iPod/phone?

That's what the tech pundits are speculating about - see this in a San Jose Mercury News blog. And it makes sense: If there are picture phones and iPod Photos, why wouldn't Apple want to smoosh it all into one device that every teenager, who almost by nature is a world-class communicator, will want to get. And of course Apple will allow texting on that little screen. If phonemakers are turning phones into connected PCs, why wouldn't Apple move the iPod in that direction? The question is, will kids still want keyboards for their blogging and game players for their gaming (and DVD viewing)? Tell me what *you* think (post below or email me)!

Scotland's new anti-grooming law

The Scottish Parliament passed a tough new law to protect online kids. Among other things, the Protection of Children Bill "will make it an offence to set up meetings with under-16s via Internet chatrooms and carry a maximum 10-year sentence," the BBC reports. An interesting piece of it is the Risk of Sexual Harm Order, which courts can impose "to curb the activities of those suspected of being a danger to children." The order can be issued "even if the individual has not been convicted of an offence," according to the BBC. [Thanks to QuickLinks for pointing this news out.]

P2P on phones

My last item was about games on phones. Now file-sharing's coming to a cellphone near you (just more evidence that the phone is the next PC, the next Net platform). Nokia and other phone makers are developing software that will allow the sharing of text docs, photos, and eventually music on their phones, CNET reports. But this won't be the "Wild West" of file-sharing via computers, CNET says. Why? Because of "the tight control cellular providers have over their networks." On them, operators "can track every piece of data sent. They also have tough software that manages digital rights, and they typically have tracking technology built in to meet federal 911 laws, so operators can locate anyone they believe is illegally swapping files." Meanwhile, another CNET report updates us on ringtones, which young people love because they show off one's musical taste and are a fun way to customize a favorite gadget. Already a huge business, it generates $4 billion/year worldwide and "the No. 1 ringtone typically outsells the No. 1 [music] download." But the recording industry's "still struggling to connect with a generation used to getting music for free through Internet 'peer to peer' services."

The other kind of videogame

Watch out, Halo and Grand Theft Auto, here comes Diner Dash! It's described as a little like I Love Lucy's memorable mad scramble at the candy factory conveyor, if anyone's old enough to remember that sweet old sitcom. "This game, sold exclusively on the Internet and downloaded onto players' personal computers, is challenging many of the conventions of video gaming," the New York Times reports, not least because games like Diner Dash - called "casual games" - are growing in popularity and are developed on a relative shoestring. At $20, Diner Dash has sold more than 50,000 copies and continues to sell at a 1,000/day clip, according to the Times. This is a good thing that will migrate to cellphones, and migrate they will - unlike the big-budget console and multiplayer games - because of their appeal and simplicity. The articles cites a PricewaterhouseCoopers projection of $8.4 billion in 2005 sales for the US game industry, with around $250 million of it for casual games. Meanwhile, did you know that nearly two-thirds of US college students "play video and computer games on a regular or occasional basis"? That's a Pew Internet & American Life figure cited by Waltonian.com, Eastern University's student news site, which takes a look at the Pennsylvania school's weekly gaming competition. And here's the BBC on China's explosive gaming scene, with 20 million gamers and growing.

Windows Update update

This is something all family PC owners will want to get: Microsoft Update, which replaces the old Windows Update system. If you're using Windows XP or XP Professional, you may've already gotten a prompt to install it, the Washington Post reports. "Microsoft Update fixes a few inconsistencies long present in Microsoft's patch strategy," and it will fix security problems with other Microsoft software (not just the OS) and third-party software running on Windows, the Post adds. Here's where you can read about it at Microsoft (it only works in the Explorer browser, not Firefox).

PlayStation in the classroom?

Yup. For "exertainment" not "infotainment," in this case. The Redlands, Calif., school district is sweetening PE classes with exercise-promoting videogames, Wired News reports. "The classes would see elementary-school children getting their daily workout through popular video games like Konami Digital Entertainment's 'Dance Dance Revolution' [dance-pad game] and Sony's 'EyeToy: Play' that include active, physical elements." EyeToy is a camera game that lets players control the action on screen with their arms and head, Wired News adds. It cites a University of California, Berkeley, nutrition specialist as saying that anything that encourages kids to get up and dance is a good thing.

Google adds video

The search giant just added another medium to its mix. "Watching the amateur and professional videos in Google's index requires free software available at Video.google.com," the Washington Post reports. "The software, consisting of about 1 megabyte, won't do anything except stream Google's videos through the Internet Explorer or Firefox Web browsers." The feature is still in beta. As with most search engines, people can submit their own work (from Web sites to videos) for inclusion in the database. That can be good and bad. On the upside, the amateur videographer's work can now be as accessible as that of giant media companies - like garage bands on the file-sharing networks. The potential downside is what types of videos become as accessible to children as to anyone else. Surfing around the site, I was glad to find video policies saying that not only is Google not accepting illegal content, such as child pornography. It's also not accepting legal pornography or obscenity. [Yahoo also indexes videos. The difference, which is a plus while Google's player gets debugged, is that Yahoo's video search results can be streamed through well-established players like those of Microsoft and RealNetworks, and "some of Yahoo's videos include programming licensed from major television networks such as CBS and MTV," the Post reports.]

Email hoaxes as teaching tools

Getting an email about the lethal properties of NutraSweet/aspartame or a national cellphone do-not-call list or making a large amount of money by helping someone in a foreign country stash their cash can actually be a teachable moment for parents and kids. In this age when critical thinking is a precious commodity, sitting down at a computer with our kids and checking out a much-forwarded email like one of the above at sites like Hoaxbusters.org or Snopes.com can turn hoaxes into teaching tools. Sometimes these hoaxes get really visceral, like the Bush administration's "imminent plan" to reinstitute the draft. In his blog today, the Washington Post's security columnist Brian Krebs also mentions the one about "venomous, ravenous spiders that could be lurking under toilet seats."

