Facebook Wants To Teach You How To Spot Fake News On Facebook

Posted on April 7, 2017, at 2:00 a.m.

Written by Craig Silverman  BuzzFeed News Media Editor

What the new educational tool will look like in News Feed.

In its latest move to help blunt the flow of misinformation on its platform, Facebook today rolled out a new initiative to educate users on how to spot "false news."

Starting [April 8th, 2017], people in 14 countries will begin seeing a link to a "Tips for spotting false news" guide at the top of their News Feed. Clicking it brings users to a section offering 10 tips as well access to related resources in the Facebook Help Center. Facebook is also collaborating with news and media literacy organisations in several countries to produce additional resources.

"Improving news literacy is a global priority, and we need to do our part to help people understand how to make decisions about which sources to trust," Adam Mosseri, Facebook's VP of News Feed, wrote in a blog post about the initiative. "False news runs counter to our mission to connect people with the stories they find meaningful. We will continue working on this, and we know we have more work to do."

Facebook's 10 tips for spotting false news.

Facebook has now announced several initiatives to try and stop the spread of misinformation and to support trustworthy information. It's working with third-party fact-checking organizations to flag false content in the News Feed; the company recently announced the Facebook Journalism Project to work with news organizations on products and business models; and it's one of the funders of the new News Integrity Initiative, a $14 million project "focused on helping people make informed judgments about the news they read and share online."

These moves come in response to the outcry about the platform's role in spreading fake news stories during the recent US election, and to public pressure it faced after CEO Mark Zuckerberg was initially dismissive of the issue. Now he, COO Sheryl Sandberg, and other top executives talk frequently about the responsibility Facebook has to help provide accurate information to its more than 1.8 billion users.

"We know that seeing accurate news on Facebook is really important to people on all sides," Sandberg recently said on PBS NewsHour. "No matter who you are, seeing the accurate story and seeing a diversity of opinions is really important. We know we have a responsibility, along with newsrooms and classrooms and academic and other companies, to make sure people see accurate news."

Officials use ruse at high school to clear halls for drug search

By Mark Frauenfelder at 1:30 pm Monday, Oct 24 boingboing.net

[Video Link] Police and school administrators Wolcott High School in Connecticut tricked students and teachers into believing a dangerous intruder had come into the school building and ordered a lockdown. It was a ruse for a drug sweep of the lockers. No drugs were found. In the video, the police and Wolcott school superintendent Joseph Macary serve a large pile of steaming horseshit to defend their reckless stunt. As kehfysik says in the comments: "The teaching point here is that they can not trust the people into whose care they are given. The authorities will lie to you and try to use fear to control you. I hope the kids learn this."

At Wolcott High School one morning this week, an urgent announcement crackled over the intercom: a threatening intruder was in the building and students were told to immediately take refuge in classrooms. Doors were locked and police, with dogs, moved in. Students stayed huddled in classrooms where they were told to stay away from the windows.
But what sounded like a frightening situation was just a search for narcotics. Drug-sniffing dogs combed the school while students stayed in locked classrooms, believing that an attacker was roaming the halls.

Officials Use Ruse At Wolcott High To Clear Halls For Drug Search (Via The Agitator)

Here's another version:

Officials Use Ruse At Wolcott High To Clear Halls For Drug Search

Say There's An Intruder In Building, But It's Just A Drill

October 22, 2011|Rick Green articles.courant.com

At Wolcott High School one morning this week, an urgent announcement crackled over the intercom: a threatening intruder was in the building and students were told to immediately take refuge in classrooms. Doors were locked and police, with dogs, moved in. Students stayed huddled in classrooms where they were told to stay away from the windows. But what sounded like a frightening situation was just a search for narcotics. Drug-sniffing dogs combed the school while students stayed in locked classrooms, believing that an attacker was roaming the halls. Drug-free schools are an admirable goal but I wonder when we reached the point where the war on drugs justifies police searches under the ruse of a Virginia Tech-style attack. What on earth could authorities in Wolcott be thinking?

