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March 8, 2002

Dear Subscribers:

As promised, this week's issue includes advice for parents on dealing with filtering's flaws. Next week: Don't miss a Michigan mother's own experience in monitoring her 15-year-old's instant-messaging. Here's our lineup for this first full week of March:

• Family Tech: Dot-kids could happen; High-tech help for weight loss; A DNS number & a giggle
  
• Filtering flaws: A filtering company's view and counterpoint; Advice for parents
  
• Web News Briefs: The next Net?; Teen's site about freshman girls; Surfers getting serious; Schools teaching online; Privacy awards; Virtual shoplifting; Using Net to get boys reading; Angry music customers....

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Family Tech

1. Dot-kids revisited

   This week a US congressional panel voted to create a dot-kids top-level domain, counter to an earlier decision by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the international body that governs Internet addresses). The new legislation directs the operator of the United States' own dot-US country-code domain, NeuStar, to set up a "safe playground" on the Internet for children. For a careful look at the implications (negative as well as positive), please see a commentary by SafeKids.com's Larry Magid - an updated version of an article that first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News last June.

   Rep. Fred Upton (R) of Michigan, whose House telecommunications subcommittee voted unanimously for the bill, said he would push for the full House Energy and Commerce Committee to take it up by the end of March, with the hopes that it would become law as soon as July, CNET reports.

2. High-tech help with weight loss

   Well, unfortunately, it's not using a computer or playing a video game that causes weight loss, Larry Magid assures us. But, in his latest Family Tech column for the San Jose Mercury News, Larry does detail how diet and fitness resources on the Web can help us move down that road. At least, they helped him. His article describes his own very successful process and tells where to go on the Web for some great resources on nutrition (for kids, teens, and adults), calorie counting, food exchange lists, etc.

3. Made us giggle...

   The other night a friend called asking for my husband. I found myself saying to him, "Ron just ran over to the neighbors' for a new DNS number. He'll be right back." We both laughed, realizing simultaneously what the comment sounded like and how the Internet really has seeped into our everyday lives. Instead of running over to the neighbors for a cup of sugar, the way our mothers did, we're running across the street for a DNS number to help fix a little wireless networking problem. Our little iBook with its AirPort wireless modem just wasn't connecting into the neighborhood network (Jeff, our neighbor across the street, has the hub at his house). All we needed was that one DNS number, and now we're all set!

   Which leads to the lead News Brief down there - "The next Internet?" - all about the new wireless Net that appears to be developing in a bottom-up way, as the "old" phone-wire Internet did. It's really quite an amazing thing to think about (the phone companies think so, too - they cannot be happy about this phenomenon, any more than the record companies are happy about music file-sharing networks).

* * * *

Filtering flaws, Part 2: A Filtering company's view & report author's response; Advice for parents

A filtering company's view

Last week our lead feature was on a lesser known flaw in filtering software: its makers' non-disclosure of criteria used to block Web sites and of business relationships with organizations that may be shaping those criteria (problematic when schools required by law to use this filtering do not know whose values are shaping the online experience of their diverse student bodies).

Subscriber Jeff Hoffman, owner of a filtering Internet service provider, emailed us his feedback this week, and later gave us his permission to excerpt it and print a response from Nancy Willard, author of the report covered last week, "Filtering Software: The Religious Connection". Here's Jeff's feedback, followed by Nancy's counterpoints (subtitles added by us for easier navigation):

"I own a small computer networking and ISP company in Illinois. We also provide Internet filtering for schools and to dial-up subscribers.... I first got into the filtering business because of my grandkids. They live with my wife and me along with their dad. Four years ago, I was sitting with my grandson when he was about 5 watching him play a computer game just like the book says good parents should. I stepped out of the room for just a minute and even though he couldn't yet read, he somehow found the autodialer on the desktop and while in the kitchen I heard the modem go off and start to connect. That's when I realized that it was unrealistic to watch kids 24/7 and make sure they didn't stumble into something that they shouldn't. Who's to say what they should or shouldn't? At home it's a parental choice. If you want to protect your kids from pornography or messages of hate subscribe to our service or buy your own software. If not, fine, don't. In schools the issue is a little different. There are three key reasons for filtering in schools:"

The law & school liability

"First, it's the law. To those who don't like the law, get it changed. Ask any school administrator if they enjoy spending the money for filtering, they'll tell you they'd rather spend it on textbooks but they have no choice....

