Keeping Your Kids Safe Online is Your Job

Summer is finally here, in spirit if not in environmental fact. That means kids are out of school with plenty of downtime. And you know what they say about idle hands, right? Well, it applies double to keyboards and touchscreens.

It’s not even funny the amount of trouble I was able to get into as a kid with just a bike, an ardent sense of curiosity, and a wide-open summer day.

But that was nothing compared to the damage kids can do online these days.

The internet threatens way more dangers than a secondhand bike and a lost afternoon in the sun ever could — helmet or no helmet.

Who Cares About International Data Privacy Day?

International Data Privacy Day came and went last weekend and I’m going to hazard a guess that you didn’t really notice.

In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that instead of observing it, you posted another photo or 2 (or 40, or 100) to Facebook. Or maybe you tweeted about what you ate for lunch that day. Or you uploaded yet another confidential work document to Google Docs.

As we and our information become ever more commoditized by Facebook, Twitter, Google and their ilk, privacy seems to be going out of style.

Heck, with an historic IPO looming, Facebook’s about to dig into us even deeper with another $10 billion or so of funding.

These guys get it: we are an incredible source of value to advertisers. And when provided a soapbox, we won’t hesitate to flash our undies at them.

Why Isn’t More Technology Like LEGO?

2012 has been a bumpy year so far, and my mind hasn’t been on the technology game at all.

So I had to ask my 8-year old son, Cole, for a column idea this week.

“Tell everybody about how much I like LEGO,” he says.

That’s not hard to do. He likes LEGO a lot. Like, a lot a lot.

And to be honest, so do I.

Many of us primarily look at LEGO products as toys.

But they can also be considered as a technology unto themselves, as base units for conceiving and building other things.

Maybe Porn Is Better for Your Kid After All

Wolverine races through the jungle towards a group of dark-skinned thugs.

With that distinctive SNIKT sound, his adamantium claws slice out of the skin between his knuckles.

Wolverine leaps onto the nearest figure, a man in a wife beater holding a chainsaw. He sinks his claws into the man’s back and a thick geyser of blood spurts into the air and sprays a nearby tree.

With another swipe, Wolverine opens the man’s belly and innards erupt.

Then with an upward swipe Wolverine removes the man’s jaw along with a portion of his face.

This is just one violent scene of dozens from an M-rated game. In fact, there are five more guys Wolverine will disembowel in this scene alone.

I often wonder how an 8-year-old I know processes scenes like this as he plays them alone in his bedroom.

Adults have no problem interpreting this material as so-called “cartoon violence”.

(Truth be told, I love it.)

But to a young boy who hasn’t yet even been introduced to basic biology, this immersion into the macabre world of bodily mutilation must be at least very confusing, if not perverting.

Why do so many parents let this happen? We know better, after all.

State of the internet: Turning pre-teens into potty mouths to make a buck

A couple of recent articles on the New York Times website seem to contradict one another.

“Cat-and-Mouse for a Trashy Trailer”, published on February 24, laments the spread of explicit movie trailers across the internet.

Another piece, published days earlier, examines just the opposite situation.

In “WhoseTube?” OK Go’s lead singer explains why his band’s music videos have trouble escaping the hallowed Walls of Google.

While seemingly at odds, the the two articles together actually represent all that is wrong with the modern internet.

Everyone’s favourite unregulated online space has been invaded by buck-thirsty business interests. These aliens from another market have cast matters of no profit like artistry and good taste aside.

The result is an online media culture that’s evolving almost by accident, shaped not by social activity – as you might expect in a social media climate – but by what best suits the general ledger.

The Gap in History

It’s 100 years or so from now.

A young girl pulls an ancient box out from under a bed.

Its clear body is blemished with age.

A cloud of dust stirs around her as she pulls it across the floor and sits down beside it. The girl glances quickly at the door. She’s being secret, doesn’t want to be discovered.

The morning sun pours in through the window behind her as she carefully lifts the cracked lid off the box. Its fragility is almost unbelievable as it flexes slightly. She looks at the word on it: Rubbermaid.

Plastic. She’s been told this is plastic.

Inside she finds more plastic, only it’s different.

Should Computers Be In Schools?

My son started grade 1 this week.

His mom and I took him to his first class on Monday to meet his teacher and some of the other kids. We also wanted to survey the facilities to make sure it was an environment we were comfortable with.

I was disappointed to find a couple of old clunker iMacs stuffed into one corner of the room.

It might surprise you to know that my son has very little computer experience. This is not an accident.

I’m not a supporter of exposing kids to computers at an early age.

The research I’ve read is conflicted on the matter.

Some reports say computers make kids smarter, others say they impair learning. Some say they help kids develop social skills, others say they inhibit those interactions.

Without any clear resolution on the matter, the computer is a wildcard in the early learning experience. So why even deal it into the deck?

Let’s Help Teens Practice Safe Sext

In an episode of the TV comedy series Arrested Development, Tobias Funkë accidentally takes a picture of his genitals with a borrowed mobile phone.

The picture makes its way to a federal prosecutor’s office and finally into the hands of the FBI and the CIA, where it is mistaken for a satellite photograph of Iraq.

Through a careful analysis of the geography of wrinkles and moles, the US Military confirms the locations of several Weapons of Mass Destruction. A massive invasion and attack plan is prepared. Air, sea, and ground forces are mobilized.

Meanwhile, Tobias is watching the TV news. The map on which the government is basing their invasion is displayed on the screen. Tobias is shocked. He glances down at his groin, then says in dismay: “I’m on… TV…”

Originally aired on December 12, 2004, this is possibly the earliest recorded incident of sexting.

And it’s a humorous example of a common outcome of the practice: unintended public display of one’s nether regions.