Surfer-advising software

It's hard to imagine busy Web surfers (especially young ones) bothering with the slight slow-down SiteAdvisor represents to the search-and-surf experience, but we may be looking at our surfing future. SiteAdvisor is a think-before-you-click software product that, when you've turned up a bunch of search results in Google or MSN Search, tells you whether it's safe to click on links to specific sites. It's a free (in beta-testing) add-on to the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers that Washington Post security writer Brian Krebs has been testing. The reason why it may be our future is because it deals with the sad new reality of Web surfing: all the bad stuff that gets on our family PCs when we click on the rapidly proliferating malicious sites that send the stuff. Some of that clicking happens in emails and IMs; the rest, Brian reports, happens when people click on "unfamiliar links that turn up in Google, MSN or Yahoo search results." Here's where kids and teens come in. They love games, music, contests, and all the sites and technologies that deliver them and allow the uploading of them. They're also known to click, upload, download, and surf fast, freely, fearlessly. Unfortunately, that's a spyware and malicious hacker's dream user profile. For example, Brian searched for "lyrics" in Google ("song-lyrics sites are notorious for installing spyware and adware," and where spyware is, keylogger software that, e.g., captures passwords and credit card numbers is not far behind). You have to read his account to believe all the crud lyricsplanet.com downloaded on his PC (do not go to that site!). Whether or not your family downloads SiteAdvisor, a family discussion about alert surfing, IM-ing, and emailing might be a good idea. Nasty Web sites' numbers are growing, and their URLs and promises often look great to kids.

X-rated film-promotion game

An X-rated videogame promoting an R-rated movie, as the National Institute on Media & the Family's president David Walsh put it. It was a curious marketing strategy for "Running Scared," a film that did not get great reviews and with a "story line" highly populated by prostitutes, pimps, mobsters, bad cops, and pedophiles (the Chicago Trib's reviewer did have "a sneaking suspicion" that the film "could become a cult classic, and an even better hunch that it will top the box office this week. And who can blame moviegoers? It does, after all, have a lot of characters." Of the film's companion videogame's two versions, found at its Web site, the one rated "M" (for 17+) has sexually explicit content on Level 2 (which has a form of age verification with the required registration). The Minneapolis-based National Institute issued a parental alert, and WCCO-TV in Minnesota reported that the "racy interlude has apparently [since] been removed." The Institute does an annual "report card" on videogame violence. Here's another review of "Running Scared" in the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

The new PC security risk

Great. Just as we Net users were getting smart about phishing and viruses, online criminals have moved on, the New York Times reports. "In some countries, like Brazil, [phishing] has been eclipsed by an even more virulent form of electronic con — the use of keylogging programs that silently copy the keystrokes of computer users and send that information to the crooks." The little programs are much easier to exploit than the social engineering of phishing emails. Even kids are exploiting them. Brazilian police just arrested a ring of 55 people, 9 of them teenagers, for stealing $4.7 million from 200 different accounts at six banks. Tell your kids: We all need to avoid clicking on unfamiliar Web links in emails and IMs. And PC owners need continued vigilance about Microsoft security patches (or automate them), firewalls, and antivirus protection. These little keylogger programs (just like the kind in monitoring software parents use, hopefully openly, to check up on online kids) can also be embedded in files traded on file-sharing networks and, of course, in malicious Web sites – very often sites offering free games (sites kids like to frequent), a new study at the University of Washington found. Here's a report on the study at Yahoo News, and the New York Times's sidebar, "Protecting Yourself from Keylogging Thieves."

Mac users, Apple just issued its latest security patches, ZDNET reports. For context, see "Is Mac OS as safe as ever?" at CNET and "Straight talk on Mac security risks" at MacWorld.

Blogging's upside too: Study

Most of the coverage of a Northwestern University study of 68 randomly selected teen blogs zoomed in on what its authors said about blogging's risks. New Scientist magazine, however, led with the man-bites-dog part of the story: "Instead of steering them away from their computers, parents should recognise that teenagers sharpen important social skills online, say psychologists and anthropologists studying internet behaviour." One of the study's authors, David Huffaker, "thinks the blog format enhances [teens'] understanding of how to build a narrative," according to New Scientist. The Oregonian had a similar lead, reporting that these social scientists are saying to parents, "Just chill. The kids are doing just fine, thank you." The headline at Medindia.com, a healthcare portal in India, though, was more like US ones in recent months: "Teens need to exercise caution while using online blogs." Medindia cited some of the study's other findings, bearing out parental concerns: "The blogs, equal samples from male and female teens [average age about 15], were studied minutely, to reveal that nearly 70% opened up with their real names," 61% with contact information, some 30% linking to their personal home page, 44% giving IM contact details. About 50% had "stories about love affairs, infatuations, sexuality debates and homosexuality opinions"; "71% also discussed school topics, homework, grades and stuff along with music preferences." For more on blogging's broad user base (well beyond teens), please see this week's issue of my newsletter.

Teens & guns in the news

There were two sobering stories about teens and potential violence this week, from Colorado and Virginia. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that four boys – 16, 15, and two 13-year-olds – have been charged with plotting to blow up two high schools. All of the charges are felonies, which means detention until age 21 if the boys are convicted (the juvenile trial starts next month). "Police, who seized three computers, two shotguns and other unnamed items from the boys' homes, said the four plotted in Internet chat rooms." In Colorado, a 16-year-old student at Evergreen High School was arrested after posting in his MySpace profile photos of himself with guns, CBS News reported. He "was being held at a juvenile detention center facing three misdemeanor charges of juvenile possession of a handgun and will be in court on Monday." There were no threats in his profile, reportedly, but some parents kept their kids home from school after seeing the content and reporting it to the school, which reported it to the police. "One photo allegedly showed him lying on a floor surrounded by nine rifles with the caption, 'Angel o' death on wings o' lead'."

