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March 1, 2002

Dear Subscribers:

It's good to be back! There was plenty of news *besides* the Olympics this month, but of special note to our readers is new information out on one of Web filtering's less well-known flaws (just below). Here's our lineup for the final week of February on this first day of March:


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Filtering's other flaw

Filtering's flaws have been well publicized - the fact that these software products and services both under-block and over-block Web content. But a just-released report spotlights a lesser-known flaw that deserves parents' and educators' attention. It's a two-fold one:

  1. The values and criteria used to decide what Web content a filtering product should block for children are those of the company that made the product.
  2. Those criteria are considered trade secrets by filtering software companies.

So parents and educators who've chosen to use filtering software cannot know what values and criteria are being applied to their children's Web surfing. That's not as much an issue at home, where no law concerning Internet-safety measures comes into play, but the school environment is a different matter. US schools receiving federal e-rate funds for Internet connectivity are now required by the recently passed Children's Internet Protection Act to use filtering or blocking technology on connected computers. In an effort to be CIPA-compliant, "school officials have essentially delegated control" of students' Internet experiences to filtering companies, with no way of knowing how that control is being exercised, according to the new report, "Filtering Software: The Religious Connection."

The study, by Nancy Willard, director of the University of Oregon's Responsible Netizen Project, focuses in particular on religious values that appear to be associated with eight software companies whose filtering products are used by US public schools (the report references separation of church and state under the First Amendment of the US Constitution).

The eight companies examined in the report are: "N2H2 (Bess), Symantec (I-Gear), 8e6 Technologies (R2000 or X-Stop), Solid Oak (CyberSitter), NetComply/711.Net, BSafeSchool/American Family Online, EduGuard/S4F, and SurfClear," with the filtering products in parentheses after their respective makers. Some of the companies "were active in efforts to ensure the passage of CIPA "through the efforts of a trade association called the Internet Safety Association (ISA) and through testimony provided to Congress," the report says, adding: "The other major champions of this legislation were conservative religious organizations."

The document explains US students' constitutional rights of access to information; provides specific evidence it found of relationships between software companies and religious organizations and of religious values they applied to filtering techniques; and offers recommendations for next steps, including independent review of filtering products and the importance of educating kids to apply their own and their families' values to their online experiences (developing the best filter possible - that between their ears!).

We asked Nancy what led her to look into this issue. She told us a press release she saw on the N2H2 Web site caught her attention. It was about the sale of N2H2 filtering software to a particular church. "I mentioned this on [an email discussion] list for educators," Nancy said in an email to us. "I know that an executive from N2H2 lurks on this list [visits but doesn't post comments]. Then the press release disappeared. And to the best of my ability to tell, this was the only press release that disappeared. I do not know whether these two happenings were related, but my curiosity was stimulated. So I started looking. And, to my amazement, I found more and more [examples of relationships between filtering companies and religious organizations]. In my first version of the report, I addressed only six companies. Then I found two more."

Nancy continued: "I really do not want anyone thinking that I am attacking their values. But respect for all values and the separation of church and state are really important concepts that are at the heart of our country's values. It is really important that the determination of what our children can and cannot access when they use the Internet at school not be dictated by one particular set of values. School administrators have made their selection of products without any knowledge of the background or other relationships of these filtering companies. There is no mechanism in place to ensure that these companies are making their decisions in accord with the constitutional standards that protect students' rights of access to information."

We also asked Nancy, a mother herself, what advice she'd offer parents seeking a filtering solution. Please see next week's issue for her answer.

Readers' comments on any aspect of this issue would be most welcome! Do email us via feedback@netfamilynews.org.

* * * *

Family Tech: That digital-photo black hole

What to do about all those digital photos that get taken at family gatherings, then stashed away on the PC hard drive and never shared? With his usual refreshing candor, SafeKids.com's Larry Magid lays out - in his latest column for the San Jose Mercury News - all the usual excuses for how that happens in his family.

"There's a running joke on my wife's side of the family when it comes to the digital photos I take at events and parties," he writes. "Like insects at the 'roach motel,' photos go in, but they don't come out."

Larry also offers practical solutions (besides resolving to get those photos edited and printed out!). Solutions include photo paper to buy (and save money), sending photos via email, and photo services on the Web that allow you to post photos for the whole extended family to see (links provided in his article).

Meanwhile, this week the BBC ran a story on how a new chip developed in Silicon Valley will allow for digital-image colors as good as on regular ol' 35mm film - which could make film an "endangered species." And note that, in the very first line of a New York Times article this week, the writer has "when film cameras ruled the earth" in the past tense! See "That P in PC Now Stands for Picture."

