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November 22, 2002

Dear Subscribers:

We will not be publishing next week in observance of America's Thanksgiving holiday. Happy, peaceful Turkey Day to all who celebrate it. And for celebrants of a very early Hanukkah this year, joyous holidays to you as well! The next issue will arrive in your in-box December 6.

Here's our lineup for this newsy third week of November:


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Family Tech: Common sense can protect online kids

We're biased, because SafeKids.com's Larry Magid is a partner of ours. But we think many of you agree with us that "Family Tech" - with all the products, services, laws, and family and public issues involved - is an increasingly important subject for all of us. Unfortunately, the San Jose Mercury News is reducing its technology coverage and eliminating the Family Tech column, citing budget reasons, so this week Larry wrote his last column for the Merc. We hope some publication seizes this unique opportunity to play a role in the public discussion about kids and technology and gives "Family Tech" a new home. Meanwhile, Larry will write on the subject occasionally for his syndicated column, and we'll continue to link you there and to other references to this topic when they appear out there in the media.

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In this last Merc column, you see the dad, free-speech advocate, and board member of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children all rolled up in one when you read, "Helping to regulate what kids do online is a bit like dealing with what they eat. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. I know some parents who wouldn't dream of allowing their kids to consume sugar or food that isn't organically grown. Others have no qualms about letting their kids snack on soda pop, candy bars and potato chips.... If we can't all agree on something as basic as what kids ought to be allowed to put in their stomachs, how can all agree as to what should go into their minds?"

The answer is clear thinking on the part of each family about the difference between what is safe and what is appropriate, some family prioritizing and policymaking, and engaged parents who know what their children are doing online. But Larry says it much better than we can, so don't miss this column!

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Dot-kids: The view from a children's Web publisher

Seeing the news last week that the US Congress had passed legislation calling for a "dot-kids" domain - a safe e-playground for online kids under the US's new "dot-US" top-level Web domain (TLD) - we wondered how attractive kids' Web publishers (or kids, for that matter) would find this space.

Kids will probably need something concrete to check out before they decide. So we asked a kids' Web publisher - Chris Rettstatt, CEO of Kidfu.com - for his view on this. Kidfu, with its founders' track record for safe, successful online kid communications, is one of those sites most likely to benefit from, and benefit, the dot-kids space. Here Chris's view:

"First I would like to point out that the kids.US legislation was not put into place to create new business opportunities, to penalize organizations trying to reach kids online, or to prohibit free speech. It was put in place to create an area of the Internet that is safe for children. I think the people at NeuStar [the administrators of the ".US" space who will now also manage the kids part of it] have an extremely challenging task in front of them, and I think they've done an admirable job so far, particularly in recognizing their own limitations and soliciting feedback from experts and the public.

"For me there are three big questions: Will the domain be truly safe for kids? Will organizations be motivated to use it? And will kids be motivated to visit it?

"In response to the latter two questions, I do believe there is enormous potential for the kids.US domain. It's the first attempt at nationally recognized online safety guidelines for children, and as such it will receive a lot of attention and support.

"Organizations with Web sites that target children partially or fully will be motivated to put up sites or portals in the kids.US domain. It will be like wearing a safety badge.

"Another and probably more potent reason will be the requirement that kids.US sites only link to other kids.US sites (and some pre-approved exceptions). Sites wanting to be part of this network and receive traffic from kids.US sites will have to participate by registering their own kids.US domain name and agreeing to the content standards for whatever they put there, whether it's their entire site, a kid-safe portal, or just a billboard.

"Kids will also be attracted to kids.US, especially if there is a good catalog of sites for them to use as reference. While some kids may prefer to visit general-audience sites, the majority of kids, from my experience, want to visit sites and use services that were developed with them in mind. Kids.US will be an entire section of the Internet developed for them. In addition, most of the kids I work with online are sick and tired of all the pornography, inappropriate spam and, in particular, the predatory element with which they are all far too familiar. They will welcome a domain that has protections in place which will allow them to learn, explore, have fun, and interact with other kids in safety and comfort."

[Would kids at your house or school play on the dot-kids e-playground (or walled garden, as UK-ers would say)? Email us what you think - via feedback@netfamilynews.org. (Here's more coverage at Wired News.)]

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Web News Briefs

  1. New study: Moms 'n' dads online

    Children definitely drive parents' attitudes about the Internet, a just-released Pew Internet & American Life study found, and enthusiasm is the general feeling. "Parents with children under 18 are more likely to have used the Internet than non-parents," Pew found, with figures showing 70% of US parents with a child under age 18 using the Internet, compared to 53% of non-parents. "That means there are almost 45 million online parents in the United States today, and they make up 43% of all US Internet users," Pew reports.

    If your children were out there in cyberspace before you, you're in good company: "Many parents first use the Internet after their children have done so," the report says. "It is likely that these children nudge their parents online. Our survey of teens and parents in late 2000 showed that 25% of teenagers had been online longer than their parents. Many of these children who learn to use the Internet at school, from friends, or are self-taught subsequently teach their parents how to use the Internet." And "one strong reason" for parents' enthusiasm, Pew adds, is that "the vast majority believe that it is very important for their children to learn how to use the Internet in order to succeed later in life." For data on *how* parents use the Net, see this page at the Pew project's site. Here's coverage from CNET and the Chicago Tribune (the latter requires registration but it's free).

