February 11, 2005
Dear Subscribers:
People magazine would like to interview families that
have been dealing with cyberbullying. If you have and are willing to have
your family help illustrate the challenges of teen online harassment, please
email me as soon as possible.
Here's our lineup for this second week of February:
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Advergames & 'the nag factor'
Every parent knows what "the nag factor is"! It's
some variation of "Mom, Dad, can I get ___ [fill in name of must-have product],
please, please please?!", repeated anywhere from 9 to 99 times. It's what
advertisers spend a lot of money generating in as many households as possible,
writes guest commentator Nancy Willard, director of the Center
for Safe & Responsible Internet Use (CSRIU) and Cyberbully.org.
What they've found to be the most effective tool for
generating the nag factor online, writes Nancy, is "advergaming." "Advergaming
is the integration of advertising messages into online games, and it's all
the rage in the Internet advertising community," she reports. For two reasons:
- Kids don't bother to click on banner ads, and
- Unlike with banner, billboard, and TV ads, with
games, "advertisers can create conditions for children (and adults) to immerse
themselves for extended periods of time in a fun environment that's all
about promoting brand identification and loyalty."
An example Nancy points to is "the highly popular
children's site, Neopets.com" (another example, pointed out in a CommonSenseMedia.org
editorial is Disney's "Virtual Magic Kingdom." Here's the site's own sales
pitch to advertisers about how effective its advergaming is (layman's explanation
in brackets provided by Nancy):
"Research has shown that, in part due to the diversity
and richness of Neopets' interactive and entertaining content, repeat exposure
[the site is very "sticky," attracting kids to stay for long periods of time
and to return often] to these branded Immersive Advertising activities creates
a positive and long-lasting brand impression with site members [children].
Neopets' creative professionals customize each Immersive Advertising campaign
to showcase the product's unique attributes, to reach effectively the desired
target audience. Neopets' Immersive Advertising programs are successful because
members interact [when you interact, you tend to form a connection] directly
with the advertiser's product, which is embedded [hidden/not obvious to a
child] within the customized site content [the advertising is not distinguished
from content]."
There's more going on too, Nancy points out. For example,
on the way to the nag factor, an intermediate goal of an advergame is to create
multi-directional communication channels: advertiser to child, child to advertiser,
and the "viral" child-to-child type (in which kids unknowingly become allies
of the advertiser, encouraging their friends to play the game/get immersed
in the advertising).
Public policy - what led to US federal regulations
for children's television that require clear distinctions between content
and advertising in children's programming - hasn't caught up with advergaming
on the Web. Something parents need to be aware of.
Please click here for Nancy's complete
commentary, including tips for parents and kids as they navigate this
new world of online online marketing.
And send me your comments and experiences anytime
about your kids' exposure to (and participation in!) marketing in cyberspace.
The address: anne@netfamiliynews.org.
More out on the Web...
- Tips
for parents and kids on how to deal with advergaming/"immersive
advertising," from CSRIU director Nancy Willard.
- A whole bunch of advergame
examples (from Planet Twinkie, Coke, Burger King, LifeSavers, etc.)
and articles, linked to on a page by two Ithaca College professors studying
the phenomenon (you can click on browser "History" to see if any of the
games linked to have been played on your the family PC).
- Advergaming will be a $1 billion business
this year, reports USATODAY,
citing Forrest Research projections in its coverage of Disney's "Virtual
Magic Kingdom" advergame. "As marketers try to target kids and elusive Gen
Y consumers, Madison Avenue is waking up to the fact that Web-wise younger
consumers like video games - and disdain pop-ups, banner ads, and other
less-subtle forms of online advertising. And rather than get a kid's attention
for just 30 seconds with a TV commercial, advergames can capture them for
minutes or hours," according to USATODAY.
- An editorial on the "Virtual Magic Kingdom"
at kids' media watchdog CommonSenseMedia.org.
