Britain's Conservatives say children as young as five will be taught about online safety and privacy and computer security, The Times of London reports. They're criticizing the government for "not doing enough to raise awareness among children of the dangers posed by cyber-crime," The Times adds. The Conservatives are also proposing the reestablishment of "a national police unit given over to … [Read more...] about Net-safety training for UK 5-year-olds?
Risk & Safety
No teacher rating in France
Not online, anyway. A French court cracked down on a teacher-rating site based in that country: Note2be.com. Like US-based sites RateMyTeachers.com and RateMyProfessors.com, Note2be encouraged students to grade and discuss their teachers' capabilities. The judges said the site "could no longer identify any teachers by name and told the site's owners they faced a $1,517 (1,000 euro) fine for every … [Read more...] about No teacher rating in France
Imposter profiles: No easy solution
Imposter profiles are one form of cyberbullying or online harassment certainly not restricted to youth. Tweens, teens, and adults create profiles that impersonate the people they want to harass, putting them in an embarrassing or defaming light. There are also simply fake profiles of imaginary people aimed at tricking the real people who "befriend" the imaginary people in the fake profiles, which … [Read more...] about Imposter profiles: No easy solution
‘SIGNS’ of Net addiction: Interview
Last year a person who works for a psychiatric hospital and specializes in adolescent care posted in our forum at ConnectSafely.org asking if anyone had developed screening for "Internet addiction." No one in the forum had, and I suspected this person was pioneering something, pointing to a challenge for social services and the health care profession for which there is little research. It has … [Read more...] about ‘SIGNS’ of Net addiction: Interview
Thai monks warned not to use social site
Buddhist monks in Thailand "have been warned not to use social networking sites to flirt with girls," InformationWeek reports, citing coverage in the Bangkok Post. The warning was associated with reports that Thai police were "investigating a rape claim against a monk" in which he was accused of using the Internet to lure and abuse a teenage girl. The prime minister reportedly asked Thailand's … [Read more...] about Thai monks warned not to use social site