Beware 'IRS' attacks

Not really the IRS, of course – they're emails coming from phishers posing as the IRS, or PayPal, or your bank, or Wal-Mart, saying scary things like, "Your account's been compromised – click here or we'll have to close it." Or "click here to check on the status of your tax refund." These emails' numbers "skyrocketed in December," and IRS-related ones can only be expected to increase as we approach April 15, the Washington Post security blog reports. These messages are using "social engineering" to trick or scare people into clicking on links that take them to Web sites that automatically send software code to family computers – code like Trojan horse programs that give control of the computer to the phishers or keylogger software that captures personal information like passwords and bank account numbers. This kind of social engineering is aimed more at adults, obviously, but there's plenty employed on the instant-messaging services, trying to trick young IM-ers to check out a cool video clip or tune. Our kids probably know better than we do to be on the alert to messages like that, but a family discussion about social engineering might be interesting to all family members.

Mac: 'Serious' security flaw

Suddenly, Mac security is looking a whole lot more complicated. The worms, both discovered last week, are basically harmless, the second even called a "proof of concept" worm. But the security flaw, discovered this week, is being called a serious one by both the BBC and the Washington Post. Security experts say this is looking like a trend (Mac users, ask your nearest authorized dealer what protection they recommend). A German PhD student found the security breach in about 15 minutes after watching a discussion on German TV show Mac-TV in viewers called in to say it was "not possible for OS X users to infect their machines just by clicking on a link or visiting a Web page," the Post reports. Until Apple issues an update, the Post cites advice from the SANS Institute: "Safari users should consider disabling the option 'Open "safe" files after downloading' in the 'General' Preferences section in Safari." [For more on the worms, see my earlier post.]

14-year-old cyberstalker

Usually in the online-safety area we read about cops catching 40-something men posing as teenagers to "groom" them. But this MySpace-related story is about a 14-year-old posing as a 40-year-old to scare a peer. It's a cyberbullying story. According to the Mail Tribune in southern Oregon, investigators were preparing to subpoena MySpace for user records after a girl reported a "string" of threatening "electronic messages, escalating to phone calls and notes…. They purported to come from a 40-year-old single, white man in Medford who had an account on MySpace." But then the teen who made the threats confessed. She was expelled from the school both girls attend. A detective on the case said the case possibly could have resulted in identity theft charges for creating a false identity or harassment charges, but no criminal charges were filed. The victim's parents, relieved that their daughter wasn’t targeted by a predator, agreed not to press charges." BTW, cyberstalking is now a federal crime. It was controversial, but it passed with little publicity, USATODAY reports, so now it's a "crime to anonymously 'annoy, abuse, threaten or harass' another person over the Internet."

MySpace to get safer

That's what its parent, News Corp., is promising, the Wall Street Journal reports. "News Corp. plans to appoint a 'safety czar' to oversee the site, launch an education campaign that may include letters to schools and public-service announcements to encourage children not to reveal their contact information." The site aims to be the industry leader in safety, the Journals adds. Other measures the company's considering: blocking links from MySpace to explicit photos stored on other sites (a popular work-around to bypass deletion by MySpace); restricting access to groups like "swingers" to people 18+ (though there's currently no technology preventing people from lying about their age); blocking search terms predators might use to locate users; and somehow encouraging users 14-16 to restrict access to their profiles to people they know. It could be that the best blog-safety tip is to encourage kids to use social-networking sites owned by large companies accountable to public opinion. But there's little stopping determined kids from moving on, or keeping a MySpace account to keep Mom or Dad happy and establishing free accounts on a bunch of other blogging sites. Many kids do have multiple accounts (see "18-year-old blogger Amanda on blogging" and Wikipedia's partial list of social-networking sites). Feel free to post about this in our new forum).

Kid-published content

Business Week looks at the phenomenon of self-published media and how terrified conventional media companies are (or should be) of it. It's half of this new phase of the Net we're experiencing (the other half being its mobile, multiplatform, 24/7 nature), and it explains MySpace's popularity – as well as MySpace's growing competition. An example: myYearbook.com, founded a year ago during spring break by two high school students, now with 2.3 million visitors a month (home-page selling points: "Vote for 'Best Butt' in Your School!" and "Bully, Flirt, & Secretly Admire Everyone!"). One of Business Week's sources "likens social network sites to teens' fervently decorated rooms and notebooks" of the "olden days." Now, somewhat similarly to "American Idol," they can display their talent (and themselves, of course), for all – not just a few friends who come over - to see and comment on, then instantly take it down and go in a different direction. It's the allure of customization plus socialization (local or global, whichever one prefers), and it's easier than ever to experiment with so many free tech tools at our fingertips.

Tech smarts, street smarts

Randy Schur, 15, one of the expert sources in a Philadelphia Inquirer piece on parenting the digerati (basically all teenagers), had a revelation as he was explaining socializing by IM: "If you want a girl to like you, you probably should talk to them." "Connected and cut off" is one of those great articles that digs in and offers multiple perspectives. Among other things, it hints at why parents are "dinosaurs," as one parent quoted in the piece put it, and why we aren't. And it talks about adolescence as well as IM-ing - man *and* machine - how adolescence and parent-child relations haven't change even as technology very definitely has. Yeah, teens have tech literacy, but we have a little more life literacy, and today - more than ever – teens need the latter too, even if they don't think they do.

