be the games console in the living room, rather than the PC in the bedroom." The explanation is not just next-generation graphics and games, it's media convergence - that word that keeps coming up in turn-of-the-year reporting. These consoles play other media, too, and they are communications tools as well (witness Xbox Live's voice and text chat and text alerts on cellphones).

Downloads up, CDs down

The trend continues, and it's bad news for brick-'n'-mortar music stories. 602.2, down from 650.8 11/12/25 Album sales were down 7% last year from 2004, the Associated Press reports, but sales of tunes from the online music services were up 148% over 2004's. That sounds fabulous for the recording industry, but 95% of music is sold in CD format. "The top three best-selling albums of 2005 through Dec. 21 were rapper 50 Cent's 'The Massacre,' which had sold 4.8 million copies, followed by Mariah Carey's 'The Emancipation of Mimi,' with 4.6 million sold, and Kelly Clarkson's 'Breakaway,' which sold 3.3 million units," the AP cites Nielsen SoundScan as reporting.