Archive for May, 2010
Internet Safety: Education is Key
In the wake of Facebook’s recent privacy controversies, many people are looking for a quick fix. Dr. Pamela Rutledge, Director of the Media Psychology Research Center (MPRC) and frequent blogger on Psychology Today’s website, says education should come first in her blog titled “Online Safety: Educate, Not Legislate.” Calling legal regulation of social networking sites [...]
Cyber-Bullying: Georgia Governor Signs Anti-Bullying Bill
One year after an 11-year-old boy in DeKalb County committed suicide after being teased and harassed by fellow classmates, Governor Sonny Perdue signed a bill that expands the current law to elementary school children and now includes verbal harassment, property damage and cyber bullying. The new law requires that school officials notify parents after a [...]
Virtual Addiction: A Global Epidemic
The New York Times recently reported the arrest of a South Korean couple who were so busy playing an online video game in an Internet café that they starved their real 3-month-old baby to death. This story is just one of dozens of crimes that have occurred in South Korea due to Internet addiction, as [...]
Privacy: Rapper M.I.A. Tweets a Reporter’s Phone Number
In an age where teenagers love to emulate their favorite celebrities, public displays of blatantly disregarding online privacy don’t bode well, and here’s yet another example. The rapper and artist called M.I.A., also known as Maya, was so unhappy with a New York Times Magazine article written by Lynn Hirschberg in which the rapper was criticized for [...]
Privacy: Facebook Responds To Criticism with Changes
This week, Facebook announced that it has made changes to its user controls to allow for easier configuration of privacy settings for their nearly 500 million members. The modifications will retroactively manage content that has already been posted. The company also promises to lessen the amount of future changes to help avoid confusion. This recent [...]
Privacy: Several Sites Caught Sharing Private Data with Advertisers
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LiveJournal, Digg, and other social-networking sites have been providing advertisers with their users’ personal information without their permission. Shared data included names, user IDs and profile information. Since Facebook requires users to sign up with their real names, this posed a greater [...]
Social Networks: Facebook Competition Heats Up
Amid Facebook’s recent privacy issues, several start-up social networks have come out of the woodwork. One such start-up, called Pip.io, is a cross between Facebook and Twitter, but differs from both by keeping more of their users’ information private. Other start-ups that cite better privacy controls include Appleseed, Diaspora, OneSocialWeb, Crabgrass, Elgg and Collegiate Nation. [...]
Cyber-Bullying: Online Bullies Attack via Formspring.me
Formspring.me is a fairly new social network that allows users to anonymously send questions and comments to each other’s Inboxes. Frequent comments range from “What is your favorite color?” to “No 1 likes u in skool,” or worse. The site has become a playground for cyber bullies all over the country, and many school officials [...]
Privacy: Quick & Simple Changes to Help Protect Your Privacy
Lifehacker, a popular technology blog, recently published a “Top 10” list of changes that everybody should make to help protect their privacy. The computer safety tips range from performing your own background check by Googling yourself to choosing better security questions for password recovery systems. The blog also suggests that users not only understand their [...]
Cyber-Bullying: Long Island Acts to Stop Cyber-Bullying
Fourteen-year-old Jamie Isaacs of Lake Grove, New York testified this month to help pass a new law in Suffolk County that would force schools to report repeated cyber-bullying incidents. Under the proposed law, sponsored by Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper, school officials who fail to comply could be charged with a misdemeanor and face a [...]
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