At a press conference about its 50th-anniversary marketing plans, Disney
said it hoped the game would become a "real hangout" for preteens and teens
(the "sweet spot" is 8-to-12-year-olds, USATODAY reports).
- Government and public-interest organizations
are "advergaming" too. Well, sort of. In developing "instructional gaming,"
they too subscribe to the idea that games are "the best way to reach" people
weaned on video games and the Web, the New
York Times reports. Example: "Stop Fluin' Around," an animated interactive
game that "rewards players for answering questions like 'Where can the flu
hide?' [the answer being on unwashed hands]." Another example, Canada's
Media Awareness Network's games designed to teach Internet safety to
kids.
- "The line between virtual and real is becoming
extremely fuzzy nowadays, particularly for the under-18 crowd," writes Betsy
Book in the Terra
Nova blog's discussion on Disney's game and virtual worlds and massively
multiplayer games in general. Terra Nova is "a collaborative weblog experiment"
by four professors around the US. Another blog: "Water
Cooler Games," about "video games with an agenda."
- Real cash for in-game goods. Some games/virtual
worlds are so immersive that people pay real money for virtual things, such
as $26,500 for a piece of "undeveloped land" in a game called Project Entropia,
CNET
reports. Some game publishers encourage it, most don't, CNET adds. Pretty
fascinating.
* * * *
Web News Briefs
- Get the latest patches
Yesterday was Safer Internet Day (everywhere but
in the US, it seems); today might be called Safer PC Day. Microsoft has
just released "a dozen software updates to fix 16 security flaws - half
of which it deemed 'critical' - in all versions of the Windows operating
system," the Washington
Post reports. So, on your family PC(s), if patch-downloading isn't
automatic or if that little icon didn't pop up telling you some patching's
needed, be sure to go to Windows Update
to get all the new patches (if you use a browser other than Explorer,
go here).
They defend your PC from viruses, worms, phishers, They fix vulnerable
spots in MSN Messenger (MS's IM software that's very popular with teens),
Windows, Explorer, Windows Media Player, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint,
and they fight viruses, worms, phishers, and other hacks and exploits.
"Half of the vulnerabilities [the patches fix] require action by a user
- such as clicking a link in an e-mail or opening a document attachment
- before attackers could gain control of a computer," the Post adds. So
tell your kids: Be extremely careful about clicking on links and attachments
in emails, and ideally ask the sender what it's about. If they don't answer,
don't click."
- Kids' Net safety day
Safer Internet Day was marked around the world
Tuesday (about everywhere but the US, anyway). The awareness-raising "event,
backed by the European Commission, will see over 65 organisations participating
in 30 countries from Australia to Iceland and from Russia to Singapore,"
reports WebUser.co.uk.
The day has its own just-launched Net-safety-ed
Web site. Canada's Media
Awareness Network is using the day to promote parents' involvement
in their children's online activities, as is Singapore's Parents Advisory
Group for the Internet, Channel
NewsAsia reports. Schools in 19 EU member states will be participating
in a contest in which they write Internet adventure stories. "The winning
story will be published worldwide, and an important event will be organised
around the award ceremony," according to Eurofunding.com.
- Tanned chicken & other IM worms
You might want to talk about viruses with IM-ers
at your house - particularly those who use MSN Messenger. First, everybody
in your family knows that instant-messaging is just as susceptible to
worms and viruses as email, right? It sounds pretty silly, but if your
IM-ers get sent a picture of a "baked chicken with a bikini tan," as described
by India-based Techtree.com,
tell them not to click on it! It would launch the latest IM worm,
Bropia, which is infecting PCs all over the world right now. "It also
releases a second more dangerous worm, called Agabot.ajc, on the infected
computer," ZDNET
reports. Here's an older but bigger-picture piece on viruses via instant-messaging
at PC
World - note the IM protection tips at the end.
