A dad on kids & blogs

Dan in southern California emailed me recently about his 12-year-old's blogging. "I was shocked to see a picture of her, a profile, a Yahoo email address I did not know about, and profiles of all her friends that are hooked up on this site," Dan wrote. "A simple click on their pictures and you have public email correspondence for all to read." He and his wife weren't sure yet what to do about this - they didn't want to overreact - so for starters he wanted to learn a little about these sites (MySpace, LiveJournal, DeadJournal, Xanga, Blurty, etc.). I told him he'd stumbled upon a pretty big phenomenon of teen life these days....

52% of the blogs out there are being developed and maintained by teens 13-19, reports a just-released study of "Gender, Identity, and Language Use in Teenage Blogs" at Georgetown University.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project puts the overall number of US-based blogs at about 8 million late last year.

A new blog is created somewhere in the world about every 5.8 seconds, The Register reported last summer.

Dan said there were a lot of pieces to this that concerned him. He spelled them out. Then, a few weeks later, he kindly told me how he and Jamie (not her real name) worked through the issues and checked out her circle of friends' blogs from both caring and ill-intentioned adults' perspectives. Click here to read his account in this week's newsletter.

Teddy-bear baby monitor?

A slightly chilling sign of things to come or just a concept teddy bear? That's the question raised by this scenario from the Associated Press: The toy bear "sitting in the corner of the child's room might look normal, until his head starts following the kid around using a face recognition program, perhaps also allowing a parent to talk to the child through a special phone, or monitor the child via a camera and wireless Internet connection." AP reports that there are already toys for sale that "know a child's name or can incorporate other personal information." The problem is, what if that toy gets into the hands of someone with bad intentions? More and more I think parents need to be part of design teams because techies can get understandably excited about the capabilities they're developing; the downside just leaves their radar screens.

Newest kids' online safety site

IKeepSafe.org - endorsed by the First Ladies of nearly every state as well as the very animated Faux Paw the Techno Cat and McGruff the Crime Dog - plans to educate children and parents nationwide about safe use of the Internet. Founded by Utah's former First Lady Jacalyn Leavitt, the nonprofit organization behind the public-awareness site aims to be an umbrella for online-safety projects throughout the US. The site contains messages from first ladies, a little movie starring McGruff, a comic book featuring Faux Paw, and online-safety tips for parents and kids. Eventually, the site will have online-safety games for young visitors to play - to help them develop their own Net-safety savvy. Here's coverage at WFIE in Indiana, KFSN in San Francisco, and the Salt Lake Tribune.

Teens' exposure to sex online: Study

For this study, the professor decided to see for herself what teenagers encounter in online chat. UCLA psychology professor Patricia Greenfield "entered a Web area devoted to teenagers - whose motto was 'Be seen, be heard, be you' - and was 'shocked' by what she found there, including unsolicited sexual advances from strangers," according to the press release of UCLA's Children's Digital Media Center, of which Greenfield is director. She writes, "The sexuality expressed in a teen chat room was public, linked to strangers and had nothing to do with relationships. It was very explicit and focused on physical acts, and often associated with the degradation of women. I started to receive private instant messages, including a crude sexual advance, just by hanging out at the chat room, even though I had not participated in any of the ongoing conversations." One of the study's conclusions: "Not only will children seeking pornography 'find it all over the Internet,' but children who are not seeking pornography are often inadvertently exposed to it when they conduct Internet searches on perfectly appropriate subjects." Here's a report on the study from Child Health News and here's the Children's Digital Media Center page at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Video games: the bad & the good

The state of Illinois is stepping up its anti-violent games effort. Two state legislators introduced a law that would ban sales of violent and sexually explicit games to minors, CNET reports. "California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Michigan all have similar proposals working their way through the legislative process." Internationally, Kanagawa Prefecture outside Tokyo "plans Japan's first ban on selling violent videogames to children," Australian IT reports. US courts have overturned similar efforts in St. Louis County, Mo., Indianapolis, and the state of Washington. Language in Illinois's proposed law could be a problem for passage, CNET adds, because "it doesn't rely on ESRB [Entertainment Software Rating Board] ratings but instead sets its own definition of objectionable content." In the UK, advertising has been the focus recently: television ads for the M-rated game Grand Theft Auto: Andreas have been banned during hours the children typically watch TV, the BBC reports. As for the *upside*: Surgeons are saying video games are good for developing skill in laparoscopic surgery, the New York Times reports. "The complex manual dexterity required to be a stellar video gamer and minimally invasive surgeon are strikingly similar."

For more on games, see NFN's "Kids & video game violence," "Trash talk in online games," "10 worst video games," "Kid-tested, parent-approved video games," and "Check out the game ratings!".

Takeout from inside the game

This takes the (pizza) pie, not the cake! Gamers at your house may soon be ordering dinner during play. Sony has built a pizza-ordering function into its latest multiplayer game, the Associated Press reports. "Type the command '/pizza' while playing Everquest II, a fantasy game with 330,000 active players, and get the Pizza Hut Web site, where you can place orders for delivery." Oh no, but what if you're playing in a non-Pizza Hut city?! USATODAY picked this piece up and, in its e-newsletter, headed it "Evercrust." So corny.

