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January 10, 2003

Dear Subscribers:

Happy New Year! It's good to be back. Here's our lineup for this busy news week and first issue of 2003:


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Family Tech after the holidays

  1. E-returns

    Besides CDs, DVDs, and software, almost any present purchased online can be returned just as with items bought with a paper catalog. "Almost all online merchants have their return policies on their Web sites," writes SafeKids.com's Larry Magid. "Look for the words 'return policy' or click on the 'customer service link.' If that doesn't work, send them an email or, if they post a phone number, do that 20th-century thing and call them," he adds in a post-holiday syndicated column. It'll help to refer to any paperwork with "RMAs" (return authorization numbers) that came with the presents.

  2. E-leftovers

    If someone in your family received a new computer for Christmas or Hanukkah, don't throw the old one in the trash! "Technology that was once useful in your home or office can be deadly if it winds up in a landfill. There are all sorts of noxious and toxic things inside your monitor and circuit boards. Some of our e-junk winds up being shipped overseas, where there may be inadequate safeguards to protect people from exposure to the dangerous chemicals and metals inside the equipment," writes Larry in another, very helpful, recent column. He refers to a site with links to organizations worldwide that facilitate computer donations to schools and communities, and - for larger-scale donations - he links to the site of a company that specializes in helping businesses and organizations recycle used equipment. But wait, there's more! Don't forget to recycle old cell phones and used printer ink cartridges (the high school Larry's son attends raises money by collecting used inkjet cartridges from the community). The article has links to information for this recycling too.

    For a look at the general state of PC recycling world-wide, see "E-Waste: Dark Side of Digital Age" at Wired News this week.

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Web News Briefs

  1. UK aims to lead world in kids' online safety

    The British government says it's determined to make Britain the safest country in the world for online kids - and wants to work with other governments to make the Net safer for all children, the BBC reports. This week it launched a major campaign that includes:

    • A new Net-safety Web site for teens (thinkUknow) on safe chat and surfing
    • Guidelines for Internet service providers that serve up chat and instant-messaging. Called "Models for Good Practice," the guidelines, for example, call for "clearly written and easily accessible warning information and report buttons" in chat areas.
    • A month-long national ad campaign that involves TV and radio for the first time (online ads, too, will run on teen and chat sites through March).

    The government is also working on legislation that criminalizes the "grooming" of online kids for sexual purposes, Home Office Minister Hillary Benn told the BBC. The BBC page links to TV interviews with University of Lancashire researcher Rachel O'Connell (who posed in online chat as a lonely girl for part of her research) on how pedophiles operate online; a mother whose child encountered a pedophile online; Home Office Minister Benn; and Childnet International's Nigel Williams. ZDNet UK leads its story with a negative twist, saying Mr. Benn "denied that the government's new campaign ... is an attempt to demonise the Internet."

  2. Similar view from the US: Alert parents needed

    We always appreciate coverage that includes families' own experiences with the Internet. The Rocky Mount (N.C.) Telegram this week published a solid piece that covers all the basics of what kids face online, with multiple views from experts, but it also features the Jones family, including two very Net-literate kids aged 13 and 16.

  3. Norwegian teen acquitted

    Jon Lech Johansen's acquittal was all over the tech news media this week, because his was a key test case about violating computer break-in laws. "Jon Lech Johansen was 15 when he developed and posted his program, called DeCSS, on the Internet in late 1999, enraging the film industry because it feared the software would allow illegal copying of its films," reports the Associated Press. His home country newspaper, Aftenposten, says the case was often described as a David-and-Goliath battle, another likely though lesser reason for its widespread following. According to Aftenposten, "Johansen and his defense attorney Halvor Manshaus won on all counts, with the Oslo court ruling that Johansen did nothing wrong when he helped cracked the code on a DVD that was his own personal property. The court ruled there was 'no evidence' that either Johansen or others had used the decryption code (called DeCSS) for illegal purposes." (For more, see "Teen power in the digital age" in our last issue.)