Apple: 2 worms in 1 wk!

Apple users got a pretty loud wake-up call about computer security this past week – or it just seemed loud because unusual. Though not a big security threat themselves, two Mac-targeting worms were released into the wild, ZDNET reports, in what security experts say is probably a trend. They called the latter, "Inqtana" a "proof of concept" worm that isn't likely to affect a lot of Mac users and just sends itself to other users, doesn't do damage. About the first worm, "Leap-A," the BBC reports that it targets iChat users. But "installing and running [it] requires users to go through several stages and this, along with bugs in Leap-A's code, have led security firms to play down the threat it poses." Of course, Symantec the security firm, "recommends that Mac OS X users keep antivirus and firewall software, as well as operating systems, up to date." But I also heard that a few months ago from an authorized Apple tech-support guy, who said he tells his customers they should get Norton anti-virus for Macs. Here's Apple's own page on Mac security. Clearly, Apple users can no longer afford to be complacent about security.

AOL: 'AIMing at MySpace'

I was thinking that MySpace's competition, at least in the teen space, will be a whole passel of smaller, more special-interest sites like, for example, Tagged.com or STLpunk.com. But today's news from USATODAY indicates that passel just may include online giant AOL. The latter is planning soon to bring its 43 million active AIM (instant-messaging) users to its own social-networking space. And we all know there are a lot of teen AIM users. USATODAY quotes an analyst as saying the clincher will be how well AOL links this space with its "substantial music and video offerings." The service is expected to launch in a couple of months.

Phone as fashion statement?

Actually, "fashion statement" is too shallow – tech choices are becoming more like identity statements. The New York Times article today on 3G phones (that connect to the Web and play music and video) starts out by saying "gadget freak" Greg Harper is less than impressed with 3G phones and suggesting that Sprint, Verizon, and Cingular should probably be worried. The thing is, Greg looks a lot older than a teenager, and I have a feeling teenagers will be quite a bit less judgmental about the phones' functionality, and the phone companies know it. Just look at Helio, a South Korean phone company, now in L.A. too, has struck a deal with News Corp. to bring MySpace-enabled, multimedia phones to US teens and young adults, Information Week reports. They will be able to use their MySpace screennames to IM each other, and there will be a "presence" feature that, as in instant-messaging, tells you when a "buddy" is online. Whether or not it takes off (before teens have moved to a new "favorite" social-networking site or type of Web service), I think Helio understands what young phone users want better than Greg Harper does. Helio said in its press release that this is not a phone, but "a badge of personality," a "mobile lifestyle."

The Web 'hang-out': Study

Forget the mall. The Internet is becoming a favorite hangout and "destination" in its own right. "Some 30% of Internet users go online on any given day for no particular reason, just for fun or to pass the time," the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports in its latest survey. Which makes hanging out just for fun tied for third (with getting the news) in favorite online activities. First and second are email (52% of Net users do
this on a typical day, Pew says) and using a search engine (38%). Fun and news both got 31%. And the number of fun-seeking surfers is growing fast, from 25 million going online for that "purpose" any given day (as counted in November 2004) to the 40 million cited in Pew's research this past December. Pew gives two basic reasons for this growth: the growth of broadband connecting (making Web use more seamless, fast, and convenient) and the growing body of Web content and applications (multimedia blogging and social-networking might be a part of this, I'm thinking). Pew also found that leisure surfers are generally more experienced online, younger, and male (34% of men vs. 26% of women go online "on an average day with no particular purpose," Pew says). Here's USATODAY's coverage.

Parents, teachers agree (somewhat)

Parents and teachers have very different views on life in school, the Associated Press reports. But there's one thing about which they see eye-to-eye: the Internet's value. A new AP-AOL Learning Services Poll found that "81% of teachers and 83% of parents agree that the Internet and online sources are helpful." The percentages weren't so close in other findings. "For example, less than half of parents say student discipline is a serious concern at school. Teachers scoff at that. Two in three of them call children's misbehavior a major problem," the AP reports. Also: "73% of teachers say they know more than their students about learning tools available on the Internet vs. 57% of parents; "71% of teachers say class work and homework are the best way to measure academic success" vs. 63% of parents; and in a smaller gap, "79% of teachers rate high schools good or better in preparing students for college" while 67% of parents agree. AOL's introducing a group of online "Learning Services" for pre-K-12, including cognitive games, homework help, and reading, writing and math assistance at $4.95/month each. Here's AOL's press release. And here's the Christian Science Monitor on how software helps with homework and communications between home and school.

Back to the porn threat

We all keep finding more things from which online kids need protection. The first blip on our radar screen was online pornography. Then it was predators (not to mention spyware, phishers, worms, etc.). Lately, with cyberbullying, blogging, and all manner of kid-published content, the lesson's about how they can protect themselves from each other and even themselves. Suddenly we're back to that first issue - protection against porn – because of the long wind-up to next fall's arguments between the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union over the Child Online Protection Act in a federal court in Philadelphia. The San Francisco Chronicle takes a thorough look at how best to protect kids from porn – a law, filtering, or parenting. The answer is definitely not "none of the above."

