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Welcome to the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and thanks to everyone who's just subscribed! Please invite friends and colleagues to sign up and help us to help grownups stay informed about children's safe, constructive use of the Internet. Email us anytime!

 

February 20, 2004

Dear Subscribers:

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


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Detective Williams's Tip No. 2 - The computers kids use should be in high-traffic areas of the house

"There are two reasons for this rule," Bob writes: "One, the parent is able to supervise the child's online activities nearby, and two, every time a parent walks by the connected PC a child is reminded to follow the family rules about surfing the Net safely. Incidentally, when you walk by the computer, stop and ask questions. What Web site are you on? Who are you talking to on IM [instant- messaging], and how do you know that person? Has anyone typed a message to you that makes you feel bad or uncomfortable? Questions like that. This shows the child that you're interested and care about her. It also alerts the child that you are watching closely. Have I said this before?: There is no substitute to parental supervision.

"I investigated a case regarding a 5th-grader who was receiving unwanted, harassing email. The suspect was a classmate. After confirming the screenname and subscriber information with the 5th-grader's Internet service provider by subpoena, I went to the house to confront the sender. The parent assured me that her child was not the sender. Someone else must be using the child's screenname and password. The parent's explanation was that the child does his homework in his bedroom on a laptop, and cable access wasn't available in that room. Upon speaking with the child, the officer determined that, without the parents' knowledge, the child had removed the telephone cord from the phone and connected his laptop using dial-up service.

"Let's keep that computer in a common area!!"

Det. Bob Williams is a father of two high school students and Youth Officer in the Greenwich, Conn., Police Department (see Part 1 of this series for more on Bob). And your family's comments, policies, and stories are always welcome - at feedback@netfamilynews.org.

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A subscriber writes: Our family's P2P solution

In response to "File-sharing shades of gray," 1/30/04, Karen in Virginia emailed us about the file-sharing policy at her house:

"My teens didn't copy much music even before the [RIAA's anti-piracy] lawsuits began, but the news articles made us establish a definite policy for our family. My premise is an economic as well as a moral one. I allow them to copy a single song from a CD, because I know they wouldn't buy the CD for that one piece; therefore, the kids are not depriving the publishers, artists, etc., of royalties and income they would ordinarily have earned. If we can find the song on the pay-per-song site (I forget what it's called [maybe Apple's iTunes or Roxio's new Napster.com]), they use that. Also, the music they copy must be for their own use or for a family member - for example, my son burned a CD for his dad for Father's Day that had songs about fathers or songs that reminded him of his dad or grandfather. Most of them were songs whose copyright, if any, had probably long since expired: 'When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder' and 'Wabash Cannonball' are two that come to mind."

Readers, we much appreciate hearing from you about your kids' and families' online experiences and policies. Email us anytime!

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Web News Briefs

  1. RIAA sues 531 more file-sharers

    This week the Recording Industry Association of America filed lawsuits against 531 more file-swappers throughout the US, bringing the number of people sued so far this year to more than 1,000. "Last year, the RIAA filed lawsuits against sued 382 people and reached out-of-court settlements with 233 others," the Washington Post reports. What's different this year is that these are "John Doe" lawsuits. Because a federal court ruled late last year that the sued file- sharers' Internet service providers didn't have to turn over their customers' names up the RIAA's request, this year when it files, the RIAA "lists hundreds of Internet protocol numbers that can be matched to a service provider's customer. The RIAA asks the service provider for the names once a judge allows the lawsuit to continue." The latest lawsuits were filed in four US cities.

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a Net-related civil liberties organization, said in its press release that the RIAA "failed to follow the basic rules required in all lawsuits when it lumped people into lawsuits filed in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Orlando, and Trenton, New Jersey. The cases include alleged filesharers located throughout the United States who acted independently, using various filesharing software and allegedly downloading a wide variety of different music." The EFF also said the RIAA isn't giving file- sharers a chance to review and respond to "potentially incorrect accusations" before their identities are revealed. Here's additional coverage from CNET and Agence France-Presse via Australian IT.

  2. File-sharer's mom sues back

    New Jersey mother Michele Scimeca is suing three record labels for using scare tactics that amount to extortion. "In what legal experts described as a novel strategy, Scimeca is citing federal racketeering laws like the one that jailed mob boss John Gotti to countersue record labels that accused her in December of sharing some 1,400 copyrighted songs over the Internet," the (New Jersey) Star- Ledger reports. She says she was sued by the RIAA for her 13-year-old daughter's school research project (it's not clear from the article if the child was actually file-sharing). According to the Star-Ledger, "The Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, was enacted in 1970 to prosecute organized crime and help victims seek compensation. But over the years it has been invoked, with varying success, in connection with alleged conspiracies ranging from GOP fund-raising to sexual abuses by Roman Catholic clergy." The EFF believes this is the first use of federal racketeering laws in the "music copyright wars," the Star-Ledger added. Here's CNET's coverage.

