A primary school in Osaka will soon be testing a high-tech way of knowing children's whereabouts at all times. RFID (for radio frequency identification) chips will be attached to students' schoolbags or clothing tags and read by readers (like bar-code readers in grocery stores) that will be "installed in school gates and other key locations," UK-based Silicon.com reports. Legoland in Denmark is … [Read more...] about Kid-tracking tech: Japan & UK
Another view of hackers
We hear from the media much more about malicious hackers than about the regular kind - many of whom are young and still living at home! So, because many news people put a negative twist on the word "hacker," we thought fellow parents might be interested in the way hackers view themselves. Insights are provided in this USATODAY article (part of a series) on a conference in New York over the weekend … [Read more...] about Another view of hackers
File-sharing’s up
Unless your family's had "the discussion," chances are any file-sharers at your house are swapping tunes as much as ever. Despite recording industry's thousands of lawsuits, last month file-sharing was up 19% over that of June 2003 - "8.3 million people were online at any one time" using P2P services such as Kazaa and eDonkey, USATODAY reports. Kazaa is becoming less popular, while New York-based … [Read more...] about File-sharing’s up
New family PC risks, Part 2: Games!
Last week we looked at the phenomenon of invasive Web sites and pop-ups. This week a heads-up for gamers of all ages.... If your child plays Unreal Tournament or other multiplayer games that run on the basic Unreal game code, your PC could become a hacker playground. "As they develop more online capabilities, games have become an increasingly popular avenue for online miscreants," CNET reports. … [Read more...] about New family PC risks, Part 2: Games!
What’s on your mind?
The SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter is working on a feature that features you! You might call it "What's on your mind (concerning kids & tech)?" We'd love to receive questions, concerns, stories about kids' use of Net-related technologies - IM, file-sharing, games, blogs, Web sites, etc. - at your house. We can reach out to a wonderful range of expertise to answer your questions, but many of you have … [Read more...] about What’s on your mind?