January 14, 2005
Dear Subscribers:
Here's our lineup for this second week of January:
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Family Tech: Finding filters & other software, Part 1
If they've decided to use filtering or monitoring
software, busy parents usually want to know yesterday which one to
buy. No hemming and hawing, thank you very much. Though this little nonprofit
doesn't have the resources to test all the online-safety products out there,
I can certainly point out some very credible sites that do - they specialize
in picking the best and making your job much easier.
[For full disclosure, one of them - Software4Parents.com
- is a contributor to Net Family News, Inc., but I recommend it because its
business is built on parents' interests. "I engineered everything almost backwards,"
said S4P publisher Josh Finer about his service. "I heard what parents needed
and added it, letting them guide me because I wasn't a parent; I was a 22-year-old
entrepreneur!"]
The Washington-based nonprofit GetNetWise.org
gets the prize for comprehensiveness, with its database of just about all
online-safety tools available. But the best sites for narrowing the choices
down are Software4Parents and
InternetFilterReview.com.
A third, FilterGuide.com, offers
a credible 3rd opinion. The neat thing about the first two is that both of
their publishers have written software themselves - they know a good product
when they see its code.
At Software4Parents, absolutely key to finding a good
product is whether it provides solid customer support. "It's not the software
itself, it's the whole package. I want parents to have software they can use
but also people they can count on, because there are always lots of issues
in getting these products set up," Josh told me in an interview. "You'd be
amazed how many software companies don't even reply to customer email. Some
[online-safety] software was made in other countries, and there's simply no
one there after you buy it and try to install it." This site recommends just
three monitoring products, two filtering products, and one PC-time-controls
product.
Jerry Ropelato, who started InternetFilterReview.com
mainly because he's a dad, does a great job of picking the Top 10 filters
and providing an at-a-glance comparison chart listing multiple criteria. His
company reviews filters based on what he feels the average filter user is
looking for. "We probably look at 30-40 things," Jerry said in an interview,
including "how do users surf the Web and what are kids trying to do to get
around the filters?" They also look at whether the product will do what it
claims for a week or two on a normal PC any family would use. Jerry added:
"We test the filters against certain notorious sites. There is a directory
of porn sites that's updated daily. It's a gruesome site. We use that as one
of the sites we test against the filters - you'd be surprised at how many
filters don't catch that one."
Richard Seng of FilterGuide.com is a dad as well as
a tech support employee at a very large cable company and ISP. He'd gotten
a lot of questions about filtering online porn from customers and decided
to provide answers in a site of his own, he said in an interview. His main
criteria for a filter: "It needed to work - to function smoothly and not crash
- and be fairly easy for the average person to get it installed and running."
It also needed to work for families of various sizes - have multiple "accounts"
with age-appropriate filtering for children of different maturity levels.
Of course, it's important to remember that we're talking
about stand-alone filtering products, not ISP-based services like the Parental
Controls at America Online and Microsoft Network. These are excellent services,
some say they're the best and most flexible online-safety technology available.
But there's just one drawback to ISP-based controls: When families have broadband
connections using a local provider, kids can bypass the service and its controls
(look into what PC-based parental controls these services offer). So, Josh
of Software4Parents tells me, some parents want double protection. "They're
adding Spector PRO monitoring to AOL Parental Controls. Kids play Quake or
Doom and can talk to other players on the Net, so parents want to monitor
that chat" [chat that's not in AOL or MSN and that's a part of almost all
online multi-player games].
Next week, Part 2: Insights from these specialists on the filtering and
monitoring of kids' online experiences.
BTW, I love getting your insights and stories about kids' online
times at your house or school. Email me anytime via anne@netfamilynews.org!
* * * *
Kids in K-8: Web design contest!
"They consider themselves technology mavens. They
can write HTML as quickly as their book reports. Their creative ideas for
Web content are endless. And they aren't even in high school yet," the press
release goes. One of these mavens just may be at your house or school. If
so, don't hesitate to have them enter their work in a national contest to
find "'America's Youngest Web Wizards' - K-8th graders who have designed Web
sites with extraordinary creativity." Its sponsor is Hostway, an international
Web hosting company. Winners (one student from grades K-5 and one from 6-8)
will receive a Dell laptop, a year of free Web site hosting, and national
recognition for their Web work. The deadline is February 28, and winners will
be announced March 31. For more information, go to Hostway's Web
Wizards page.
