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Dear Subscribers:

We have a lot for you this week. It was a hopping week news-wise, plus the newsletter goes on a couple weeks' vacation starting next week, so here's plenty to ponder in the meantime (the next issue will arrive in your mailbox August 20).

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Net smarts for parents

We have to admit we're biased, but even so it's a significant achievement: GetNetWise launched this week. It's a national, non-partisan, public-and-private-sector program and Web site to help parents keep kids safe online. We first reported on it last May, when Vice President Al Gore announced it. And Gore was "there" (via a live remote video feed), at the National Press Club this Thursday, when GetNetWise launched.

We're biased because everybody involved in the SafeKids/NetFamilyNews project was involved in GetNetWise. Both SafeKids and Net Family News are on the Advisory Board, SafeKids.Com founder Larry Magid wrote the Online Safety Guide and Net Family News editor Anne Collier was responsible for the overall editing of the site. The main significance of GetNetWise is that it represents diverse groups putting aside their differences to create something that's good for kids and families: Representatives from the White House, Capitol Hill, competitive Internet companies, and multi-agenda'd public-service organizations were actually able to agree on something and publish it on deadline.

More important, the online industry has made a commitment to draw attention to the site. Companies whose Web sites are seen by 95% of Internet users have agreed to make this site just "One Click Away" from their sites. If they follow through, then GetNetWise will be seen by millions of people. They will find one-stop shopping for free information about filtering, monitoring, and other software products and services, including their features; sound advice for protecting, and working with, kids who surf; and specific instructions on where to go (with links) if kids run into dangers online.

However, GetNetWise is the product of a coalition of organizations and companies, which means you'll find a wide diversity of information from a wide range of sources. The diversity is good, but it's tough to get all those supporting organizations to stop thinking about the messages they're sending and start thinking about what parents really need and want to know. Let's hope the free flow of news, changing needs, and growing parental expertise will beat those constraints and make GetNetWise as flexible and responsive as any Internet-based resource for parents has to be.

While we are proud to be associated with GetNetWise, we're also moving forward - as responsive to parents as ever - with new features, services, and articles here and on all three of our Web sites (NetFamilyNews.org, SafeKids.Com, and SafeTeens.Com), to keep you up-to-date and in the loop with independent analysis on all issues concerning kids, families, and the Internet.

Meanwhile, parents' voices need to be heard. More and more, this constituency's interests need to stand out from the cacophony of the whole discussion about kids online. They tell us we're the "gateway" to kids online. They tell us we need to "get Net-wise," but what do they - lawmakers, policymakers, researchers, the Internet industry, and children's advocacy groups - need to hear from us?

To let GetNetWise know what you need in terms of online safety or what you want to see in the site, email them by clicking on the "suggestions" link at the bottom of every page at GetNetWise.org (we'd love to hear your suggestions, too). And if you'd like to raise your voice on bigger issues than a Web site, email us about those too! We'd like to know: What would really help you help your kids have good experiences on the Net? What services would you like to see, and what do you want Congresspeople and policymakers to be thinking about and working on?

Subscribers, when you do send feedback or comments, please always let us know what question in the newsletter you're responding to. Thanks!

Here are two stories about GetNetWise that were first "off the press" on launch day:

"Net alliance to protect kids unveiled" at MSNBC

"Net firms team on parents' guide" at ZDNet

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Web News Briefs

  1. Filtered ISPs: Get 'em while they're hot

    The loudest buzz in the Internet service biz this past week was about "filtered ISPs." Also called "server-based ISPs," they block or filter "objectionable" content right on the server at the ISP's offices, so users who connect to the Net through that ISP don't have to install any software on their own computer. (As with any other "solution," there's a downside: The ISP, not the customer, defines "objectionable," so customers need to see if the ISP's criteria match their own.)

    The newest comers, announced just in the past week, are:

    This.com, with board members William Bennett, education secretary during the Reagan administration; Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition; and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. News.com published a story on This: " 'Family friendly' ISP in pornography flap".

    FamilyClick.com, a partnership between AT&T and Tim Robertson, former head of The Family Channel and son of evangelist Pat Robertson. Both the New York Times ("A New Breed of ISP Emerges: Filtered") and News.com ("AT&T in Net Control Venture").

    For more on all kinds of filtering, see Anne Bubnic's PEP site for parents, educators, and publishers and GetNetWise.