  4. Web users: Raised expectations

    John Horrigon, senior researcher on the Pew Internet & American Life project, calls the Internet "America's go-to tool" on completing its late-December study. He cites several trends behind Americans' now high expectations for the Net: Two-thirds of US users have more than three years' experience with the Net, making them more adept at finding what they want on it; Web developers are making pages and sites more navigable, having built billions of Web pages now; and Web search tools have become more powerful. Here are some key findings about expectations:

    • 58% of users say they'll go online first the next time they need information about government programs or services.
    • 46% will use the Net next time they have a medical inquiry.
    • 47% say that if a store provides product information online, even if it doesn't sell goods on the Web, this would make them more likely to go to the store to buy the product.
    • 69% of all Americans, Net users or not, expect to be able to find reliable, up-to-date news online.

    CNET looked at a different Pew study, one on the Net, the holidays, and e-retail, which found that more than three-quarters of surfers performed some type of holiday activity on the Web, and 71% used the Web to fulfill some spiritual or social need. Here's Reuters's coverage of the "expectations" study.

  5. Beware virus hoaxes

    They urge people to delete harmless, and sometimes important, computer files. CNET exposes some of the more widespread ones. Here are hoax info pages at Symantec and a whole Web site about them called "HOAXBUSTERS" from the US Energy Department's CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability).

  6. Growing challenge for professors

    Professors are vying with the Internet for students' attention. In a recent article, the New York Times refers to one large lecture hall at American University in which more than a dozen laptops were in use, with students checking email, surfing, and instant-messaging with friends. One professor tried to ban the Internet in his classroom, but when students "went ballistic," he compromised and required Net users to sit in the back rows to avoid distracting others. The trend toward wireless-everywhere campuses is making the Internet even more accessible, as students acquire wireless connection cards, or modems, for their laptops. Dartmouth University's entire campus is blanketed with wireless nodes so students can access the Net from anywhere, inside or outside buildings. Joining Dartmouth are Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, the University of California at San Diego and the University of Minnesota. At American University in Washington, D.C., "the wireless rollout is especially ambitious," the Times adds, because it integrates cell phone coverage into a single data-delivery network that can deliver messages to laptops, handheld devices and telephones anywhere on the 84-acre campus. The university plans to stop offering traditional phone service in its dormitories eventually."

  7. 'AlcoholEdu' for drivers' ed students?

    The message of AlcoholEdu, a three-hour course for students about alcohol's effects, "has been heard by 100,000 college students at 350 colleges and universities this year," the New York Times reports. Now, because of a partnership recently announced by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, it appears high school students might soon be hearing about how drinking can "undermine hours of academic work by making a student forget the material just studied, increase the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease or even lead to death." MADD said it would co-develop, with Outside the Classroom, AlcoholEdu's creators, a version that all 50 states could use to train high school students applying for learner's driving permits.

  8. Two cases against students

    A judge in Utah this week dismissed four defamation-of-character charges made in 2000 against a then-high school student for creating a Web site attacking fellow students and administrators at his school. "When the school became aware of the site, ... [police] officers confiscated two computers and several discs from Lake's home. Lake, then 16, was jailed for a week and later exiled from Utah by another juvenile court judge," the Salt Lake Tribune reports. He has since graduated with honors from a California high school, but told the Tribune he regrets costing his parents so much money ($50,000) in legal fees.

    In New York this week, a teenager faces seven years in prison for allegedly using the Net to steal the identities of more than 100 people. According to the New York Post, he was charged under a new state law making it a felony to commit identity theft. His 12-count indictment cited "identity theft, unlawful possession of personal identification information, possession of stolen property, falsifying business records and scheming to defraud."

  9. How bootlegging works

    It's different from music file-sharing, or piracy, but the Internet is an enabler here, too. The recording industry isn't as concerned about concert bootlegging (and the Net-based trading that follows) as it is about peer-to-peer MP3-swapping on the Net, because it doesn't cut into CD sales as much, if at all. It's also not as widespread, but bootleggers are every bit as passionate about their hobby as MP3 swappers (and similarly use the Net for trading), and two articles this week offer a fascinating look at how it all works, why bootlegging's "addictive," and how one smart rock group - Phish - is capitalizing on the phenomenon. If you have young music fans at your house or school, these will help you get even more informed.

