Net Family Newsletter

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November 21, 2003
Dear Subscribers:
In observance of the US Thanksgiving holiday, we won't be publishing next week. The next issue will arrive in your in-boxes December 5. Our thanks to you, our subscribers, and wishing all who celebrate Thanksgiving a peaceful, joyful holiday. Here's our lineup for this third week of November:

Subscribers write: Concerned mother on teens'e-journals; Net phoning on the cheap; Create an adult domain; P2P parents' resource

Web News Briefs: UK parents' Net safety awareness; Tech helps kids' self- esteem?; Beware PayPal virus; Porn spam via instant messaging; Top music school file-sharing; 'Grand Theft Auto' teen shooters' case; Women game developers....

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Subscribers write
Here are some excellent comments and questions readers have sent in recently, with our responses:

Concerned mother on teens' online journals
"I have a great concern about online journals. My 14-year-old daughter has been consumed with online journals and thinks that it is safe to post her picture because she has it set up for 'friends only.'
"I have been attempting to gather some information from some of the Internet safety Web sites, but none of them addresses the issue of online journals.
"One site, melodramatic.com, is very dangerous for all of our children. The site has a lot of appealing graphics, etc., that you can earn, but also has a link to a porno site on its home page, and many of the subscribers write of depression, sex, suicide, etc. I tried to have the site taken down last year when I saw what my daughter was getting into, but was unsuccessful. At that time, there were 6,000 subscribers - now, one year later, there are 86,000 subscribers.
"Some other popular online journals are: livejournal.com, deadjournal.com, friendster.com - I would love to have some input from you, and an article that I could present to both parents and the teens who believe that they are not vulnerable to any harm from these sites."
Our response:
Karen, we're with you on the risks of online journals. You're right: people who provide talks and Web sites about online safety haven't addressed this one much, maybe because journals aren't a total negative; law enforcement, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and other online-safety experts and sites focus more on Web porn and Net-based pedophilia. In the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter I try to give a broader picture of what teens are getting into with technology - positive, negative, and mixed. Here are a few items we've done on the subject. This past year, blogging seems to have eclipsed journaling in the teen community to some extent, so my coverage has put them in the same category. Here's some of our coverage on this...

"Online journals" - 9/02
"Parents get blogged too" - 5/03
A very scary version of journaling is happening in the Web's eating disorder community ("Net-fueled secret society" - 9/02)
Bullying and dissing peers happens in blogs and journals as well as Web sites and chatrooms ("Bullying: The online version" - 10/03)

Janet in Germany on Net-based phoning
She picked up on some news that has only become hotter: Skype and "voice-over Internet protocol" (VoIP). In response to our item "From free music to free phone calls," 10/17, Janet emailed wondering if Skype really works and how good it really is for the user: "I love this part of the Skype site: " 'Notwithstanding any rights or obligations governed by the Additional Terms, if, at any time you upload or post User Materials, including but not limited to comments, suggestions, problem reports, bug reports and design ideas to the Site you automatically grant Skype a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license of all rights throughout the universe to use, edit, modify, include, incorporate, adapt, record and reproduce the User Materials....'
"How safe is this?...
"[Also from the Skype site:] 'What Resources Do We Use and How Do We Use Them? During the course of using Skype Software, disk space, bandwidth and processing power may be utilized to provide the Skype services to you and to communicate with other Skype users. From time-to-time your computer may become a Supernode. A Supernode is a computer running Skype Software that has been automatically elevated to act as a hub...."
Our response (trimmed):
We doubt the legal notice passage you highlight reads much differently from that of any of the free file-sharing programs some 60 million Americans have downloaded. We suspect these are the sorts of rights anyone waives in exchange for 'free' use. We're all going to have to get a lot smarter about the hidden 'costs'; in other words, here too, there's no free lunch. [And see our lead item last week pointing out the security risks of file-sharing on family PCs.]
The super node part is exactly the way these third-generation (not to mention second-generation) P2P networks work. Instead of having music servers (and to avoid litigation of the kind that shut Napster down), they turn individual file- sharers' PCs into virtual servers, or super nodes. Skype just uses VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) to do the same thing the file-sharing networks do.
In answer to Janet's question about whether Skype really works, the Wall Street Journal refers to the service as a "quick and dirty solution," saying that, though Skype "will no doubt get better in time ... a typical Skype call is peppered with frequent voice drop-offs, as well as all manner of clicks and pops. Worse, the phone call often ends for no good reason. A traditional phone call may not be any sort of audiophile dream, but at least it's reliable" (requires a subscription). The Register ran a response from Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom to the Journal's comment, saying the writer "is comparing Skype, 8 weeks out of beta launch, with the traditional circuit switched phone companies who have been around since the T-Rexes (well OK for 100 years at least)."
Here's other coverage of this snowballing story: in Business Week, "Why the Bells should be very scared" (of voice-over IP phone systems like Skype) and CNET's "GetUptoSpeed: VoIP".

