"I had the chance to observe an IM chat once," Dr. Robert Price told me in a recent phone interview. "It wasn't about anything; it wasn't a conversation. It was more like graffiti than a conversation." This observation of Haworth School's tech coordinator would probably sound about right to any adult observing middle-school students' instant-messaging conversations. When I watch a session of my … [Read more...] about IM anthropology: Virtual community of 11-15s
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Anytime, anywhere connecting for kids!
That's what you call the "mobile Internet," and it's one explanation for the *other* digital divide - the one between grownups and kids. It's the "fixed Internet" (having a connected desktop PC wired to a wall somewhere) that we're used to and to which our household rules and so much online-safety research to date apply. The mobile Internet is enabled by the "wi-fi hot spots" proliferating … [Read more...] about Anytime, anywhere connecting for kids!
Anti-violent games momemtum grows
One good way to look at the issue of kids' access to violent video games is the way Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich boiled it down in his state of the state address: "Buying these games should be up to parents - not kids." So far - because there aren't the age restrictions on sales of "Mature"-rated games that there are on retail sales to minors of alcohol, cigarettes, and sexually explicit … [Read more...] about Anti-violent games momemtum grows
P2P: New faulty floodgate
It makes you wonder if anything can really stop the flood of file-sharing - lawsuits from record companies, detection software for parents, or low-cost legal music Web sites? Napster.com, which *was* the original "underground" file-sharing service (before Kazaa, BitTorrent, and all the other 2nd- and 3rd-generation P2P networks) and is now a legal music retailer online, is now widely publicized as … [Read more...] about P2P: New faulty floodgate
NBC’s ‘kids’ secret lives’ series
NBC's Today Show zoomed in on kids and media this week in "The Secret Lives of Children." The show did a great job of illustrating the problem of growing up (and parenting) in what pediatrician and author Meg Meeker refers to as "a toxic sexual culture." But I feel there was a little too much fear-mongering in NBC's treatment of the Internet - note the headlines, "What you don't know can hurt … [Read more...] about NBC’s ‘kids’ secret lives’ series