"Second, there is the issue of liability on the part of schools and libraries. In a litigious society like ours, it's only a matter of time before some library is sued for facilitating the acts of some adolescent who learns how to make a bomb or perform some deviant act on a small child because they learned how on the Internet via a computer in the library. Even if the library or school prevails in court - at what cost? How long before a teacher would sue the school for creating a hostile work environment if some adolescent filled a computer with pornography and left it in plain sight? And once that lawsuit hits the news, the floodgates will be open and it will be open season on schools in courtrooms across the country."

Keeping kids on task

"Third, there is the matter of keeping kids on task while in school. The computers in those schools were purchased to complement the learning process in the classroom, not as a source of recreation.... As part of our function as a filter administrator for schools, we prepare statistics for the administration showing the top Web sites accessed by the school computers, as well as blocking statistics. In some schools, the top 20-30 sites accessed have no educational value at all by anyone's standards. The teachers and librarians often don't have time or staffing to oversee the children the way that the book says they should. Filtering services can act as a supplement to the efforts of the school to enforce appropriate use of school equipment...."

Overblocking/underblocking

"Regarding all of the hullabaloo about blocking errors - hey, we're not perfect. We admit it. No system is, but it's better than no system at all, which seems to be the alternative. Our filtering service blocks less that eight-tenths of 1% of Web requests at the schools we support. Opponents will scream that we blocked 21,000 sites in a month with 2.9 millions accesses. Our hope is that the schools and parents recognize that 2.69 million site accesses were safe for their kids to access. Do we overblock? Yes, on occasion. The technology coordinators report to us those circumstances, and we fix it within one hour of notification. Do we underblock? Once in a while. Same scenario. The schools make the call, we just do the leg work (er, finger work?)."

'Religious conspiracy'

"A recent article that you highlighted seemed to be bent on implying some sort of 'religious conspiracy' between filtering companies and the religious right. What was missing was the reality that it's just business. Look, who's most outspoken about family values lately? The vocal portion of the religious community. Academic liberals can look for conspiracy but all I see is a business opportunity to fill a market niche. If a filtering company can add an option to their software that fulfills a market segment's needs. God love 'em! (if you'll excuse the expression)...."

Keeping the blocking list secret

"Keeping the blocking list secret? Of course, that's how filtering companies make their money. If I gave you the list that I spent so much money compiling someone, would publish it and two things would happen. 1) All of the pornographers on the list would immediately change their URL to get off the list. 2) Some 'information is free' fanatic would put it out as a freeware program and hurt my business. Filter management is not a precise business. Everyone knows that porn is one of the top categories on the Web. In the old days parents just kept their kids away from the 'red light district'; now it's being delivered up-close-and-personal to our living rooms and classrooms.

"Why do we have filtering software in schools? It's for the same reason that most parents drive their kids to school. For the same reason some schools have metal detectors at the doors and cops in the halls. It's just not safe for kids any more. If I overblock a site, it's probably a mistake. Tell me, I'll fix it within an hour. It's no right-wing conspiracy to deprive anyone of their constitutional rights. It's just me, making a living and trying to protect kids."

Nancy Willard's responses...

The law & school liability

"Since [filtering in e-rate funded schools] is the law, then there needs to be a system to ensure accountability on the part of the filtering companies. Never before in the history of public schools have school officials delegated control to third-party companies to make decisions regarding what is or is not appropriate for students to look at when the school officials are completely blind to what the companies are doing. CIPA is one law. But there is also case law from the Mainstream Loudoun [County, Virginia] case that indicates it is unacceptable for public officials, in this case librarians, to delegate decision-making to third-party companies when they do not know what criteria is being used to block access to material. So schools should look for ways to comply with CIPA without handing over control to companies, when there is no assurance that the companies are abiding by appropriate educational standards.

"The Internet has been in schools since the mid-'90s. And many schools do not and will not install filtering. There is no evidence whatsoever of the potential of an 'open season' on school districts...."

Keeping kids on task

"A study published by N2H2 [filtering company serving many schools] addresses student Internet use in a filtered environment. This study found that less than 16% of such use was on sites that were identified as instructional and reference. The vast majority of other use - on entertainment, sports, games, e-commerce and the like, was clearly NOT educational. My assessment, based on ample investigation in schools, is that schools that think they have 'solved' the problem by installing filtering software frequently have not provided a sufficient level of professional development and curriculum development and are not engaging in a sufficient level of supervision and monitoring to ensure that kids are using the Internet for effective educational purposes. Conversely, schools that have a strong focus on the educational use of the Internet and have effective supervision and monitoring do not have problems with misuse or non-educational use."