* * * *
Web News Briefs
- New: The lean, clean little Mac
This time Apple's got us family computer users
in mind for sure. Yesterday it introduced the Mac Mini, and it really
is mini in terms of both price and size (here are photos
at CNET). Priced at $499 and $599 (for an 80-GB hard drive instead of
40-GB), it's "a tiny machine with a processor, hard drive and optical
drive - you supply the monitor, mouse and keyboard," CNET
reports. According to the New York Times ,
"while computers have long been sold as machines that can turn a home
into an office, most Americans now use them in their bedrooms and kitchens
as e-mail terminals; as hubs for playing music, storing and editing photos;
and as stations for navigating the Web.... [The Mini] is aimed squarely
at the needs of this new digital household." But not just because of its
size and price (which, with peripherals will be closer to $1,000 than
$500), methinks. They'll just clinch the switch to Apple for a lot of
families looking for simpler, more pest-free computing and surfing experiences.
I'm seeing very little about this key PC-security aspect of what Apple
offers in the mountain of media coverage the Mini announcement got worldwide.
For families with care-free young surfers downloading all kinds of stuff,
computer security is becoming huge. Here's PC
Magazine, and the Washington
Post's roundup of many other reports. (BTW: If you buy one of these
and don't mind using an old PC monitor you have lying around the house,
you can really keep the cost down - a spanking-new Apple mouse and keyboard
can be had for about $60.)
The next day, CNET published a really helpful
analysis,
comparing (in terms of price) a fully tricked-out Mac Mini to a Dell,
Gateway, or HP PC with all the features a typical family would want (e.g.,
monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers). The Mini comes out to about $100
more (but less if you already have a monitor you can plug into it). BTW,
this is the only piece I've seen that addresses the Mini's PC security
advantage, saying a lot of people who find themselves doing all the family
tech support may just go out and buy one (out of their allowance!). ;-)
- Microsoft's new patches: Git 'em!
Microsoft issued two new critical patches today
and one of next-to-the-highest level of importance. "A hacker could exploit
one of the security flaws if a user directed the Web browser to a specially
designed Web page," Reuters
reports, saying the patches are part of the company's monthly PC security
bulletin. Be sure to download them if you have a Windows PC. Go to the
company's Windows Update
page to check if you need them. If so, you can click once to download
the three patches. Also, here's the new
page, available just this week, where you can scan your PC for virus
infection, as I reported last week ("Microsoft's
free help for PC pests").
- Schools lack Net savvy: Report
American schools have plenty of technology now,
but not enough understanding of how to make the most of it in educating
students, according to a just-released report from the US Department of
Education, "Toward
a New Golden Age in American Education: How the Internet, the Law and
Today's Students Are Revolutionizing Expectations." "In the realm
of technology, the educational community is playing catch-up. Industry
is far ahead of education. And tech-savvy high school students often are
far ahead of their teachers," DOE says in one of its conclusions,
adding elsewhere that "we need to listen to America's students" because
of their tech savvy (this is the intro to a section on "Student
Voices" that includes a feedback blog). Coverage at USATODAY
and CNET
cited some arresting stats in the report: "9 in 10 children between 5
and 17 use computers, and even higher numbers of online teenagers use
the Net for school-related work"; " 72% of all first graders used a home
computer on a weekly basis during their summer breaks" and "the largest
group of new Net users from 2000 to '02 were 2-to-5-year-olds, closely
followed by 6-to-8-year-olds. In the process, students have become educators'
toughest critics" (that last from CNET). The DOE points to ed-tech "success
stories" at schools in a dozen states.
- Young phoners in debt
A lot of parents have been there: opened up a cell-phone
provider's bill to find hundreds of dollars of charges staring them in the
face. One example is the family of Chaz Albert, whose cell-phone bill last
month was $400, $320 of it his charges, the New
York Times reports. The real culprit: text messaging. At $.10 an outgoing
message and $.02 for each incoming one, its cost is sneaking up on kids
(and parents) everywhere, now that "texting" is all the rage in the US (it
has been among European and Asian youth for years). The Times cites Forrester
Research findings that "Americans sent 2.5 billion text messages a month
in mid-2004, triple the number sent in mid-2002." The problem is, the cell
phone companies' salespeople sometimes fail to tell new customers about
the costs of texting. And what a lot of people don't know is, you can call
up Customer Service and have them turn texting off altogether for any phone
on your family plan. But if you want your kids to learn the hard way, the
Times cites an upside: "For some young people, the cellphone ordeals, though
painful, have proved valuable. What is left, it seems, after the bills are
paid and the family tensions subside is the emergence of a new maturity
when it comes to money." Not to mention some kids graduating from high school
with cell-phone debt.
