More than 580 billion instant messages were sent last year. An estimated 400 million of them were "spim" (the IM version of spam, or unsolicited junk mail). This year the spim figure is expected to be 1.2 billion, according to research cited by the BBC. Instant-messaging is very easy for spimmers and believed to be more effective and more lucrative than spam because there's a higher expectation … [Read more...] about IM-ers get ‘spim’
Beware strange site
It could look like a game to a child. So parents need to be aware of this new "drag-and-drop" security flaw in Windows XP that even the giant new security patch, SP2, doesn't take care of. What kids should be alert to is any effort (such as an email) to get them to go to a strange-looking Web page containing just two lines and an image. The page might tell the visitor to drag the picture across … [Read more...] about Beware strange site
Child’s IM lose, parent’s nightmare
Daughter returns from summer camp eager to IM with her much missed new-found friends. She announces "I can't IM." This is not good news. There is, in fact, a great deal more that suddenly can't be done on the family PC, including Mom's professional work, reports parent and Washington Post reporter Kathleen Day. Kathleen proceeds to spend "$800 and roughly 48 man-hours over nearly three weeks" to … [Read more...] about Child’s IM lose, parent’s nightmare
Korea & Oz: Porn-blocking moves
The Korean government this week announced a passel of measures it will be taking to protect children and teens in cyberspace, the Korea Times reports. Some of those measures will be laws requiring ISPs to be "juvenile protectors" and regulating advertising; funding new filtering technology for the Web and P2P networks; monitoring "cyber communities, including those for suicide"; and designating … [Read more...] about Korea & Oz: Porn-blocking moves
Class discussion by blog
Move over student gossip blogs and online diaries, make way for classroom blogs. Blogs are everywhere in the news these days, but this is new (to me, anyway): teachers' blogs for class discussion and announcements, which make total sense. For example, Mrs. Dudiak's second-grade class in Frederick County, Md., didn't have time for a full-blown class discussion on the previous day's field trip to a … [Read more...] about Class discussion by blog