  2. Free ISPs

    Moving along from filtered to free ISPs, PC WORLD reports that the idea of free Internet service flared then fizzled in '98, and now it's back. The explanation, they say, is the "phenomenal success" of NetZero, which just filed to go public. NetZero relies on banner ads (at the bottom of the browser screen) to make money. Another revenue model, which will be used by an ISP expected to debut in the next few weeks, is that of Brand 3. This new kid on the block plans to "brand the desktop." Here's how PC WORLD explains it: "The ISP will strike a deal with, for example, a car maker, which would give away Brand 3's software with the purchase of a new car. The software would install an icon of the automaker's logo on a PC's desktop. Clicking on the logo would launch a browser, where there would be links to ads and information about the car company." The PC WORLD piece includes links to other free ISPs. Tell us what you think: Would you put up with banner ads and giving away some personal information to get free Internet service? Please email us via feedback@netfamilynews.org.

  3. Judge "says" the onus is on us

    Online safety is certainly in the air this week. A US district judge this week ruled that parents, not the courts, are responsible for keeping children from seeing pornography on the Internet, according to Wired News. Judge Arthur Tarnow was blocking enforcement of a Michigan law, due to go into effect Sunday, that would have made it illegal to transmit sexually explicit material over the Net. It's a move free-speech advocates will applaud.

  4. Net lobbyists: They're everywhere!

    Internet lobby groups are becoming quite the thing these days. Two more groups are joining the brand-new NetCoalition.com, representing giants like AOL, eBay, Excite@Home, Lycos, etc. (We mentioned it a couple of weeks ago.) According to Wired News, Hands Off the Internet will fight the regulation of high-speed access, taxation on the Net, and Web content at local, state, and federal levels of government. Then there's a very Silicon Valley "lobbyist for the masses": EParty. Wired reports in a separate piece that EParty will take on regulation on an ad hoc basis, its current focus being a law passed in Sacramento requiring California business to pay overtime to workers who work more than an eight-hour day. A tough law for Silicon Valley startups!

  5. Kudos for community tech centers

    Last week we reported on the "digital divide" - the gap between people who do and don't have Internet access. This week: a solution. Throughout the United States, community technology centers are either sprouting up or getting new funding to help people who don't otherwise have the hardware, software, and Internet access that give them the kind of equal education and employment opportunity that technology supports. According to the New York Times, the support for community tech centers is broadbased, coming from academia, the federal government, corporations, and public-interest groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League. The only dissenting voice mentioned in the Times report (that of the Progress & Freedom Foundation in Washington) certainly supports the kind of access these centers offer, but believes it's better to provide those resources to people in their homes.

    And Wired News reports that the state of Texas is supporting community tech centers in a Texas-size way. To tackle the digital divide, the state is earmarking $10 million, a figure that one state official says is three or four times as big as the US Commerce Department's budget for similar projects.

  6. Kids' media prefs

    From one study we hear that Web surfing is *reducing* kids' TV-watching time, from another we get a different story. The latter comes from research that Arbitron release this week (via The Industry Standard). Arbitron found that, for children, the Internet has not yet replaced traditional entertainment. That doesn't mean they're not surfing, thought! Arbitron found that they use the Web more for school and learning. More than one-third of the children surveyed said the Internet was "their primary research tool for book reports and papers." Hard to know if they're leveling with their interviewers, but librarians we've talked with say that, for many kids, the Internet makes research fun. They often have to remind kids that books and magazines are also important research tools! What's the situation at your house? Please email us!

  7. Move over, Beanie Babies

    The auction site eBay is going high end. Not only will e-auction aficionados be able to trade in baseball and Pokemon cards, they'll be able to acquire fine art and collectibles. Read more about the lofty ambitions of the "Amazon" of online auction sites in the New York Times.

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E-shopping update

More and more, online shopping is becoming the engine of the Internet. Most of us use the Net for communication (email) and information (search engines), but, increasingly, it's "brought to you by" e-commerce (not banner ads).

And women - who control 80-85% of household spending in the US, says America Online - will be fueling that engine. According to the New York Times, the percent of Web shoppers who are women has increased from 29% to 38% just in the past 12 months, and women surveyed who shopped online this past year say they plan to spend 20% more in the coming year (the latter figure from a survey by market researcher NFO Interactive). That's rapid change! Research has shown that women use the Net less for entertainment and more as a tool to enhance what they already do offline - staying in touch, planning vacations, helping kids with homework, you name it! When product research and online shopping carts become more convenient than catalogs and faster than driving to the mall, women are expected to make e-commerce skyrocket.