* * * *

Web News Briefs

  1. Girl Scout survey: Sexual harassment of teens on Net

    Girls Scouts of the USA decided to gather some data of its own on Net-based harassment of teenage girls. A study released in mid-February - "The Net Effect: Girls and New Media" - surveyed 1,000 US girls aged 13 to 18. Thirty percent of them "said they've been sexually harassed in a chat room," Wired News reports, adding that "the harassment included unsolicited naked pictures of men, demands for personal details like bra size, and requests for 'cyber sex.' " Other key findings include:

    • Of the girls who said they were harassed, only 7% reported telling their parents what had happened.
    • 30% said they "didn't tell anyone" about the incidents.
    • 21% said that such harassment "happens all the time and is no big deal."
    • More than 80% said they feel safe online.
    • When asked how they know what behavior on the Net is safe or unsafe, 84% cited their own common sense; 51% cited learning from parents, 46% cited TV and the media, 29% cited teachers, 29% cited friends, and 4% said, "Nothing is that bad online because it is not really real."

    The study concludes, "Girls are aware of the varied dangers of the Internet but want more proactive involvement rather than prohibitive don'ts from parents. All too often, these computer-savvy teenage girls are still naive and emotionally vulnerable, as they grapple with issues such as how to react to sexual online content they unwittingly encounter." For more advice, please see a sidebar of the report, "Girls and the Internet: Tips for Parents."

  2. Girl Scout cookies via email?

    On a lighter note, the Girl Scouts just may have come up with their own brand of spam: soliciting sales of cookies online. To be fair, the organization itself isn't selling online - individual girl scouts' parents appear to be! Wired News cited one parent who sent 15 emails to family and friends asking them to reduce her eight-year-old scout's inventory. (Girls Scouts of the USA's official policy is that cookie-sellers can use email to contact family and friends, but they're not to send "broadcast email messages" (spam) to generate sales.)

  3. Popcorn site violated kids' privacy

    The American Pop Corn Company is being fined $10,000 for collecting personal information from kids without their parents' consent at its JollyTime.com Web site. The fine is part of the company's settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. It was the FTC's fifth such settlement since COPPA went into effect in April 2000.

    Of use to parents is the FTC's description of how the Jolly Time Web site violated COPPA. "Without obtaining parental consent, the company collected personal information, including names, email addresses, and home addresses, from children who went to the 'Kids Club' section," the FTC says in its press release, explaining that the "Club" was aimed at children under 13, with games, crafts, contests, and jokes. The club "also conditioned participation in certain prize offers on children's providing more information than was necessary to participate in the activity," the FTC adds. In addition, JollyTime.com had a privacy policy statement that said it would notify parents or guardians by email whenever kids under 18 registered, and parents could choose to take their kids off the registration list. But no such notifications were sent to parents, the FTC says. That's another COPPA violation: companies not complying with their own privacy policies!

    If you and your kids run into similar violations by other Web sites, the FTC would be happy to hear from you, they assured us this week. You can file a complaint via a toll-free phone number (877.FTC.HELP) or online (go to the Commission's home page at www.ftc.gov and click on the "File a Complaint Online" button).

  4. Pro-anorexia sites: Concerns

    They're Web sites that present anorexia and other eating disorders as a legitimate choice girls have. In a disturbing but note-worthy article, "Nurturing an Anorexia Obsession," the Los Angeles Times reports that, "within the fluid anonymity of the Internet, a new generation has made its eating disorders a unifying badge and, ultimately, a way to bond in a dangerous pursuit." The sites, Web logs (or "blogs"), online diaries, and pro-anorexia "support" communities seem to pop up in different forms as soon as they're shut down. In addition to emotional "support," they offer information such as lists of "recommended" over-the-counter diet pills, supplements, and laxatives. Meanwhile, "without intervention,... anorexia has the highest fatality rate in ... the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association," the Times reports, citing data from the National Eating Disorders Association showing that "an estimated 5 million to 10 million American women in post-puberty struggle with some form of eating disorder." Our thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing this piece out.

  5. Hateful video games

    Here's an unsavory trend to be aware of: Hate groups are increasingly using racist video games to recruit young people, Wired News reports, citing a new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). They're "first-person shooter games" (where the player looks out from behind a gun) patterned after popular mainstream titles such as "Quake" and "Doom." "Ethnic Cleansing," "Shoot the Blacks," and "Concentration Camp Rat Hunt" were among the hate-related titles reviewed in the ADL study. Wired News refers to one white supremacist and game publisher as explaining that the games "are good propaganda because they help his group appear more mainstream" and another saying his five free neo-Nazi games were downloaded over 12,000 times in January. Here's the ADL's own Web page on its findings and CNET's coverage.

