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September 13, 2002

Dear Subscribers:

Here's our lineup for this second week of September:


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Family Tech: 'DO IT' - a plan for quality content

What a great idea: a federal trust fund for high-quality Web and other digital content which follows in the footsteps of the Land-Grant Colleges Act of 1862, the GI Bill of 1944, and the National Science Foundation. It might even fall into the category of "Why Didn't They Think of This Before?!" In his Family Tech column for the San Jose Mercury News this week, SafeKids.com's Larry Magid writes about the "Digital Promise" project, now in the works to create a multi-billion-dollar Digital Opportunity Investment Trust (DO IT) and thereby to increase the value of educational technology and digital media.

Money for the trust fund would come from 50% of the revenues from the US government's spectrum auctions - the auctioning of airwaves broken up into bands for e.g., telecommunications, television, and military uses. Larry tells us Congress is already discussing the idea - with bills in the Senate sponsored by Sens. Christopher Dodd (D) of Connecticut and James Jeffords (I) of Vermont and in the House by Rep. Edward Markey (D) of Massachusetts. Here's the Digital Promise project's own Web site and Wired News's coverage, which says that - in addition to educational content - DO IT would support workforce development, adult learning, teacher training, and "programs that could be customized to individual learners."

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Web News Briefs

  1. E-memorials

    The Web fills a vacuum for many family members of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The New York Times this week told of one such family member who "makes weekly trips to a virtual memorial - a Web site that, like thousands of others, sprang into existence in the days after Sept. 11 and continues to attract throngs of visitors each month. The steady stream of tributes deposited there by friends and strangers is, she says, a source of tangible comfort despite their electronic form - and because of it." She and many others are building a memorial whose construction may never be complete, and they appreciate that - being able to add tributes and memories whenever they want or need to. A builder of one of the memorial sites (the Times links to many of them) found that small updates sometimes mean the most. "He enjoys fulfilling requests like the one he received recently from a friend of Charles Burlingame's, the captain of the flight that crashed into the Pentagon, asking that the middle initial 'F' be added to the name on the site."

  2. First look at 'dot-kids' space

    The company that would manage the US's special playground for kids on the Internet (".kids.us") this week gave everyone a first glimpse of what the area would "look" like. Reuters reports that NeuStar, Inc., released preliminary guidelines for the Web sites that would populate the dot-kids domain (here are the guidelines in pdf format). The company said it would rely on existing standards for television and advertising - requiring some educational content and barring profanity, as well as references to illegal drug, alcohol, or tobacco use, gambling, and "skimpy clothing." "Exceptions could be made if the material had educational, literary, or scientific merit." As for advertising, Reuters adds that it would comply with guidelines set up by a Better Business Bureau panel.

    "We invite commenters to suggest means of defining a bright-line test for determining when violent content, or any other inappropriate content, might be inappropriate for a 12-year-old," the company said in comments published on its Web site. The deadline for public comment is October 11. A late-breaking CNET story today said NeuStar and lawmakers are "sparring" over whether the law should specify NeuStar as the domain manager. The company asked Congress "not to interfere," CNET reports, because "it would disrupt [NeuStar's] own efforts to set up the domain in a commercially viable manner."

    The US House of Representatives passed a law last May which calls for the establishment of a dot-kids "sub-domain" under the US's dot-us top-level one (see our coverage). Senate panel hearings were scheduled for this week to discuss the Senate's version, which mirrors the House legislation, but no news has resulted as of this writing.

  3. Net-fueled secret society

    We've not seen a better written or more chilling illustration of the negative impact online community can have on children. "A Secret Society of the Starving" in Sunday's New York Times explains how the accessibility and anonymity of the Net and Web sites with names like "Anorexic Nation" (now defunct) support destructive behavior and send young women considering it over the edge. The article refers to "Chaos" (her screen name), a very attractive 23-year-old who's been bulimic or anorexic since she was 10. "What [Chaos] has on all days is her Web, a place where people who have only their eating disorders can congregate, along with the people who aspire to having eating disorders." Another "pro-ana" (there's also "pro-mia" for bulimics and the more general pro-E.D.) girl in the piece spends one to three hours a day in such sites, which offer online journals, discussion boards, "tips" and "techniques" (e.g., for abusing laxatives), "thinspirational" quotes, and "photo galleries of very thin models, actresses, and singers."

    This "pro-ana" community started in Internet newsgroups, the Times reports. "Now there are numerous well-known-to-those-who-know sites, plus who knows how many dozens more that are just the lone teenager's Web page, with names that put them beyond the scope of search engines. And based on the two-week sign-up of 973 members to a recent message-board adjunct to one of the older and more established sites, the pro-ana community probably numbers in the thousands, with girls using names like Wannabeboney, Neverthinenuf, DiETpEpSi UhHuh! and Afraidtolookinthemirror."