    In "They Buy All the Albums, but Trade Concert Bootlegs" at the New York Times, read about Marc Daniel, who last year added 1,400 albums to his CD collection, almost all of them live concert recordings that were never officially released. "He said his CD trading with its questionable legality and exhilarating musical payoff was like 'a coke run without any drugs'." Then Business 2.0 explains how reunited neohippie rock and roll band Phish, within a day of a long concert, put up LivePhish.com, "where fans could, for a small fee ($14.95), download CD-quality files and create a homemade three-disc set of the complete show," Business 2.0 reports. "Whatever you think of Phish's music, the band members are clearly savvy businessmen: They sensed their audience's appetite for material that's not available either via normal channels or in a timely fashion, and they're satisfying that appetite. (Live albums can come out months or years after the actual performance.)" It's refreshing to read stories about the music industry that aren't about litigation!

  10. A new sort of student loan

    It started at the University of California at San Diego, the alma mater of benefactor and Internet entrepreneur Michael Robertson. Instead of paying off interest-bearing debts after school, students who apply to and are accepted by the Robertson Education and Empowerment Fund agree to pay a percentage of their future income, Wired News reports. "Students can receive anywhere from $2,500 to $7,000 a year from the fund. In return, they are required to pay 1-3% of their future income back to the nonprofit for a 10- or 15-year period. At the end of the fixed period, a student's obligation is over regardless of the amount they still owe. The money that students pay back is reinvested into the program to create more funding for future generations of students" Robertson, founder of both MP3.com and Lindows.com, recently partnered with similarly innovative MyRichUncle.com to administer the program. MyRichUncle, which connects students together with a network of investors who invest directly in their education, "is currently negotiating with four universities to offer similar alumni giving programs," Wired News adds.

  11. Mobile multi-player gaming

    First it was player vs. computer, then 1 or 2 players against each other or computer, then tens of thousands of players with and against each other on the Internet, aided by a computer (see "Playing at life ... online" in our last issue). Progressive, but all so very fixed and static. Coming up next: mobile multi-player games. "Imagine one billion people carrying around small portable communications devices capable of talking to each other, around the world," suggests TheFeature.com. "Now imagine them each, alone, playing Pac-Man. It's depressing, a technology tragedy." Perish the thought! But we're not quite sure if this is still a figment of the writer's imagination. He didn't find much evidence of drooling cell-phone service providers at the Tokyo Game Show last fall, but this is a thoughtful, big-picture piece about the multi-player phenomenon present and future.

  12. 2002 was 'Year of the blog'

    That's what the Washington Post says, citing plenty of evidence, including the fact that University of California at Berkeley now has a Web log ("blog" for short) class for exploring intellectual property and copyright issues. The Toronto Globe & Mail cites "observers" estimating that there are now some 500,000 blogs online. If you don't know what blogs are, it might be good to get up to speed - a teenager you know may be raving about his/her favorite musician(s) or making a personal diary public with blogging technology. Not that there's anything bad about these things, but it's good for parents to know about technologies kids use. Here's a hint: "Blogs [journals, or running commentaries on the Web] can run the gamut from simple text postings to complex diaries, filled with downloaded pictures and graphics," the Post reports. They can either be one person's stream-of-consciousness-style commentary or comments-plus-discussion, allowing posts from the blog's visitors. See the Post piece for examples, including those of well-known journalists who like to "vent" online, unedited.

  13. De-capitalizing the Net

    Prof. Joseph Turow at the University of Pennsylvania is out to make the "i" in Internet lower case. According to the New York Times, he studies how people use online technology and how that affects their lives, and he think that "internet" better reflects "a deep shift in the way that we think about the online world." Going online is not "a brand-name experience," as a capital "I" suggests, Dr. Turow says. It shouldn't be Kleenex, he suggests, as so many Americans have come to refer to facial tissue, because the "internet" is part of everyone's life like air and water. Do you agree? Email us your view, via feedback@netfamilynews.org!

    The good professor is coming out with a book this spring on families and the Internet, the Times reports. We'll link you to it's published.

  14. Net's birthday

    The Internet turned 20 on New Year's Day, or was that 34? The history of the Net is "littered with dozens of so-called birthdays," and not everyone agrees on when they are, Wired News reports. "Perhaps the most famous of the lot is the acclaimed Jan. 1, 1983, switch from Network Control Protocol to Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol ... a key transition that paved the way for today's Internet." It allowed the Internet to be made up of lots of different networks, as we know it today, not just the 1,000 some odd computers connected to the US Defense Department's ARPANET. For anyone who likes to know how we got here. CNET, too, looks at the ongoing birthday controversy, and the UK's VNUNET seems to have accepted the New Year's one.

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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Anne Collier, Editor

Net Family News

 


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