What You Don’t Know Can Hurt Your Child

While the personal computer is the most common way for children to connect to the Internet today, we must recognize that mobile electronic devices, with built-in or wireless Web access, are becoming increasingly available to young people. Entire businesses are targeting the delivery of Internet content to a host of devices, such as:

• Handheld computers or organizers
• Cell phones with Web access
• Gaming devices (Xbox, etc.)
• Public Internet access points (fast food restaurants, coffee shops, etc.)

In other words, children can escape Internet supervision easily; consequently, any Internet safety approach that is limited to one single access point will be increasingly ineffective. That’s why it is more important than ever for parents and guardians to be “in the know” about current trends and to educate children accordingly. Being “in the know” is sometimes as simple as picking up the cell phone to browse images and text messages together with your child, or borrowing the iPod for your daily walk or run. (If they doth protest too much, you know you have a problem.)

You’re busy and there’s little time to take a full course in Technology Trends, so here’s a cheat sheet to get you started.

Gadgets Galore
Online pornography companies are already hawking products for portable music players and other mobile devices. Kids can watch up to 150 hours of video on the 2.5 inch screen of some MP3 devices and share an array of inappropriate media via their mobile gadgets. If you think it’s not easy to find “pocket porn,” think again. All it takes is a quick Google search on the words ipod and porn.

Example A: This site boasts live XXX Video for the iPod in 3 easy steps.
Example B: This site launches XXX video for immediate viewing on the computer monitor and for download.
Example C: This site proudly bears the claim, The Mobile Evolution of Pay Per View. The user picks one of two choices: Straight Movie Theatre or Gay Movie Theatre

…and it only gets worse from there.

Speaking of Gadgets – Cell Phones
Companies (for example, Playboy and X-rated film producers) have announced plans to bring ''adult material" to Cell Phone carriers, a business they ultimately expect to be more profitable than porn on the Web. “In 2005, worldwide revenue from mobile phone pornography is expected to rise to $1 billion and could grow to three times that number or more within a few years.” Source: Bryan-Low, Cassel and Pringle, David. “Sex Cells: Wireless Operators Find That Racy Cellphone Video Drives Surge in Broadband Use.” The Wall Street Journal. May 12, 2005.

No surprise here --- children are using the photo and video features of their cell phones to record and to send inappropriate material. Upskirting (photos of girls’ underwear), snapping photo shots of tests or pages out of copyrighted books. All of these and more are sent back and forth among devices and can also end up on Web sites.

Liability of Parents
Parents can be held liable for their child’s pirating of music and other programs. You need to know about P2P (peer to peer) networks like:

BearShare
LimeWire
Morpheus
Kazaa

Far-Reaching Consequences
Most kids have no concept of the future and are unable to consider that everything they post on the Web will probably be there for the rest of their lives. How about that, Mr. Future Senator?

Podcasting
Podcasting is the distribution of multimedia (many kinds of media) files over the Web for playback on mobile devices or computers. Anyone can create a podcast and iPods are not required for listening or viewing. Children can subscribe to a podcast so that future “broadcasts” are automatically downloaded. Podcasting is a lot of fun—anyone can become a radio show host, talk show celebrity, or DJ overnight. As you may have guessed, bigots, bullies, pornographers and worse are now taking full advantage of this technology as a powerful method of distributing a wide range of obscene content. Again, finding it is easy. All it takes is a search engine, like Google, and a few search terms, like podcast and XXX.

More on Podcasting, by How Stuff Works

Cyber Bullies
“The tradition of home as a refuge from bullies on the school playground is over. The Internet is the new playground, and there are no off hours. Kids are a target 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” (iSAFE.org) Cyber Bullying involves the use of digital communication devices in order to harass others by sending or posting hurtful comments. It takes on many forms: nasty instant messaging sessions, threatening emails, Web sites established to mock others, forwarding private messages, pictures, or video for all to see.

Blogging
A blog is short for a “web log.” It’s like a personal journal that is open to the public and it’s typically updated on a daily basis. Blogs often reflect the personality of the author. Creating a blog is free and easy. Once it is established, a child can post about anything--their opinions, pictures, links, audio and video. Check out a few of the free online blogging tools and you’ll understand the need for monitoring your child’s online behavior.

Blogger
BBlog
LiveJournal
Xanga

Class Blogmeister, a Landmark Tool by David Warlick
If your child is looking to blog, we highly recommend the blogging tools provided by ePALS or by Gaggle. The blogging tool that teachers love to use in class is David Warlick’s “Class Blogmeister.”

Class Blogmeister
ePALS
Gaggle (see Gaggle Blogs)

Toothing
Bluetooth technology interconnects a broad range of devices using a short-range wireless connection. “Toothing” is how some people find other people to “hook up.” People in trains, buses, supermarkets or bars can use Bluetooth-enabled phones or handheld computers to set up meetings.

How Bluetooth Works

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