This story in Australia isn't about technology, but consider children's online safety as you read, ok? News.com.au reports that playground equipment has become so safe as to increase harm to children. How can that be? Super-safe playgrounds keep children from learning calculated risk-taking. "Playground injuries were often a result of children being poorly coordinated because they did not know how … [Read more...] about Ultra safe playgrounds turn out to be not so safe
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Global child-porn ring busted
An international pedophile network involving more than 700 suspects was investigated by police in 35 countries, the BBC reports, 200 of them in the UK. “The paedophile ring was run by [Briton] Timothy Cox, 27, who is due to be sentenced for child porn offences.” He ran a chat room, called “Kids the Light of Our Lives,” that was used to exchange pictures of child exploitation. Some 75,000 explicit … [Read more...] about Global child-porn ring busted
Net hurts porn industry
This might be a surprise to some, possibly because of all that we hear in the news media about porn on the Net. And that’s exactly why. “The online availability of free or low-cost photos and videos has begun to take a fierce toll on sales of X-rated DVDs. Inexpensive digital technology has paved the way for aspiring amateur pornographers, who are flooding the market, while everyone in the … [Read more...] about Net hurts porn industry
New field: Social computing
It’s a good thing University of Michigan now has a graduate program in social computing. “After years of worrying about how much time freshmen spend on Facebook, schools are incorporating the study of social networking, online communities and user-contributed content into new curricula on social computing,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Programs like this, it adds, tend to draw students with … [Read more...] about New field: Social computing
MySpace users mis-labeled sex offender
It was bound to happen simply because technology is imperfect: the first mislabeled “sex offender” blocked by MySpace. This story in ABC News illustrates how hard it is to verify adults’ identities, much less minors, and how the best of intentions can have unintended negative consequences. Jessica Davis in Colorado was mistakenly identified as registered sex offender Jessica Davis in Utah by … [Read more...] about MySpace users mis-labeled sex offender