IMon phones: Coming fast

I have to admit I wasn't sure what the difference was between texting on phones and IM-ing on phones. In its report about 15 mobile-phone giants agreeing to enable instant-messaging across their networks, the BBC cleared it up for me: "IM conversations typically involve more back and forth than text message chats and it ensures that the experience is similar to that enjoyed online." The 15 companies, representing a staggering 700 million customers, include Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, and China Mobile, according to the BBC, and they stand to make a ton of money by making those customers' experience easy and the technology invisible. When it happens in the US, fluent IMers and texters like our children will wonder what the big deal is – why wouldn't IM-ing be the same on computers, phones, whatever. Let's see how long it'll be before this happens in the US. We're only just starting to have interoperable IM-ing (between AIM and MSN Messenger users, for example), and we're way behind Europe and Asia in texting, though catching up fast.

Disney-on-demand

"Good Morning Silicon Valley" sums it up wittily: "No, no, no. The MovieBeam unit is the third set-top box from the top. Right above TiVo and below Comcast." There will be a lot of competition for Disney, as it once again tries to beam movies into your family room on demand (having suspended the service last spring), the San Jose Mercury News blog suggests. Disney says it will release films to MovieBeam.com right when they come out on DVDs. That does make it tough for Netflix, which announced its new "video-whenever-Hollywood-feels-like-it service" last fall. MovieBeam is pricey, though: The Los Angeles Times reports that it requires a $199.99 (after a $50 rebate) set-top box and a $30 service-activation fee. "Movie rental fees are $3.99 for new releases ($4.99 in high definition) and $1.99 for older titles.

Music piracy on iPods

The RIAA has opened a new front in its war on music piracy, and it's not about sharing tunes online. "Wipe your iPod before selling it," The Register suggests. The Recording Industry Association of America "last week told sellers in the US that doing so is a clear violation of copyright law [at least in the US and Europe] and warned them that it's sniffing out for infringers." For example, if your child got a new iPod over the holidays and wants to unload his old one on eBay, make sure he takes all the music off it. "Handing over music on a music player is no different from duplicating a CD and selling the copy," The Register adds. Anybody *advertising* used iPods for the music on them must definitely be a sitting duck for litigation.

New PC patches issued!

Windows PC users should make sure they get the seven latest security patches from Microsoft, two of which the company says are critical, Washington Post security writer Brian Krebs reports. One critical flaw is in Internet Explorer, the other in Windows Media Player; Brian provides details. To get the patches, go to Windows Update or, to make patching automatic, go to this Microsoft page. Another option is to subscribe to Windows OneCare Live, free because still in beta. Microsoft will start charging $49.95/year in June, but if you sign up by April 30, it'll be $19.95 for at least the first year.

Courting for real & virtually

Hmm. Are we seeing a trend? Is online romance moving from dating sites like Match.com to alternate-reality games like SecondLife.com? Will you too be attending your child's wedding in a virtual world? On the same day I read in WebProNews.com that dating site subscriptions are declining and in CNET about a transatlantic couple who met as owners of adjacent virtual properties in Second Life and are now living together in England. CNET also mentions a couple that met in "City of Heroes" , now planning their real-life wedding, "but at the urging of a lot of friends in the 'City of Heroes' community, they're planning in-world nuptials as well." Some people will soon be meeting in social-networking sites, then move on to alternate-reality games to court and wed. Later they'll have to decide whether to have virtual or real children!

Not-so-virtual networking

Here's a switch: an upbeat story about a social-networking site. Vertical – in terms of specific locations, interest communities, or both - is the direction I think more and more blogging and social-networking are going. This story's all about London-based connecting, and the site is MyExpandedCircle.com, launched just three weeks ago, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The "online social club" aims to offer "credible, safe alternatives for meeting new people in a city where new acquaintances can be hard to make." How it handles teens' safety remains to be seen, but the site is not targeting people under 18 (per its Terms of Service) and isn't as focused on media-sharing, customization, and virtual networking as other blogging sites attracting teens.

Poetry sites & Valentines

Poems beat out chocolates, flowers, and Valentines gifts in Web searches today, ClickZstats reports. "The search term, 'love poems,' grew 83% for the week ending February 11." What might be interesting to parents is that visitors to poetry sites a younger than the average Web users. ClickZ adds that "visitors to Poetry.com were 56% more likely be in the 18-24 age group. Visitors to LovePoemsandQuotes.com were 100 times more likely to be 18-24." Those two sites were Nos. 1 and 3 on the HitWise traffic chart. Others in the Top 10 were Netpoets.com, PoemsforFree.com, and Poets.org. The Lycos search engine reported, however, that "poker" beat out poetry by a long shot, WebProNews.com reports. "Valentine's Day" was No. 1 at Lycos.com, "poker" second, then "WWE," "Pam Anderson," "Britney Spears," "Super Bowl," and finally "Love Poems" at No. 7. At least poetry bested "Paris Hilton." [For more on kids and poker, see "Poker's rise" and gambling-related "Hot Topics" and "Give & Take" at Staysafe.org.]

Playboy's 'Girls of MySpace'

Playboy likes to capture "the cultural zeitgeist," as Online Media Daily puts it, so of course it will soon feature "Girls of MySpace" on its Web site. "MySpace is not participating in the pictorial, but Playboy.com has established its own MySpace page, which is promoting the search for women to pose; Playboy.com also has purchased ad space on MySpace," according to Online Media Daily, which adds that Playboy has been "overwhelmed with the number and quality of submissions." The development "comes at a dicey time for MySpace, which has found itself under scrutiny for exposing teens to possible danger." MySpace spokespeople point out that MySpace.com is not a youth site and told the San Jose Mercury News last week that 75% of its membership is over 18, but a quarter of 54 million members is 13.5 million teens (the Mercury News piece was about what unwise blogging can potentially do to teens' reputations). Here's a sampler of related news this week: a sort of primer from the Associated Press, "MySpace: A new online star that isn't Google"; "Teen Web hangouts can be gold mines for predators" at Pioneer Press in Minn.; and a two-part series, "The trouble with MySpace…," at the Rutland Herald in Vt. (Part 1 and Part 2).