- Kazaa slows down PCs
That's not all it does, but that's the message
in an internal document written by the chief technology officer of Sharman
Networks, makers of Kazaa file-sharing software. Sharman "employees ...
'hate' installing the ... software because it has ill effects on their
computers," CNET
cites the document as saying. That's good for young file-sharers and their
parents to know too, besides the other questionable, in some cases illegal,
results of installing peer-to-peer (P2P) software. The adware and spyware
that gets inadvertently downloaded along with the tunes file-sharers are
looking for on the P2P networks, in the process of file-sharing, "slow
down users' machines" and Web browsing, Sharman itself confirms. Then
there's the pornography that reportedly is ubiquitous on the networks.
And all of that is in addition to the thousands of lawsuits that media
companies have filed against the big-time file-sharers (especially university
students). [For details, see "File-sharing
realities for families", and to find out what software's installed
on your family PC, see last week's "Anti-P2P
tool for parents."] If you have digital music fans at your house,
at the very least a family discussion about file-sharing would be good
to have - or maybe a session in which the kid educates the parent about
how it works and how it affects both the PC and "our family's values"
(there's fuel for discussion in "A
tech-literate dad on file-sharing").
At the macro level, we're arriving at a showdown,
the New
York Times reports, as a milestone decision by the US Supreme Court
nears. Next month the Court is to hear arguments in a case that pits the
US's film industry against two file-sharing networks, Grokster and Streamcast
Networks. The Times does a good job of showing how muddy the debate is,
that it's about restricting innovation and what people can do with technology
as well as copyright theft. There's very good background to the case in
a piece last fall at ZDNET
(with a consumer-rights angle).
- IM-ing's 'like candy'
"Finish your homework before you can IM" is an
increasingly common rule in many households that include tweens and teens.
Because "the first thing many teens do at home is get to the computer,
connect to the Internet, and check their buddy list" to see who's online,
reports the San
Diego Union Tribune. Then they're hooked - they could be IM-ing for
hours. Also, the size of one's buddy list is becoming a status symbol.
But ultimately "what makes instant messaging cool among teenagers is 'presence,'
the idea that there's always someone out there available to talk with,"
the Union Tribune adds in a very readable update on the instant-messaging
phenomenon (note that word "presence" - I'm seeing it more and more in
ref to online communications). Another really interesting insight comes
from a 17-year-old girl quoted in the article as say, "Instant-messaging
becomes less important when you become more comfortable with who you are."
As for younger IM-ers (it usually starts at around 6th grade), the article
quotes one baby-boomer dad as saying that, to his 11-year-old son, IM-ing
is "like candy." My own 6th-grader has told me that, basically. It's pure
fluff that he said he'll be sick of pretty soon. I think he means it,
but I'm not holding my breath. How about you? Email
me your kids' views on IM-ing (and your rules and other ways of dealing
with it). I love hearing from you.
- Cheaper online tunes
Some digital music fans (including plenty of kids)
think $1 a song is highway robbery and say that's why they use the free
file-sharing services. Other reasons fans (and industry analysts) of all
ages cite include restrictions on what one can do with the songs once
they've been purchased. Molly Wood, a senior editor at ZDNET,
does a good job of laying out music consumers' current choices (on the
legal side of digital music) - from "renting" songs at Napster (when you
stop paying, they go away) to buying them at iTunes (but restricted to
Apple's player for listening to them). "I'm in a digital music bind, and
I don't like it," Molly writes. "I can't imagine why people don't object
more strongly to the idea that you can't choose a music player without
choosing a compatible music service and vice versa. Maybe it's because
the model is similar to ones we're already enslaved by, such as our forced
cell phone/carrier marriages. But that's thinking about things all wrong.
I wouldn't buy food that can be cooked only in a GE microwave. I wouldn't
buy a car that I could drive only while wearing Adidas shoes."
At least cheaper alternatives to iTunes are available.