Overblocking/underblocking

"Of course ... filtering systems are not infallible or ever-present. This is why we should not place primary reliance on these systems. And experienced teachers tell me the overblocking rate is about 20%. The processes to override the system is generally so cumbersome that most teachers and students simply figure out another way to get to the material - like accessing it through the unfiltered system at home."

'Religious conspiracy'

"I looked for, and could find no evidence whatsoever of, some sort of 'added option' that would modify these products specifically to serve the needs of religious users. No mention of this kind of option was made on the Web sites. Representatives of the major [filter] companies were interviewed for an article related to my report in eSchoolNews. None of them mentioned any kind of an 'added option' feature that would modify the basic product to meet the interests of the conservative religious clients. If such a feature were available, one would assume the interview would be a good opportunity to mention this.

"Having dismissed the possibility of an optional religious mode, we are left with 'the reality that it's just business.' The conservative religious community has certainly been the most vocal about the need for filtering. If, in fact, these products are being developed to meet the concerns of the 'vocal portion of the religious community,' then there is a very strong reason to believe that, if these same products are being used in public schools, the result is that students are being prevented from accessing entirely appropriate information because of blocking that is based on inappropriate bias.

"As for the 'academic liberal' characterization, I would note that my article on the legal and ethical issues related to Internet use policies was published by Brigham Young University Journal of Law and Education. Also, one of the [filter] companies I covered in the report was linking to my Web site, which they noted provided an 'excellent source of information.' "

Keeping the blocking list secret

"If the filtering products are going to be used in schools, then some sort of mechanism to ensure that the blocking decisions are being made in accord with appropriate educational standards is required. Period. This would not require public disclosure of the blocking list. Such disclosure could be made in a manner that would protect the confidentiality of the trade secrets of the company. Pornographers can easily check to see if their site is blocked already. And there are freeware products available that provide the complete list of blocked sites.

"Throughout the history of education in the US, local school officials have been the ones responsible for making the determination regarding the appropriateness of material for students. They are now delegating this responsibility to third-party private companies, when there is absolutely no mechanism whatsoever to ensure that these companies understand and are exercising their decision-making in accord with appropriate educational standards.

"If these companies are blocking to meet the concerns of the 'vocal portion of the religious community,' then the concerns are amplified. It is entirely appropriate for conservative religious parents to seek assurances that their children are using the Internet in accord with their religious values. It is not at all appropriate for conservative religious organizations to seek to impose their values and standards on all students seeking information on the Internet.

"It is indeed true that the 'red light' district is now being delivered 'up close and personal' to our living rooms and classrooms. That is life and that is the reality we have to prepare our kids to deal with in a safe and responsible manner. Anyone who thinks that this problem is solved by trying to keep kids in 'fenced play yards' simply does not understand."

* * As promised last week: Advice for parents

After reading her report last week, we asked author Nancy Willard, director of the University of Oregon's Responsible Netizen project...

What would you suggest to parents seeking a filtering solution?

"The most important thing to know about filtering is that it is neither infallible nor on every computer that your child will have access to. So any parent who places primary reliance on filtering is placing their child in a position of greater vulnerability and risk at the inevitable times when the filtering will fail or not be present. Also, the vast majority of teens know how to get around filtering anyway. So if they want to get to material or engage in activities on the Internet, they will, period.

"My recommendations for younger children is that the computer be placed in a totally open environment, that children be allowed to go to sites that have been bookmarked, and that if they want to explore someplace new, this exploration should be supervised. Even very young kids need to know exactly what to do if something appears on the screen that looks wrong, just in case they innocently access some inappropriate site (which can happen with or without filtering). They need to know that if something bad appears, they should turn off the screen and come and tell an adult. Then, if this does happen, they need to be praised for handling the situation properly.

"Once kids reach adolescence, the lessons have to change. Filtering will simply not stop these kids. Supervision and monitoring might. But surreptitious monitoring can destroy trust, which is an essential component of a healthy parent/teen relationship. We have to teach kids how to avoid mistakenly getting to the wrong places and what to do if they have been mouse-trapped [stumbled upon a site that serves us endless porn pop-up ads that are difficult to escape]. And we have to teach the importance of protecting their privacy and other safe communication skills.

