Archive for September, 2009
Government Internet safety group hears from students & experts
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009by Larry Magid
Last year Congress passed the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, which established the Online Safety Technology Working Group (OSTWG), a panel of 29 representatives from Internet companies, academia, non-profits and government to study and report on how to best protect online kids. In April, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the appointments.
Disclosure: I was appointed as a representative of SafeKids.com and ConnectSafely.org, the non-profit Internet safety group I co-direct along with Anne Collier. I was also asked to head up the group’s Net-safety education subcommittee which was responsible for running last Thursday’s OSTWG meeting at the Commerce Department in Washington.
The first set of presenters was a group of Washington, D.C., public school students who gave a frank appraisal on the state of Internet safety education from the front lines. Although members of this student panel were quite familiar with incidences of cyberbullying and sexting (students sharing naked pictures of themselves), none had any horror stories to report and all seemed to understand the basics for staying safe and maintaining their privacy on social network sites. My favorite comment came from a middle schooler who said “The only person who can protect you on the Internet is you.” Based on what the adult presenters later said, she was quite right.
The next presenter, Stephen Balkam of the Family Online Safety Institute, outlined some of the safety messages social-media and Internet companies are offering, including their own site-specific advice and tools and supporting non-profits that provide safety advice. “Millions are being spent,” said Balkam, “but more can be done.”
Nancy Willard of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use talked about the current state of Internet safety education, telling the group that much of today’s school-based messages continue to reinforce the discredited notion that kids are in serious danger from adult predators. Willard pointed out that sexual exploitation resulting from contact by someone a young person knows only through the Internet is extremely rare, especially compared to the far more likely peer-to-peer problems such as cyberbullying.
Willard hopes to see federal funding for Department of Education-administered prevention programs that include educators, health professionals and risk-prevention experts, along with law enforcement. Much of school-based Internet safety education to date has been funded by the Justice Department, which tends to view the world in terms of preventing and solving crimes rather than dealing with risky behavior where young people sometimes experience problems that don’t necessarily involve criminal behavior. Willard said that law enforcement needs to continue to be involved, but not as the sole voice in the discussion.
Jessica Gonzalez with the National Hispanic Media Coalition talked about the online component of hate speech, especially as it pertains to Latinos who are caught up in the immigration debate. While Gonzalez welcomes a spirited debate on immigration issues, she warned about hate crimes against Latinos – including citizens and legal residents – as well as web sites that she said encourage such crimes. Her comments were followed by a discussion that included contributions from Steven Sheinberg of the Anti-Defamation League (a leader in anti-hate speech advocacy), Whitney Meagher of the National PTA and Judi Westberg Warren of Web Wise Kids. All agreed that Internet safety must include teaching respect for one’s self, one’s peers and the broader community. Whether dealing with ethnicity, sexual preference or anything else, there is a real connection between hate speech and cyberbullying.
Mike Donlin of Seattle Public Schools described his district’s cyberbullying program that trains students on techniques to protect themselves and their fellow students from bullying and harassment. Consistent with other experts, Donlin said that online bullying is typically associated with offline bullying. Problems that start in school often migrate online and it’s not uncommon for the bullies and victims to know each other in the real world.
Dr. Patti Agatston, a risk prevention expert from Cobb County (Ga.) schools, talked about the need for safety messages that are tailored to a young person’s specific risk profile. Drawing on healthcare messaging, she pointed out that all kids need what she called “primary prevention” – general messages about how they can stay safe, treat each other respectfully and protect their reputations. Kids with somewhat higher risk profiles need “secondary prevention.” These young people, who may have less parental involvement or exhibit early problem behaviors, can benefit from “prevention programs that often involve mentoring, decision making skills, goal setting and peer education.” “Tertiary prevention,” she said “is designed to assist youth with established patterns of risk behaviors.” That group generally needs the services of adolescent therapists and other professionals to help them deal with addictive behaviors involving internet use, pornography, sexual risk taking and off-line high-risk activities, including substance abuse, cutting, eating disorders and gang activity.