P2P services can be sued too: Supreme Court

Today the US Supreme Court sent a strong message to the file-sharing services: that they are responsible for their users' infringement of copyright law. The unanimous decision "stands to reshape an Internet landscape in which file-swapping has become commonplace," CNET reports. The decision "won't immediately shut down access to the trading networks, however." The Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts to review the evidence in light of this decision, CNET adds. Basically, it means that the P2P services now join file-sharers themselves as targets of lawsuits. There was an element of practicality in the decision: In writing the Court's opinion, the Christian Science Monitor points out, Justice David Souter "notes that, despite offsetting considerations about creativity and technological innovation, when there was such widespread infringement 'it may be impossible to enforce rights in the protected work effectively against all direct infringers.' He says the only practical alternative is to hold the device's distributor responsible under a theory of secondary liability." The entertainment industry estimates that 2.6 billion illegal downloads occur each month, the Monitor adds.

But the key factor in the decision was the services' *promotion* of infringement. "We hold," Justice Souter wrote, "that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright ... is liable for the resulting acts of infringement."

As for the long term, the decision is probably the beginning of the end of the P2P free-for-all era. The pay-per-tune services like iTunes and Napster will be the early winners (and will get more flexible and innovative), the high-profile free services like Kazaa and Grokster will either die out or "go legit" (some are right now in the process), and free file-sharing will go further and further underground. As for users, a San Jose Mercury News column asserts the decision "will really do little to influence the behavior of the hundreds of millions of individuals who already use file-sharing networks. Entertainment industry attorneys could pound StreamCast and Grokster into a fine white dust tomorrow ... but that will do little to curb the behavior of [file-sharers]." Here's the view from the pro-innovation, copy-leftist Electronic Freedom Foundation and a pro-innovation, anti-litigation commentary at Forbes. And CNET's round-up of coverage.

Net-related crimes against kids: Reality check

There are four key things parents should know about Net-initiated sex crimes against kids: 1) the victims are usually younger teens, 2) they don't think of their assailants as strangers, 3) they didn't feel they were deceived, and 4) these crimes, as much as we hear about them, represent a fraction of overall sexual exploitation of children in the US. This was my take-away from a survey of law-enforcement agencies across the US (I'm looking for more recent figures but, in 2000, there were 500 arrests for Net-related crimes out of 65,000 overall). For details, please see this week's issue of my newsletter.

UK parents ignore game ratings: Study

Although most UK parents surveyed knew video games had age ratings, they tend to ignore them, according to a new study by Swiss research firm Modulum, commissioned by the UK games industry. The study was presented at an industry "summit" in London this past week. It "found that parents let children play games for adults, even though they knew they were 18-rated," the BBC reports, citing Modulum's Jurgen Freund as saying that most parents think the games won't influence their children - they're "mature enough" to handle them. Parents were more concerned about the amount of time kids were spending on gameplay, the study found. And, ironically, an 18+ rating tends to promote games more than deter their purchase. But here's an even more important finding: "The problem was that parents felt disconnected from the world of video games and so showed little interest in this aspect of their children's lives." The BBC provided a bit of background: Violence in video games "rose to prominence last year when the parents of a 14-year-old blamed the game Manhunt for his death. Police investigating the murder dismissed its influence, and Manhunt was not part of its legal case. But the case rekindled the debate over 18-rated games that appeared to relish in gore and carnage."

File-sharings 'normal': study

The anti-piracy message media companies are sending file-swappers doesn't seem to be getting through. The BBC reports that, at least in the UK, people don't see downloading copyrighted material as theft, according to a government-funded study called "Fake Nation" by researchers at the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Manchester. The study was previewed at this week's gamemakers' "summit" in London. The authors also found that "not having to pay for games was particularly attractive for teenagers, as it meant they had more money for other things." Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports, recording companies have adopted an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach (or added it to the litigation part of their campaign). "In the last few months, major record labels have signed licensing deals with companies working to field file-swapping services that would block unauthorized files from being traded online."

*Way* connected teens

Not just to some abstract thing called "the Net," these teenagers are connected much more specifically. And fluidly, from computer-based IM-ing to phone talking to phone texting. An insightful Los Angeles Times article, "24/7, Teens Get the Message," points to 15-year-old Will, who spends an average of 5.5 hours a day and 10,000 minutes a month on his cell phone. He just leaves the phone on, with a buddy spending "entire days - together, but apart - shopping, snacking, doing homework, and even nodding off to sleep" (thank god for free calling with fellow Cingular, Verizon, etc. users!). Eighteen-year-old Kaleese "spends almost 10 hours a day on the phone" and jokes with the reporter that her cellphone is "a drug." Other highlights: "15-year-old girls are now the world's top consumers of computer chips," according to a semiconductor company's research cited by the Times. The 100+ buddy lists: 13-year-old Ryan's has 110 people on it, "mostly people he sees regularly and all of whom he messages at least occasionally in this rite of bonding overbandwidth." A social necessity, because otherwise he'd miss something in the life of the peer group, which just can't happen, not if you want to be popular. The control piece: As opposed to voice communication, in texting and IM, you can think before you say something - an argument, for some teens, for breaking up with someone online. One 14-year-old with a conscience said she saw online breakups as "a level below face-to-face conversation," but it gives one time to think and reduces the "emotional factor." Has this one come up at your house? Do email me any experiences you and your kids have had with electronically enhanced socializing - and wisdom shared in either direction! (See also "IM anthropology: 11-to-15-year-olds' virtual community.")

