At Israel's Holocaust memorial today, the country's very high-tech 84-year-old president asked students representing 60 countries, "Who here has heard about Facebook?" the Associated Press reports. "Nearly all in attendance raised their hands. 'You can fight anti-Semitism using social networks, like Facebook,' he continued." President Peres has his own blog and Web site but not (yet?) a … [Read more...] about Shimon Peres: Use social-networking sites
Risk & Safety
Remixes & mashups: Study on fair use
Teachers who deal with media think a lot about it. Parents of video producers and bloggers do too. So does everybody trying to understand the impact of the social Web on traditional media, including artists and the recording industry. What am I talking about? A part of copyright law that generates a lot of understandable confusion: "fair use." "Fair use is quite tricky because courts address it on … [Read more...] about Remixes & mashups: Study on fair use
Net causative in UK teen suicides?
"At least seven" teenagers in Bridgend, South Wales, have committed suicide recently, the Times of London reported this week, calling them "copycat suicides" and linking them to the teens' social networking. The Guardian, however, reported that both the coroner and police in South Wales "downplayed suggestions that they were investigating an internet 'suicide chain'" as reported in "the tabloids." … [Read more...] about Net causative in UK teen suicides?
The MySpace experiment
Parents and teens aren't the only ones dealing with MySpace's image. Advertisers and MySpace itself are too. Last week the big story was MySpace as a corporate citizen. This week, a snapshot of where MySpace is as a business too - somewhere between "the chaos that is comfortable to many MySpace residents and the neatness that appeals to consumer product companies [advertisers]," as the New York … [Read more...] about The MySpace experiment
FBI agent’s practical advice
The headline on this interview in the Houston Chronicle states the obvious, but its subject - FBI Agent Randall Clark of the Houston Area Cyber Crimes Task Force - does not. This online-safety expert is clearly basing his message on reality, not fears. He says things borne out in the research of people like Dr. Finkelhor (see above): "The first thing that [parents] need to know (is) what the real … [Read more...] about FBI agent’s practical advice