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February 28, 2003

Dear Subscribers:

Here's our lineup for this last week of February:


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Family Tech

  1. Now anyone can have a home recording studio

    This week, in "Turn Your Computer Into a Recording Studio," SafeKids.com's Larry Magid writes in a column about how easily people never trained as sound engineers (aka, you 'n' me) can easily edit tunes and conversations on their home PCs - using software like Cool Edit and Sound Forge Studio. Larry does a lot of radio reporting, and we can tell he really enjoys using this software (we've watched him do it). We also suspect it has turned him into the radio reporter from heaven for the producers at CBS Radio; he turns in very clean-sounding reports.

  2. Cell-phone contract caveat

    Many of us have gotten used to the idea that signing up for cell-phone service means being locked into a contract with that original provider for at least a year - in the US, anyway. If they know that up front, most people can live with it, even though there's often a termination fee of $100-200. But there are times when a family legitimately needs to get out of the contract early, without losing a ton of money. Larry's family had one of those times, and he recently wrote one of his syndicated columns about what happened. There was a happy ending to his tale of frustration, fortunately, but he (and his readers, if they think like us) confesses to a teeny suspicion that the happy ending was partly due to his putting the story into print.

* * * *

Child-porn fight: Several new fronts (one controversial)

  1. Visa's anti-child-porn stand

    Over the past year the giant credit card company has searched 1 million Web pages a day and quietly set up a system to help fight child pornography, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The company now...

    • Identifies online porn purveyors who use the Visa card to sell child porn
    • Reports sites with illegal photos and videos to the global police forces responsible for enforcing child-porn laws
    • Requires the 7,000 US financial institutions that are members of its association to "register 'high-risk merchants' who process adult content and use the Visa card. If the institutions don't comply, they risk losing their Visa relationship - a threat already facing a Russian bank," according to the Monitor.

    The exact impact of Visa's move is hard to determine, but it seems to have helped: Visa estimates that 80% of the 400 Web sites it has identified as selling child porn have either been shut down by law enforcement or have had their Visa privileges terminated, the Monitor reports. The article adds that both Visa and MasterCard have long been cooperating with the FBI and US Customs in cases against child-porn purveyors, but "if MasterCard is conducting any programs similar to Visa's in searching for illegal sites, it won't discuss them." Visa also takes steps against its brand being used in association with Net-based images and video concerning rape, bestiality, and hate. Our thanks to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (cited in the article) for pointing this development out. The Center's CyberTipline for online kids at risk can be reached via the Web or a toll-free number (800-843-5678).

  2. Pennsylvania's controversial tactic

    Pennsylvania is trying a controversial strategy for combating child pornography. According to the Associated Press, the state's attorney general, "operating under a highly unorthodox state law passed last year," has instructed Internet service providers to block "at least 423 Web sites around the world" for the ISPs' customers in Pennsylvania. What's unusual about the strategy is that it places the burden (to the tune of $5,000 fines) on ISPs rather than on child porn purveyors. Concerned that other states may follow suit, the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a civil liberties organization, is asking Pennsylvania Attorney General D. Michael Fisher for details on the program, possibly in preparation for a court challenge. CDT compares the blocking technique to "disrupting mail delivery to an entire apartment complex because of one tenant's illegal actions," the AP reports. In its coverage, TheRegister.com) explains what CDT meant - that sites that are completely unrelated to child pornography could also end up being blocked "because most Internet Web sites share their IP addresses with many other unrelated Web sites." A just-released study (cited by CDT) has the numbers to back up that argument: "More than 87% of active domain names [like Yahoo.com] are found to share their IP addresses (i.e. their Web servers) with one or more additional domains, and more than two-thirds of active domain names share their addresses with 50 or more additional domains," reports researcher Benjamin Edelman at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

  3. US Senate moves on virtual child porn

    This week the Senate passed, without dissent, revised legislation that strengthens measures against virtual child pornography while addressing Supreme Court concerns about First Amendment rights. The Washington Post reports that the new bill was in response to a Supreme Court ruling last April that struck down a 1996 law that specifically prohibited virtual child pornography. "The court said banning images that only appear to depict real children engaged in sex was unconstitutionally vague and far-reaching. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah and Patrick Leahy (D) of Vermont, the chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sponsored the new measure." The Post adds that the new legislation puts the burden on the makers of sexually explicit material to prove they're not using children in the making of it. It also creates a new crime, "the use of child pornography by sexual predators to entice minors to engage in sexual activity or the production of new child pornography," the Post reports, "and increases penalties for child pornographers." As for the House of Representatives, Reuters reports that "a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee said he was not sure when the committee would tackle the issue. The Bush administration said it supported the bill."