Screen reading

Reading is so much less linear now. One reason is, more and more of it is being done on screens - computer monitors, cellphones, etc. Another reason is the way it's done on-screen: hopping from one (Web) page to another and back because of hyperlinks. A third is how annotated reading is getting. We don't just read an article, play, story, etc. on screen - we also read commentary on it (what those hyperlinks link to). An example offered by the Christian Science Monitor in "How the Web changes your reading habits" is Hamletworks.org. "When completed, the site will help visitors comb through several editions of the play, along with 300 years of commentaries by a slew of scholars. Readers can click to commentaries linked to each line of text in the nearly 3,500-line play. The idea is that some day, anyone wanting to study 'Hamlet' will find nearly all the known scholarship brought together in a cohesive way that printed books cannot."

UK mom sued for child's file-sharing

Sylvia Price, mother of a 14-year-old file-sharer and "self-confessed computer illiterate," received a letter demanding 4,000 pounds (about $7,300) "in compensation by solicitors acting for the music industry," The Guardian reports. She is not alone. The letter was part of the third wave of legal actions in the UK taken by the recording industry trade group there, as well as the more than 10,000 lawsuits filed against file-sharers in the US. Mrs. Price told The Guardian she didn't know where she was going to get the money. Her daughter told the paper that she didn't know her file-sharing was illegal - everybody at school was doing it. She had downloaded 1,400 songs for free, but she said she thought she'd been "picked on" because her computer was always on and the songs are her hard drive were available to other file-sharers. The $7,300 is apparently a settlement charge; Price "has until July 1 to pay the BPI [British Phonographic Industry] or face a civil action." I wonder if UK citizens can join a US class-action suit (see "Family sues P2P service")? Meanwhile, litigation is making it tough for some online music retailers too. One of the world's oldest cheap-online-music sites, Weblisten.com in Spain, has shut down "after years of legal battles with record labels," CNET reports.

'No child['s data] left behind'

In a new tack for military recruitment efforts, the Pentagon is using a direct-marketing firm to help put together "an extensive database about teenagers and college students," the Los Angeles Times reports. "The initiative, which privacy groups call an unwarranted government intrusion into private life, will compile detailed information about high school students ages 16 to 18, all college students, and Selective Service System registrants." The database will include Social Security numbers, email addresses, grade-point averages and ethnicities. The Times adds that the No Child Left Behind Act allows the Pentagon to gather the home addresses and telephone numbers of public-school students.

When it stops being funny

The "it" in the headline is people's behavior in IM-ing, blogging, and other online social venues. CNET tells three compelling stories, the first about a 13-year-old who stopped his 2-3 hours of IM-ing a day (that started when he was 11) because he and his friends were spending all that time just insulting each other, and after a while it made him "feel terrible." That's the only story of the three with an upbeat ending. No. 2 is really a phenomenon: happy-slapping. More well-known in the UK but happening in the US, it's "an extreme form of techno-bullying where physical assaults are recorded on mobile phones and distributed to Web sites and other phones via video messaging." Just recently, three 14-year-old Britons were arrested "in connection with the alleged rape of an 11-year-old girl whose attack was videotaped and sent to peers at her North London school," CNET reports. Story 3 is about "Moshzilla." A 19-year-old goes to a San Diego hardcore rock show, snaps photos of people "moshing" (dancing and slamming each other in the mosh pit), and posts them in his site. "One funny but arguably less-than-flattering picture of a young woman ... sparked the imaginations of viewers, who Photoshopped the mosher into a range of poses, including dancing in an iPod ad...." Some of the images depicted the girl in sexually explicit poses. She became known as Moshzilla (only an interview with her is left at Moshzilla.com, a site in her "honor" which was up on the Web for 48 hours, taken down, it says, at the girl's request). However, "within a few weeks," CNET continues, "the photos had spread to multiple message boards, some of which were attracting a quarter of a million hits and 30 responses a page." How online social cruelty, or cyberbullying, can go global and irretrievable is what both parents and kids *really* need to be aware of. For more on this, see "Cybersocializing, cyberbullying."

'What's ok to say in blogs?'

The article in the Palm Beach Daily News doesn't answer that question - quite possibly because it doesn't have an answer yet. None of us really do. The article's about grownups blogging, zooming in on a couple of bloggers who have "joined an army of angry exes, embittered employees and rancorous relatives who air their grievances to a potential audience of millions." But it raises issues kids and parents might want to consider too. "Although some people are posting innocuous information about everything from politics to poetry, many bloggers have axes to grind online. The full legal, ethical and interpersonal implications of these virtual vendettas are just beginning to be explored," the Daily News reports. One of the implications is what potential employers or friends might find in future Web searches about people - parents, ex-boy- or girl-friends, teachers, etc - who've been blogged about, if their names are used in posts. See my item last week about kids needing to become their own spin doctors and "Teacher to parents: Be wary of teen blogs."

A pro gamer's story

"The world's top PC gamer," no less, as the BBC describes 24-year-old Jonathan Wendel, who started playing video games when he was five. When he was 18, his father was about to pull the plug, wanting him to get a job or go to school full-time, when Jonathan asked if he could just try one tournament. If he made "significant money," he'd keep competing, if not, he'd go to college. His father agreed, and Jonathan won 3rd place and $4,000. He has since traveled from one competition to another around the world, "winning six Cyberathlete Professional League championships, the only gamer ever to do so," according to the BBC. He is now "Doom 3's first-ever world champion, according to the Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game and Pinball Book of World Records, the industry's official record book." Looking back over his teenage years, Jonathan said gaming was his stress-reliever - a way to get away from parents, school, and part-time dishwashing into his own little world. "But Johnathan does not fit the stereotypical image of the gamer as an anti-social loner in his bedroom. During his teens, he was a keen athlete, playing American football, baseball, hockey and tennis." Maybe he's the Tony Hawk of video games. For an overview on the gamemaking biz, see this BBC piece on the recent two-day summit in London of UK entertainment software publishers.