School officials told me it was a routine lockdown drill, the kind that schools are required to do. "We wanted to practice,'' said Superintendent of Schools Joseph McCary. "We said there was a lockdown with an intruder inside. Doors are locked, shades are drawn and the lights are turned off and students are told to move to a corner of the room." "After 10 minutes we say this is a drill and at that point we started a search for drugs,'' McCary said. "We are providing a safe and secure nurturing environment." [my emphasis] No drugs turned up in the search. An email from the high school to parents explained the event, without mentioning the intruder story. It was described as a "lockdown intervention drill" where "two police dogs swept the hallway lockers, locker rooms and the student parking lot.''

Bringing in police dogs to search for drugs in student lockers, while not common, isn't the real outrage here. It's understandable why adults feel they must do something about drug abuse. It's the trickery and tactics that seem more suited to a police sting operation than a public school. "I don't think the school administration and police department have any right to mislead these kids, under any circumstances, to conduct a public safety drill," said Carl Glendening, a parent of two high school students. "The kids are told there is an intruder and there is a lockdown and then they see cops coming in with dogs." "Some kids were freaked out by it. The notion of Columbine was in the back of their minds,'' Glendening said. "We didn't think this through clearly." "They are kids. They are students. They are not there to be used."

Andrew Schneider, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, called it a "terrible policy. It will cause more trouble in the long run. Young people will learn not to trust the police." "It's a terrible civics lesson." While state law requires schools to have regular emergency drills, drug-sniffing-dog searches are up to the individual school district. Canton schools recently attracted attention for surprise drug searches using dogs. "The whole issue of search and seizure, you have to have reasonable suspicion, such as if they have had other issues in where the administration feels there's a drug problem in the school,'' said Vincent Mustaro of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. "This is one of those policies we consider optional."

School officials say it's not as if they think there's a drug problem in Wolcott. Bringing the dogs in "is precautionary," said school board Chairwoman Patricia Najarian, who added that she didn't see a problem with the fake intruder story. "Maybe there's a few people who get nervous. When we say it's a surprise drill, it's a surprise drill,'' she said. "We have a very active group of citizens against substance abuse." The drug search is "something that is good to do periodically. It says we don't have drugs in the school,'' she said. "Either way it's a win-win. I know people get concerned … there seems to be an overreaction." McCary, the Wolcott superintendent, said they want to teach students to take their safety seriously, so making them think it was real was essential. "If you say it's just a drill, would you move as quickly?" He makes a point, except that we don't set fires to get students to take fire drills more seriously. There's also another issue. If you say something important to teenagers and you want them to trust you, it's better not to lie.

Responses to the London Riots

This Won’t End Well: Speaking before parliament, UK PM David Cameron said he has ordered an inquiry into the possibility of banning users from social networks such as Twitter and Facebook if it is determined that they are planning to engage in criminal behavior. “Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill,” Cameron said. “And when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.” Cameron added that he asked the police “if they need any other new powers.”

Home Secretary Theresa May will hold meetings with representatives from Facebbok, Twitter, and RIM to discuss their role in preventing future riots. “All of them should think about their responsibility and about taking down those images,” Cameron said in reference to Facebook and Twitter posts he believes could incite further unrest.

In related news:

Among the post-riot measures to be enacted in Britain, Reuters reports, will be controls on face coverings and the possible use of the army to suppress future disturbances. Britain will crack down on gangs and may call in army support if this week's riots are repeated, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday, saying he would not allow a "culture of fear" to exist on the streets. The government will also give the police powers to demand people remove face coverings after many looters who ransacked shops during riots in London and other English cities this week wore masks to avoid being identified.

For what criminal activities (such as looting) is the appropriate response to demand someone remove a mask, instead of being arresting for the crime?

The Guardian has full details on Prime Minister David Cameron's report today in Parliament:

Instant messaging services will be reviewed. "We are working with the Police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality," he said.

The police will have new powers to order people to remove facemasks. "On facemasks, currently [the police] can only remove these in a specific geographical location and for a limited time," Cameron said. "So I can announce today that we are going to give the police the discretion to remove face coverings under any circumstances where there is reasonable suspicion that they are related to criminal activity."

Curfew powers will be reviewed. "On dealing with crowds, we are also looking at the use of existing dispersal powers and whether any wider power of curfew is necessary," he said.

