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June 27, 2003

Dear Subscribers:

Here's our lineup for this extremely newsy final week of June:


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US Supreme Court rules on library filtering

  1. CIPA upheld

    In a milestone 6-3 decision, the US Supreme Court this week upheld the Children's Internet Protection Act, which requires libraries receiving federal e-rate subsidies to install filtering on all Net-connected computers. Free- speech advocates fought the law as unconstitutional government censorship, but, in United States v. American Library Association, the Court held that...

    • CIPA does not violate the First Amendment rights of library patrons (partly because they can ask librarians to turn the filtering off - though critics note CIPA doesn't require libraries to turn off filters on request, the Chicago Tribune points out).
    • The law is a valid use by Congress of its spending power ("To the extent that libraries wish to offer unfiltered access, they are free to do so without federal assistance," Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote for the court).
    • Most libraries already exclude pornography from their print collections because they deem it inappropriate for inclusion.
    • "No clearly superior or better-fitting alternative to Internet filters has been presented" (from the plurality opinion).

    CIPA was Congress's third attempt to protect children from online adult content, both the Christian Science Monitor and the Washington Post point out. The first two attempts were the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA), struck down by the Supreme Court in '97, and the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA), whose enforcement was immediately blocked by a federal court shortly after passage.

    According to CNET, "it's unclear how the ruling will affect libraries' current filtering practices. About half of all public libraries already have blocking software installed on at least some machines." More than 14 million Americans use public library computers each year, the Associated Press reports.

  2. Net-mom/librarian's-eye-view

    Because of the multiple hats she's worn over the past decade or so (parent, librarian, "Net-mom," filtering company spokesperson, online-safety consultant, author of a best-selling family Web directory - to name a few) - Jean Armour Polly has a balanced, well-worn perspective on filtering in libraries:

    "I've been a public librarian since the mid-'70s and was instrumental in promoting microcomputers in public libraries as early as 1981. I also made available one of the first public access Internet connections in a public library; that was in 1992. After that I went on to work for an Internet service provider and subsequently became Net-mom(R) and wrote six books on great Web sites for kids and families. Along the way I was also a spokesperson for a filtering company - and let's not forget I'm an actual mom, too. My point is that I think I've sort of 'seen it all' from an Internet safety perspective.

    "While I think the Internet in the public library is a Good Thing, I don't feel any professional ethical imperative to facilitate access to Web sites with content that is illegal in the US: those meeting the legal definition of obscenity, those providing child pornography, and (in the case of access by a minor) those sites meeting the legal definition of 'harmful to minors.' I'd really like the courts to tell me the URLs of those sites, because I'd block them right at my firewall. Alas, I wait in vain.

    "Like it or not, the rest of the Net's porn is legal and, yes, people have every right to view it at the local library - absent a clause making it forbidden in a particular library's 'acceptable use policy.' At some libraries, legal and illegal porn is not only viewed, saved, and printed, but is also left on the screen to surprise the next patron. Sometimes librarians are called over and asked to 'help' - just for the shock value. This type of patron behavior has led some librarians to file 'hostile workplace' complaints [see CNET's coverage, "Librarians fight porn in their workplace," provided by Jean].

    "A growing percentage of public libraries have installed some type of filter, if only on the children's computers. In other libraries, porn is not an issue at all. In our library, we don't have filters because our Internet-use policy seems to be sufficient to ward off problems. Of course, we do have some regular viewers of porn but they generally use one computer that has its screen facing the wall, so whatever is on the screen is not seen by others. We also have applied for e-rate funding to help pay for our T-1 line. The fact is that, in order to keep it, we need to install filters. The one filtering solution of our choice (should we take this route) will cost in excess of two to three times our e-rate money. There are other, less expensive choices, of course. The solution we would like to use is based on a smartcard that replaces the library card, with which each parent can set her child's Internet permissions (it's not 'one size fits all'). [Jean provided a link to smartcard maker 3M's description.]

    "We'll present some options, but I don't know what our Board will decide to do. They may decide to walk away from our e-rate funding at this point, since it's only a modest amount of money, and implementation of a filtering solution to bring us into CIPA compliance would cost us so much more."

    From the editor: How about you? Do you feel CIPA is a good solution for protecting kids from porn in libraries? Or not? Do email us your views on this!

  3. General reactions, analyses, a study

    A clearly positive result of the decision is that librarians are now stepping up pressure on filtering software companies to disclose their criteria for blocking Web sites, the Associated Press reports. Filter makers have long argued that they can't disclose these criteria for competitive reasons. "The ALA and other critics fear that some filters have been designed with politically conservative or religious biases - a charge denied by leading vendors like N2H2 Inc.," according to the AP. A little over a year ago, we ran "Filtering's other flaw" about how "the values and criteria used to decide what Web content a filtering product should block for children are those of the company that made the product." That discussion and a response from a filtering company the following week may offer more insights on this just-re-ignited discussion.