Finding something near you

Another option for local searchers got added to the mix today. MSN has beefed up its Local search tool, CNET reports. Now "a local search on 'auto mechanics' will display listings of nearby mechanics, repair shops and towing companies. Each result will be shown as a numbered pin on a corresponding map from Microsoft MapPoint Web Service, and aerial images from TerraServer-USA will appear when available." To try it, click on "Local" at and type in "pizza" (I can definitely see a college application for this!). Yahoo and Google provide similar local search services. Here's the Associated Press on this.

Senator condemns new game

Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of New York says "25 to Life" takes video games to a new "all-time low," CNET reports, adding that it makes Grand Theft Auto look like "Romper Room" (remember that little-kids show, fellow baby-boomers?). "The new video game lets players 'be the law' or 'break the law,' taking the side of police or thugs in running gun battles through a grimy urban landscape. The criminals use human shields in fights, while police call in special weapons and tactics units," according to CNET. The senator is discouraging sales and distribution of the game when it's released this summer. Its maker, Eidos, declined to comment. "25 to Life" is rated M (17+) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board for "blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes, strong language and drug references."

Adobe Reader patch needed

Family PC patch needs keep growing, it seems. If members of your family ever click to pdf files (the kind that make Adobe Reader software load oh so slowly before we can read them) - and most of us do every now and then (for in-depth articles and research that their publishers don't want cut 'n' pasted elsewhere) - you need a patch Adobe has just issued. The Washington Post's security expert, Brian Krebs, said that when he opened a pdf doc over the weekend, his Reader software prompted him to download a patch, which he did. It gets rid of "a fairly serious security flaw," he said in his blog at the Post - one that allows hackers to read other docs on our hard drives. If you don't get that prompt, he provides a link to the patch at Adobe.com. Meanwhile, hackers are looking beyond the Windows operating system for security exploits, ZDNET reports. "As the pool of easily exploitable Windows security bugs dries up, hackers are looking for holes in security software to break into PCs." They're now seeking security flaws in security software! "Antivirus software is like low-hanging fruit to hackers," a new Yankee Group study has found. There's nothing families can do about this at the moment. It just says to antivirus companies it's time to start "acknowledging and fixing potential problems in their code."

Child-porn chat shut down

The first thing that happened was that ads were pulled because they were - apparently without the knowledge of the advertisers - associated with "gut-wrenching chat room titles like 'Girls 13 And Up For Much Older Man'" and worse at Yahoo Chat, WebProNews.com reported. Yahoo has since shut the "hundreds, if not thousands, of chatrooms" down, KPRC reported today. "The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said the closed chat rooms would make an incredible difference in keeping children safe online," KPRC added. The x-rated rooms were buried somewhere among the thousands of chatrooms behind Yahoo Chat's nearly 20 subjects, from Business to Movies to Health & Wellness. Houston TV station KPRC ran an investigative report on the ads' positioning. "The exposé led to ... a $10 million lawsuit filed on behalf of child victims, and huge corporate entities pulling their ads from Yahoo," according to WebProNews. Pepsi, Georgia Pacific, and State Farm Insurance were among the companies that pulled ads. US Rep. Ted Poe (R) of Texas told KPRC that new legislation is needed. "Currently, there is no legislation in place that provides for prosecution of the chat room organizers. Only civil liability can be assessed under current law, WebProNews reported. Here's KPRC's original report.

Dot-kids: Net playground or vacant lot?

Not totally so, but the Web's domain just for kids is more a vacant lot than the popular playground it was meant to be. As well-meaning as its development was, the ".kids.us" top-level domain, just isn't working. It was set up back in 2002 because of federal legislation sponsored by Rep. John Shimkus (Republican-Ill.), and it still has only 20-or-so sites in it, even though more than 1,700 addresses like "mummies.kids.us" were registered when dot-kids opened for business, Reuters reports. What happened? Please click to this week's issue of my newsletter for some reasons and Net-mom's view of the dot-kids sites that are worth a child's time ("Net-mom" and librarian Jean Armour Polly wrote six editions of Net-mom's Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages).

P2P pests on BitTorrent

Families with file-sharers need to know that spyware and adware are showing up in BitTorrent files. "Purveyors of the applications that produce pop-up ads on PC screens and track browsing habits have discovered BitTorrent as a new distribution channel," CNET reports. This is new. Previous-generation file-sharing services like Kazaa were widely known to be riddled with these pests, which hurt PC performance. Now, users of the much more popular BitTorrent are dealing with them. An example CNET gave was a copy of Fox TV's "Family Guy," which arrived on a security researcher's PC "bundled with several pieces of known adware." The researcher said that could really reduce the performance of the average family PC. Usually, when downloading a media file, file-sharers will see on their screens "a dialog box advising that the extra software was about to be installed." It gives the impression, CNET says, that you need to install the extra software to get access to the desired file. However, the security researcher found, if you just decline the adware or spyware license a couple of times, you get the file without installing the pests. See also "File-sharing realities for families."

Video games: Mainstream entertainment

Gamers are no longer the marginalized geeky kids with highly developed thumb muscles - not in the minds of experts following the gaming industry, anyway. Because that industry, now called "interactive entertainment," last year "topped $7 billion, closing in on the $9 billion film industry," and nearly half of US homes own one game player and 23% own more than three, the Christian Science Monitor reports, gamers are very mainstream. They "are going to be the prime engine of our economy and society," the Monitor quotes Robert Andersen of the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. The crucial question is whether games can keep getting better, more creative, whether they can move beyond first-person shooter versions of Hollywood blockbusters. Look for some great examples in the Monitor piece. See also the BBC on consumers in the driver's seat in digital entertainment. For more coverage, see "Bans on violent video game sales" and "Video games' upside." [NFN covers gaming a lot. The best way to find our latest coverage is to go to our index page and do a page search (hit the Control or Apple key and "F") for "game."]