  4. Online journals

    A more upbeat (but not entirely positive) example of online community is the popular online journal. LiveJournal.com - with 690,000 registered users (generally female and between 15 and 21) and adding 1,000+ new ones daily - is one of the favorites, reports the New York Times. What's the deal with these things? the uninitiated might ask. They don't exactly supersede diaries. "For many young people, keeping a Web journal is less about soul-searching than about keeping in touch with a circle of friends and perhaps expanding it." E-journal sites provide easy-to-use software tools for publishing journal entries, reading and commenting on other people's entries, and finding other journal users with similar interests. At LiveJournal in particular, users can design graphics for each other's pages, and those who know how to write software code can even improve the tools by adding new features to the tools' open-source code.

    If any of you have avid online journal-keepers at your house, tell us what you think of the trend - or, better, have her email us about her favorite site and what she likes about journaling on the Web - via feedback@netfamilynews.org.

  5. Hacker monikers

    For parents and teachers with a vested interest in the world of hackers, this week CNET published a very readable update on "the politics of hacking," helping us all get a handle on terms like "malicious hackers," "hackers," "crackers," and "the newer, more nefarious 'haxor'." Haxors now even have their own alphabet (the article links to a translator). Both hackers ("technotinkerers - curious-minded people who like to take apart ... code" the way mechanics like to get into the guts of an engine) and crackers ("those who hack to cause harm") view haxors as "little more than brute muggers in a crowd of skilled thieves and lock pickers," CNET says.

  6. Answers for sale

    Heard of "Google Answers"? Apparently, many students have. Google the search engine has a new service that allows people with questions (from calculus problems to term paper subjects) to pay for an "approved researcher's" answer and Web links to further information, Wired News reports. The more one pays (there's a $2 minimum and a $.50 question-listing fee), the faster the response, generally, from one of Google's 500-or-so researchers. To students, Google says, "we recommend that you use Google Answers as a tool to assist you with your homework rather than as a substitute for you doing your homework yourself," but Wired says "several cases show that students often ignore this advice," and goes on to describe those cases (here's a Wired update on plagiarism, suggesting that teachers often give assignments actually conducive to cheating). The article adds that the whole phenomenon leads "many educators around the country" to ask the questions, "Where do you draw the line between appropriate and inappropriate uses of the Internet, and how do you stamp out clear abuses?" Your responses to these and all online-kid questions are always welcome!

  7. Teen online-safety experts' good point

    Teenage Net-safety specialists tell their peers that adults aren't the only source of trouble on the Internet. It's an important message for parents as well as teenagers. "Some kids send computer worms for kicks. Others use personal information to change someone's passwords, and then send trouble-making Internet messages from that account. Still others build hate sites targeting certain people or groups," reports MSNBC, citing the expertise of 17-year-old Tyler in Wisconsin. Tyler's one of some 60 members of Teenangels, "a group of volunteers who work to ensure the safety of children and teenagers on the Web by producing educational videos, teaching kids about anti-virus software and compiling tips on how to avoid predators," says MSNBC, adding that Tyler protects himself with anti-virus software and by limiting what he reveals about himself when he's online.

  8. Ireland's child-porn hotline

    Reports to Ireland's hotline about child pornography are increasing at the rate of 50% a year, reports the Irish Examiner. The hotline has received 700 reports in the past year. The Examiner cites the findings of a European Commission study released this past summer. If found that "half of all children were not supervised while online," one-quarter of those between 8 and 17 had accidentally encountered pornography while online, and "86% reported being asked for a face-to-face meeting with someone they had met in a chat room."

  9. Stock market lessons

    Financial literacy for young people had a lot more cachet in better economic times. "Remarkably, though, negative [stock market] returns haven't deterred many educators from continuing to send the message that personal finance should be incorporated into early education," reports Wired News. Among them is the JumpStart Coalition, which says the level of financial literacy has gone down right alongside the Dow and NASDAQ. The Wired article looks at a handful of Web sites (e.g., TeenAnalyst.com and YoungInvestor.com) that indicate "there are still plenty of minors actively following the market."

  10. What to do with pedophiles

    The San Francisco Chronicle recently took a thoughtful look at a tough question in an increasingly prominent debate between victims' rights and mental health groups: jail or treatment for pedophiles? "A growing number of mental health professionals say men who prey on children have a disorder with genetic origins similar to alcoholism that can be effectively treated. Victims' rights groups see pedophiles as untreatable deviants who deserve life behind bars," the Chronicle reports.

  11. Cuddly instant-messaging?!

    Soon Bugs Bunny and Daffy will be communicating with IM technology. According to kids trend tracker BIGScoop.net, a toy company in Los Angeles is licensing Warner Bros. characters to create "smart toys" with embedded technology that can translate keyed-in words to sound - i.e., "speak" what kids type. "Later on, [the company] plans to upgrade to real-time speech that can be controlled through a special chat room environment." Other Looney Tunes characters/"Chat Pals" - which also will retail for between $19 and $25 - are in the works.

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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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