Monitoring young drivers

Parents are beginning to employ technology used by trucking companies to monitor their young drivers. "Figuring their children are better off annoyed than dead ... families are spending as much as $2,500 for microcomputers and 'black boxes' that feed speed and braking data into a home computer; cockpit video cameras; [and] Global Positioning System devices that track teenagers," the Washington Post reports. The Post leads with the example of soon-to-be driver's-license-holder Ben Ellison, whose new Mazda now has "a matchbook-size device plugged into the steering column near the knees of his cargo pants." But that's about half the battle - do these things monitor cell-phone texting and talking? In a story about whether laws against using handheld phones while driving do a bit of good, the New York Times has it that "no one doubts that using a cellphone can cause lapses in attention.... The question, at one time, was whether that was any worse than, say, unwrapping a cheeseburger or lighting a cigarette. Now it's also a question of whether a cellphone is more of a hazard than playing a DVD, using the calendar or email functions on a wireless hand-held device, or picking out a playlist on an iPod." My guess is, texting and MP3 players have just as much impact on driver safety as velocity. Studies are showing, the Times adds, that - even where just talking on the phone is concerned - it's the distraction of the conversation itself, not the act of dialing or holding the phone, that accounts for increased risk. I am *really* not suggesting we should monitor every move our children make - only that driver safety solutions, like online safety ones, are as individual as children are.

P2P update: New lawsuits, etc.

Seven hundred fifty-three more Americans will soon be hearing from the RIAA. The total number of lawsuits to date differs from report to report. P2PNet and MTV say around 9,100 people have been sued (the former makes a number of interesting anti-RIAA points), Australian Financial Review puts the number at 6,500. Meanwhile, one very popular P2P service, iMesh (an Israel-based service whose software was downloaded 715,000 times in just one week in Feb.), is currently enjoying approval by media companies. Why? Because it's working on using its file-sharing technology to sell music, CNET reports. So is a soon-to-be-unveiled service called Mashboxx. So, for now anyway, users of these services won't get sued. But if they're also buying cheap music from a Russian site called AllofMP3.com, they might want to know it's under criminal investigation, according to another CNET report (for more, see "Cheaper online tunes"). In related news, the UK is the No. 1 country in the world in downloading TV shows, the BBC reports. The Washington Post recently ran a great big-picture piece about pro- and anti-P2P arguments the US Supreme Court will be hearing later this month, including those about other technologies file-sharers use (e.g., turning radio broadcasts into computer files that can be burned onto CDs). A lot of companies, technologies, and consumers will be affected by this decision. "Hundreds of existing products could be threatened, [these communities] say. And they fear that new products, and early funding, will die in the crib," the Post reports.

Garret the Ferret teaches digital ethics

Kids themselves have named a new comic-book hero, Garret the Ferret, who the Business Software Alliance hopes will teach them digital copyright ethics. "That software you're copying is protected by copyright laws. What you are doing is wrong," Garret tells Shawn, a comic-book kid who's installing a friend's graphics program on his home computer late one night. They're the stars of "Copyright Crusader to the Rescue," a four-page comic/"curriculum" that the BSA is mailing to 30,000 fourth-grade teachers who subscribe to the children's publication Weekly Reader. So parents may soon receive a letter that comes with the companion teacher's guide. Both can be downloaded at the BSA's Play it Cyber Safe site. Here's the BSA's press release about the program.

P2P update: New lawsuits, etc.

Seven hundred fifty-three more Americans will soon be hearing from the RIAA. The total number of lawsuits to date differs from report to report. P2PNet and MTV say around 9,100 people have been sued (the former makes a number of interesting anti-RIAA points), Australian Financial Review puts the number at 6,500. Meanwhile, one very popular P2P service, iMesh (an Israel-based service whose software was downloaded 715,000 times in just one week in Feb.), is currently enjoying approval by media companies. Why? Because it's working on using its file-sharing technology to sell music, CNET reports. So is a soon-to-be-unveiled service called Mashboxx. So, for now anyway, users of these services won't get sued. But if they're also buying cheap music from a Russian site called AllofMP3.com, they might want to know it's under criminal investigation, according to another CNET report (for more, see "Cheaper online tunes"). In related news, the UK is the No. 1 country in the world in downloading TV shows, the BBC reports. The Washington Post recently ran a great big-picture piece about pro- and anti-P2P arguments the US Supreme Court will be hearing later this month, including those about other technologies file-sharers use (e.g., turning radio broadcasts into computer files that can be burned onto CDs). A lot of companies, technologies, and consumers will be affected by this decision. "Hundreds of existing products could be threatened, [these communities] say. And they fear that new products, and early funding, will die in the crib," the Post reports.