Obviously the use of social media can only be used for evil, never for good. One of the most pernicious uses of social media and the internet is this horrific example:

Help Wanted of the Day: 89-year-old Aaron Biber has been cutting hair in Tottenham for decades. Last year, Aaron lost his wife. This year, he lost his business. Rioters ransacked his barbershop, smashed windows, and stole hairdryers. “I will probably have to close because I haven’t got insurance and I can’t afford the repairs,” Aaron says. “Not so fast,” responds the Internet. A website has been launched to help Aaron fix his shop. So far nearly £17,000 have been donated.

Bastards.

So here are some of the measures being proposed in response to the riots:

Cameron says Army could be called in if riots are repeated

Police are handed powers to unmask the wild rioters

Inquiry under way into how to clamp down on social media

There'll be talks with ex-US police chief about tackling gangs

Cameron shrugs off Labour's plea for police cuts U-turn

Prime Minister: 'This is a time for our country to pull together'

Labour leader Ed Miliband calls for full, independent inquiry

Calling on councils to use their powers to evict offenders from social houses;

Ministers looking into whether wider powers of curfew are needed;

A £20million fund to help high street firms affected by riots;

Businesses very badly hit will be allowed to defer tax payments;

Councils permitted to grant business rate relief;

Bellwin Scheme of emergency support to councils enacted;

£10million recovery scheme to help town halls in clean-up;

Government to meet immediate costs of housing families left homeless;

Gang injunctions scheme to be extended across the UK;

Ministerial group to prepare an action plan on gang culture.

No soul-searching into the reasons behind the riots.

UPDATE: "Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organized via social media. Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill. And when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these Web sites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”
—Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain addressing Parliament during a special debate on the UK riots.

• Britain considers mask ban; may use army if unrest continues

80 students suspended over web security breach

Posted July 25, 2011 21:09:31ABC Newshttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-25/high-school-students-suspended-over-internet-security-breach/2809744

Eighty students at Prairiewood High School in Sydney's south-west have been suspended for illegally accessing a teacher's internet account. A statement from the New South Wales Education Minister says the students logged into the teacher's departmental computer account to access sites like Facebook and Twitter, which students are not allowed to view from their own accounts.

The statement says no illegal, pornographic or student record material was accessed, but police were called. The 80 students have been suspended for four days. They will have to attend a meeting where they will be warned by police about the criminality of accessing computer material without authorisation. All Prairiewood High School teachers have now changed their computer passwords and have been reminded about following appropriate IT security measures.

Expulsion threat for under-age Facebook users

Ben Grubb, The Age,June 25, 2011

A NSW school whose students participated in a Facebook site used for cyber-bullying has threatened to expel students under 13 who are using the social networking site. In an email to parents the principal of Northern Beaches Christian School, Stephen Harris, warned that students registered on Facebook and under the social network's age limit of 13 would have their enrolment reviewed. Either children had lied about their age or their parents had helped them join Facebook, he said. ''Let me be very clear - it is an immense parenting mistake to allow for either to happen,'' Mr Harris wrote in the email sent on Tuesday.

Yesterday the Herald reported that thousands of Sydney students from various schools had joined websites on which teenagers had been subjected to malicious sexual slander and cyber-bullying. The Christian school's general manager, Alan Schultz, said yesterday that conversations on sites such as Facebook could ''become an Animal Farm-style environment''.

''It's just complete anarchy and so open then for bullying and all sorts of negative things to happen,'' he said. Having a child's enrolment reviewed was a ''last resort'', Mr Schultz said.

The Education Department has arranged for police to run a cyber-bullying workshop at a school attended by recent victims. The department also admitted that one of the schools whose students were bullied in the sexual slander postings had received a complaint from a parent earlier this month, but the email was deleted. The principal of the school said on Thursday she had not received complaints of cyber-bullying until contacted by the Herald. But the department conceded yesterday that a clerical officer at the school did recall receiving emails addressed to the school's email account that referred to Facebook. ''As such emails are often spam or contain viruses, these were deleted, without being read,'' a department spokesman said.

