toolbar
Search this site!
 


July 11, 2003

Dear Subscribers:

Here's our lineup for this first full week of July:


~~~~~~~~~~Support the Newsletter!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Help support Net Family News and take a free, 7-day trial of eLibrary -
100s of newspapers, magazines, reference books, maps, transcripts...
a real reference library online, completely child-safe. Try a search now:

eLibrary Logo

Or make a tax-deductible donation to our free public service, via...
Network for Good's online fundraising system for nonprofit organizations
or NetFamilyNews.org's page at Amazon.com's Honor System.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Family Tech: Teen role-playing online

Teenagers trying out different personas and role-playing on the Internet is not new. We first saw news coverage of the phenomenon at least five years ago. The anonymity of the Net provides a safe environment (safer than, say, the high school environment!) for teenagers to try out various behaviors, personalities, ways of expressing themselves that they'd be leery of testing on friends and family. By "safe" is meant judgment- and baggage-free - certainly not safe if they're using these personas in online chat or IM to meet offline with new "friends" who may not have good intentions, and we hope they know that (e.g., see the "Tell kids" item in Web News Briefs below).

So occasionally we ask articulate teenagers we know about this practice. After an interview for our recent series, "Conversations with teens about tech," we asked 16-year-old Steve about this. We knew he was smart and articulate, but he still surprised us with his open, very thoughtful response - one that we suspect his peers would appreciate as much as us grownups:

"I guess I'm a different person online because there's a certain way I act in real life, and that's just who I am. But when I'm online, I don't ever have to deal with any of the people I'm talking to (more so in IRC [a private chat channel he shares with a handful of friends throughout the US] than on IM) and I can just act however I want to. It's kind of like being in a play; you can be a completely different person, but when you log off, you haven't changed. It's fun.

"I used to do all kinds of crazy stuff online with people I didn't know. I took on a bunch of different personas, but I haven't done that in a few years. Now I'd just say I'm more subtly different than I am in real life. Maybe a little more harsh. I guess you could say it's just like those social groups you talked about. In one group of friends my personality changes one way, in another it changes a little different. The core remains the same, though.

"I think its great for recreation, but it's not something that should be taken too seriously. I don't think you should use the Internet to find yourself, because that, I feel, can be dangerous. The people online - unless you know them personally - you never have to deal with them in real life, and this doesn't take into account the social ramifications of your actions. You say something mean online, and you never have to see the person, but you say the same thing to someone's face, and you're going to have to live with seeing that person again, perhaps every day. I think you should be confident with who you are before you play dress-up as someone else."

That last paragraph is pure wisdom - a great follow-up to our recent feature on critical thinking in cyberspace, especially the part about chat, IM, etc. Steve's point about the distinction between online vs. in-person socializing is probably better than anything a grownup could say to a teenager about thinking through the differences and implications - and would probably be great fodder for any family or classroom discussion about Netiquette and playing it smart when socializing online.

Email us your thinking and experiences with the teen online social scene - via feedback@netfamilynews.org!

* * * *

Web News Briefs

Quite appropriate for mid-summer fun, gaming was definitely a strong thread through this week's family Internet news....

  1. Games on campus

    Video, PC, and online games are "virtually a commonplace" in US college life, according to the results of the latest Pew Internet & American Life survey, "Let the Games Begin." The study got a lot of coverage this week, and it's interesting to see how various media outlets treated it. MSNBC reported that "video games aren't just for kids. For American college students, games are as much a part of life as studying and partying." CyberAtlas picked up on gender differences, pointing out that females were found to play computer and Internet games more (because they tend to be more gender-neutral) and males more into action-oriented video games. According to the BBC, "Video games are part of everyday life for US students, but racing virtual cars or blasting aliens does not detract from their studies, says a report." And the Associated Press zoomed in on gamers' changing image: "Roughly two-thirds of college students play video games, but the image of a nerdy guy who spends all day in a dimly lit room blowing up computer-generated bad guys is off base, according to a new study." Here are some of the survey's key findings, as reported by Pew:

    • "All of those surveyed reported to have played a video, computer, or online game at one time or another," with 70% of US college students saying they play them "at least once in a while" and 65% regularly or occasionally.
    • Students say gaming is "a way to spend more time with friends," and 20% "feel moderately or strongly that gaming helped them make new friends as well as improve existing friendships."
    • "Gaming also appears to play a surrogate role for some gamers when friends are unavailable" - 60% of students surveyed said so.
    • 65% said gaming has little to no influence in taking away time they might spend with friends and family,
    • Students integrate gaming into their day, taking time between classes to play a game, play a game while visiting with friends or instant messaging, or play games as a brief distraction from writing papers or doing other work.