  3. Musician Don Henley: Crisis in the music biz

    Millions of music fans swapping tunes for free on the Net is only a symptom of a systemic problem in the music business, Don Henley says. This intelligent commentary in the Washington Post from the Eagles' singer and percussionist (and founding member of the Recording Artists' Coalition) is an appeal not so much against piracy as for change in an increasingly anti-competitive recording industry that treats music as a commodity. He also gives the artist's perspective on file-sharing, zooming right in on the rationale we've all heard from teenagers willing to talk about P2P ethics: "Many kids rationalize their P2P habit by pointing out that only record labels are hurt - that the labels don't pay the artists anyway. This is clearly wrong, because artists are at the bottom of the food chain. They are the ones hit hardest when sales take a nosedive and when the labels cut back on promotion, on signing new artists and on keeping artists with potential. Artists are clearly affected, yet because many perceive the music business as being dominated by rich multinational corporations [and rightly so, he points out earlier in the piece], the pain felt by the artist has no public face."

  4. T-rated video games: Heads-up for parents

    The rating "T" (for "Teen") on video games is incomplete information for parents, two Harvard University researchers found in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The games "contain material that is not listed on the label, including sexual themes, alcohol, and profanity," the Associated Press reports. The AP adds that the study's authors, Kevin Haninger and Kimberly Thompson, said the findings point to the need for "a clear explanation of the rating process" by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which says games labeled "T" "have content that may be suitable for persons ages 13 and older" and "may contain violent content, mild or strong language, and/or suggestive themes" (we're quoting the ESRB site here). The ESRB's response, according to the AP, was that the study is subjective, and "independent research has shown that parents 'overwhelmingly agree' with the board's ratings."

    As for the findings, Haninger and Thompson "reviewed labels on all 396 mainstream T-rated video games available as of April 2001, and watched a random sample of 81 games," the AP reports. They found that only 20% of the games with sexual-content-including-partial-nudity reported that content on their labels; 17% with profanity reported it on their labels; and only 1% with depictions of tobacco or alcohol mentioned it on their labels. (Our thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing this news out.)

  5. IM 'virus': Young AIM users especially vulnerable

    Parents, tell your IM'ing kids not to fall for the Osama bin Laden buddy list scam. Technically, it's not a virus, but the "game" uses instant-messenger buddy lists the way viruses us email address books. It pretends to be an ad for a humorous Osama bin Laden game that comes in a message that looks like it's from a friend on the recipient's buddy list, the Associated Press reports, and as of this writing only users of AOL's free AIM service (not paying AOL subscribers) are vulnerable. By clicking on the ad and agreeing to the "game's" terms of service (which most people quickly click through), users install a "piggybacking" program called Buddylinks that broadcasts the game ad from the infected computer to all correspondents on its AIM buddy lists. Buddylinks is "clever in its use of social engineering to spread, extending a personal invitation that appears to come from what is typically a trusted friend," according to an AOL spokesperson. Though, as "adware," Buddylinks won't harm a PC, malicious programmers could easily use this scheme. So AOL advises IM'ers to always "execute extreme caution" before downloading or installing any game or software program. Here's Wired News's coverage.

  6. Largest COPPA (child privacy) settlement to date

    The US Federal Trade Commission announced this week that UMG Recordings agreed to pay $400,000 in its settlement with the FTC, the largest fine yet for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The FTC also reached settlement this week with Bonzi Software "in the first COPPA case to challenge the information collection practices of an online service in connection with a software product," Internet News reports. The FTC said the two firms were knowingly collecting personal information from children online without first obtaining parental consent," the article adds. COPPA protects online kids under age 13. About the companies: UMG "operates hundreds of general audience Web sites that [with newsletters, fan clubs, and bulletin boards] advertise and promote its numerous music labels and recording artists, many of whom are popular with children." Bonzi markets free, downloadable software called BonziBuddy that displays an interactive, animated purple gorilla on users' computers. We had trouble accessing the FTC's pages about these cases, but here are the pages for UMG and Bonzi. (Our thanks to cyberlawyer Liisa Thomas at Gardner Carton & Douglas in Chicago for pointing this news out.)