The father of a victim of the bullying has threatened to report administrators of the sexual slander pages to police if they do not remove the content. The father, who did not wish to be named, said he had sent emails to his child's school and others with students involved on June 16 but had received no reply.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/expulsion-threat-for-underage-facebook-users-20110624-1gjtv.html#ixzz1QGTJB9WC

Kids, Surveillance, and the Damned Internet

from Sociological Images by Lisa Wade

Cory Doctorow, has a great Ted Talk in which he gives an inspired and radical solution to the lack of privacy on the internet. To begin, he notes that Facebook, as just one example, doesn’t just allow, but incites disclosure by rewarding it, but only intermittently (a la B.F. Skinner and the Skinner box).

Meanwhile, parents try to protect children from disclosure and exposure with surveillance tools that block and report content. This, Doctorow argues provocatively, only trains kids to accept surveillance as normal and unproblematic. Instead of spying on our kids, he suggests, we should be teaching them to manipulate and avert involuntary disclosure, such that they grow up learning to question instead of accept the use and abuse of their personal information.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

Teens 'too blasé' about online legal dangers

by Peter Munro, The Age, March 20, 2011

VICTORIAN teenagers are ignorant of the legal pitfalls of using social media - such as posting explicit photographs of themselves or others online - and only 1 per cent would ask an adult for advice about dangers online, a study has found.

A Monash University-led study of more than 1000 year 7 to 10 students at 17 Victorian schools found social media was almost universal: 95 per cent of students used at least one social networking site and six in 10 updated their profile at least once a day. And 72 per cent had received unpleasant or unwanted contact from strangers via their online profiles.

But the study, Teenagers, Legal Risks and Social Networking Sites, found students were often blase about online dangers, with almost 30 per cent believing sites such as Facebook were risk-free. Parents and teachers also had little awareness of the ''potentially serious consequences'' young people faced, such as stalking, identity theft and harassment. Of concern was the prevalence of teenagers posting explicit photos of themselves or others online, the study found, citing the case of the 17-year-old girl who released nude photos of two St Kilda footballers on Facebook. Doing so could breach laws of privacy, confidentiality, defamation and copyright.

Children sending and receiving sexually explicit images on mobile phones - ''sexting'' - are also potentially liable under child pornography laws. The focus on cyber bullying had overshadowed the need to educate young people against breaking laws about privacy, copyright, defamation and distribution of offensive material, the study found. Students were ''really not aware of what the legal risks are'', said co-author Melissa de Zwart, associate professor of law at the University of Adelaide. ''Kids are taught at primary school that you don't walk into the toilet when someone is in there. Now nobody actually teaches them at any point in the classroom that posting really unpleasant photos of a friend is not appropriate; those social norms have to be learnt as well.''

Although nearly half the students were aware of some risk in using social networking sites, 28 per cent considered such sites safe and one in five felt any risk was irrelevant because social networking was ''what everyone does''. Although sites offered social and educational benefits, young people failed to understand the ''significant legal implications'' of their actions online. Many admitted posting third-party content: 26 per cent said they shared music online and 38 per cent shared videos, potentially breaking copyright laws. Less than 14 per cent were concerned about security risks such as identity theft.

Michael Henderson, a senior lecturer in education at Monash University, said students also needed to learn about the risks to reputations created by posting personal material online. The study, which will be released tomorrow, calls for ''cyber-safety'' lessons to be incorporated in school curriculums. ''Every school would have some sort of approach to social networking use, but what we are seeing is there is no concerted, clear effort across schools in this regard - partly because they don't know how to approach these issues,'' Dr Henderson said. Victorian Privacy Commissioner Helen Versey supported the call for cyber-safety education, saying young people were ''putting themselves at risk of running foul of the law''.

Former schoolteacher Mike Phillips, a co-author of the Monash study, said it was difficult to keep pace with digital technologies. His son Riley, 14, uses social networking sites such as Skype and Steam, a multiplayer games site, about five times a week. ''Even though I trust my son, it's when information gets online and falls into the hands of friends of friends that you tend to lose control - and that's a real concern,'' he said. Riley, a year 8 student, said he was careful online. ''With Skype video calls, I never show or do anything inappropriate because they could be recording and I'm very careful with my passwords because there's people out there who can hack into your account.''