"But the real issue is good character - good values and self-control to act in accord with those values. All teens are going to be curious and are going to look at Internet porn. They are teenagers. The biggest concern is that they understand how excessive exposure to these kinds of materials can be damaging to loving, healthy relationships. The biggest concern is that they will become addicted to the excitement that looking at these materials brings. Excessive use of the Internet for any reason should raise concerns. Teens need to be engaged with their friends and family in the real world. If teens have healthy values and healthy relationships with their family and friends they will carry these values and patterns for relationships onto the Internet. These are simply not issues that we can address with techie quick fixes. We have to be good parents and remain hands-on and connected with our kids."

* * * *

Web News Briefs

1. The next Internet?

   From WANs and LANs (the wide- and local networks that made up the old wired Internet) to NANs? That's "neighborhood-area networks," which - all linked up the way cellular-phone cells are now - will supposedly create what might be called the next Internet, a wireless one. "NAN" was coined by Tim Pozar, a radio engineer mentioned in the New York Times this week. Pozar is a member of a group that cell-phone companies probably view as the very subversive (San Francisco) Bay Area Wireless Users Group, "an active band of hobbyists who have been building free networks in communities through the region," the Times's John Markoff writes, adding: "Significantly, what will set Mr. Pozar's planned Sunset Network and those like it apart from the commercial cellular networks now being constructed at great expense is that they will 'self assemble' - expanding from one neighborhood to the next as individuals and businesses join by buying their own cheap antennas that either attach to the wired Internet or pass a signal on to another wireless node." It's new technology that's likely to "upset the existing order" established by phone and cellular phone companies.

   To regular Net users like you and me, the technology's become known as "Wi-Fi" (for wireless fidelity), another Times piece explains. It's known "in engineering parlance as 802.11." The writer of this piece, Amy Harmon, describes how it works for Net users (e.g., right now they need cable or DSL connections and a wireless "modem" or network card installed in connected computers).

2. Teen's site about freshman girls

   An 18-year-old high school student in Great Falls, Mont., was suspended for publishing a Web site about "the hottest 10 freshmen girls," the Great Falls Tribune reports. A district court judge issued a temporary restraining order to stop the school from suspending the boy. About 50 of his peers had staged a peaceful sit-in in protest, the article also reports. (Our thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing this piece out.)

3. Surfers 'getting serious' - Pew study

   Americans are "getting serious online," a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found. What Pew means is, US users' growing experience with the Internet is causing them "to use the Internet more for their jobs, to make more online purchases and carry out other financial transactions, and to write emails with more significant and intimate content." Lee Rainie, the Project's director, explains that the Net "has gone from novelty to utility for many Americans." Here are some key findings:

   • Work: "On a typical day, 36% of Americans with Internet access on the job were doing work-related research in March 2001, up from 25% a year earlier."
   • Email: "By March 2001, 51 million Americans had emailed family members for advice, up from 30 million in 2000 - a 70% increase in a year. Similarly, 51 million Americans said they had emailed a friend for advice, compared to 32 million Americans who had done this by March 2000."
   • E-commerce: "The share of Internet users who had bought products online grew from 47% of Internet users in March 2000 to 53% in March 2001." Use of online travel services in that period grew from 34% to 42%; of online banking, from 17% to 23%; and of online auctions from 14% to 20%.
   • "People also expanded their range of online activities over the course of the year from an average of 11 to 14 different types of uses of the Internet," Pew reports.
   
   
4. Best/worst privacy awards

   It was a UK government plan to archive all email and Net traffic which won in the "Most Appalling Project" category of this year's Big Brother Awards. The awards were established in 1998 by British human rights watchdog, Privacy International, reports the BBC. "The Lifetime Menace award went to another government scheme: the plan to introduce nationwide ID cards," according to the BBC, and another lucky recipient was Cabinet Secretary Sir Richard Wilson, for "his long-standing commitment to opposing freedom of information, data protection, and ministerial accountability," the BBC adds. There was some positive recognition too, though: Five "Winstons" were awarded to organizations or individuals who contributed to the protection of privacy and human rights.

5. Virtual shoplifting?

   It seems there's nothing a tech-literate teen can't figure out. Wired News cites an eye-witness account of a Dallas teenager who used his iPod to shoplift/download software at a CompUSA store. The teenager used a FireWire cable to connect his iPod with the store's machine and copy Microsoft's Office for OSX, software that retails for $500, Wired reports. "When Apple introduced the iPod, the company was aware that people might use it to rip off music from the Net or friends' machines," the article says, adding that each new iPod bears a sticker that says, "Don't Steal Music." But Wired figures it is "unlikely that Apple imagined people would walk into computer stores, plug their iPod into display computers and use it to copy software off the hard drives." (See our Jan. 11 News Briefs for a much more positive view of iPod.)