  2. Kids' own online library

    Unveiled this week, the International Children's Digital Library already has 200 books for kids 3-13 "from more than 27 cultures in more than 15 different languages," the Associated Press reports. In five years the multi-million-dollar project plans to have 10,000 books representing 100 cultures. Designed by the University of Maryland and the San Francisco-based nonprofit Internet Archive, the site's goal is "to enable children to understand the world around them and the global society in which they live," the Internet Archive says. It's great to know that children were key to the site's design process. For example, "when some of the youngsters said they wanted to search for books based on how the stories make them feel, the designers responded, creating special indexes for funny or scary stories." Important note: The site won't be accessible to users with dial-up access till next summer. Right now, AP says, it's only accessible via direct connections: DSL or cable modem.

  3. No teen shopping at AOL

    Because of criticism that 13-to-17-year-olds were buying pornography, alcohol, and tobacco from its partner sites, AOL has banned them from its shopping area, CNET reports. Before, minors who had logged on with "a parentally controlled screen name" could use a credit card to buy products and services from eBay, Amazon, and other AOL partners. About 16 million teens logged onto the service with a parentally controlled screenname, CNET adds. "The drastic [holiday shopping season] move plugs a potential leak in AOL's highly touted parental controls, which have become a central selling point for AOL as it battles with Microsoft's MSN service."

  4. Tobacco sales online

    There's been movement in the US Congress to crack down on Net-based tobacco sales to minors. According to the Washington Post's Tech Policy & Security e-newsletter, tobacco industry critics last week debuted legislation aimed at cracking down on online tobacco retailers. "Reps. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) and James Hansen (R-Utah) introduced H.R. 5724 - the 'Tobacco-Free Internet for Kids Act' - a bill to require Internet tobacco vendors to verify a customer's age, with another ID check required at the point of delivery." The bill, which also seeks to ensure that smokers and tobacco resellers pay their state taxes on all online sales, "would require online tobacco sellers to register as licensed tobacco sellers in their state, and would allow states to sue unlicensed sellers in federal court. It also grants expanded investigative authority to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and recommends stronger penalties for unlicensed tobacco sales." Though the bill wasn't passed before Congress adjourned, congressional aides said it will be reintroduced next year. Supporters can check TobaccoFreeKids.org for updates. Here's their latest release.

  5. Test prep for lower-income students

    The cost of aptitude test-preparation services like Kaplan and Princeton Review creates a disadvantage for lower-income students planning for college. So the University of California has put its classroom test-prep materials online for free and for anyone to use, Wired News reports. Though the initiative mainly targets economically disadvantaged students in California, anyone can access the SAT and ACT test prep materials at "California Virtual High School." "The registration form requires only a first name, an email address, and the name of a high school located anywhere in the world."

  6. Stemming the spam tide

    If you think you're getting way too much spam (junk e-mail) of every sort - from the annoying to the disgusting - you are not alone. In fact, some anti-spam experts believe the increasing flood of it will make email unworkable altogether. The BBC tells workplace email recipients in the UK, "The next time you get a piece of spam in your work inbox, spare a thought for your colleagues in the US before you complain. However bad it may be in the UK, the problem of junk e-mail across the pond is far worse." Slate.com - which says spam constitutes a third of the 30 billion emails sent daily, worldwide - reports on a new technology (new to email, anyway) that people are using to control spam. Familiar to parents who use Web-filtering products that employ it, "white list" technology only allows email from known senders - people whose addresses they've "told" the software are acceptable. Meanwhile, from the Washington Post and CNET, here's the latest on government anti-spam efforts.

  7. UK's online kids: Under-supervised

    The findings probably wouldn't look that different in the US, Canada, or Europe. According to a recent study by the UK's Department for Education and Skills, some 70% of Britons over the age of 10 have online access at home, a quarter of them have seen "potentially harmful material," and most are allowed to spend hours online without their parents' supervision, reports Nua Internet Surveys. Here's the BBC's coverage, including mention of a parents' online education campaign in the UK. And here are other key findings from the study:

    • 52% spend more than five hours online a week.
    • Two-thirds of that time is spent unsupervised.
    • 80% of parents do not know how to use security settings on a PC to protect children from accessing unsuitable material.
    • 67% of children were found to be more knowledgeable about computers than their parents.

  8. Laptop on every desk: Jury's still out (in Maine)

    Wired News's Katie Dean recently took an in-depth look at the impact of a first-of-its-kind program: an iBook on every public-school 7th-grader's desk, statewide. One piece in the series reports that the laptops are functioning more as paperweights at one school - so far. But Maine Gov. Angus King's program is definitely helping teachers to get computer-literate quickly, and students have an excellent record for taking good care of their laptops. Here's the series wrapup: "IT Takes a Village." And Katie found other ed-tech stories while she was there - for example, students in the Mount Desert Island area armed with clam hoes, wooden boxes, and palmtops "working to reopen clam flats that could help boost their community's economy."

  9. 655 million by 2003

    That's compared with 500 million Net users at the beginning of this year, according to a just-released study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. "Internet usage is seeing an annual rise of about 30%," says the Sydney Morning Herald in an article about the study, "equivalent to about 2.5% of the global population." The Morning Herald adds that "a growing share of new Internet users were in developing countries, which accounted for nearly a third of new Internet users worldwide last year." (Our thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing this info out.)

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Don't forget: Send in those awards submissions!

To Childnet, of course. We're referring to the very international Cable & Wireless Childnet Awards, to which children and their Web mentors in every country are most welcome to submit entries. The deadline is December 6!

It's a unique global contest that rewards children and those working with them, who are developing outstanding Internet sites and activities that directly benefit other children. The awards site (link above) - in English, French, and Spanish - links to past winners and runners up for examples of the types of projects Childnet accepts. Winners receive prize money, free trips to London for the awards ceremony, and the fun activities surrounding the event.

Childnet is happy to answer any questions you want to email them, via awards@childnet-int.org.

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P.O. Box 1283
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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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