Last week police charged a 17-year-old schoolboy with harassment in Sydney for allegedly hijacking a girl's Facebook page and posting an open invitation to her 16th birthday party, which drew more than 200,000 replies. The Victorian Council of School Organisations, which represents more than 500 school councils, said there was a need for a state-wide program on safe, respectful use of online networks.

[via]

Payback: Upset Ex-Girlfriend Spams Boyfriend In Google Images

Upset boyfriends and girlfriends are nothing new. There are plenty of stories of girlfriends getting back at their ex-boyfriends for mistreatment and visa versa. But in the age where Google ranks supreme, you do not want to mess with a girl who knows how to manipulate Google.

One guy learned this the hard way.

Apparently, a disturbed ex-girlfriend took her ex-boyfriend's professional taken picture and polluted it all over Google Images for a search on his name. You can see the Google Image search spam yourself by clicking here or in the screen shot below:

There has to be dozens of the same image, all with little notes from the girl written all over them. I won't name the individual in text on this page (because I do not want the page to rank for his name) or the notes but it is a bit interesting to see upset ex-couples use Google Images as payback. I suspect the images will be dropping out of Google shortly simply because it seems like the image sources have been removed from the servers they were hosted on.

As per the complaint thread started by the boy's mother at Google Webmaster Help, the mother was extremely upset about this. She said:

My minor son's ex-girlfriend took a copyrighted picture of him (we own copyright) and uploaded it more than 60 times to a website. On each image she wrote slanderous, defamatory and pornographic captions. The webmaster of the site states he removed the images 6 weeks ago, but Google Search still shows all the images. My son is so stressed out and embarrassed and we've done everything we can to get images off of Google including URL removal tool, a letter to Google Legal with all the URLs because of copyright infringement, and nothing has worked!

You see, she knew to have the source site remove the images but Google still has them in their index. The issue is that although the images appear to be gone, the URLs they are sourced via are actually returning a 200 status code, which to Google means they are still there. They need to return a page not found status code, and they do not.

Lesson? Before you upset your girlfriend or boyfriend, make sure they do not know how Google works. Oh, and never mess with an SEO.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

You want a drink? Give us your fingerprints

Getting personal: patrons line up on Australia Day outside the Coogee Bay Hotel where they must agree to have their
identification details scanned into a database - and checked against a list of undesirables - before being allowed to enter.
Photo: Lee Besford

• Coogee Bay Hotel's curious dress code

THOUSANDS of clubbers and pub patrons are being forced to submit to fingerprint and photographic scans to enter popular venues, seemingly unaware of the ramifications of handing over their identity. Biometric scanners, once the domain of James Bond movies, are flooding the pub market as the fix-all solution to violence and antisocial behaviour. The pubs are exerting more power than the police or airport security by demanding photos, fingerprints and ID. Police can only do it if they suspect someone of committing a crime and they must destroy the data if the person is not charged or found not guilty. Yet one company boasts that the sensitive information collected about patrons can be kept for years and shared with other venues in the country - in what appears to be a breach of privacy laws. There are no official checks and balances on how the data is collected, stored, used or shared. Federal Privacy Commissioner Tim Pilgrim has warned he does not have the power to audit the systems and the lack of regulation has even industry players calling for tighter controls.

NSW premises using the systems include the Australian Brewery, Lone Pine Tavern, Phriction Night Club and the Mean Fiddler in Sydney's west; Home Nightclub, the Coogee Bay Hotel; Woy Woy Leagues Club, Woodport Inn and Munmorah United Bowling Club on the central coast; Fotheringhams Hotel in Taree; and Wollongong's Palm Court Hotel. At the Coogee Bay Hotel, patrons not only queue for fingerprint scans, but may then be rejected on the grounds of a curious dress code, which includes a ban on stepped haircuts, a common style where there is a clearly visible line between layers of shaved and unshaved hair. However, complaints have been made that the hotel does not enforce the code unless it wants to refuse entry to groups of Lebanese males. When The Sun-Herald visited the hotel last week, it was not enforcing the dress code, which includes bans on visible tattoos, singlets, thongs and rats-tails.