6. US high schools teaching online

   Most of us knew that virtually all US high schools are online, but what we didn't know is that more than half of them now either offer courses online or plan to. That's according to a new study by Interactive Educational Systems Design, Inc., cited by CyberAtlas. The higher-than-expected numbers include these: 40% of high schools already offer online courses or plan to during this school year a further 17% plan to offer them in the future; and 32% US public school districts will adopt online learning for the first time this year. "The main reasons cited by high schools for turning to online learning are cost effectiveness, providing educational equity, and resolving scheduling conflicts," reports Nua Internet Surveys in its coverage of the report.

7. Using Net to help boys read

   Here's a good idea: "a literacy program to connect boys with books they will want to read..., to give boys more of a say in what they read,... and to help boys become better readers, better students, better guys." That is what "Guys Read" is about. On his "Why?" page, the site's proprietor, dad and children's book author Jon Scieszka, cites facts such as: "Boys score lower in all grades on standardized reading and writing tests than girls; are more likely than girls to be placed in remedial classes or held back a grade; rank lower in their class and earn fewer honors than girls; and get into fights twice as often, and commit suicide four times more often than girls." Scieszka's books include "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!", "Squids Will Be Squids," and "Time Warp Trio: Summer Reading Is Killing Me." (Our thanks to Wired News for pointing this site out.)

8. Make music customers angry: Solution?

   The interesting thing is, neither music customers like the new copy-protected CDs nor do consumer-electronics companies like Sony. But the record companies started releasing them anyway - in Europe, to little fanfare, the New York Times reports, as well as in Japan, CNET reports. Music customers don't like them because they're concerned they won't be able to play these CDs on their new MP3 players or burn their own compilation CDs with music they've already purchased on the copy-protected CDs. Sony doesn't like them because it says it can't guarantee they'll deliver Sony-quality audio. Apple and Sonicblue (which makes Rio MP2 players) have similar problems with them, because their "sales of popular portable music players might suffer if copy-protected CDs became the norm," the Times reports, adding: "But the record companies, who largely blame piracy via computers and the Internet for the 10% decline in United States music sales last year, are defending the practice and planning to put more protected CDs into the American market."

   What might make music customers angry is that the record companies - in test-marketing their copy-protected CDs - aren't putting very noticeable labels on their packaging and some of these CDs can't even be played on regular DVD players designed to play standard CDs. Not to mention digital-music fans' biggest beef: that copy protection thwarts "what many consumers have come to regard as a fundamental right: the ability to copy music they have legally purchased for their personal use," as the Times puts it. The tech doesn't distinguish between legal and illegal copying, while "punishing" both. The Time cites a Web site that keeps a list of CDs that are known or suspected to be copy-protected: FatChucks.com - one of the many work-arounds that pop up on the Net whenever obstacles are encountered. Here's Wired News's take on how copy protection played the US House of Representatives recently.

   Meanwhile, following up on our item last week about MusicCity.com's sudden shut down of Morpheus file-trading: CNET has the story on the solution Music City has come up with and how it might change the "balance of power" among the three big file-sharing communities. And the Washington Post has a more recent report on how Music City's solution has upped Gnutella numbers (the file-sharing community that once lagged behind). And here's a Post update on the recording industry's case against Music City and other file-sharing services.

9. Britain's digital divide

   A just-released report on the UK's digital divide seems to suggest that it's as much rural-urban as it is income-based. "The authors of the report [IBM and Local Futures research organization] said the time was right for bold action by the UK Government to ensure the changes brought about by novel technologies did not prove too disruptive," the BBC reports . One solution proposed was government imposition, on mobile-phone and networking companies, of a universal-service requirement like that imposed by the US government on telephone companies.

10. Asian women fall for the Net

    Net measuring firm NetValue has noticed a jump in Asian women's use of the Internet, particularly email and especially women in Hong Kong. The BBC cites NetValue figures showing that "between October and December 2001, the number of Hong Kong women using email jumped 104.7%. There was also an increase of just under 80% in those sending e-cards." The email-use increase for women in South Korea for that period was 72.9%, with Singapore at 58.9%, and Taiwan at 35%. The BBC also reported that "experts say the Internet is tailor-made to help women find their voices, citing the rise of women's organizations across Asia."

* * * *

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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Anne Collier, Editor

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