- For youngest cell users
Disney is clearly anticipating younger and younger
cell-phone customers - or maybe teenagers will find it very cool to have
Mickey say "answer your phone" when someone calls. Instead of a "brrrring"
or a tune, soon phone users will be able to download the voices of Disney
characters as "ringtones," to the tune of $2.50, CNET
reports. For example, Goofy will say, "Hello? Is anybody there?" and
Mr. Incredible, "Hello? Yeah, I'm Mr. Incredible." Other voices will include
Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pooh and Tigger, as well as Stitch, Woody,
and Buzz Lightyear. And musical ringtones (from Finding Nemo and Aladdin)
and phone screensavers are also in the works. The phenomenon is not unlike
the "skins" and other customizing features kids love to use to customize
the look of their IMs and instant-messaging services.
- Online games: Wising up to 'tweaks'
More and more parents are on the look-out for
kid-friendly games, the Associated
Press reports, citing one mom who in her professional life promotes
games like Doom 3 but in her family life is always looking for good E-rated
games for her 7-year-old. Her quest and that of other parents is a sign
of much-needed growing sophistication where kids and video games are concerned.
And not just because of violent content. More and more video games are
going online and multi-player, which means that hackers both harmless
and malicious can gain access to these virtual worlds. The Washington
Post reports that, hackers' "tweaks" to these games are beginning to affect
the game experience - in terms of content and PC and console security.
"Some modifications can shift the basically PG-rated [Sims] game closer
to an R: Teenage Sims don't ordinarily hook up in the game, but one download
installs a sudden interest, among younger Sim-folk, in sex," the Post
reports. Usually, the tweaks are just "digital tomfoolery" that Sims publisher
Electronic Arts has encouraged because it adds to the creativity of the
experience. But now the one-person's-tweak-is-another's-harm may be kicking
in, unfortunately. And some tweaks are beginning to travel to other players'
computers "in a fashion similar to a computer virus" (and game consoles
as they become connected to the Net). So far, most tweaks are "more amusing
than malicious," Sims creator Will Wright said, but parents may want to
know that line can be crossed. Here's the
BBC on games that will be released in 2005.
- Spam law: How's it doing?
First we hear the US's year-old anti-spam law
isn't working very well, then days later we get an example of how it is.
The FTC this week "struck the first blow against porn spammers by using
provisions in the federal CAN-SPAM Act to convince a Nevada judge to freeze
the assets of several companies and five men accused of spewing pornographic
emails," InternetWeek.com
reported. The law requires porn spammers to label their emails as
such (so people wouldn't open them by mistake), and these companies had
failed to do that. Here's an earlier article from the Washington
Post explaining the law and why it's had mixed results. [See my 5/21
issue for a report on how much UK kids are exposed to porn spam at
school.] Meanwhile, according to AOL, anyway, we're getting less spam
overall now. "AOL also said [it] received 2.2 million spam complaints
from its subscribers in November, down from 11 million for the same month
a year ago," the Washington
Post reported.
- Oz teens arrested in Net scam
Four Sydney high school students aged 15-17 have
been charged with participation in a Russia-based Internet scam, the Associated
Press reported. The scammers stole "stole people's banking passwords
and siphoned cash [$457,000] into accounts in eastern Europe," according
to the AP. "The four students were promised a cut of the profits for letting
their bank accounts be used for laundering money stolen from Internet
bankers via a computer virus that dropped a program for secretly recording
passwords." The students were among 13 Australians arrested in connection
with the scam by the time AP filed. Australian police said the students
were targeted "because they were naive."
- Blogs booming (teens' too)
A sure sign that blogging has arrived was the
news that a blog called Tsunami
Help was among the Top 10 most visited humanitarian sites by January
1. According to Web traffic monitor HitWise.com,
it was No. 10 in a list that included RedCross.org, UNICEF.org, UN.org,
and TheChildHealthSite.org. That's on top of news from a new Pew
Internet & American Life report that - even though 62% of US Net users
don't know what a blog is - 27% (or 32 million Americans) read blogs,
a 58% jump in less than a year, and 27% have created blogs (we suspect
a lot of them are teenagers). As for the Web as a whole, here's the New
York Times on how Lisa Bauman, a nurse in Austin, Texas, used the
Net to search for relatives traveling in Indonesia when the tsunami struck
- a search that illustrated both the Net's "extraordinary reach" and its
limitations ("Finally, on Thursday night, her mother reached Mr. Bauman
by telephone and learned that all in the family were fine," the Times
reports).