Anders in California on creating an adult domain
"I'm not sure who to write, but you guys might be a good start. I have an idea on how to protect children and control the sex sites on the Web. I haven't heard this idea mentioned before, I have no idea why. 1) Create a new domain called sex (like org, com, net, sex, gov). 2) Set a deadline of 5 years from now. At that time it will become illegal to have sex sites on other domains than .sex. Then again, it might not even be necessary to enforce it once the new domain becomes well known all would want to move there. 3) Prosecute offenders.
"IF this happens it has several advantages: a) It is VERY easy to block, without error. All domains ending in .sex can be easily filtered, and b) the sex industry has a place that is unambiguous.
"This solution requires everyone to admit that we DO have sex sites, and that they WON'T go away. Might be tough to swallow, but those are the facts we have to live with now.
"That was my 2 cents. I sincerely hope this might be useful. I think it just might work, and even without a fight!"
Our response:
You are not alone in thinking a section of the Web that sequesters adult content into a virtual 'red-light district' is a good idea. A top-level domain for sexually explicit content has actually been discussed and rejected by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the international body that governs domain names. Here's one very wordy report of ICANN's, published in 2000, on the subject of both dot-kids and dot-xxx TLDs. The COPA Commission (appointed by the US Congress) looked into this too and has a page on it in its Web site. Here's a more readable 12/00 news report on ICANN's rejection of the idea in Internet News.

Sharon in Massachusetts on the P2P United resource for parents
"P2P United does not reflect that it stands for Parent to Parent but for Peer to Peer. At least the part that your Web newsletter sent me to said this. A bit confusing. Not necessarily Safe?"
Our response:
Right, the 'P2P' in P2P United stands for 'peer-to-peer,' but the parent resource page title includes 'Parent 2 Parent Resource Center.' The resources and information they link to are all legitimate resources, mostly US government and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The resource isn't comprehensive (e.g., it doesn't link to Consumer Reports's resource for parents), but a fair effort to provide some balance in the debate while this particular group of file-sharing services (which doesn't include Kazaa) works through the copyright theft issue.

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Web News Briefs

UK parents' Net safety awareness: Study
They're confident they can keep their children safe online, according to a recent BT Yahoo/NOP survey. "Some 93% know how to help children surf safely, with 92% saying access is best supervised," the BBC reports in its coverage of the study. The very positive findings included the point that 92% of parents "thought accompanying children online was best," though the BBC cited "other studies" showing that less than a third of parents actually sit down at the computer with their children when online. The other qualifier the article brings out is a finding by a London School of Economics study that, when parents get too involved for their children's taste, the latter will respond "by hiding activities to outwit parents." Could some of that parental confidence found in the NOP study be a bit ingenuous? [For our coverage of the LSE study, please see "UK's 9-to-19-year- olds on the Net," 10/31.]

Tech helps kids' self-esteem: Study
Technology makes young people 8-17 "feel better about themselves," according to a new study cited by Kid Power Xchange. The three reasons given by the young people surveyed are that technology "allows tweens (8-12) and teens (13- 17) to master new skills, develop their identities, and make new friends," according to the study's authors, New York-based Insight Research Group. Among the study's findings:

Sense of accomplishment: 87% say that they were good at searching for information on the Net; 71% that browsing online lets them keep up with what's cool; 88% of kids who have created their own Web site say it made them proud of their abilities and 82% feel that as a result it would be easy to learn how to use new technologies. "Kids feel better about themselves after playing games online (65%), talking to people online (47%) or talking to people on their cell phone (47%).

Develop identity & make friends: Instant messaging and chat rooms allow children to experiment with different aspects of their personality in the comfort of their own home (29%); 58% made new friends online; 44% said the types of friends they have online are very different from their other friends.

Watch out for PayPal virus!
Don't open any attachment to an email that looks like it's from PayPal. This may not be a temptation to anyone who doesn't have a PayPal account, but for those who do (e.g., eBay users), the fraudulent email looks very much like something from PayPal. "When a person opens the email attachment, a window appears bearing the PayPal logo and asking for credit card information. The virus stores any information provided by the victim in a file called 'ppinfo.sys,' and the file is sent to four email addresses stored in the program," CNET reports. The virus, which is typical of the new breed that steals data from infected PCs rather than damaging them, also searches for and grabs email addresses so it can send itself to people on your address list.

