Anne

This might just be a good thing for parents to know about: suicide sites and chatrooms on the Web. The Australian parliament is considering legislation to "make it a criminal offence to use the internet to counsel or incite suicide," Australian IT reports. The legislation "would also cover material which promoted and provided instruction on a particular method of suicide. Possession, production or … [Read more...] about Online suicide ‘advice’

One person commenting on a BBC piece today likened getting a high-speed Net connection more to getting a driver's license than having cable TV coming into your home. With the latter, you just turn the set on and start consuming; with the former you're only getting the privilege to figure out how to drive safely. Why the metaphors? Because so many families are now getting broadband Net access, many … [Read more...] about Latest on home zombie PCs

The fight against online exploitation of children is getting a big boost from the Canadian government and private sector, the Calgary Sun reports. The government pledged to fund cybertip.ca, a program of Child Find Manitoba, $700,000 a year for five years, and Bell Canada has contributed that amount to the tipline to expand its Web site for nationwide coverage by the fall. "Cybertip.ca receives … [Read more...] about Canada’s Tipline

Anyone close to a teenager is probably seeing what we are: there's an important online component to the teen social scene - blogs. A Net Family News subscriber and mother in the northwestern US (who wished to remain nameless) recently emailed me: "I read my kid's Xanga, and kept track of it. She was writing dark poetry and disclosing stuff, so I cut her off, initiated passwords and monitored … [Read more...] about ‘My daughter’s Xanga’

Children's watchdog CARU (the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus) got two companies to fix some kid-confusing marketing practices this week. The Wrigley Company agreed to make its contest rules (and the part about "no purchase necessary") much more prominent on the Web site for its Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape sweepstakes. And the Upper Deck Company agreed … [Read more...] about Keeping marketers honest