Prepaid phone service: Getting hot

Cellphone parental controls are on the way, but in the meantime prepaid phone service is it for parental control, it appears (you know, the phone that works like a store gift card - pay a specified amount up front). And teenagers are warming up to this kind of phone. "Two years ago, 17-year-old Brittney Brooks would never have considered carrying a prepaid cellular phone, which shouted its cheap-o status through bulky, unattractive handsets twice as big as most cell phones today," the Washington Post reports. Now, the high school junior "proudly carries around a small Kyocera K9 phone from Virgin Mobile USA, a prepaid phone service. It helps her control the cost, she said, and the K9 is a silver, ergonomic little number that comes with text messaging and an array of accessories." And Brittney told the Post that she thought about 60% of her friends use prepaid service. It accounts for 95% of wireless users in Italy, or 50-55% in Germany and the UK, and only 10% of the US wireless market. But the Post says it's becoming "the next big wireless thing" in this country. For more on this at NFN, see "Young phoners in debt" and "Phone parental controls in the works."

Kids: Budding spin doctors

It's a skill they'll need to develop, especially if they blog publicly at sites like MySpace.com, Xanga.com, LiveJournal.com (and that's a question to ask them: Do you know for sure that only your friends can see the posts in your blog?). It's almost impossible to delete the past or rewrite your history online. Stephanie Rosenbloom gives an example in the New York Times: a 10-year-old picture of her as a brunette in sensible shoes is still "the definitive image of me on the World Wide Web, the one that pops up every time my name is entered in a Google search," even though the "real Stephanie" is now blonde and wears stilettos. Then there's the friend of a Washington Post reporter cringing every time she thought about "prospective employers 'Googling' her" and finding "a concise and prominent summary of her dating proclivities" (see this item, 4/22). The solution? Rather than trying to get those Web sites to delete the offending photos and text (and many sites are still in the Internet Archive even after they've been taken down), be your own spin doctor. "The secret to burying unflattering Web details about yourself is to create a preferred version of the facts on a home page or a blog of your own, then devise a strategy to get high-ranking Web sites to link to you," the Times reports. An assistant attorney general emailed me recently: "When one of these kids is running for President one day [or interviewing for college admission or a job], those online pictures are sure to show up." Another daunting thought: party pictures on photoblogs (for future employers to google - see this piece at CNET).

Do young bloggers care about privacy?

The good news is, the big blogging services are getting better about providing their bloggers privacy protections. The bad news is, kids aren't using the big services at MSN, Yahoo, and Google. They seems to prefer the littler guys, e.g., MySpace.com, Xanga.com, LiveJournal.com, etc. I've yet to see a study on this, but the only blogging spaces I hear about from concerned parents are the latter. Still, even if they can't persuade their kids to move to AOL's RED blogs, MSN Spaces, etc., parents can get some good insights into how blogs work from the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg this week. He and his assistant Katie Boehret created blogs at Google's Blogger.com, MSN Spaces, and the yet-to-be-launched Yahoo 360 and do a readable job of describing the experience. They report that Yahoo and MSN's services offer varying degrees of privacy, Blogger does not. [BTW, have you, too, noticed that blogging is like IM-ing for kids? No matter how great the bells and whistles (or privacy protections) are at any other service, they just use the service their friends use. End of story. It'll be interesting to find out how AOL's RED Blogs does. In terms of protecting privacy and maybe even "coolness," it sounds like one of the best services going (see my coverage ), but will kids switch for those reasons? I need to call AOL soon about that. Do email me (or post just below) if you know someone young who cares enough about privacy to switch services - I would love to interview him or her, with your permission.]

Fresh patches needed!

Microsoft just issued 10 new patches for Windows PC users, three of them critical. "Microsoft's rating system deems a security issue as critical - its highest ranking - if it could enable a worm to spread without any action from the PC user," ZDNET reports. The rest are important, too, though, because they fix flaws that "could compromise people's data or threaten system resources." So, family PC owners, go get 'em! Just click to WindowsUpdate.Microsoft.com in the Internet Explorer browser (Windows Update doesn't work with FireFox, which is one reason why I use both). Here's more on this from the BBC.

Students, laptops & life lessons

A high school student who lives on her own and works 20 hours a week is about to graduate - until the school finds out that she lost her school-issued laptop. No laptop, no graduation, the principal tells her - unless she comes up with "a down payment of $300 on the $700 computer," the Boston Globe reports. The principal told the Globe, "These are the tough lessons in life." The student will graduate after all, though, because "a 'good Samaritan' called [the school] at 7:20 this morning and donated a laptop to replace the one that [was] lost," the Washington Post later reported in an article about school "bureaucracy gone silly." But this is also about the various costs, human and financial, of providing students with technology - especially students who can't afford it at home. Not that schools should ever stop loaning students laptops. A commentary in today's San Francisco Chronicle suggests that "we don't need a research study to point out the real difference in quality of life between an individual who has 24-7 broadband access and a person who has no Internet access at all or has to wait in line at the public library to get it."

Family PC security = kid online safety

A heads-up for parents is buried in this post by the Washington Post's Brian Krebs in his PC security blog: "I remain awestruck by the juxtaposition of those two offerings," writes Brian, referring to system spam on his friend's infected PC that was selling drugs and kids' games in the same sleazy ad. "Somewhere out there, a diabolical marketing machine is reaching through cyberspace offering wide-eyed kids all kinds of goodies, including their very own custom-made smileyfaces or 'emoticons,' for use with AOL's chat program, AND their choice of highly addictive narcotics and sexual-performance enhancement drugs, with a selection of adult Web sites to boot!" It alerts us parents to the fact that having anti-virus and -spyware software installed isn't just about PC security, it's more and more about online kids' well-being. The line between online safety and PC security is blurring, if not dissolving. And we can enlist our tech-literate kids to join in a family mission: to be ever alert about the latest PC protections and about not downloading junk - no matter how great the games, software, emoticons, sweepstakes, polls, and other "cool stuff" sound to family PC users of all ages. BTW, Brian spent about 7 hours cleaning up his friend's PC so it would function again, and he names/links to a number of software products (some free) that helped with the process; his piece is both meaty and fun to read.