For younger early adopters

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" is the bottom line of this report by the Associated Press on the American International Toy Fair trade expo this week. Toymakers are creating all manner of kid-targeting add-ons for the iPod, "from electronic drumsticks and other musical instruments to chairs and electronic playmates that act as speakers." The "chair" would be Baby Einstein Co.'s "rocking chair that connects to an iPod so parents can sing along while the child rocks." Then there's the SpongeBob SquarePants speaker system that plugs into an iPod from Emerson Radio Corp./Nickelodeon. There's a lot of pressure on the iPod (42 million have been sold), the AP indicates. "The toy industry is looking to the iPod to help reverse a decline in traditional toy sales that dates back to 2003." But we're seeing signs of what it's doing for music industry (see "Tweens' impact on the music world"). You might also want to check out "Mommy, Help Me Download 'Farmer in the Dell' to My MP3 Player," in which the New York Times tells of Fisher-Price's forthcoming digital music player and digital camera for children ages 3 and older, and other marvels for very small techies.

2006: Big year for online-kid safety

There have been many flashpoints between free speech and children's online safety since the US Supreme Court struck down the Communications Decency Act (CDA) in mid-'97, but 2006 looks second only to 1997 as a crucial year for online kids advocacy. Why? Because of two developments: 1) blogging's popularity among/risks to kids has become mainstream news nationwide (online safety has reached an unprecedented level of public awareness), and 2) the fate of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA, aka "son of CDA") is to be decided in federal court this fall. In "They Saved the Internet's Soul," Wired News provides excellent background. The "they" in that headline is the Supreme Court, and what the court understood in striking down CDA was the difference between TV and the Internet. If the justices had upheld CDA, Wired News reports, it would've been "the Taliban Internet" or censored for a 12-year-old user base (at least where US-based Web sites were concerned), because CDA "aimed to extend to the Internet the same 'decency' standard that applies to broadcast TV and radio, and is now most famous for leading to fines for Howard Stern and CBS television for explicit language and a wardrobe malfunction respectively." Among other things, the decision showed that local and even national standards (or those of a current national government, because lawmakers have had a tough time defining national standards) are extremely difficult to apply to a "radically decentralized" international medium, and US courts continued to wrestle with this when confronted with COPA. That's what the Philadelphia federal appeals court will look at – local standards vs. international medium, protecting free speech vs. protecting children - for the third time this fall.

Check out the Wired News article for a sense of how the Net and its users have changed since the court's decision on CDA, and (on p. 2) which of its provisions were not challenged and do help protect kids. For more on preparations for COPA's next trial, see my 1/20 issue. [For the fascinating latest twist on the "local standards" issue (about free speech & human rights, not just kids' rights), see USATODAY - Congress has stepped in!]

Parents on kids' privacy

Thoughtful emails and posts to this blog, BlogSafety.com, FamilyTechTalk.com, and me are multiplying. In this week's issue of my newsletter: a comment from a mom and teacher in Kentucky on the risks of online anonymity and two comments (one from dad in North Carolina and one from a parent activist in Wisconsin) on a forever-hot topic among parents and teenagers – a subject under which the Net's newest phase (of multiplatform, multimedia, homemade, self-published content) has further turned up the heat.

Videogames: The view from N.C.

Check with your child's teacher "before purchasing any computer games or programs to see if [they're] relevant to the child’s current stage of development," is some advice cited by the Jacksonville [N.C.] Daily News in "Videogame technology more than just recreation." For this 4th piece of a five-part series on videogames' evolution, the Daily News talked to Jenita Shephard, coordinator of instruction technology for Onslow County Schools, who said the "critical difference between a game and learning" is assessment – educational software, though it can be plenty fun, assesses "at what level a child may be performing academically, helps the child excel in a subject, and then evaluates what the child has learned." The other parts in the series: "As the audience grew up, so did their videogames," Part 1; "Gamers inhabit a virtual world of reality," Part 2; "Industry numbers show she's got game, too," Part 3; and "Games molding military minds," Part 5. [On that last subject, see also "'America's Army' morphs" in NetFamilyNews .]

MySpace's 13.5 million teens

"MySpace officials" told the San Jose Mercury News that "75% of its members are over 18." Doing the math based on "54 million members," MySpace.com alone surpasses the number the Pew Internet & American Life Project gave last November (12 million) for the overall number of US teens who "create content for the Internet." The number is probably growing so fast, no researcher could keep up with it and have a life. The Mercury News piece is really about something more important, though: how kids posting on sites like MySpace, Xanga, DeadJournal, Blurty, etc. "could do lasting damage to [their] reputation, and now more parents and school officials are taking action." One smart parent the Mercury News cites got her own space and used the messaging feature "to send gentle warnings to teens who post pictures of themselves drunk or half-naked." [A warning, though: They might just move on to lesser-known blogging services.] It's as if that northern California mom knew about a story this week in Michigan, about how "15-20 students at East Grand Rapids High School face possible disciplinary action by the school after parents reported seeing Internet photos of them drinking alcohol at parties" (from the Associated Press).

