Janis Wolak is a mother of two (17 and 20), sociologist, and research professor at UNH's Crimes Against Children Research Center. I recently heard her present her latest findings on Net-based sexual exploitation of children and found them very pertinent to parents. I'm sharing them with you - in a two-part series in the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter (starting this week)- because I haven't seen … [Read more...] about Rethinking ‘stranger danger’
One teen’s very easy summer job
It's one of his summer jobs, anyway. In the last few weeks, a 15-year-old in Atlanta has made almost as much money on the Internet as he expects to make all summer working at a local restaurant. He's been selling hard-to-obtain Google Gmail accounts on eBay. "An upcoming free email service from the popular search engine has people so eager to get an account before all the catchy email account … [Read more...] about One teen’s very easy summer job
International police patrols in chat
Police in individual departments, agencies, and state-level Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces have been monitoring chatrooms to catch Net-based sexual predators for years. Now chatroom monitoring is a multinational project. Hoping to introduce a "24/7 presence on the Internet," police in Australia, Britain, Canada, and the US are planning joint chatroom patrols, the Associated Press … [Read more...] about International police patrols in chat
Net-enhanced ‘learning’
Just about any kid knows that instant term papers can be acquired for a fee at Web sites like SchoolSucks.com, Papers4Less.com, EssayTown.com, and GeniusPapers.com. "Some even sell admissions essays for college applications," the Sacramento Bee reports. The article sites a study finding that "50% of 4,500 students surveyed at 25 high schools said they had engaged in some level of plagiarism on … [Read more...] about Net-enhanced ‘learning’
Marketing to the digerati (teens)
Does your kid have a special relationship with Procter & Gamble? If so - to marketers, anyway - there's method to this madness. Procter & Gamble's experimental teen marketing unit, Tremor, has established relationships with more than 200,000 teen movers and shakers - "people who operate in multiple social circles and are likely to talk openly [including online, of course] about the products they … [Read more...] about Marketing to the digerati (teens)