High-frequency viruses

Family computer users, get ready: Our anti-virus software is in for a challenge. "Instead of releasing Windows viruses intermittently, many creators of worms and trojans are pumping them out with increasing frequency," the BBC reports. "For a while new variants of one virus, called Mytob, were appearing every hour." The BBC cites computer-security experts as saying that if anti-virus companies could produce patches within three hours of a virus's first appearance, we'd be fine, but they typically take 10 hours to do so. What this means is that families can no longer unthinkingly rely on their anti-virus software and services. Ideally, whoever hears about a new virus circulating needs to tell the rest of the family, and make sure everybody remembers not to click on attachments in either email or instant messages. Meanwhile, ZDNET reports on another budding trend in online pests: recon, or vulnerability assessment, worms. They're sent out to "check computers for security flaws and relay the information back to the author." All we can do about these is follow the three cardinal rules of PC security: anti-virus software, firewall (e.g., Outpost or ZoneAlarm, both free), and keeping up-to-date with Microsoft's patches (there's a major one coming this week).

A mom takes issue with MySpace

Kathy in California recently emailed me:

"Hello Anne, I would love to correspond with other parents about this subject. Perhaps if we all shout loud enough someone just might hear us! I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have three children and have cancelled two accounts. Their ages are, 13 and 15. Boys. They weren't exactly 'happy' about the cancellation, but they are good kids and comply with our rules.... I did some research.... I wanted to get an address and name of a CEO or someone other than 'Tom' [the contact provided at MySpace.com]. I've emailed Tom, and he does not respond. Anyway, you will be interested to know that I found out the names and addresses of the CEO, the president, and the founding member of the venture capitalist company. I intend on writing to them to express my feelings, most notably their lack of responsibility where children are concerned. If I could single-handedly shut them down, I'd do it in a heartbeat!" Please see this week's issue of my newsletter for Kathy's full email and one from another mother Feel free to post your own comments just below or email me thoughts, experiences, family Internet policies, etc. anytime.

On Net predators' trail

The Washington Post's description of what goes on at the Cyber Crimes Center in Fairfax, Va., is not easy reading for a parent, but it's good to see what's being done to protect children around the world. The Center is a "state-of-the-art forensic computer lab run by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency [ICE]," the Post reports. Its investigators "are cracking the most sensational, horrifying, gut-wrenching criminal cases involving children, pornography, predators and the Internet." The Post quotes Ernie Allen, CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, as saying that 10 years ago even he didn't think there was a significant market for this material, but what we all now know is that it's a "multibillion-dollar industry around the world." But progress is being made in fighting it, with law enforcement agencies using the very technology that predators use as a tool against them. In the two years since ICE launched Operation Predator, "more than 5,700 people have been arrested in more than 100 countries, with crucial support from the Cyber Crimes Center."

Legal music's next step?

Watch out iTunes and Yahoo Music Unlimited, here comes MSN's music subscription service. "The tentative features of the new service - which is still under development - include advanced community aspects and playlist-sharing," CNET reports. But here's where MSN will really up the ante: It wants subscribers to be able to play any song purchased at iTunes on music players other than the iPod, what a lot of digital music fans have been waiting for. To that end, MSN is seeking rights from record companies to create a Microsoft-formatted version of any song people can find at iTunes.

P2P networks' dilemma

File-sharing networks aren't the only channel for traffickers in child pornography, but they're definitely one of them. Which puts the P2P networks in a tight spot, the Dallas Morning News reports: They want to help law enforcement find the illegal pornographic content without sending the signal that they can track all illegal activity, including music copyright infringement. "The [P2P] companies don't want to appear to have too much control over what users trade." And law enforcement does agree that if pedophiles come to believe the file-sharing networks are no longer anonymous zones, "they'll simply move to darker corners of the Internet where they're more difficult to catch ... chat rooms, newsgroups, email and even Web pages," the Morning News adds. The article goes into the types of tools now available to both media companies and law enforcement for identifying file-sharers. It's also good background for the US Supreme Court decision on MGM v. Grokster expected this month. In that case, entertainment companies are asking the court to hold file-sharing companies responsible for users' infringement of copyright laws.

Net-savvy school

Here's an enlightened school, where tech's concerned: The William Penn School in Philadelphia sees cyberspace as an extension of its community, ConnectforKids.org reports in a thoughtful article, "Cyberbullying: No muscles needed." "The school community doesn't begin and end at the door." Though traditionally schools saw anything happening off of school property as beyond their reach, this may have to change as, increasingly, everything happening at school spills into a constant swirl of instant messages. To get students thinking about the possibility of consequences, Penn even had local police officers come in and alert them to the fact that "electronic messages such as IMs and emails leave 'fingerprints' - nine-digit numbers recorded with your ISP (Internet Service Provider)." CFK adds that "violations of the school's honor code land a student in front of the community council, leading to suspension or expulsion. But small things can tweak a student's conscience," Penn has found, too. "For example, the school's director of technology put a mirror up in the lab, bearing the caption 'Are you a cyberbully?,' with action steps for kids who think they're victims as well." For more on this, please see "Cybersocializing, cyberbullying: Where are the parents?"