Teens getting Tagged(.com)

Watch out, MySpace (I'm sure they are watching)! Tagged.com, a social-networking site specifically targeting people 13-19 got its second million members in just three months. Is this a sign that early-adopter teens are moving on from the more general social-networking sites to more "vertical" ones (by "vertical," I mean narrower in terms of age, interests, or location)? I'm thinking of sites like Dallas's Buzz-Oven, St. Louis's STLPUNK.com, and the poised-for-launch YFly.com (see People.com). Here's a press release about the $7 million the company just received in venture-capital funding, showing how seriously the business community is taking young Net users, and here are Tagged.com's own site stats . Another, newer up 'n' comer: TagWorld.com, launched in November and now with "viral video," it says. The site, which already boasts "nearly half a million registered users" is all about user-produced media (photos, music, video, etc.), was recently mentioned in a PC World blog.

Texting's power

This isn't just about kid tech, but undoubtedly many young Muslims are involved in this latest subject of global activism both online and off. The Washington Post calls them "mass-mailings," but they're really mass-messagings and -postings, via cellphone and blog that have "helped turn an incident in tiny Denmark into a uniting cause for protesters around the world in days or even hours." The incident referred to, of course, is the publication five months ago in a Danish newspaper of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. And the timing, in launching individual protests and boycotts online and in locations around the world, has in many cases been less than "hours," according to the Post. For example, a rumor (that the Koran might be burned), started by Mohammad Fouad Barazi, a prominent Muslim cleric in Denmark (unintentionally, he said), spread so fast that Danish Prime Minister held a press conference and said that authorities don't have time to "correct misinformation" before it's acted on. And the Post cites a moderate Muslim lawmaker as saying that Barazi's mere mention of the possibility concerning the Koran "encouraged attacks on the Danish Embassy in Syria on Saturday." Another amazing example of the power and reach of electronic communications, for good and bad. [See also "Young bloggers & France's riots," 11/11/05.]

Police helping online teens

Sometimes it helps to have a disinterested 3rd party in a parent-teen discussion - at least the town of Murrysville, Pa., appears to see it this way. The town will hold its "first in a series of parent/teen discussions with the police department" at the community center next week to talk about Internet safety, the Murrysville Star reports. Police say there haven't been any teen-predator face-to-face meetings in Murrysville, but the town wants to head any such possibility off at the pass – for example, what happened in the Tampa, Fla., area recently. A 42-year-old Seminole High School teacher tried to meet in person with a 14-year-old Tampa girl he found and contacted in MySpace.com, the St. Petersburg Times reports. Some online-safety experts tell kids not to respond to messages like this, to just tell their parents. This girl did both, which worked fine in this case. She replied to the man saying "she thought it was strange that he would want to be friends with her since he was so much older than she, and then informed her mother about [his] message, investigators said." The mom called the police, who, it turns out, had been corresponding online with the man for four months posing as naïve teenage girls. They arrested the man in a sting operation.

PC smarts, school performance linked

"Regular computer users perform better in key school subjects," according to a new report by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The No. 1 "key subject," cited in the OECD's press release, was math. "The study, 'Are students ready for a technology-rich world?' [which compared 15-year-old students' performance in multiple countries], provides the first internationally comparative data in this area," the presser states. In other findings, almost 75% of students in OECD countries "use computers at home several times each week" (90% in Canada, Iceland, and Sweden). At school, the figure is 44%. The discrepancy between home and school use is especially marked in Germany. "Germany has the lowest percentage of frequent computer users at school among OECD countries (23%) but a high proportion of frequent users at home…. The number of students needing to share a computer in a school in Germany … is three times higher than in Australia, Korea, and the US." The study also found that "Greece, Mexico, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Turkey are among the OECD countries where 15-year-olds have the lowest access to computers at home." [Thanks to TechLEARNING.com for pointing this news out.]

OneCare's PC security pricetag

Next June Microsoft will start charging $49.95 a year for Windows OneCare Live, the Associated Press reports, and that price will cover up to three PCs. "Anyone who signs up for the test by April 30 can buy the paid service for just $19.95 per year." OneCare Live is free right now because it's still in beta testing. Some 200,000 PC owners are trying it out, according to the AP. Microsoft says it's not trying to run the likes of McAfee and Trend Micro out of business, it just wants to meet the security needs of the 70% of Windows users who don't have those security services – or anything besides what comes with Windows XP and 2000. Meanwhile, speaking of security, Microsoft warned of new Windows security flaws yesterday, ZDNET reports (Washington Post security writer Brian Krebs says a patch is probably coming in Microsoft's regular monthly security update due next week) and, in a separate article, ZDNET also reports that Firefox users need to make sure they have the latest version of that browser.

Tweens' impact on music world

It's significant and growing. The soundtrack for a made-for-TV movie targeting people under 15 – Disney's "High School Musical" – is the No. 1 album in iTunes and has the No. 1 song ("Breaking Free"), Reuters reports. But tweens' clout goes beyond online sales: Nine of the soundtrack's songs are on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, without any airtime on radio, which is usually a big influence on the Hot 100. The soundtrack's popularity has remained steady since the movie first aired on the Disney Channel January 20, Reuters adds. Since then some 20 million people have seen it. According to Reuters, the soundtrack's phenomenal sales are due partly to all the iPods tweens received as holiday gifts. Clearly, electronic gadgets instead of toys in kids' hands is great news for producers of all forms of media. "Music targeting kids age 14 and under is emerging as a growth segment for labels," Reuters reports. Here's more on changes in the music world from the Washington Post - including how singles, "which were on the music industry's endangered-species list at the turn of the 21st century, have come roaring back to life in the digital age."