So online retailers are scrambling to broaden product lines and improve technology, competing with one another and with brick 'n' mortar stores at the mall. That means lower prices for us consumers. Evidence: eToys has added children's books to its lineup, according to News.com. And Amazon's adding toys to all the other products it's introduced in the past six months, says the New York Times

If you'd like to check out what e-stores other people find useful, here are the top 20 shopping sites for last month, according to PC Data Online via CyberAtlas. They say something a lot about what consumers are looking for online. For example, a number of sites on the list are for bargain hunters: Spree.com (online shopping rewards program), ValuPage (type in your zip code, download coupons to use at your grocery store), CoolSavings.com (aggregated savings from big retailers and their Web sites), to name a few. The other big draws are auction sites and sites selling software and music (MP3 is in there even though all the music on the site is free). Also note how hot online greetings cards are! Blue Mountain Arts comes in 4th among all e-commerce sites, eGreetings 15th.

An emerging category - not Top 20 - is real estate shopping online. A study this month by NPD Research showed that 64% of US Web users have shopped for real estate online, and a whopping 88% use the Web to look for information about residential properties. For the reasons and more statistics, go to NUA Internet Surveys. What this says to consumers is that, if you're thinking about relocating, you'll want to check out listings on the Web as well as the ones in a realtor's office.

Meanwhile, AOL certainly will not miss the e-commerce tsunami. The biggest online service has been hard at work redesigning its shopping services. According to ZDNet, this week AOL launched its Shop@AOL program, including wallet technology that makes it frighteningly easy to make purchases.

Finally, a couple of caveats:

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Kids' online privacy: An editorial

The subject was breaking news last week, but it's not going away! Especially when parents consider the long-term implications of having their child's name in a marketing database. Databases don't go away; the information just gets old (thankfully). Larry Magid takes a close look at kids' online privacy in his column this week.

Larry points out that, while the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (or COPPA, the law under implementation discussion at the Federal Trade Commission right now) will protect kids under 13 to some extent, it does nothing for teenagers. Here's the rule in Larry's house, where there are teenagers:

"I've … instructed my children not to provide personal information to any Web site without first checking with Mom or Dad. My kids are smart, but, frankly, it's hard enough for me to understand most of these privacy policies, assuming they exist in the first place. Besides, it's part of our parental responsibility to control how information about our kids is disclosed."

And that pretty much sums it up: Law or no law, there's no way around parents' responsibilities. BTW, tell us what rules work best in your house! You might be helping a fellow parent. Just email us at feedback@netfamilynews.org.

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A subscriber writes...

While we're on the subject, here's a comment from subscriber Bob in Washington, D.C., who works on a Web site for kids:

"I guess I'm missing something. I don't get why content providers need to get personal info from kids to post content. We produce a large children's site at which kids choose a codename and password. We tell them to pick something that won't identify them. The only reason we even go through the codename procedure is so that we can speak to them by 'name,' and let them score points in a personal account as they play games on the site. Beyond that, the only possible privacy issue I could see is if they email us and include their return email address (which they can do if they want, but aren't required to). Or I suppose they might put personal info in an email, although we tell them not to. Most kids' sites that I visit are the same. Very few ask for personal information. Sorry if I'm being thick."

Editor's Note: We suggest that Bob is illustrating the difference between a commercial site and an educational site like his (he identified it for us, and we'll probably be reviewing it in the fall). Commercial sites sometimes gather personal information in order to sell kids something. Larry's column, cited above, mentions surveys by the FTC, the Center for Media Education, and other entities showing that kids' sites' privacy practices, though still not great as a whole, are improving.

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Grownups too!

Grownups' online privacy is also being considered on Capitol Hill. Legislation called The Online Privacy Protection Act of 1999 was being discussed in a Senate hearing this week. A piece in Wired News looks at all the angles - what civil liberties groups are supporting it, whether it's needed or if industry self-regulation is enough. "If passed," Wired reports, "the law would force Web sites to provide a way for consumers to obtain and control the personal data that Web companies collect about them. The law would also compel Net firms to guarantee the confidentiality, security, and integrity of that data." A SiliconValley.com story on the subject, "Study finds Internet sites selling personal information", focuses on a study by the Center for Democracy and Technology about Web sites' consumer information-gathering practices.

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

Sincerely,

Net Family News


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