  6. File-trading setback?

    It was good news for a mother in Kansas City who emailed us some concerns last summer. It was bad news for young file-traders (or at least those who use Morpheus to share music, image, and video files). Morpheus, the file-trading software available at MusicCity.com, stopped working this week because Music City failed to upgrade Morpheus with the new version of technology that drives it. That left a whole lot of file-swappers high and dry. As Wired News explains it, "Morpheus, part of an international file-sharing network along with Kazaa[.com] and Grokster[.com], had been using version 1.3 of Fast Track, a technology licensed by Consumer Empowerment of the Netherlands. Fast Track turns individual users' hard drives into servers. These networks, called decentralized networks, operate in the same manner as a spider web. If one server is shut down, other servers allow data to continue to flow. However, Kazaa and Grokster upgraded their software this week" and Music City didn't. As of this writing, the Music City Web site was saying it was about to come out with the new, improved "Morpheus Preview Edition" without saying what it was previewing. There are legal implications to this development: The software upgrade indicates that the file-sharing networks are not as decentralized as the network hosts are claiming in lawsuits filed against them by the recording industry - decentralization that protects them to an extent.

    As for the mom in Kansas, see our July 13 issue for her email and our resulting research, and the August 3 issue for a timely US congressional report on the subject.

    Meanwhile, the record companies could be facing a setback of their own in the ongoing legal battle between them and file-sharing networks. In a separate case, a federal judge ordered new scrutiny of the big record labels' ownership rights to music and practice of teaming up to create online music services that may "run afoul of antitrust laws," CNET reports. Here's the New York Times on this.

    And of course (and true to the nature of the Internet), file-sharers are finding a way around this whole litigious mess by turning to old technology (Internet Relay Chat) to swap files. "The switch to IRC demonstrates the fluid nature of piracy on the Internet. As copyright holders start to rein in one illegal distribution channel, others steam ahead," reports the Los Angeles Times. IRC is harder to use than file-sharing services like Napster and Morpheus, but that's hardly a problem for tech-literate young people, long accustomed to being able to find and sample just about any tune they want, when they want it. But file-sharers should be aware of stories like this one in the Washington Post, about John Sankus, co-leader of the "DrinkorDie" software piracy group, who pleaded guilty this week to "one felony count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement." The maximum sentence for such is five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. (Our thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing this piece out.)

  7. Email chain letters: Crackdown

    Here's a way to help kids steer clear of online chain letters: Have them read a news story or two about a particularly egregious scam with which the US Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement this month. The FTC used this settlement - with seven scammers in three states - to launch its new crackdown on deceptive spam, or junk email.

    The seven people, accused of running chain letter pyramid schemes via email, promised $46,000 or more in the next 90 days in exchange for a $5 payment, the Washington Post reports, adding that they even challenged recipients who questioned the legality of the program to contact the FTC's associate director for marketing practices. The scam "attracted at least 2,000 participants from nearly 60 countries, the FTC said. As part of their settlements, the defendants agreed to return any future proceeds from the scheme," the Post added. Here's the FTC's press release and a CNET story on the overall crackdown. And in "Eye on Spam," ChannelSeven.com looks at other, non-government players in the anti-spam effort and cites Jupiter Media Metrix figures showing the average US email users got 571 spam messages in 2001, with a projected increase to 1,400 a year by 2006, "with more than 206 billion spam messages going out over the course of the year." (Our thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing this piece out.)

    Meanwhile, spam's under the spotlight in Australia too. "Armed with Coalition Against Unsolicited Bulk E-mail (ACAUBE) estimates that Australian Internet users received six times more spam messages in 2001 than in 2000," Canberra has launched an investigation in "what measures can counter the rising tide," the Washington Post reports.

  8. Snoopier parents

    Baby-boomer parents are becoming more watchful of their kids' activities, including online activities. In "New era of snooping parents," the Christian Science Monitor reports that "mothers and fathers, barraged with accounts stretching from Columbine murder plans to post-9/11 copycat terrorism, say they're becoming more watchful of children in a new millennium where the standards of 'normal' parenting can become shorthand for 'negligent'." The piece leads with the mother of a 17-year-old saying she reads her daughter's emails and checks what Web site she's visited. The article quotes parents from across the US and cites a new California study that found a notable "shift in attitude about what is permissible and advisable by a sizable proportion of parents." It also looks at the downside of parental micro-management and some of its backfiring techniques.

