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."