Help for file-sharers' parents

London-based Childnet International today released a leaflet and companion Web site, "Young People, Music and the Internet: A Guide for Parents about P2P, file-sharing and downloading," the BBC reports. The leaflet, which was printed in eight languages and will be distributed in 19 countries, describes the little-known risks associated with using the global peer-to-peer (P2P) networks - pornography, viruses, spyware, and loss of personal privacy, as well as the legal risk. Here's the site at Childnet (Net Family News contributed to the project). The launch coincided with a lot of digital-music news this week:

* A Los Angeles Times story about the benefits of file-sharing to many independent record labels, 125 of which have just started their own trade association, CNET reports
* A new study cited by CNET finding that Apple's iTunes is as popular as many P2P networks
* Another CNET piece about a new, legal ("instantly gratifying") option in the free-music scene that combines P2P with legal Internet radio - something besides the 30-second sampling clip, a 99-cent download, or signing up for a subscription service.
* A new law in Sweden banning the sharing of music files online without the payment of royalties - Swedish news site The Local reports.

Candid teen-protection campaign

Many parents have heard that one in five children received a sexual solicitation online in 1998 and '99. It's a figure from a study done for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (and right now being updated) by the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center. Meanwhile, the number of US kids online has grown to 87% (or 21 million, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project), so what better time to launch a fresh nationwide ad campaign to alert girls in particular to the risk of online sexual predation (two-thirds of the children surveyed for that original study were girls)? "Created to coincide with the designation by the United States Senate of June as national Internet safety month, the campaign is the second joint effort in two years by the Advertising Council and the center, a nonprofit organization that works with the Justice Department to prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation and to help find missing children," the New York Times reports. The print, radio, and TV campaign, launched today, is hard-hitting. One of the TV ads "shows a disheveled apartment being searched by police officers, as one of them puts a computer keyboard into a plastic bag. A teenage girl warns in the voiceover, 'Before you start an online relationship with a guy, think about how it could end'." Here's the National Center's press release about the campaign.

Tragic end to gamers' dispute

A gamer in China killed a fellow player for selling something that never really existed for real money. "Qui Chengwei stabbed Zhu Caoyuan in the chest when he found out Zhu had sold his virtual sword for 7,200 Yuan [about $870]," the BBC reports. Qui had loaned Zhu the sword. It was a "gaming artifact," a weapon that Qui's character had won in the process of playing the popular multiplayer online fantasy game "Legend of Mir 3." "Attempts to take the dispute to the police failed because there is currently no law in China to protect virtual property," according to the BBC. South Korea, on the other hand, does have a law enforcement unit that investigates "in-game crime." Qui has been given a suspended death sentence for killing Zhu, who was 26. Here's MMORPG.com's description of the game. This is probably indication enough of how much gamers value gaming artifacts, but the BBC reports that they are "a booming business on the Web," eBay's Internet games section having seen revenues of $9 million even as far back as 2003.

Mobile bullying

Watch out for the picture phones! In the UK, where cellphone use by young people is much higher than in the US, one in five 11-to-19-year-olds have been bullied by mobile phone or via the Net, 14% have been threatened or harassed using text messages, and 10% have been intimidated or embarrassed by bullies using images taken with camera phones, the BBC reports. It's citing research by UK children's charity NCH, which also found that "some 26% of digital bullying victims did not know the identity of their tormentor." The BBC added, however, that "in terms of the proportion of children affected, the problem would not appear to be getting worse."

'Camp Unwired' appeals

Unplugging kids is becoming a selling point for US summer camps. "The number of new camps that limit gadgets and electronic communication is on the rise," Business Week reports. "While 9 in 10 camps allow parents to send e-mails, almost none allow kids to write back over the Internet. Some 90% of camps don't allow cell phones." Farm & Wilderness in Vermont, "a Vermont cluster of six camps," is an exapmle - its cabins have no electricity, which makes it really hard to charge up one's cell phone! But that's not to say that new friends from camp aren't IM-ing soon after they get home.

New resource for movie-swappers

The release of "RatDVD" file file-sharing software out on the Net is just the latest example (for parents as well as corporations) of how workarounds keep bobbing up whenever there are efforts to control online activity. "A group of anonymous programmers has released a new software tool online that threatens to raise the stakes for Hollywood studios fighting Internet movie-swapping," CNET reports. It's impossible to tell how popular RatDVD will be because it has just been released, but CNET says it offers something extra: the little extras that come with movie DVDs you buy which don't come with movies swapped on the Net (alternate endings, outtakes, directors' comments, etc.). Here's Media Week on recent legal activity by the Motion Picture Associatio of America against file-sharers.

Teacher to parents: Be wary of teen blogs

Earlier this spring a teacher in San Francisco noticed her students were blogging in school. Besides reminding them it was against school policy and monitoring their online activities, she decided to look into what made it so hard for them to stop. "I must admit, I myself didn't see the danger in these sites early on," Christina wrote me. "The kids actually told me about them awhile back.... At this age, these students are looking for any possible available outlet to express themselves. I just figured they have discovered yet another. Well, they certainly had. When I followed some of the history links from the computers that were being used, I was stunned at the content of these online journals.... They are uploading their pictures, lying about their ages, yet posting the school they attend, their birthdate, what they do after school, places they hang out, discuss their sexuality.... I immediately sent a letter home to parents informing them of the use of these Web sites, explaining what 'blogging' means, and telling them that not only has this occurred during school time, but many postings occur late into the evening and early morning hours." I asked her if she minded if I shared her concerns with readers. "Sure," Christina replied, "any way my email might be of help in exposing this situation, please go ahead." Thus this week's feature. She said a lot more that parents might find useful, so please read on! Also feel free to post your view on or experience with teen bloggers below (or email me anytime).

3 generations of Net users

It's hard to get teenagers to reflect out loud on their experiences on the Net, because - to them - being online is like breathingsays one expert. And yet, says another, "they're not naturally good at using the technology." They work at it, put a lot of time into it, the latter, Susannah Stern, a youth-Internet-culture researcher at the University of San Diego, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune - especially kids who develop their own Web sites, play online games, use technologies as creative tools. Because this is contrary to what a lot of grownups (who are less familiar with tech than their kids), think, this is worth highlighting. It's at the tail-end of a thoughtful look at three generations' approach to tech and the Net at the Star Tribune. "As this wired generation enters adulthood, the impact of growing up Web-savvy will have far-reaching implications, experts say. The Wired Generation will be better equipped than their parents to monitor their own children's computer use. Their social networks will not be bound by geography as much as their parents' and grandparents'. They will have easier access to all kinds of information."