  7. Heads-up for parents: Porn on cell phones

    We think you should be kept posted on the porn industry's "progress" on the road to inundating mobile phones with adult content. This latest short piece at The Register, "Handheld porn comes closer," is about UK porn publisher MobVision's role in helping out the next-generation cell-phone biz. "Mobile porn has long been predicted as the saviour of next-generation phones, and researchers at Visiongain estimate that profits from adult content could be $4b a year by 2006." The Register adds that MobVision's services has already launched in Australia and will soon arrive in Europe, South Africa, and the US. At the bottom of the article are links to articles providing context. If parents thought the Internet made porn too accessible, then might want to note what Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt told Wired News about cell-phone accessibility: "Wireless is extremely intriguing because it has no bounds and provides constant, easy access. What's very popular in Europe right now, which we're a part of - people can download a video or still photos onto their cell phones. That hasn't become a fad in America yet, and I don't know where it's going to go."

  8. We, the spammers

    Home PC owners with high-speed Net connections are just sitting ducks to spammers these days. So "next time you're looking for a culprit for all that junk mail flooding your inbox, have a glance in the mirror," suggests the Associated Press. The rapidly expanding broadband Internet market in the US represents a major opportunity for spammers because they can exploit the new users' ignorance and - via viruses and the "backdoors" they leave on home PCs - take control of their computers to send out spam. Between one-third and two- thirds of the spam you and I are getting comes from unprotected home PCs, the AP reports. "Just last week, a proxy program called Mitglieder began installing itself on computers infected by last month's Mydoom outbreak," according to the article. So keep your anti-virus software up-to-date, make sure you have a firewall installed (see last week's "Virus protection for cheapskates"), and periodically go to Microsoft's page for the latest security patches if you have a Windows PC. If your computer's moving slowly and you think it may be infected or remotely controlled, one quick way to diagnose is to "check 'sent mail' folders for suspicious messages," the article adds.

  9. 'How many megapixels does a teenager need?'

    That's the burning question that was on New York Times online-shopper columnist Michelle Slatalla's mind when her daughter asked her for a digital video camera for her 13th birthday. Dismayed, Michelle confesses, "I know nothing about buying electronic gadgets. But now, as I mentally thumbed through the long list of teenage crises on which I have an opinion - drugs (bad), sex (bad), under-age driving (bad) - I realized that on the topic of technology I had absolutely no guidance to offer my own daughter other than digital (bad)." That digital guidance, of course, was to be found in the Internet's gadget guides. With their help, she zoomed in on a range of 2-4 megapixels. That "narrowed my search to roughly a gazillion cameras." Don't miss the very readable path to Michelle's conclusion (Dad's tech literacy was one of the hurdles, but also brought healthy co-parenting discussion).

  10. Singapore students sued by their school

    This is a twist: In the US, universities have been sued by the recording industry for allowing file-sharing by their students, but in Singapore, they're suing their own students for file-sharing, which is illegal under Singapore law. Singapore's Straits Times reports that over the past six months at least 25 students have been sued. "National University of Singapore fined 20 students $200 each. Nanyang Technological University fined at least five students, but wouldn't say how much the fines were. No other action was taken against the students."

  11. Net research tells teen of his abduction

    Americans and Canadians on our list may've seen this story on TV this week: A 17-year-old boy "discovered that he had allegedly been abducted from Canada 14 years ago" when he saw his picture on a missing children's Web site," the Associated Press reports. The photograph, had been taken when he was three, when his mother took him to Mexico after learning that his father had been awarded custody. They later moved to the Los Angeles area, where the now teenage boy and his mother are living.

  12. China's teen Net addicts: Truth or propaganda?

    A hospital administrator in Zhengzhou told China's official news service Xinhua that increasing numbers of teenagers are being admitted to hospital, suffering from what doctors call 'Internet Syndrome,' The Register reports. He sees one or two cases a week, he says, of young exhibiting symptoms such as "delirium, paranoia, and psychosis." The Register adds a caveat: "Given the Chinese government's suspicious approach to the Internet, it is impossible to say for certain that this is not being used as another thread in its efforts to discourage Net use. In 2003, laws in China were changed to restrict access to Internet cafes to over 18's. This followed the closure of nearly half such establishments in 2002 and 2003."

  13. File-sharers' anonymity

    File-sharers have started moving to encrypted file-sharing for anonymity, but now there's a new (or newly known) form of masking their P2P activity: AnonX. " Available for $5.95 per month, AnonX sets up a virtual private network, or VPN, between a user's computer and the company's computers. The AnonX computers act as proxies, and actually do the Web surfing for the subscriber," the Associated Press reports. It's yet another example of all the work-arounds that become available when anyone tries to stop popular Internet activities (for more on this, see No. 2 in "Bigger picture on file-sharing," 1/30).

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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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