iKeep Safe tells us the story of “Cynthia Moreno| Colinga MySpace Rant Published in Local Newspaper”
After visiting her hometown of Colinga, Cynthia Moreno posted an unofficial complaint to the city on her MySpace page. Her old high school principal found the rant, and sent it to the editor of the local newspaper. It was printed in the “Letters” section.  The  “letter” whipped up a storm of anger in the town. The Morenos sued the principal for invasion of privacy. They lost. 

Parry Aftab tells us about “The Stopcyberbullying Coalition”
We have formed a coaltion to address cyberbullying and ways young people use technology as a weapon to hurt others. If you are a non-profit, charity, foundation, research group, community organization, school, website, media company or blogger, commercial entity, faith-based organization, governmental entity or agency or a law enforcement organization, we’d love to include you. Let me know.

Larry Magid on SafeKids.com tells us “How to Stop Cyberbullying”
The first things you need to know about cyberbullying are that it’s not an epidemic and it’s not killing our children. Yes, it’s probably one of the more widespread youth risks on the Internet and yes there are some well publicized cases of cyberbullying victims who have committed suicide, but let’s look at this in context.

CyberPatrol tells us about a Predator Working from Library
I read a very disturbing news story today about a homeless man found using the wireless at an Omaha, NB public library–to  entice children.  He was found on the third floor, using a laptop to communicate with what he thought was a 14 year old girl.  Instead, it was a Detective Sergeant from the Internet Crimes Division.

Livia Web Protection warns about “Spam and Malicious URLs Increase via Shortened URL Services”
The amount of spam and malicious URLs is  increasing via shortened URL services. Since Twitter limits Tweets to 140 characters, Twitter users are utilizing shortening URL services such as Bit.ly and TinyURL to send around links to their favorite stories, articles and web pages.

Anne Collier at NetFamilyNews tells us about “Violence in videogames”
Last week I looked at what psychiatrist Stuart Brown says about the power of play and how it can mitigate aggression. This week a look at the videogame part of the picture.

On NetSmarz, “Teens Talk Back: Keeping Summer Safer”
Internet safety is international! Teen Intern Ellen Nadeau shares her thoughts about helping to keep kids safer online all the way from China.

InternetSafety.com thinks that “CNBC’s Special on Porn Softporn Itself?”
Last night CNBC aired “Porn: Business of Pleasure,” a documentary on the current state of the porn industry, hosted by Michelle Lee (this is about the only image from the doc I would be comfortable posting on this blog). To me, the documentary came off as a cross between an industry analysis and a paid advertisement for the porn industry. 

PC Pandora asks “Where is Our Cyber-Czar?”
An editorial in the Washington Post caught my eye. The writer takes a very light look (trust me, tip of the berg) at national cyber-security and asks: where’s our Czar?

A story in the BBC today picks up on a study from UK filtering vendor e-Safe education: 

Data monitored from 30,000 students found content from items such as mobile phones and cameras which had not been picked up by filter systems.  Researchers from online safety firm, E-Safe Education, say children are still able to access inappropriate content. The government’s technology agency for schools, Becta, said systems were tackling this “real problem”.  Students’ data was monitored by E-Safe Education, checking how much inappropriate content was evading the schools’ usual blocking and filter systems.  The firm’s managing director, Colin McKeown, said: “A lot of schools have internet filtering, but they may just filter words and text.  ”We are seeing a new generation of multimedia content and images downloaded from mobile phones, pen drives and CDs and DVDs which do not always have words attached.”

 This is interesting, and I’d love to see the actual research, which unfortunately isn’t on the company’s website.  E-Safe is of course engaging in some marketing here by pointing out how their product is supposedly superior to competitors.  Based on E-Safe’s website collateral, they are selling a solution that in addition to filtering includes security software that manages removable media such as USB drives on networks, as well as image scanning software.   Securing removable media is very good thing to help better secure school networks.  But image scanning software has never proved to be a workable solution for “on the fly” blocking – it simply blocks too much good content.  (But it is very useful for compiling filtering databases by helping to identify sites that are likely to contain pornography.)

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”

A broad industry coalition called PointSmart.ClickSafe has just issued a Task Force Recommendations for best practices for child online safety.  This is a solid report that repeats earlier calls for more education, and for the first time lays out some much needed Internet industry standards.  This is a  real step forward.  Adam Thierer at the Progress and Freedom Foundation has a nice take on the report and puts it into perspective with other major safety reports here: “Five Online Safety Task Forces Agree: Education, Empowerment & Self-Regulation Are the Answer.”