    • Gaming is "part of a larger multitasking setting in which college students play games, listen to music, and interact with others in the room."
    • 48% agreed that gaming keeps them from studying "some" or "a lot" and 9% saying their "main motivation for playing games was to avoid studying."
    • "College student gamers' reported hours studying per week match up closely with those reported by college students in general," with 62% saying they study for classes no more than 7 hours per week, and 15% reported studying 12+ hours a week.

    In other gaming news, Thailand reportedly will impose a curfew on online gaming in order to "curb rising rates of addiction by young players," the Agence France Press reports. The report doesn't indicate how, but the government will block both local and overseas game servers from 10 pm to 6 am daily from July 15 to September 30, after which the curfew will be evaluated. Cybercafes will also close between those hours. It's the "addiction" concern, not game violence, at issue, apparently: "Under particular attack is Korean role-playing game Ragnarok, which was introduced to Thailand seven months ago and reportedly now has more than 600,000 registered players here [in Thailand]." Back in the States, Wired News reviews a new book that "documents the manically creative lives of gamers."

  2. Scandinavia: Kids' online habits, parents' views

    Not many studies look exclusively at children's online habits and their parents' perceptions thereof, so this report on one caught our eye in the July issue of the EU's Safer Internet newsletter. The study, which surprisingly is not named or linked to in the article at Europemedia.net, surveyed children and parents in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Ireland - though the brief article focused on Denmark. Still, the findings were interesting in light of our teen role-playing feature above (it's certainly not unique to US teens)....

    • 68% of Danish kids 13-16 have tried chatting, and identity [or role-] playing is a part of the experience.
    • More than half have tried changing their name or age when chatting, and double as many children born outside Denmark choose another ethnicity when chatting than children born in Denmark.
    • 77% of Danish children have access to the Internet.
    • "Danish parents know little about what their children actually do on the Internet. But, on the other hand, Danish parents make fewer rules for their children's use of the Internet than parents in other countries."
    • "None of the younger children watched pornography on the Internet - a finding that contrasts the fears of many parents - with this activity mainly practised by teenager boys."

  3. Video game ratings updated

    As of September 15 (in time for the holiday shopping season), content warning labels will be displayed on the front of video game boxes and four new categories of violence have been added to the rating system of the Entertainment Software Review Board. According to the Associated Press, the new categories are "cartoon violence" (character left unharmed), "fantasy violence'' (characters in "situations easily distinguishable from real life"), "intense violence" ("graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict"), and "sexual violence."

  4. Family album, Sims-style

    In yet another reference to online role-playing, Wired News calls this feature of the addictive alternate-reality game "a serious tool for social and personal expression" - maybe even therapy. The article asks, "Who would have thought, for example, that abuse victims might turn to The Sims to unburden themselves of past torments?" Sims players have avatars, or characters, that represent them in the Sims world, of course, and the family album feature was originally intended to be just that - a way to capture important moments in the characters' "lives." But what's happened is "what no one imagined," Wired News reports: thousands of players using the feature "to create dozens of staged snapshots, crafting what can be complex, scripted, multi-episode social commentaries, graphic novels or even movies, as it were, with the Sims starring in the lead roles." This use of the album is the sort of challenge that accomplished players need to stay interested, Wired adds. Sixty-three albums came up in a search of the word "abuse" on the Sims Exchange, according to Wired News, confirming for its reporter that Sims albums "have become a common therapeutic tool." Another perspective on The Sims - from the Associated Press - suggests the game promotes anti-social behavior in the real world.

  5. Sony PS2 as a Web browser

    It's a perfect example of the workarounds available to kids whose parents have various types of parental controls on the household PC - only in this case it's available mostly to UK kids. The British version of the PlayStation2 console can now easily be used as a Web browser, the BBC reports. Web designer Martyn Brook figured out how to change the console's default home page (Sony's gaming page) to any Web address, which turned the device designed for multiplayer online gaming into a plain old Web browser. Brook created a Web page that - with a simple URL window at the top - acts like a browser for any gamer. One can type a URL into the window using a joystick or, more easily, a keyboard connected to the PS system via a USB port, the BBC adds. "Mr. Brook said that the software for the US version of the online service was different, making it difficult for Americans to browse the Net via their console."