    Some librarians say the ruling will end up subjecting the broader population to another evil: bad filtering software, according to Wired News. At least the Supreme Court has softened the law, a spokesperson for the ALA told the New York Times, "by holding that libraries could turn the software off and on readily for adults who ask to use unfiltered computers. The statute had said that a library patron had to show a bona fide research purpose for disabling the software." The Washington Post has a roundup of news reports around the country in "Libraries Ponder Filtering Decision."

    In San Francisco, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which supports the ALA's position, released a study this week on the effects of CIPA and filtering in schools. The study found, for example, that...

    • "For every page blocked as advertised, blocking software blocks one or more pages inappropriately...."
    • Schools using filtering/blocking software set at its least restrictive levels will block tens of thousands of Web pages inappropriately.
    • Filters miscategorize Web pages - in one test one-third to one-half of them.
    • "Of all pages related to state-mandated curriculums blocked by blocking products, the products [filters] blocked only 1-3% of those Web pages to CIPA's criteria for blocking visual depictions of illegal obscenity, child pornography, or harmful-to-minors content."

    Here's the EFF's press release on the study, which it released together with the Online Policy Group, also a nonprofit online civil liberties organization.

  4. To dig deeper


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Family Tech

  1. How to get rid of spyware

    Not entirely unlike dogs dealing with fleas, PCs need regular pest protection help, says SafeKids.com's Larry Magid. The PC type of parasite comes in many forms: viruses, spam, pop-up ads, hacker attacks, and "spyware." Zooming in on that last one, he writes in his latest syndicated column: "Spyware is named because it is software that does something to jeopardize your privacy, such as recording the Web sites you're visiting so that companies can pitch products based on your surfing habits. Aside from the privacy and security issues (which are major), spyware also slows down your computer because the software is always running in the background, using processing power and, in some cases, sending extraneous data over your Internet link. It can greatly diminish the speed of your Internet connection." That happened to a friend of his, and he goes on to describe in detail how he helped Joanie's PC run at its normal speed and what tools he used.

  2. 'How to really make the Internet kid-safe'

    We don't think the solution proposed by ZDNet's David Coursey would work for parents. But we think it's great he put a solution "out there" for public discussion. And not to be missed is "TalkBack" at the bottom of the piece, with its remarkable number of thoughtful comments (along with the usual rants) about possible solutions, parenting, how kids use the Net, what they encounter, and how to protect them. The package (article+feedback) certainly bears out how much a lively, ongoing public discussion - involving parents, educators, tech solution providers, and policymakers - is needed. If any of you agree and have ideas for funding and/or hosting such a forum (online, ideally), please send them to us!

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Web News Briefs

  1. RIAA's after ordinary file-swappers

    First it was the services themselves (like Napster) that got sued. Then it was the mega-file-sharers and students (who served as "nodes" and managers of mini- networks in peer-to-peer communities). Now the Recording Industry Association of America is going after regular ol' users of file-sharing services (like Kazaa and Morpheus) - thousands of them, CNET reports. Parents of online music fans may want to be aware of this. According to the BBC, the RIAA is planning $150,000 lawsuits against music pirates.

    A recent US appellate court decision opened the way for the RIAA by ordering Verizon's Internet service to turn over to the RIAA the names of people it suspects of file-sharing. All the RIAA has to do to get names now is log onto Kazaa (or any other service) like any file-sharing user, get the numerical IP (Internet Protocol) address of a user who has a certain music file (which allows anyone to see what music files reside on that hard drive), and ask an ISP for the name of the owner of the computer with that IP number. In an editorial, the Christian Science Monitor suggests "there are other ways to deal with piracy than simply suing everybody who trades," also noting that some 57 million Americans regularly use file-sharing software. Wired News looks at who among them might be in the RIAA's cross hairs. And the Los Angeles Times reports on how the RIAA is putting itself at risk with this strategy.

    As if to help the latest victims (but more likely with an eye to going legit), Kazaa has added a new, licensed-music channel, AtNewYork.com reports. The legal-files-only channel also has a rewards program (providing incentives to share licensed content) and virus protection (viruses have been a big risk on the free file- sharing services).

  2. Web helps students with court fines

    Jesse Jordan, soon to be a sophomore at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has already raised his entire court-imposed $12,000 fine for file-sharing because of Slashdot.com. Jesse was one of the four file-sharing students who last spring lost the RIAA's lawsuit against them. According to USAToday, Slashdot (self-dubbed "News for Nerds") took up his cause, and the money came "pouring in" in donations of 10 cents to $500. Jesse, the "most outspoken of the four," USAToday says, had been quoted by USAToday and other papers at the time of the settlement and made appearances on CNN and ABC's "20/20." Princeton student Daniel Peng, who also settled with the RIAA, has a site soliciting funds, "but has only collected $3,500 of his $15,000 fine," according to USAToday. "The other two students — Aaron Sherman, who recently graduated from Rensselaer, and Joseph Nievelt of Michigan Polytechnic — haven't solicited help online."

