Watch out for wi-fi

Just about any really cool thing involving technology has an online-safety piece (or lack thereof) that – so far – people think of long after product launch. [The exceptions lately have been operating systems like Apple's Tiger (OS X) and the forthcoming Vista from Microsoft, both with some parental controls built in.] Wi-fi, short for the growing number of wireless Internet-access hotspots everywhere (libraries, city parks, coffee shops, whole neighborhoods, etc.), has its downside too. A CNET article's headline alone sums it up: "Wi-Fi gives kids access to unchaperoned Net." So do wi-fi-enabled devices, such as Web-connecting cellphones, some gameplayers, and Microsoft's forthcoming Zune portable media player that will probably be on a whole lot of holiday wish lists in the next few months. To picture all this better, see a great example (in this case positive) involving a 10-year-old – five paragraphs down in the CNET article.