As Dr. Agaston pointed out, kids who take risks online typically also take risks in their offline lives. As with less severe categories of online risk taking, the problem is less about technology and more about youth behavior.
Another speaker, Alan Simpson of Common Sense Media, told the group that digital citizenship and media literacy are essential components to online safety. How kids treat themselves and others as well as their ability to critically evaluate what they see and do on and offline, can have an enormous impact on their personal safety and the safety of those with whom they interact.
Finally, author and University of Southern California media professor Henry Jenkins wrapped up the day with a look at how young people use social media and how, over time, online communities can have self-regulating and protective effects on their members. Jenkins, who has studied online gaming, fan-sites and other areas where young people interact, noted that while cyberbullying is a serious problem, people in these communities will often self-regulate by isolating and criticising those who exhibit anti-social behavior.
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Tuesday, September 29th, 2009test
Partial Tylenol Recall
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 Tylenol is issuing a “warehouse recall” on several different types of Infant and Children’s Tylenol due to a contamination. According to the folks at Babble, the drug is still safe, but you may want to call and find out if your bottle is part of the recall: The best news? The drug is safe. It’s a [...] Related posts:- Dear SafeMama: Tylenol and Melamine
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Is your cell phone safe?
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 Remember when we were kids, phones were attached to the wall? You generally had one line for the whole house to share, and you had to practically cut the lines so your sister would let you use the phone already! Now we live in a day in age where just about everyone has a mobile [...] Related posts:- Toys”R”Us Partners with Safe Kids Worldwide
- Safe for Mama: Finding Safe Cosmetics and Body Care
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Rocky Mountain Soap Company (Review & Giveaway)
Monday, September 14th, 2009 As I get more particular about what products touch my kids skin, the less options I seem to find myself faced with. However, serendipitously I was contacted by Rocky Mountain Soap Company because a few of our wonderful readers contacted them asking if we’ve reviewed their products. You have been holding out on me folks! [...] Related posts:- Review & Giveaway: Dimpleskins Naturals Bum Bum Balm Diapering Salve
- Product Review: Little Twig
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Do Lavender & Tea Tree Oils Mimic Hormones?
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 I had heard a while ago that both lavender and tea tree oils can be estrogenic and cause breast tissue to develop in young boys. An article floated around about a study done in the New England Journal of Medicine regarding a case of 3 boys who developed gynecomastia and apparently all had one thing [...] Related posts:- University Study Says Bisphenol-A May Disrupt Cancer Treatments
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BlackBerry Visor Mount Speakerphone
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 I don’t normally post electronics to SafeMama™ but this one I decided to review because one of my biggest pet peeves of drivers is people who talk on their phones and drive at the same time… not that I don’t expect anyone to ever do it, it’s just that so many people are BAD at [...] Related posts:- Over The Rain Dough Giveaway!
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Parental control company sells data on what kids say
Friday, September 4th, 2009A software product sold to protect children from predators, cyber bullying and visiting inappropriate websites is also collecting information about what the kids are saying and is selling that data — in aggregate form — to other companies for marketing purposes. In an interview, Echometrix CEO Jeffrey Greene said that the company doesn’t collect or report the names or any identifying information about the children, “We never ever ever can identify who the kid is who is saying it. In fact we don’t have any information about the individual child.”
Sentry Parental Control Software, according to Greene, is designed to warn parents if a child is engaged in inappropriate online behavior by analyzing a database of 29,000 words including what he calls “weblish,” slang terms like POS (parent over shoulder) that kids use as short cuts in instant messaging and chat rooms. To do this, said Greene, it’s necessary for the company to capture this information so “we can monitor these kids and the conversations they are having and the things they are seeing and all the words that are coming to them and all the words they’re sending out so we can make decisions and identify questionable activities and let mom and dad know about it right now in real time.”
In addition to notifying parents if their kids are doing something questionable, the company also sells summary data based on this information – in the aggregate – to other companies. A press release on its website describes a product called PULSE “that reads digital content from multiple sources across the web, including: instant messages (“IM”), blogs, social environment communities, forums, and chat rooms.” The company says that it delivers the unsolicited raw conversations in real time. It gives marketers immediate, unique information about what teens are saying in their own words.”