* * * *

Update [and a correction] from interviewee Heather

In our profile last week of Heather Lawver, Harry Potter fan site Webmaster, we quoted her saying a fan site owner in Chicago had asked for her help in settling his dispute with Warner Bros., and she'd keep us posted on how it went. She emailed us this week to say it's already been taken care of:

"I have wrapped up the case of the man [fan site owner] who was recently threatened in Chicago. I was able to discuss the matter with an official from Warner Bros. and, after explaining the situation, we were able to work everything out. Warner Bros. was even kind enough to call me directly, then issue a written apology to both the victim and myself. It seems they're a little more concerned about the power of the fans now."

Correction: Regretfully, last week we misspelled the surname of Heather's former boycott partner in the UK. His name is Alastair Alexander.

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A subscriber writes: Another fan site bucks the big guys

Last week's profile of 15-year-old Webmaster Heather prompted subscriber Janet in Germany to email us. Her email shows Heather was not alone - though Warner Bros. wasn't the corporate "bully" in the case of Janet's family...

"The same thing happened to us with Danielle's first Pokemon [fan] site - [when she was 10 and 11 years old]. Homestead pulled our entire site (family site and Pokemon site) off because Nintendo told them they had to (of course, pulling our family site was Homestead's mistake). After a few letters, they said she could have the site up if there was a disclaimer on each page clearly stating that all artwork was her own and that there was no official connection to Nintendo:

"Disclaimer: Pokemon and all related characters are copyright of Nintendo. This is a privately produced Web site; all images on this site copyright to Mew's Hangout unless otherwise stated.

"Hmmm, the actual disclaimer from Nintendo was much longer. She's being bad. Hope they don't pull it again! We had to reload everything ... as they deleted everything we had loaded - about 50 pages worth at that time."

Janet later added:

"I don't know why these megabuck giants feel so threatened by us little guys. All we do is encourage folks to feel more excited about their products, so they end up buying more."

* * * *

Web News Briefs

  1. Cookies and candy bars: COPPA violations

    Hershey's and Mrs. Fields Cookies will soon be paying the US government the biggest COPPA-related fines yet, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Both companies agreed to a settlement with FTC this week. Hershey Foods will be paying civil penalties of $85,000 and Mrs. Fields $100,000 for collecting personal information from children under 13 without first getting their parents' consent - a violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. "In addition," the FTC reports, "the sites allegedly failed to post adequate privacy policies, to provide direct notice to parents about the information they were collecting and how it would be used, and to provide a reasonable means for parents to review the personal information collected from their children and to refuse to permit its further use."

  2. Web awareness in Canada

    Can Canadian kids...

    • Distinguish fact from opinion?
    • Recognize online marketing techniques?
    • Understand why they must protect their personal privacy?
    • Handle inappropriate or illegal content?

    Getting to a "yes" answer to all those questions was a goal of Canada's first Web Awareness Day, held in public libraries across the country last week - and worthy goal for children worldwide. The national initiative, produced by Canada's Media Awareness Network, the Canadian Library Association, and Bell Canada, included parent Web-literacy workshops in libraries as well as print, CD-ROM, and Web resources. Here's the home page for the campaign's Web site, linking to a fund of resources for parents. We think in some cases they could use some updating (e.g., in the safe chat category, FreeZone no longer exists, and there is no mention of a new site for said: KidFu.com), but the tips to help parents educate themselves and their kids are absolutely tried and true.