From spam to 'spim': Spammers targeting IM-ers
Picture this happening to your kids (increasingly): The Washington Post leads with how a woman at work in northern Virginia suddenly had an instant message pop up from someone she'd never heard of with a screenname "hot_girl," inviting her to check out what is most probably a porn Web site. This "spim" (unsolicited instant message) is just "the latest installment in the growing epidemic of unwanted electronic ads and a further sign that unscrupulous online marketers will seek to take advantage of all of the Internet's communication tools, not limiting themselves to spam or pop-up ads," according to the Post. It will reach a lot of young people because, for example in the US, 70% of teens use instant messaging. Experts aren't sure who's behind these instant-message spams or how they're sent; they do think it's fairly easy to automate the process, though not as easy as sending out thousands of emails at a stroke. Why? Because, the Post reports, "instant message providers like AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo have a lot of control over their instant message networks." They say customers should use the latest versions of their instant-messaging software and ensure that only people on their buddy lists can contact them: good advice for parents to share with kids.

Kazaa's first ad campaign
The current top file-sharing service, Kazaa, went on the offensive this week with an unprecedented advertising campaign. Nikki Hemming, CEO of the Sydney- based (Vanuatu-registered, which supposedly helps it avoid litigation) service that claims 60 million users and millions of downloads a week, told USATODAY she's trying to push Kazaa toward respectability by offering licensed music files for a fee ("major music labels have refused to sign on, but some independents have joined, mostly rappers" USATODAY reports). Explaining the new ad campaign, Hemming told USATODAY that Kazaa has been "trying to get a positive solution with the entertainment industry for 18 months and have heard nothing but deafness. It's time to take a constructive stand and speak up for consumers." CNET reports that the campaign exhorts entertainment moguls to stop treating file-swappers as pirates and file-swappers to prove they're not pirates by buying copy- protected music files. In other digital music news this week, Wal-Mart and Microsoft plan to launch music- download services, and CNET bought MP3.com from Vivendi to shut it down December 2 and relaunch it as a music information site.
Meanwhile, USATODAY also takes a look at the future of file-sharing, with new efforts to create "legitimate applications" for peer-to-peer technology.

Top music school on file-sharing
The prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston is encouraging debate on the file-sharing issue in a creative and very proactive way. It's encouraging musicians to share and download 80 different audio and video courses via Berklee Shares, Wired News reports. The school says it doesn't in any way condone the theft of copyrighted works, but it does want to promote discussion about this technology by "demonstrating a legitimate use of the digital networks to distribute authorized content."

'Grand Theft Auto' teen shooters case
The company that created "Grand Theft Auto" has asked a US federal judge to dismiss a $246 million lawsuit filed by the families of two people shot by two teenagers who played the game, Australian IT reports. Rockstar Games, its New York City-based parent, Take-Two Interactive Software, retailer Wal-Mart, and marketer Sony Computer Entertainment America were all named in the lawsuit. The teenagers, 14 and 16, pleaded guilty in juvenile court to reckless homicide, endangerment, and assault after telling investigators they decided to randomly shoot at trucks on Interstate 40 (in Tennessee) "just like in Grand Theft Auto III." One person was killed and another severely wounded in the incident.

She worked on the Harry Potter games
Game ads target males, but the games themselves have broad appeal, says game developer Anna Larke of UK-based Argonaut Games. She told the BBC that she doesn't believe developers need to worry about what appeals to women because that only "serves to reinforce gender stereotypes" and "insults the majority of women gamers, especially if the games released are as being made 'for girls'." It's not an unusual view among women developers, whose views are interesting because of their current minority status in an industry that needs them. See this page at Games4Girls.com for interviews with Mary DeMarle, a writer/game designer at Presto Studios; Sarah Stocker, a senior producer at Stormfront Studios; women in a whole bunch of roles at Her Interactive; and Marie-Sol Beaudry, a project manager at Microids, creators of Syberia (see this writeup at USATODAY). Meanwhile, the University of Southern California will be the first well-known research university to offer a minor in game design starting next fall, Wired News reports. [Here's our latest coverage of games and the new violence ratings at the Entertainment Software Review Board and our interviews with teen gamers, "Gamers on games".]

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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Anne Collier, Editor

Net Family News