    As for the big picture, the idea that file-sharers really want to be legal - that they only violate copyright laws because an array of cheap legal MP3 files weren't available online until how - has "taken hold in Silicon Valley," reports the Washington Post. There, "technology companies are pouring money and manpower into developing a new breed of music services that are slicker, cheaper, and less restrictive than the pay-to-play services that emerged in the immediate wake of Napster's demise." And in Washington, "proprietors of free online music and file-sharing services [such as Grokster.com and LimeWire.com] are coming to ... launch a formal lobbying campaign to convince Congress of their legitimacy," according to the Washington Post in a separate article.

  3. How spammers distribute porn

    Over just two days this month, the PCs of some 1 million users were hijacked by a virus that a spammer sent and used to distribute ads for Web sites carrying incest pornography, according to The Guardian. The hijacking was discovered and reported by UK computer security company MessageLabs, which called it a "massive discovery" that "completely undermines the spammers' claim that they are legitimate marketers."

    Home Internet users - particularly broadband (DSL or cable) subscribers that don't have firewalls - are most vulnerable to a virus like this. "The 'trojan virus' ... attempted to exploit a vulnerability on Windows PCs known as an open proxy," which allows a "back door" into the computer for hackers, The Guardian explains, continuing: "A substantial number of open proxies are found on home PCs because they are installed open by default by software companies. Users are generally unaware of the security risks they are running. The expansion of 'always on' broadband Internet connections has made life easier for the spammers, who have developed sophisticated software which scans the Internet to find open proxies. Up to 65% of spam is distributed using this method. With anti-spam companies and Internet service providers becoming better at detecting and closing open proxies, the spammers are being forced to use viruses to break into computers and open up the proxy server to allow them to continue to expand their spam output." Our thanks to QuickLinks for pointing this item out. CNET later covered this development too.

    The Seattle Times this week covered Microsoft's major media push about its anti-spam efforts, mentioning Bill Gates's recent essay, "Why I Hate Spam," in the Wall Street Journal (we can't link you because the Journal requires paid subscriptions for access). According to a thorough backgrounder by MIT's Technology Review, "the number of daily spam messages is doubling roughly every 18 months, and the Review cites one expert's view that, at this rate, "a lot of people will just stop using email."

  4. Beware fraudulent fraud notices

    And then there's the scam spam. We received one of these emails last week too. It was targeting shoppers at North American electronics retailer Best Buy. Starting early last Wednesday afternoon, "people around the [US] began receiving an email message with 'Fraud Alert' in the subject line," the New York Times reports. "In the guise of concern about a purchase from Best Buy and possible credit card misuse, the message urged recipients to go to a 'special' BestBuy.com Web site and correct the problem by entering their credit card and Social Security numbers." Though Best Buy acted quickly (within hours) to respond to all the calls the company received as a result, a lot of people got scammed. The Times says "as many as a million" of the spam emails were sent.

    Meanwhile, USAToday this week profiled a self-proclaimed "legitimate" spammer, aka "the Cajun king of spam." So-called bulk emailers who aren't selling sex and scams are trying to differentiate themselves these days.

  5. Confused about privacy

    It's no surprise to this readership, we suspect, but a new study confirms it: Users are confused about how their personal information is used online. "The study from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania ... said 86% of surveyed [US] adults believe companies should be required by law to standardize the promises they make on Web sites about how personal information will be protected," the Associated Press reports. The study, which also found "a significant gap between increasingly sophisticated collection techniques by Internet marketers" and consumer knowledge, calls for tougher federal privacy laws. In other key findings:

    • 57% of adults surveyed who use the Internet at home said they believed incorrectly that when a Web site publishes a privacy policy, it will not share their personal information with other Web sites or companies.
    • Nearly two-thirds admitted never searching for information about how to protect their privacy.
    • 40% confessed they knew "almost nothing" about how shopping sites collect and use their personal information.
    • "Parents whose children go online are generally no different on these attitudes, knowledge, or actions than the rest of US adults who use the Internet at home. Like the others, most parents are concerned, confused, and conflicted about Internet privacy," the report says.

    Here, in pdf format, are the complete Annenberg Center report and press release.

  6. New champion for N. Ireland kids

    Nigel Williams, CEO and founder of London-based Childnet International, will be starting an exciting new job this fall. He has accepted the post as Northern Ireland's first Commissioner for Children and Young People, SafeKids.com's Larry Magid writes. "This position, I am told, is similar to a children's ombudsman but with more clout, including the power to conduct formal inquiries. Having worked very closely with Nigel over the past five years, I am convinced that the children of Northern Ireland have gained a great champion. And, given the historic timing and location for this post, I have no doubt that Nigel's presence on the world stage can only increase. Here is an article about the new role in the Belfast Telegraph."

