Filtering Facts

iKeep Safe reminds us to “Take Precautions When Traveling and Using Free Internet”
Taking the family on vacation? Bringing along the laptop to look for things to do and places to go?  It makes sense, but be careful. Trusting unfamiliar wireless networks could mean that you are trusting your information to fake networks created by cybercriminals who are lurking on the other side ready to steal your information. 

Nancy Willard at SafeKids.com tells us “Web 2.0 schools – something more profound is happening”
What these technologies are doing is challenging the hierarchical authoritarian-based structures in our society. We are changing to a network-based, community-based society. And this brings us to schools. Currently, most schools function as strict hierarchies. But they don’t have to. 

Anne Collier at NetFamily News blogs about a “Morgan Stanley teen intern on peers’ media use”
Though Morgan Stanley says its report by 15-year-old intern Matthew Robson on his friends’ media habits got “five or six times more feedback” than its European media team’s usual reports, the investment banking firm “made no claims for [the report's] statistical rigour,” the Financial Times reports. 

Linda Criddle at iLookBothWays asks us to “Listen to the new Summer Online Safety Tips Podcast”
As president of the Safe Internet Alliance, Linda Criddle recently hosted a podcast to discuss Summer Online Safety Tips with Kim Sanchez of Microsoft and Holly Hawkins of AOL.   For most kids summer affords more free time – and with working parents, much of that time for teens is spent on their own. But unlike past generations, with today’s technologies that does not mean they are unsupervised.

Lots of blogging about yesterday’s Point.Smart.Click.Safe report, including: 

Marsali Hancock, President, iKeepSafe blogged:
I was honored to be part of the Blue Ribbon Task Force that brought together so many key stakeholders including public health–all looking for industry best practices that will improve the online experience for youth. This was real work: industry stakeholders actively participated and debated. We all considered every option that was brought to the table, looking for new tools and expectations that promote cyber-citizenship. iKeepSafe is pleased to take these valuable findings on to the NTIA working group as a springboard for future discussion. Moving forward we encourage industry to simplify and expand the process of reporting abuse to allow for intervention, prevention and bystander awareness initiatives. We’re encouraged by new industry trends that allow more options for users around identity, privacy and reputation management.

 Adam Thierer of the Progress & Freedom Foundation says
It was a great honor to serve on this working group alongside so many respected child safety experts and advocates.  The working group has produced a stellar report, finding that there is no single ‘silver-bullet’ solution to child safety concerns. Instead, we need a holistic approach based on education, empowerment, and sensible industry self-regulation. The best practices outlined in this report will set a new benchmark for online operators going forward to ensure that they have policies in place to keep kids and parents educated and informed about how to stay safe online. 

Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing for Microsoft blogged:
Like most parents, I want to help my children enjoy a safer and more enriching online experience.  This is a complex problem that lots of people are trying to solve and, to that end, we’ve seen a series of high-profile commissions and reports, each with its own set of recommendations to improve online safety.   This week another group, PointSmart.ClickSafe, issued a report, but this one has something different – a specific list of recommended best practices for Internet companies.  We’re still evaluating the report, but I’m pleased to say that many of the best practices involve elements that we’ve already embraced at Microsoft.   

Other topics: 

Linda Criddle at iLookBothWays writes “Children 2-11 Years-Old Now Represent 9.5% of the Online Universe”
New research by The Nielsen Company found that nearly 16 million children aged 2-11 are active online, representing 9.5 percent of the active online universe. Overall use is still low at 11 hours per month though this represents a 63% increase over the average 7 hours spent online by the same demographic in 2004. The great news is with kids averaging 22 minutes online a day, the worries that parents use the Internet as a digital babysitter appear unfounded.

Anne Collier at NetFamilyNews asks “The power of play: Cyberbullying solution?”
I’ve long felt that empathy training and other efforts to reduce the impact of online disinhibition (helping kids understand those are human beings with feelings behind those profiles, screennames, avatars, and text messages) are important keys to beating cyberbullying. But now I’m thinking there’s probably a role for play! 

Cyber Patrol tells us that “Cyber-bullies come in all shapes and sizes”
Cyber-bullies are one kind of cyber shark and they can come in all shapes and sizes. While the cyber shark that could inflict the most damage on your child would no doubt be an online sexual predator, your kids are more likely to become victimized by cyber-bullies. Ranging from classmates to casual friends, they use the power of the Internet to spread trash and lies about your kid to anyone who will pay attention.