Greene says that the service can let companies “in real time, find out what the kids are saying about your product and all your competitors’ products … I can’t tell you who said it, I can only just tell you that a lot of kids said it.”
Greene said that the company does provide a disclosure to parents as well as a way for parents to opt out, but the information in its end-user license agreement (EULA) is written in the typical legalese and is a bit contradictory. In one section it says “SearchHelp (recently renamed Echometrix) does not read or disclose private communications except to comply with a valid legal process such as a search warrant, to protect the company’s rights and property” but in another it says “We have a parent’s permission to share the information if the user is a child under age 13. Parents have the option of allowing SearchHelp to collect and use their child’s information without consenting to SearchHelp sharing of this information with people and companies who may use this information for their own purposes.”
At my request, the company provided a link to a web page where parents can “opt out of collection process.”
Spyware?
David Perry of TrendMicro, which includes parental control tools in some of its security products, said he isn’t aware of any other parental control products that captures this type of information. “This is a severe case of what we used to call spyware,” he said. Perry worries that even though the software may not collect the names of the children, “those names could be included in some of the chat messages.”
Taking Greene at his word, and assuming that the company carefullly avoids sending out identifiable information, I still can’t shake the creepy feeling that I get about any product that collects any information from children, especially in the name of child protection.
Review: Bumboosa Wipes
Friday, September 4th, 2009 I have to admit, since having my daughter, I’ve been a bit lazy (read: frazzled and learning to balance life and being a mom of two) about using the cloth wipes, like I was using for my son. I don’t like that I’m using more of my share of disposable diapers and wipes these [...] Related posts:
Advice for safe & compassionate social networking
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009Back to school time is an excellent time for kids, parents and teachers to think and talk about the safe and approprite use of the Internet and social networking tools.
My message to parents and teachers is simple. Embrace the technology that kids use, recognize that whatever you may lack in technology knowledge you make up in wisdom and remember that you, too, were once a kid. Your first reaction to kid activity that may be a bit disturbing shouldn’t be to freak out and shut down access but to take a deep breath, talk with (and listen to) the kids and do everything you can to encourage dialog.
And try to become familiar with the technology your kids use. That doesn’t mean you necessarily have to be their friend on Facebook or MySpace, but before you start trying to control how they use social networking technology, make sure you understand it.
Teachers should attempt to use social networking as part of the educational process. Whether they know it or not, kids are enaged in informal learning through their use of social networking so why not use the same technology for formal learning? And while you’re at it, incorporate digital citizenship and media literacy into your teaching.
As my ConnectSafely co-director Anne Collier pointed out in “Social media literacy: The new Internet safety,” media literacy and critical thinking “is protective against manipulation and harm.” Encouraging kids to practice good digital citizenship helps protect all young people, because “behaving aggressively online more than doubles the risk of being victimized.”
As per kids, Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer at News Corp and MySpace offers some Online Safety and Back to School advice especially suited to youth who use social networking services like MySpace and Facebook (MySpace is one of several companies that provide financial support for ConnectSafely). He starts off with the usual internet safety advice: “don’t post anything you wouldn’t want the world to know” and “don’t get together with someone you ‘meet’ online unless you’re certain of their identity.” Then, perhaps a bit uncharacteristic of his background as a former federal prosecutor, Nigam also provides advice about the compassionate and kind use of social networking
- Post with respect: photos are a great way to share wonderful experiences. If you’re posting a photo of you and your friends, put yourself in your friends’ shoes and ask would your friends want that photo to be public to everyone. If yes, then you’re uploading photos with respect.
- Comment with kindness: compliments are like smiles, they’re contagious. When you comment on a profile, share a kind word, others will too.
- Update with empathy: sharing updates lets us tell people what we think. When you give an opinion on your status updates, show empathy towards your friends and help them see the world with understanding eyes.
ConnectSafely.org, the non-profit website I co-direct, has lots of other advice on the safe and productive use of social media and technology.