  3. New sort of public/private partnership

    In this case, it's a nonprofit organization raising funds to pay a police department to fight a specific crime. This week Fairfax County police (in the Washington, D.C. area) announced a partnership with ChildSafeNet to try to raise $10 million to hire 16 additional detectives and administrators to battle child pornography and abduction on the Internet, the Washington Post reports. The new Child Exploitation Section would be divided into two units. "One unit would use detectives and computer forensics investigators to fight juvenile-related cybercrime. The second unit, of detectives and administrators, would track known sex offenders in Fairfax County to ensure that they don't commit more crimes."

  4. Crackdown on drug paraphernalia sales

    The US government has indicted 11 Web sites on charges of selling illegal drug paraphernalia, CNET reports. The Justice Department said that the arrival of the Internet ha caused an explosion in this "industry," which has " has invaded the homes of families across the country without their knowledge," CNET quotes Attorney General John Ashcroft as saying. He said a total of 27 people in a dozen states had been charged in the government's "Operation Pipe Dreams." The Washington Post's piece on this said 55 people were charged.

  5. Europe's surge in online gaming

    The games range from age-old card games to Neopets.com (games + community for virtual pet owners) to "massively" multi-player strategy-and-fantasy games like EverQuest for PC, palmtop, and mobile phone! But regardless of title, their popularity is surging, the BBC reports. "Nearly 6 million Europeans visited an online games site during January - more than double the figure from the same time in 2002," says the BBC, citing Nielsen/NetRatings figures. Germany and France are "leading the pack," and even the Netherlands, in third place, is ahead of the US. Britons lag behind a bit with just 1.1 million involved in Net-based games. The growing use of high-speed connections is the real driver behind this growth, the BBC adds.

  6. Japanese teen's online threats

    A Japanese junior high student this month posted a threat to kill three elementary school students on an online bulletin board. The Mainichi Shimbun cited police reports that said the boy's words were, "I hereby declare that I will kill three elementary school children in Tochigi Prefecture on Feb. 23." He reportedly named one of the children he threatened to kill in the bulletin board post and later told investigators that he was afraid the child he named was "spreading groundless rumors" about him and thought the child would stop if he threatened him. It's yet another reminder to parents that children need guidance on what the Internet is and isn't for (e.g., obviously we need to be especially alert to kids using it as a tool for dealing with personal challenges). Our thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing this item out.

  7. Web cams in classrooms?

    Some parents would probably make a "Big Brother" association, saying it's like having one's children spied on. Others might see it as a deterrent to unruly behavior. We may soon see how the majority feels if the Manchester City Council gets the government grant it has requested for installing Web cams (digital video cameras feeding live footage) in five Manchester-area schools. According to the BBC, "the camera footage [is intended to be] an eye-opener for some parents who did not believe what their children got up to. The city's chief education officer, Mick Waters, said the council was not trying to catch out teachers who were having trouble maintaining discipline. The move was aimed at the disruptive 1% who showed no respect for their teachers or fellow pupils."

    Tell us what you think of the idea of Web cams in your child's classroom and why - via feedback@netfamilynews.org.

  8. Conned teen cons the conman

    Hard to believe but true: Two UK teenagers "meet" in a chatroom. He, who is really a hacker, sends her a "photo" that is actually a trojan-horse virus he later uses to find her father's credit card number on the family PC. He proceeds to make 15 purchases with the dad's credit card. Upon reading the bill, the father notifies the police, who - frustrated by the hacker's ability to conceal his identity - ask that the family get back in touch if he contacts them again. He actually does (the family thinks his fatal error was not remembering previous victims). But this time the girl traps him with an astrology quiz designed both to flatter and get his identity. He's so flattered he sends back name, address, mobile phone number - more than the police could ever dream of. The story was recently covered in UK-based TheRegister.com, reporting that the hacker was arrested in June 2001 and has just been convicted. "Using stolen credit card information, [then-15-year-old] had set up a cracker Web site (hackersonline.net, since taken down) containing tips for fellow crims and stolen details of 60 credit card accounts." This month he pleaded guilty to seven charges of credit card fraud. Now 18 and a first offender, he was sentenced to 100 hours' community service. The girl who turned him in said she has lost interest in chat rooms.

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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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