Anti-child-porn update: UK

Timed to the EU's Safer Internet Day, marked in a number of countries today, UK Internet Service provider BT announced its Web servers are blocking 35,000 attempts to view child-porn Web pages every day, the BBC reports. It adds that only .3%, or 20 out of every 6,000 such pages are hosted in the UK – the rest are on servers in many other countries. Here's how the system works: "People who discover a site that harbours suspicious content are invited to report the site to the Internet Watch Foundation," which has a report-illegal-content button on its home page. The IWF passes the reports on to the UK's National Crime Squad for analysis. "Any UK-based site hosting child pornography can be traced quickly and easily, despite elaborate attempts to hide the unique Internet addresses, known as IP addresses, which identify each site. Once traced, the ISP hosting the site is notified and the site taken down," according to the BBC. If the content's not hosted in the UK, the IWF passes the info along to Interpol for cooperation with police in other countries. Foreign-based child-porn pages also go into the IWF's database of black-listed pages. ISP filters like BT's "Cleanfeed" check page requests against that black list, so that child-porn pages are blocked for home Internet users. According to The Guardian , BT – which provides Internet service for one-third of British home Net users – says the number of attempts to view child porn has tripled in the past 18 months. Here's coverage of Safer Internet Day at ElectricNews.net in Dublin.

Phone filter flaw in UK

Which?, the UK's "Consumer Reports," found a loophole in mobile-phone parental controls offered in that country. The filtering system does block adult content sent directly to phones, but kids can buy access codes over the phone (for 1.5 pounds or about $2.60 per code) to get into "Web sites showing hardcore sex films" on their computers, the BBC reports. "The consumer group said the number of pay-per-view Internet sites accepting payment by premium-rate text messages had increased over the past few years." O2, the phone company whose service Which? used for its test, and the trade group for cellphone billing services said they were working on closing the loophole.

Blogs: Multiplying like rabbits

A new blog is born every second, the San Jose Mercury News's "Good Morning Silicon Valley" blog reports in "Please spay your blog." It's citing these just-released numbers from Technorati, which tracks blog activity: There are now 27.2 million blogs (60 times the number three years ago), and they're doubling about every 5.5 months. That means 75,000 new blogs a day. Thus the "State of the Blogosphere" , which does not report, for example, specifically on teen blogger numbers. But InformationWeek does say that "the blogosphere is comprised of entries on just about every subject…. They feature political viewpoints, discussions of major news events, observations of bored teenagers and children, talents and experience of job-seekers, complaints from disgruntled employees and self-praise from corporate marketing and public relations departments."

Schools' blog struggles

The school scene is a huge part of teen blogging – not just because a lot of teen members' posts and profiles revolve around school but also because users are searchable by school. That's certainly true at MySpace (where anyone can type a local high school into the search box and find hundreds of students there, searchable by age and distance – e.g., within a 5-mile radius). The hugely popular Facebook.com, now at more than 2,600 colleges and universities, is now available to many high school students. Xanga.com isn't overtly school-oriented, but it can be searched geographically, and large portions of student bodies will use it just because their peers do. So, like parents, schools are scrambling to catch up with this looming presence in their environments. "Many outlaw use of the sites on school computers," the Christian Science Monitor reports, "though kids find ways to get past the filters [see "The real story on filtering"]. Schools have a harder time controlling what gets posted at home, even if it has a tangible effect within school walls." Schools in the UK are struggling with online-safety and cyberbullying issues too, a new UK government study found.

Today's MySpace horror story

This news from Connecticut just may be the "tipping point" that leads to stronger child-protection measures taken by MySpace parent News Corp. As of this writing (Friday morning) picked up by media outlets in more than 100 US cities and in the UK, Canada, and Australia, the story from the Associated Press says that "police are investigating whether as many as seven teenage girls [in Connecticut, aged 12-16] have been sexually assaulted by men they met through the popular Web site MySpace.com." For some thinking on where child-blogger protection is now and where it's headed, please click to this week's issue of my newsletter.

Lawsuit: iPods & ear damage

A man in Louisiana is telling Apple to "turn it down"! John Kiel Patterson is the plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed in San Jose federal court this week. The case claims Apple markets its popular digital music player knowing that it can lead to permanent hearing loss if it is played too loudly," the San Jose Mercury News reports. "In addition to damages, the … suit seeks to force the Cupertino company to upgrade its iPod software to limit the sound output to 100 decibels… and provide earphones that can prevent hearing loss," the Mercury News adds. What's interesting, here, is that Apple does keep it to 100 decibels in iPods sold in Europe (the suit says France required it in 2002). IPods here can reach decibel levels of 115-130. Meanwhile, in an in-depth "reality check" on earbuds' impact, the Washington Post reported that hearing loss is definitely on the increase in the US. Though it certainly predates earbuds, researchers found "increased risk of hearing loss among people who listen to loud music through headphones for extended periods of time." The Post talked to a key source in many news reports, Brian J. Fligor, director of diagnostic audiology at Boston Children's Hospital, who suggests, as a guideline, that people keep earbud-type listening time to an hour a day and volume below 85 decibels, or about 60% of maximum volume, where the risk of hearing damage begins, according to OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration).