 Here’s what the Task Force has to say on parental controls:

Filters:
A filter is both loved and hated. When it prevents a child from coming across inappropriate content, it is great. When it is incompatible with a business transaction it is not only counterproductive but also costly. Parents, while praising a filter’s effectiveness to stop a child’s inadvertent access to pornography, can also be confused and frustrated by instructions and settings that differ from product to product. Educators admit that young people can often get around filters and fear that public reaction to just one negative incident could be enough to end use of technology at school. And if that negative incident did occur, the legal ramifications are unclear because case law for school situations related to the Internet is not well established. Content that should be filtered out must first be indexed into a corresponding database. If it is not indexed in, it cannot be filtered out. In the end a filter can only be as good as its design and data. By definition, it will never eliminate 100% of the inappropriate content

 The following is a sample of the limitations connected with the purchase, installation, and use of filters:

• No standardization or benchmark exists to differentiate an excellent from a merely good or mediocre product.
• Youth often install computer and Internet tools for untrained or uninformed parents and when doing so bypass the protective settings.
• When set incorrectly the default can result in a total G-rated experience, limiting adult access to more mature and perhaps enriching content.
• Overly restrictive settings chosen by some school systems often lock out harmless and valid educational materials.

 I agree with a lot of this.  It’s true that parents are on their own in evaluating filters.  I’ve rounded up all the reviews of parental control filters written in the last three years here.  Reviews are helpful, but some certification would be better.    I also agree that filters need to be easier to set up – some of the programs, especially when filters are part of a security suite, are too complex. 

I take issue with the assertion that “young people can often get around filters.”  What is this belief based on?  The report cites no evidence to support this. (the evidence on this point is weak, as I’ve blogged about before.)  The report also inaccurately states that “Content that should be filtered out must first be indexed into a corresponding database.  If it is not indexed in, it cannot be filtered out.”   Many filters employ real-time blocking using artificial intelligence, which is prone to over-blocking for sure, but still doesn’t need to be indexed.  Another thing is in the section on “Monitoring software” it states “its weaknesses are the ease by which it can be hacked.”  This is the first I’d ever heard that “monitoring software can eaily be hacked.  I really like to know more about why they believe this. Looking at the panelists, it doesn’t appear that anyone from the filtering industry was part of this report.  That’s unfortunate, because aside from those minor issues, this is actually quite a good report.

In order to manage Internet access in the more complex world of Web 2.0, parents are increasingly turning to monitoring software, often in combination with filtering software ( a recent survey found that 27% of European parents use both filtering and monitoring software).  Spector Pro is often considered the best total monitoring package.  As this review points out, it would be a great total parental control package if they would add blocking along with monitoring.  From the current PC Magazine:

Spector Pro 2009
Bottom Line
While it does include features related to controlling what your kids do on the computer, Spector Pro’s real power is its comprehensive activity monitoring. Mom and Dad can view surfing history, IM conversations, passwords, e-mail—everything! The kids won’t dare do anything improper.

Pros
|Comprehensively logs all computer activity including Web surfing, IM, e-mail, and more. Logs all keystrokes, takes periodic snapshot. Internet time scheduling. Can view logs across the network.

Cons
No category-based Web site blocking. No over-the-Web remote access. No remote configuration.

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.

Interesting essay by Benj Edwards on the gaming enthusiast site Gamastutra:

You know, I used to laugh at the term “murder simulator” when it was bandied about by knee-jerk opponents of video game violence some years ago. Preposterous, I said: video games are video games — easily distinguishable from reality, and reasonable people know the difference between fantasy and reality. That was in the Mortal Kombat and Doom era, where the violence seemed cartoonish. And I love those games.  Then I played BioShock. For the first time, hell started to freeze over, and I found myself beginning to understand the critics’ point of view. As real-time computer graphics inch ever closer to absolute photorealism (which some industry professionals believe to be no more than 10-15 years away), violent video game critics’ arguments are slowly beginning to look more sane.

 Ever more realistic game violence should be a cause of concern for parents.  Fortunately, major gaming consoles  have built-in parental controls, as does the Windows Vista operating system to block by ESRB game ratings.  Unfortunately, Net Nanny is the only parental control software I know of that does this as well.  This is a very useful feature for parents that all parental control software should have.

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. “