The "enhanced" photo tagging that Facebook started rolling out at the turn of the year is now all over the headlines, and parents might want to think about the impact on kids, who love the photo-sharing aspect of the site. Some kids race home from (summer) school to see who's tagged them. So now, if a friend uploads a new group photo, Facebook with its giant database of user photos, uses this … [Read more...] about Facebook’s facial recognition tech & kids
Archives for June 2011
E3 shows game consoles no longer king
The No. 1 takeaway I'm seeing from the US's No. 1 videogame convention – the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) that just ended in Los Angeles – is that consoles' grip on the videogame market is slipping. It's what anyone who plays electronic games or has kids who do probably senses: "After dominating the market for decades and making their way into 1 out of every 2 U.S. homes, consoles are … [Read more...] about E3 shows game consoles no longer king
You know that’s not your child’s Internet, right?
So Amina Arraf, "gay girl in Damascus," was actually a straight man from Georgia, USA, living in Scotland. "We could not make this up," wrote reporter Monica Hesse in the Washington Post. But regardless of how many similar Internet fictions she points to and how great her writing is, this is very unlikely to be your children's Internet, parents – just enjoy the story. How can I say that? Because … [Read more...] about You know that’s not your child’s Internet, right?
The teen sexting ‘trainwreck’ & state laws
US Rep. Anthony Weiner's very public personal disaster story has made sexting top-of-mind again, but there's good news in all this: More and more states are considering "relaxing penalties for teen sexting," as the Boston.com headline put it, because lawmakers throughout the US are now recognizing that "the problem of teen sexting didn’t exist when they enacted harsh punishments for child porn and … [Read more...] about The teen sexting ‘trainwreck’ & state laws
How teachers Facebook & tweet for students
Facebook and Twitter are very different but social utilities just the same, so there are about as many ways teachers use them as there are teachers. And their creativity is truly inspiring. In his blog post "The Why and How of Using Facebook For Educators – No Need to be Friends At All!," Texas middle school teacher Ronnie Burt has a little graphic showing that 61% of educators have Facebook … [Read more...] about How teachers Facebook & tweet for students