  9. Tax relief online (sorta)

    Could it be that dot-gov sites are becoming the most popular on the Web? Well, maybe during tax season. CNET cites several Net-measuring firms' figures showing that "the Internal Revenue Service's Web site saw traffic increase about 275%, rising to 7.5 million unique visitors in January from 1.99 million the previous month." One measurer, Jupiter Media Metrix, said IRS.gov was the top-gaining government site as well as the top-gaining property overall for January, CNET reported, adding that "the reports reinforce how the Internet is becoming a part of consumers' everyday lives." Other tax-related sites showing growth of 200% or more include Taxact.com, TurboTax.com, Intuit.com, and HRBlock.com.

  10. Illegal-drugs site closed

    Swiss authorities have shut down a Web site that gave the prices of illegal drugs sold by dealers in Lausanne. According to Yahoo News, the site also gave information on quality and access to different types of substances. An investigator in Lausanne opened an investigation for possible breaches of Swiss anti-drugs laws after ordering the closure.

  11. College degrees for game designers

    This isn't news to readers of this newsletter - we interviewed an aspiring game design graduate, Sean (19), last November. Sean plans to attend the Nintendo-funded DigiPen Institute of Technology in Washington State. But there are more and more such degree programs, Wired News reports. For example, Art Institutes International will have its full "game art and design" curriculum (taught year-round for three years) available on its San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix campuses next fall. Wired suggests that it might be just the thing for students interested in graphic design specializing in computer animation (and it doesn't hurt to love story-telling). The University of Washington and California's Palomar Community College offer certificates in game design, but last year University of California Irvine's review committee rejected a minor in game design. "The most successful program," Wired says, is the one Sean will attend - the DigiPen Institute, a for-profit corporation that gained accreditation in 1994.

  12. MSN Messenger users beware!

    There are risks involved in using this instant-messaging (IM) service. There were a number of news reports in February about computer security and privacy breaches that Messenger users face. Here's an example, from TheRegister.com, which parents might want to share with their young IM users (if you don't understand it, they certainly will!): "Dubbed the 'Cool Worm' by an early discoverer, the worm arrives as an MSN instant message that reads, 'Go To http://www.masenko-media.net/cool.html NoW !!!' Clicking on the link opens a Web page with malicious Javascript code that rifles through the victim's MSN Contacts list, then messages every contact with the same 'Go To...' invitation. The code also sends e-mail to the address mmargae@wanadoo.nl."

    An earlier piece in The Register reported that a bug (for which Microsoft reportedly has since released a patch, or fix) in the Internet Explorer browser allowed exploiters to scour Messenger users' own hard drives "for interesting files to share around. In other words," The Register explained, "you can do anything with the victim's Messenger client that the owner can do." This article links to a demo so readers can see exactly what all this means. Here's who was vulnerable to this bug, according to The Register: Users of Windows 98 SE with IE6 final (fully patched as of Feb. 9) and MSN Messenger 4.6.0073; Windows 98 SE with IE6 final and MSN Messenger 3.6.0024; Windows ME with IE6 final (fully patched as of Feb. 9) and MSN Messenger 4.5.0127; Windows 2000 with IE6 final (fully patched as of Feb 9) and MSN Messenger 4.6.0071; and Windows 2000, IE5.5, MSN Messenger 4.6.00.73.

  13. Charges against teen dropped

    Following up on a Web News Brief we ran 2/1 (see "Teen's home raided"), charges against the 18-year-old publisher of RaisetheFist.com will be dropped. "A self-described anarchist, [Sherman] Austin was charged Feb. 4 with violating US Code title 18, section 842, which prohibits the publication of information about making explosives," the Washington Post reports.

  14. Very long distance relationships online

    A Hong Kong woman, who met her future husband - a Taiwanese emigre to the United States - in an American Online chat room, is definitely not alone, the South China Morning Post points out. "Hong Kong is home to scores of personals sites such as long-established Dinner For Six or Dateasia.com, aiming to match young Asian professionals," the Post reports. "Yahoo! Hong Kong, with 1.2 million visitors each month, attracts Web surfers with its free chat rooms and message boards," which are among the most popular services of Yahoo! Hong Kong. The Post looked at other Asian outposts too: "An Intel survey last year found South Korean women were the region's most romantic surfers, with 33% willing to consider marrying an online partner." The responses of Taiwanese surveyed came close, at nearly a third. By contrast, 91% of Australian women disapproved of the idea. As for online dating, the Post cites a survey by Lycos subsidiary Matchmaker.com, which found that 70% of single people regard online dating as a mainstream activity; more than 80% considered it safe or safer than meeting someone at a bar; and almost 60% said they were likely to join an online dating service, compared to 29% two years ago.

* * * *

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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Anne Collier, Editor

Net Family News


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