The new computer camp

In her first two years of technology camp, 11-year-old Lily "learned the basics of Web design and video game creation, so this year she's moving on to creating digital videos," the Associated Press reports. (Her mom, a professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley, where tech camp is held, told the AP that Lily does other things during the summer, particularly sports like soccer and basketball, so there's balance of activities.) Joe, 16, Some kids, though, just couldn't be happier any place other than computer camp. who built his first computer at age 12, "has signed up for what will be his third summer at a sleepaway tech camp run by Cybercamps at the University of Minnesota at St. Paul." He wants to be a digital animator. At today's tech camps, kids don't just play video games and surf the Web, they get serious instruction. And - though they're "on the computers for five to six hours a day, the instructors also take them outside for activities to break up the day."

Bagle worm's vicious new variants

Have you been getting a lot of emails with attachments this week? Don't click! Tell your kids not to click on attachments unless they call/email the friend first to make sure s/he sent that email! These represent variants of the Bagle worm that pack a triple threat to family PCs, ZDNET reports. First, it emails itself to everybody in your email address book. Second, it puts a "Trojan" on your PC that blocks anti-virus software updates and access to Windows Update . Third, it installs a second Trojan that disables firewalls and anti-virus software altogether. Having done all that, the malicious hackers sending out the worm can now control your PC and network it into a "botnet" - "groups of networked machines, often numbering in the thousands, that are hired as spam relays, for tracking users' behavior and for identity theft."

Net to have red-light district

It's good and bad for online kids. On one hand, they'll be able to find smut more easily, on the other it's easier to restrict them from a defined adult-only area. What I'm referring to is the news that a dot-xxx domain has just been approved by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers), the international body that oversees the Net's addressing system (including .com, .org, etc.). "Sexually explicit sites will be encouraged to move to the new domains to make it easier for people to filter and avoid them," the BBC reports. The Toronto-based non-profit International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR) and its ICM Registry will run .xxx as "a voluntary adult top-level domain," meaning porn operators don't have to use it, but there will be incentives; the most effective one IFFOR is pushing for is credit-card companies like Visa and MasterCard working with adult-content companies only in the dot-xxx area. Child pornography, which is illegal, will not appear/be accepted in the domain. According to the Associated Press, "ICM contends the 'xxx' Web addresses, which it plans to sell for $60 a year [around 10 times the cost of most domain registrations], will protect children from online smut if adult sites voluntarily adopt the suffix so filtering software used by families can more effectively block access to those sites." It certainly won't be the cure-all in kids' online safety, but - as one expert told me - "it's just another tool in parents' toolbox." Here's earlier, more in-depth coverage of this development, long in the works) and CNET.

'Ana' on the Web

"Ana is short for anorexia, and to the alarm of experts many who suffer from the potentially fatal eating disorder are part of an underground movement that promotes self-starvation and, in some cases, has an almost cult-like appeal," reports the Associated Press, in an update on the phenomenon that would be helpful to any parent concerned about teenage eating disorders. "The movement has flourished on the Web" and now has a following in many parts of the world. The article lists some resource links at the end.

Teens on e-dating

Hmm. This article in Silver Chips Online, Montgomery Blair High School's "Official Online Newspaper," is a little unnerving for a parent, but also very insightful. For example, Raquel, a 10th grader at Montgomery Blair (in Silver Spring, Md.), started an online relationship with a boy in Nebraska three years ago. "After two years of logging on for love, the two decided to become an online couple," reports Silver Chips, though not explaining what that means. It leads with an account of how Alyssa, a senior, flew to Chicago on her own to meet "Jeff, the boyfriend she knew only through phone and online conversations." Alyssa and Jeff are now planning to attend the same college in Pennsylvania, at least with Jeff's parents' blessing. Raquel was smart, according to Silver Chips. She "grew to trust [the Nebraska boy] because he kept the same personality [over the first two years] ... and she spoke with Parker and his mother on the phone." The student writer cites the advice of an assistant professor of communications at the University of San Diego that online teenagers "perform identity checks like [Raquel's] ... and talking to their online love interest's parents on the phone, before they reveal too much about themselves." An advantage to these relationships, the writer says: Raquel "can be sure things won't get physical with her online boyfriend as long as their relationship remains strictly on the Web." The article also reports on the downside. Another senior, Heather, "now realizes that she never would have let her [online] relationship with Bryan [in Mich.] become as destructive as it did had it developed out of face-to-face interaction." She found it hard to recognize "the warning signs of an abusive relationship when they took shape on the Internet."

Does tech help kids?: Study

Researchers are having a tough time catching up with the breathtaking speed of kids' adoption of the Net and technology, but this year they've made some strides with three significant studies. The latest, released today, is from The Children's Partnership (TCP), which spent the past year looking at a question that hasn't been asked enough: "How can the Internet help America's children succeed?" It found that, while the Net and "technology tools" are "enhancing successful outcomes for young people, they are also seriously disadvantaging those young people without access and the skills to use them. However," it continued, "when low-income children do have these tools, they use them to gain opportunities for themselves at higher rates than wealthier young people." That was one of the most thought-provoking findings - interesting to consider alongside the earlier Kaiser Family Foundation's study about our "media-saturated" youth (see my 3/11 issue). As for kids' adoption of tech, TCP found that "over the past 10 years, the number of kids accessing the Internet from home has grown from 15% to 68%; 77% of 7-to-17-year-old US residents have computers at home and 90% at school. Here's further fresh research, about parental controls, from the Pew Internet & American Life project. And here's the executive summary of and press release for TCP's "Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children."