The newest - launched today with 300,000 songs - is MP3tunes.com, ZDNET
reports. Created by Michael Robertson, who developed the original
MP3.com, it will sell tunes for $.88 and albums for $8.88 and focus on
emerging artists, according to SiliconValley.com.
Music will be in the MP3 format, "which doesn't have any copy-protection
restrictions and can be played on most, if not all, digital music players."
Wal-Mart's
music service also sells songs for $.88. Even cheaper are some Russian
music services, the most well-known of which is AllofMP3.com (with songs
for $.10 or less, good sound quality and no restrictions), but some users
are getting nervous about their legality. Here's a very helpful article
on legal questions about using cheap foreign services at the Wall
Street Journal. Meanwhile, more people are paying for online music.
A study found that about 47% of people 12 and older who downloaded music
in December paid a fee to do so, up from 22% a year ago, CNET
reports.
- Student monitored teacher
A 16-year-old student in Texas plugged a keystroke-logging
device into a teacher's computer when the teacher wasn't looking and later
tried to sell answers to a test. Fellow students turned him in, and he's
now charged with a Class B misdemeanor "punishable by a fine of up to
$2,000 and up to 180 days in jail," the Houston
Chronicle reports. Right now he's attending a different school. My
thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing
this news out.
- School grades online
Grades aren't the only information more and more
schools are putting on the Web for parents. "Some teachers include pending
assignments, written comments, class participation, and disciplinary actions
as well," the Associated
Press reports. "Many schools also let parents check whether their
kids skipped first period, or whether they had chips or an apple for lunch."
The holdup in putting all this information online, it seems, is how much
parents are using it. There's a bit of a lag. "Many parents lack Internet
access or computer skills," though some parents are pressuring schools
to put their kids' performance on the Web. The AP cites figures from one
company that sells student-info-management systems, Pearson Education,
showing that "only a quarter of its 16,000 school districts buy the parental-access
package."
Meanwhile, some students and parents want everything
to be online - including classes and school itself. The US Department
of Education says online public schools are experiencing "explosive growth,"
the New
York Times reports, in a fascinating article about how one got started
in a teeny town in Colorado. Parents, too, are engaged in online learning.
Though the student in this article at Techlearning.com
is a mom, her experience offers unusually good insights into what online
classes are like - for parents considering online school for a child.
- More on the Mini
A lot of excitement was generated by the unveiling
of this cute little computing item (from real people as much as techies
interested in how much Apple crammed into what The Register mistook for
a "sandwich box"). Finally, an affordable Apple. This week The
Register added its take on the $499 Mini from an average home user's
perspective. The best review I've seen is Rob Pegoraro's at the Washington
Post. But for families with PCs who aren't ready to go whole-hog Mac,
SafeKids.com's Larry Magid provides a great alternative: network your
Mini and PC together and have them share mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
"At the risk of offending some Apple enthusiasts, Windows users could
think of the Mini as a PC peripheral," Larry writes in the New
York Times. It's done with a KVM switch (for "keyboard, video, and
mouse"). Larry explains in detail how it works.
- 'The Firefox Explosion'
If anyone at your house is interested in software
code, you might find this Wired
magazine story as interesting as I did. And it really is a story -
as much about what young programmers (one Firefox software writer started
at 14) can accomplish as about the alternative browser's sudden explosive
growth. "Even in beta, Firefox's clean, intuitive interface, quick page-loading,
and ability to elude intruders elicited a thunderous response," Wired
reports. "In the month following its official November launch, more than
10 million people downloaded Firefox." Much more interesting, though,
are the two people "most responsible for the browser's success ... Blake
Ross, an angular, hyperkinetic 19-year-old Stanford sophomore with spiky
black hair, and Ben Goodger, a stout, soft-spoken 24-year-old New Zealander."
Here's Firefox's download
page at the Mozilla Foundation's site.
* * * *
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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Anne Collier, Editor
Net Family News