Net Smartz intern Jovan Petty writes about “Teens Talk Back: College and Social Networking Sites”

LeGrand Woolley at Net Nanny blogs about the “Feature of the Day: Dynamic Analysis and Age-Based Settings”

iKeep Safe sounds off about, “Lori Drew Judge Dismisses MySpace Cyber-bullying Conviction based on Terms of Use Violation”
Wu’s decision to overrule Drew’s conviction highlights the difficulty in prosecuting cyber-bullying with the law, and the necessity for cyber-citizenship education (at home and in the schools).

Anne Collier at Net Family News gives her own take on “Lori Drew acquitted in cyberbullying case”
In a second ruling in the Megan Meier cyberbullying case, a federal judge yesterday threw out Lori Drew’s three misdemeanor convictions of late last year.

Larry Magid at SafeKids asks, “Should schools end Internet safety nights?”
Call it Tech Parenting 2.0 or perhaps just “get a clue.” Whatever you call it, it’s time to put Internet safety into a larger context. And instead of mostly using police officers (as is often the case) or even “Internet safety experts” like me as presenters, they should get the kids involved.

Livia Web Protection gives us some much-needed “Tools to Twitter More Safely”
With Twitter, many times, users tweet interesting stories to their followers. Unfortunately, cybercriminals can also send around fradulent links that unsuspecting users will click on and be sent to malicious web sites. Livia Web Protection was listed as one of three tools available to help consumers Twitter more safely on Byron Acohido’s ‘The Last Watchdog on Internet Security’ blog.

Marian Merritt asks “Should Teachers ‘Friend’ Their Students?”
Social networks can cause us all headaches but it’s a special kind of pain for teachers, especially younger teachers or those who are the early adopters of technology. The raging debate is whether or not it’s ok for a teacher to “friend” a current student among their friends on Facebook or another social network.

Pandora blogs about “MySpace Monday Madness”
I don’t understand why every parent isn’t using a program like our PC Pandora computer monitoring software, so they can KNOW who their kids are talking to online. Let’s face it, they aren’t going to tell you. I don’t think a 15-year-old girl would tell her parents she is sending her 18-year-old boyfriend nude pics of herself. It’s important to know.

On the iKeepSafe blog,  “Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer For MySpace on Discussing Cyber Safety with Teens and Children”
It’s all a matter of perspective – just like when you think about approaching your teens about safety and privacy.  In your mind, you might be wondering whether your child will think you’re intruding in their online space, so you decide not to say anything.  But maybe that’s just your perspective – dividing up the online from the offline and treating them differently.

 Internet Safety writes “Safe Eyes Mobile Complements Apple’s Parental Controls on iPhone”
We want to applaud Apple for making the iPhone and iPod touch more family-friendly by introducing their parental controls in the 3.0 update. The new settings allow parents to restrict movie, TV show, music, podcast and application access by user age. 

PC Pandora gives their take on “Cox Communications’ Annual Survey: Cyberbullying and Sexting”
The fourth annual National Teen Summit held by Cox Communications released results of a new study on Cyberbullying and Sexting. The results aren’t all too shocking and pretty much what one would expect – if you are embedded in the issue like we are. But for parents who are clueless, some stuff may come as a shocker.

Anne Collier at NetFamily News writes about “Facebook’s new public/private feature”
Is Facebook becoming a cross between Twitter and a mini-blogosphere? Partly – if you make your status updates as long as blog posts. The social network site “is rolling out a new option for users who have made their profiles viewable by everyone,” the Washington Post’s Rob Pegoraro reports. “

Anne Collier at Net Family News gives us a “Heads up on Free Realms chat”
Chat has always been a problematic piece of the Internet where child safety’s concerned – some would say that’s putting it mildly! So it’s a bit surprising that Sony included chat in its new Free Realms virtual world for kids. Online game specialist and blogger Jaime Skelton registered her surprise. 

iKeepSafe tells us about “Common Sense Media: 1/3 of Teens Surveyed Have Used Cell Phones to Cheat”
Robin Raskin, from Raising Digital Kids, did a fascinating highlight post of Common Sense Media’s recent study on teens, cell phones, and cheating. 

Safer Internet Alliance, “Welcomes new partner: Institute on Religion and Public Policy”
The Institute on Religion and Public Policy is dedicated to ensuring freedom of religion and has an overarching goal: To create and strengthen legal, business, academic, media and other systems within countries—and internationally—to protect religious freedom so such abuses do not occur.  This includes creating a safe Internet where individuals can exercise their religions and beliefs without fear of retaliation or attacks.