Texting & romance

Is it appropriate to say "I love you" for the first time or break up a relationship via text message? Or even ask someone out? These are the questions that plague the digital generation, not to mention avid phone texters, males and females alike. But the former are more likely to let the text do the heavy lifting, where Net-aided romance is concerned, USATODAY reports, citing fresh research from the UK's Sheffield Hallam University. Texting's extremely convenient, but convenience usually doesn't inform etiquette, and – here's a big word – the "disinihibition" of electronic communications (reduced inhibition because of reduced signals and cues like body language) has gotten everybody thinking harder about social decorum. It also has something to do with power in relationships, according to USATODAY: "Text has emerged as a way for some daters to do less, act as if they care less and, in doing so, gain the upper hand in a new relationship." The article is more about adults, but teenagers, among the most avid texters and IM-ers, have these questions too. USATODAY also has a sidebar with tips for good textiquette. For more on disinhibition at the teen level, see "Cybersocializing, cyberbullying." For the latest on texting and high school sports, see "e-Recruiting" in the Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch.

'Sex, boys & videogames'

Let's see, what were the results of all the media coverage last summer of the sexually explicit "Hot Coffee" mod for one of the Grand Theft Auto videogames? It raised public awareness of videogame ratings (a positive result of the ESRB upping GTA: San Andreas's rating from "M" to "AO" because of the mod). It certainly raised awareness that there's sex in some videogames, which probably increased sales for gamemakers. It offered an opportunity for some politicians to take action – e.g., four senators sponsoring federal legislation against sales of violent games to minors (see this item). And Los Angeles City Attorney Rockard Delgadillo, who is running for state attorney general, announced last week he's suing GTA's makers Take Two for failing to disclose the explicit content, which had to be "unlocked" with code found and downloaded from the Web (better late than never, maybe – last August the game's rating was upped to "Adults Only," which meant removal from many retailers' shelves and Take Two released a patch that blocks the content, among other developments). Regardless, all media spotlights on ratings, content, legislation, and lawsuits are good; public awareness is needed (laws are often flawed and blocked in courts, but public attention moves the process along). Meanwhile, how does all this affect "17-year-old boys with advanced computer skills"? - what Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein looked at this week in "Sex, boys & videogames." "Now that kids can surf the Web, rent movies through online retailers, watch hundreds of cable channels and download gangster rap, it's impossible for society to restrict the flow of information to them," Joel suggests. "And even though they're a lot more jaded and harsh, it hasn't made them any more violent or sexually active." But it's good for parents to know what they're confronted with anyway. [For more on the above, see CNET's "Adult-oriented videogames prospering."]

Worm: Scan your PC today

A "protection scan" at the Windows Live Safety Center before tomorrow would be a good idea for all family PC owners. "A computer worm that infiltrated hundreds of thousands of computers last month is expected to awaken tomorrow, destroying documents and files on infected machines," reports Washington Post security writer Brian Krebs. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe pdf files are in jeopardy. The vast majority of the some 300,000 infected Windows PCs are outside the US, but "at least 15,000 computers" US PCs are infected, and "home users are going to be the hardest hit," according to the Post.

Home Web use worldwide

Ever curious about how many people around the world are actively surfing the Web at home? Nielsen/NetRatings constantly tracks that and has a handy chart at ClickZ.com that gives the number in 11 countries, also showing December-over-November growth last year (less than 1% overall). Eight of the countries experienced growth, including Spain (3.46%), Japan (2.59%), and France (1.06%) at the highest rates (the US was just .76%). Home Web use in Brazil, Sweden, and Switzerland, decreased in that one-month period.

Real life in virtual worlds

It's a controversy that points to what gamers encounter in virtual worlds, and it's significant because it involves World of Warcraft (WoW) - with 5.5 million members, one of the world's most popular MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games). "Longtime virtual gamer Sara Andrews didn't know she would cause much of a ruckus when she began recruiting new members of her … virtual gaming guild, which mostly caters to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender [GLBT] players," CNET reports. "In recruitment messages she posted on WoW, she wrote that the guild was not 'glbt only,' but we are 'glbt friendly'." WoW publisher Blizzard Entertainment said her message "violated the game's harassment policy, specifically the section of that policy regarding sexual orientation." Blizzard said it was trying to avoid potential harassment problems. Members of the GLBT community countered that Blizzard should stop harassers, not silence gay people, CNET reports. Players in WoW and other MMORPGs are recruited into "guilds" or clubs of like-minded players, based on the idea of strength in numbers; CNET says WoW has eight GLBT guilds. It'll be interesting to see how controversies like this play out, and parents probably should know that these online fantasy worlds with real people behind game characters are only in some ways an escape from everyday realities. To understand these games better, see "A Virtual World of Their Own," by Jerald Block, MD. For more MMORPG news, search for "MMORPG" in the search box on any page at NetFamilyNews.org.

ID theft targets: Kids

People under 18 are "the fastest-growing target for identity thieves," the Christian Science Monitor reports, citing US Federal Trade Commission figures. The FTC received 255,000 ID theft complaints last year, and – though complaints involving minors are growing fast – they're a much smaller percentage (5%) of overall complaints than that of college students and young adults. At 29%, 18-to-29-year-olds are the largest category. The Monitor tells the story of a sophomore at the University of Colorado, who found out when he applied for a job that his identity had been stolen when he was seven years old. "He learned that he had two names listed under his Social Security number and a sordid credit history." One vulnerability for college students ("over half of all ... info security breaches are at universities") mentioned by the Monitor was a shocker: "Nearly half of all college students have had their grades posted by Social Security number, according to the US Department of Education." At the University of Mississippi, 700 students' SS numbers were listed by their names on a public Web site. The article has a sidebar with tips for protecting against ID theft.