Beware the new 'Bagle'

This is a good time to remind your kids not to click on any email attachments. Moving fast, the new Bagle has already been sent to millions of email addresses around the world. It's a trojan virus that, when opened, attacks PC security programs like anti-virus software and firewalls (which of course leaves your computer vulnerable to further attacks and outside control), CNET reports. It also automatically connects your computer to a number of Web sites your family doesn't want to go to. Here's ZDNET UK's coverage.

P2P: Musicians weigh in

The discussion about file-sharing is definitely heating up - especially in the US, where the Supreme Court will soon hear arguments on this. Today a group of prominent musicians and artists broke ranks with their industry in "urging the Supreme Court not to hold online file-sharing services responsible for the acts of users who illegally trade songs, movies and software," the Washington Post reports. While (in court documents filed today) they condemn the stealing of copyrighted works, they also argue that that P2P services such as Grokster, Kazaa, and BitTorrent, "provide a legal and critical alternative for artists to distribute their material." To many musicians, they add, the benefits of file-sharing far outweigh the risks of copyright infringement. Legal docs on the P2P issue (Supreme and lower courts) can be found on this page at FindLaw . Earlier this week, the Post had a fulsome update on the file-sharing scene. For a parent's-eye-view, see my "File-sharing realities for families."

Cell-phone digital divide?

Maybe not. Here, too, are work-arounds that may not be good for teenagers. Sometimes 17-year-old J.J. Payne in San Francisco goes without lunch so he can pay his $100+ monthly mobile phone bill, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Regardless of income level, cell phones are a hot ticket for teens. "Kevin Truitt, the principal of [J.J.'s high school], has struggled for years with students talking on their cell phones in class or text messaging under their desks. But now, it's the debt his students are racking up with their phones that has him concerned," according to the Chronicle. One student told Truitt he had a $2,000 debt. The scary thing is, one cell-phone service in the SF Bay Area allows minors to sign its contracts without a parent co-signing. For more on this issue, see "Young phoners in debt." [A 2004 Yankee Group survey found that half of US teenagers have their own cell phones, up from one-third the year before.] In the UK, the BBC reports on questionable financial tactics used by phone ringtone sellers - and some tough new rules they face. Looks like US providers could use some new rules, at least where minors are concerned. As for the earlier digital divide - the *computer*-based one - the World Bank says it's closing, Reuters reports.

ID thieves targeting kids

The latest surprise about identity theft is that it's now victimizing children of all ages. Some have bad credit records even before they get their driver's licenses. The Seattle Times led with the story of one 3-year-old whose mother tried to start a savings account for her, only to find someone had "beaten her to it," using the child's social security number in what the FBI is calling "one of the fastest-growing crimes in America." This is not just an Internet story, since in many cases parents don't know how the tiniest children's personal data are being stolen. But it's good Congress is taking notice of the problem, zooming in on one source: huge databases of personal info like those of ChoicePoint (from whom personal data of 145,000-500,000 people were stolen) and Westlaw, which one lawmaker said makes ChoicePoint look like "child's play." The Washington Post, New York Times, and CNET report (CNET's today).

New game consoles & kid safety

If they aren't already, parents will soon be bracing themselves for the kid-targeted marketing blitz that's coming. A three-page "FAQ" at CNET today is itself probably part of gamers' cyberspace-based speculations (aka "viral marketing") about what the consoles will look like and what they'll do - gamers are checking out CNET's little companion lideshow of "Nintendo insider" sketches and "Photoshop jockey" renderings. Buried on the FAQ's third page is a question a lot of parents will have: "What kind of online capabilities will it have?" CNET says that Sony's PS3 will only expand the Net-connected gaming opportunities PlayStation 2 provided. Nintendo executives "have vowed to steer clear of online games until they see a viable business model in it," CNET reports, adding, though, that they're bound to feel pressure to jump in. Xbox Live online gaming is central to Microsoft's strategy, and Bill Gates has talked about adding instant messaging to the service," CNET adds. The bottom line for parents is that the old days of merely filtering the family PC are over. Families need a multi-tech, multi-platform online-safety strategy that, ideally, involves thinking together on how to develop it (thinking together will actually make it a *lot* easier and a great opportunity to swap kid tech literacy and parent life literacy.

Scary side of Webcams

A Webcam in a girls' locker room in the Nashville, Tenn., area. That's the story (and now lawsuit) with which the New York Times led. "Like each Web page, each [Net-connected Webcam] has an address, and unless the cameras have been concealed behind software firewalls, their addresses make them specifically searchable and identifiable [by any Web surfer]. A Google search one day last week indicated more than 10,000 such Web cameras," the Times reports. It looks like, as with many Net-related technologies, the law has not caught up with Webcams. Nor with the camera-security policies of sellers and buyers (such as schools) of Webcams. Then there's the difference between accidental and deliberate access to Webcam images. In the girls' locker room in Tennessee, the images of teenage girls in underwear were protected only by a default username and password that the school had never changed. "Lists of default passwords for many different types of computer systems are available on almost any 'hacking' site," and hackers probably aren't the only people interested in access to these kinds of Webcam images. Now we need to tell our young athletes to check locker rooms for cameras before they change. And we also need to find out where schools and daycare centers have security cameras installed!