    Children's online safety will be an important part of his new job (which officially begins October 1), Nigel assured us. We suspect that, with the additional power the government has given this ombudsman position in the courts, it may well become a model for other countries (we hope so).

  7. Video chat's ins and outs

    It's good to think about the implications of being able to see and hear the person with whom you (or your teenagers) are IM-ing. "Last week both Microsoft and Apple incorporated audio and video into their popular chat programs, now called MSN Messenger 6 and iChat AV," the New York Times reports. "You [kids too!] can download them free," the Times adds. The article reviews the two companies' products (not the implications), noting two things - that they could've come from different planets and that audio and video change the chat experience so much that it's hardly chat or IM anymore. As for the implications, well just thinking about 1) what can appear on the screen besides a face and 2) the pluses and minuses of losing the anonymity we're all used to online bring a bunch of possibilities to mind.

  8. Picture phones and kids: UK concerns

    While we're on the subject of on-screen pictures, MSNBC tells of concerns in Britain about "an insidious new threat - the use of the increasingly popular camera phones by pedophiles to photograph children." In the UK - where picture phones are much more ubiquitous than in North America so far - swimming pools and sports facilities have cracked down on their use, and in Australia, the YMCA in Victoria has imposed a ban, MSNBC reports.

  9. The gender digital divide

    Studies showing a gender gap in confident use of computers and tech continue to come out. This week Statistics Canada released research showing that "girls in Canada's high schools are less confident on computers and the Internet than boys and use them less," the Toronto Globe & Mail reports. The article cites concerns that the gap will perpetuate better information-society employment opportunities for men. Among the findings were that 97% of both boys and girls have used a computer in the past 12 months and 90% have used the Net. But the diversity of uses and amount of time online differed between the sexes. "Female youths and those from families with low levels of parental education are less likely to have access to computers in their homes [and] they tend to spend less time on the computer and they tend to report lower levels of computer skills competency," the study found. "When asked to rate their own computer skills, 38% of the boys surveyed said their skills were 'excellent,' while just 17% of the girls rated themselves as highly. When asked if they agreed with the statement, 'It's very important to work with computers,' 70% of the boys agreed but just 58% of the girls agreed."

    As for the online gender gap in Europe, the latest study of Web-surfing patterns by Nielsen/NetRatings indicates that it could be another seven years before men and women are using the Net in equal numbers, the BBC reports. Last month 42% of European surfers, or 35 million people, were female - up just 2% from May 2002.

    On the gaming platform, a recent study of online games and what players are willing to pay for "high-level" or experienced characters in them turned up some sexism - even though gender confers no advantages or disadvantages on the characters in the games, the BBC reports. The players bring their own sexism with them, indicates the study by California State U. Prof. Edward Castronova. His research included the popular multiplayer game EverQuest, "which gives game players, both male and female, the chance to throw off their Earthly restrictions and become a hugely powerful warrior, sorcerer, priest or monk in the online world of Norrath." Despite this gender parity in the game, players pay higher prices for male characters, or avatars, that represent them in the EverQuest world. "In the study of avatar economics, Prof Castronova used the prices paid for 611 auctions that took place on PlayerAuctions.com between October 2002 and January 2003. In these auctions, players paid an average price of $333. The lowest price paid for an EverQuest character was $40 and the highest $2,250." The professor found that, all else being equal, a female avatar sold for about $41 less than a male avatar. One explanation he put forth was an assumption by avatar buyers that the player behind a female avatar may not be as good as the player behind a male character.

  10. State of computer recycling

    There are two obstacles to building a good PC-recycling infrastructure in the US: the practice of exporting used computers to Asia and a growing reliance on prison labor. That's according to a report released this week from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and the Computer Take Back Campaign, the New York Times reports. The Federal Bureau of Prisons disputes the latter obstacle, saying that "seven prison factories handle only about 36 million pounds of the billion pounds of equipment" that it estimates are disposed of annually in the US. The report cited the very different recycling efforts of giant PC makers Dell and Hewlett- Packard. "It commended Hewlett-Packard for using 'state of the art' practices in partnership with an expanding commercial recycling industry, while criticizing Dell for using low-cost prison labor in association with Unicor, an industrial prison system within the Justice Department," according to the Times.

  11. First all-wireless nation

    For anyone who simply cannot go on vacation without Net access, have we got the place for you: the little South Pacific nation of Niue. According to WiFi news provider Unstrung.com, Niue is the world's first country to offer free, nationwide wireless Internet access. It's a good thing, too, because storms, salt water, and high humidity do a number on copper wiring, according to Unstrung.

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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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