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For anyone interested in more than the Supreme Court justices' thinking on protecting kids from online porn (and the Child Online Protection Act they just sent back again to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia for deliberation, this time on how filtering tech has improved since the Philadelphia court blocked the new law's enforcment in early '99), the Washington Post this week held … [Read more...] about COPA counterpoint

A 9-year-old girl receiving porn on her cell phone, a 12-year-old being text-stalked (harassed via text messages) on his. Of course, cyberbullying also happens in chat, IM, and email. What has become fairly common in the UK - especially via cell phones - is now hitting radar screens in Australia. "A 2002 UK study found that one in four children has been bullied by computer or cell phone," … [Read more...] about Cyberbullying on the rise in Oz

Some 25% of undergraduates had plagiarized using the Internet, according to an unnamed survey cited by the BBC. And that's a conservative figure, one university student is quoted as saying. So Northumbria University's Plagiarism Advisory Service is testing a plagiarism detection system that scans students' work against 4.5 billion Web pages. The candid student makes a good point about the need to … [Read more...] about Brits tackle Net plagiarism

The Child Online Protection Act (COPA) has enormous spring to it. It just bounced back to a federal appeals court in Philadelphia from the Supreme Court for the third time, with the US's highest court deciding 5-4 that "a law meant to punish pornographers who peddle dirty pictures to Web-surfing kids is probably an unconstitutional muzzle on free speech," as the Associated Press put it. The … [Read more...] about Still undecided on COPA

There is nothing to stop a child from visiting the new adult-only, online role-playing game Sociolotron but this on its entry page: "By entering the site you declare that: 1) You are 21 years of age or older; 2) It is legal for you to read about interactive erotic role playing involving erotic text and erotic images; 3) You are not offended by reading about a highly politically incorrect form of … [Read more...] about Game includes virtual rape