For insights into the teen version of the blog
culture, see "Teens'
blog life," "Xanga
& other teen hangouts," and a mom/subscriber
on her daughter's online journal, or blog.
- A distance-learning teacher's view
"Some educators are aghast when I explain how
delighted I was to receive my world-literature student's proposal to film
a documentary instead of the standard analytical essay on 'The Epic of
Gilgamesh.' The ancient Sumerian legend of a man devastated by the death
of his closest friend resonated deeply with my student, who had recently
witnessed the murder of her best friend. Her work on this documentary
ensures that she'll never forget the Sumerian king and his sorrow, so
like her own," writes Melissa Hart in the Christian
Science Monitor. This is just a taste of the extraordinary rapport
Melissa - an English and history teacher at Ojai, Calif.-based Laurel
Springs [online] School - seems to have developed with her distant students,
contrary to the pronouncement of one educator of elite young athletes
that virtual school "offers endless possibilities," but "you will never
have that wonderful teacher who inspires you for life." If you click to
Melissa's commentary, be sure to get all the way to the bottom. BTW, she
has taught championship figure-skaters, young Hollywood actors, Olympic
hopefuls, and world travelers, as well as recovering drug and alcohol
addicts, victims of bullies, and children who are in bereavement and chronically
ill - "students for whom a traditional five-day-a-week school is impractical."
- Phone texting & disaster relief
As popular a leisure activity phone texting is
in Europe and Asia (and increasingly among teens in the US), it has become
an important tool in dealing with natural disasters. "The messages can
get through [and did in the tsunami's aftermath in Asia last week] even
when the cell phone signal is too weak to sustain a spoken conversation,"
the BBC reports.
And SMS (for "short message service" or phone texting) networks can handle
a lot more traffic than cell-phone or land-line networks, it adds. Plus,
even where there's no Internet cafe and land lines are down, there's almost
always someone who has a mobile phone to get word out (or in). The BBC
tells the story of Sanjaya Senanayake with Sri Lankan TV (also a blogger).
"He was one of the first on the scene after the tsunami destroyed much
of the Sri Lankan coast. Cell phone signals were weak. Land lines were
unreliable. So Mr. Senanayake started sending out text messages. The messages
were not just the latest news they were also an on-the-ground assessment
of 'who needs what and where'." Read the BBC piece to see how Sanjaya
and Dan Lane, "a text message guru" in the UK are creating the "Alert
Retrieval Cache," a system to "link those in need with those who can help."
[This is a little off topic for Net Family News, but age isn't an issue,
here - your child could well be the next Sanjaya Senanyake or Dan Lane
(next week, not necessarily when s/he's grownup, certainly!).]
- Virtual tourism
Have you taken a virtual tour of a university
with a high school student at your house? If so, you're in good company.
In a recent Pew
Internet & American Life project report on Americans' online activities
and pursuits, it found that 45% of US adults online (54 million people)
have taken a virtual tour - 2 million people on a typical day. Popular
destinations include museums, tourist and vacation locales (e.g., the
White House and the Taj Mahal), colleges and prep schools, real estate,
historical exhibits, parks and nature preserves, and hotels and motels.
Here's the San
Jose Mercury News on this. Other recent Pew findings about Americans'
online activities include:
- 53
million US adults use instant-messaging. How people use
IM "varies widely across the age groups. Of interest to parents:
Younger people use IM "not only as a way to expand and remain connected
their social circle, but also as a form of self-expression, through
use of customized away messages, profiles and buddy icons." They use
these expressive tools "more frequently than the protective tools that
allow them to block unwanted communications. Buddy list management also
occurs relatively infrequently, with users reporting adding or deleting
buddies from their list no more than a few times a month."
- 26%
of US adult Net users (33 million people) have rated a product,
service, or person using an online rating system.
- 84%
have used search engines (107 million people), and 87% of those
say the find the info they want most of the time.
* * * *
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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Anne Collier, Editor
Net Family News