  6. 'Operation Predator' announced

    The US Department of Homeland Security announced this week that combating child exploitation is now on its official list of activities. The department is now coordinating its "once-fragmented investigative and intelligence resources into a united campaign against child predators," said Secretary Tom Ridge in a DHS press release, referring to "pornographers, child prostitution rings, Internet predators, alien smugglers, human traffickers, and other criminals." The department's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will house Operation Predator, Ridge added. ICE will partner with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to facilitate communication among investigative and intelligence efforts. According to Reuters, "the initiative will use the Internet more effectively to track sex offenders who prey on young people and build a central database of child pornography images to help rescue the children involved and arrest those who exploit them." Operation Predator has also made various databases of registered sex offenders in the US accessible to the public and law enforcement via a single Web site, or "portal."

  7. Monitoring software reviews

    The Washington Post recently took a look at three monitoring products, starting with this caveat: "There are serious ethical problems with breaching other people's privacy. And you can get caught. But some people find the risks acceptable if they can find out that their kids are hanging out with the wrong crowd or a spouse is cheating." After explaining how this software works, generally, the Post provides reviews of Guardian Monitor, SpyAgent, and spyPC. Only one of them is featured at Software4Parents.com, which prefers Spector Software's) eBlaster and Spector PRO (the latter also PC Magazine's top pick for the category).

  8. Tell kids: Beware chatroom contacts!

    Minneapolis police say a recent increase in the number of sexual assaults against young girls are linked to Internet and phone chat. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the girls in six cases in the past month (five more than usual) all met their assailants in person after initial contact by phone or Web chat services. And in a followup to a story that broke a year ago, the Connecticut man who pleaded guilty in the death of 13-year-old Christina Long is reported to have been seeking teenage Internet pen pals from jail. According to the New York Times, "he ran an unusual personal ad - until yesterday, when it was removed - on a commercial Web site for inmates seeking pen pals and love interests." In this case too, the assault occurred after the child "met" her assailant in online chat.

  9. Libraries call for filtering talks

    It's a development that may not be immediately appreciated by filtering companies but could be very positive for filter users in homes and schools, as well as libraries. The American Library Association has called for a meeting with Internet filtering software companies next month. According to the New York Times, in the meeting, librarians will ask the companies to ensure that their software can easily be turned off and on by librarians - a key constitutionality factor cited by the US Supreme Court in its decision to uphold the Children's Internet Protection Act last month (see our coverage, 6/27). The ALA "will also demand that the companies reveal their database of blocked sites to libraries so they can determine which programs best suit the libraries' needs, or they may work with third parties to develop new filtering software," the Times reports. A spokesperson for a leading filtering company, N2H2, said the first point was unlikely to be a problem for his company, but the latter might be controversial for software companies (who wish to guard their databases for competitive reasons).

  10. File-swappers undeterred

    Even though the recording industry announced it would track individual file-sharers, the file-sharing services say business is up. Activity at Grokster and Morpheus is up 10% since the announcement, according to the Washington Post. And, contrary to RIAA fears, file-sharers actually buy more music CDs than non-file- sharers, a recent study found. The BBC reports on a finding by market research company Music Programming that 87% of respondents who downloaded music said they bought albums after hearing tracks via the Net. In related news, the Associated Press spotlights the cottage industry that's developed around music piracy: small companies devoted to tricking and thwarting file-sharers. And Napster creator Shawn Fanning may be making a comeback, the Los Angeles Times reports. He's "looking for backers of technology he's developing that would let file- sharing networks distribute music without violating copyrights."

  11. Gambling sites blocked in Netherlands

    In another sign (besides Thailand above) that governments may be asserting increasing control over this very international medium, a Dutch court has ordered 21 gambling Web sites in 10 countries to block access to Dutch residents. "The court found that the sites violate Dutch law since they are not licensed to provide gambling services to local residents," according to BNA Internet Law, summarizing a commentary in the Sydney Morning Herald. The commentator sees a distinct possible that the "something is published where it is read" decision in a Dutch court will become a model, for example, for the state government of New South Wales in Australia.

    While we're on the subject, this week the New York Times ran a feature on a very successful online card shark. He never sat at a tournament table yet won $2.5 million in the World Series of Poker.

* * * *

Share with a Friend! If you find the newsletter useful, won't you tell your friends and colleagues? We would much appreciate your referral. To subscribe, they can just click here.

We are always happy to hear from potential sponsors and distribution partners as well. If you'd like to make a tax-deductible contribution or become a sponsor, please email us or send a check payable to:

Net Family News, Inc.
P.O. Box 1283
Madison, CT 06443

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

Sincerely,

Anne Collier, Editor

Net Family News

 


HOME | newsletter | subscribe | links | supporters | about | feedback


Copyright 2003 Net Family News, Inc. | Our Privacy Policy | Kindly supported by the UK Domain Name Registration.