Despite the explosion in the use of biometric scanners, criminologists at Deakin University warn they have ''slipped'' into use in Australia with ''little public awareness, no policy consideration and questionable claims concerning their effectiveness in enhancing safety and reducing crime''. The Biometrics Institute of Australia, the main industry group, has already called for changes to the Privacy Act including mandatory privacy impact assessments and audits, no exemptions for any group and a unified national privacy system. But one scanning company, ID Tect, advertises that the information is stored on a national database and can ''share a banned list of troublemakers - whether that listing is local, statewide or national''. Company director Peter Perrett did not return calls to The Sun-Herald. The Privacy Commissioner warned that: ''Anyone using this technology should be aware that under the Privacy Act, organisations must provide individuals with notice of what will happen to the collected information. It cannot be automatically shared with other venues, even if the purpose for sharing it is the same across all the organisations.'' The Privacy Commissioner has drafted guidelines for ID scanning, which are available on its website.

NightKey fingerprint scanning system director David Wallace has called for regulation and protection of data saying ''anything bad in the industry reflects back on everybody''. NightKey has been working with NSW Police to ensure it complies with security and licensing laws. Mr Wallace said the system was audited annually. He would not reveal the audit results but said the system had been improved based on the findings. Australasian Council of Security Professionals chairman Jason Brown said biometrics were a higher level of intrusion than just checking a licence and ''it needs to be managed, accountable, audited and subject to the same professional ethics as security and surveillance''. The fingerprint scanning system takes a photograph of the patron, scans their ID and takes a fingerprint which is converted into a map of the meridian points on the print and converted into a PIN. When a patron returns, the scanner matches the meridian points of their finger to the code to find their identity. The company insists there are no fingerprints kept in the system. Patrons can request their details be deleted from the system although not if they are flagged as troublemakers. ID Tect scanners scan identities into a database which can be shared with hundreds in the country. The system stores the data for 28 days and then it is deleted. But the troublemakers' IDs can be kept indefinitely.

Among the drinkers scanned on entry to the Coogee Bay Hotel on Australia Day was Ben Davies, a fraud investigator from Mosman. He was ''shocked by the willingness of so many people to hand over their entire lives in this way''. ''You have to be so careful with identification details. If someone breaks into the system, that means someone could be walking around with a fake version of my driver's licence.,'' Mr Davies said. Laura O'Donnell, a Bondi PR manager, said a driver's licence should be enough. Tamara Salamacha, of Maroubra, said she did not like such tight controls. But ''like most people in here, I just agreed to let it happen, so I could come in and join my friends''.

By Natalie O'Brien and Eamonn Duff, The Age, January 30, 2011 [via]

Sukey: an anti-kettling app for student demonstrators in London

by Cory Doctorow at 2:01 AM Friday, Jan 28, 2011

The creators of the Google Maps mashup used to track and avoid police and kettling during student protests in London have now released a suite of apps called Sukey that automates the process, simplifying the preservation of the fundamental right to protest while still opening a line for dialogue between protestors and the authorities (the app has a function that allows the police to message demonstrators and explain what they are trying to accomplish):

Sukey is our name for a set of applications designed to keep you protected and informed during protests. When you see something interesting, you tell us. When we're confident that something has actually happened, we tell you.

If you have a smartphone with a good web browser, you can look at a really cool compass-thing we call "Roar". If you don't, you can use our SMS update service we call "Growl". Have a look at our guide to getting involved for more information on how to do this stuff.

You can get more details in our executive summary (we call it that because it sounds a bit formal... but its contents are good and informative). You might be able to extract something from our official press release too.

Sukey brings together in-house code (fuelled by many late nights), resources like Google Maps and open-source software like SwiftRiver. Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing the workload.

Sukey (Thanks, Ben!)

Internet porn block 'not possible' say ISPs

Government plans to block pornography "at source" are unlikely to prove effective, say ISPs. The proposal to cut off access to pornographic material was floated by Culture Minister Ed Vaizey in an interview with the Sunday Times. The government is talking to ISPs to set up a meeting at which the proposal will be discussed. But, say experts, technical challenges mean any large scale filtering system is doomed to failure.

Legal issues

A spokesman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, confirmed Mr Vaizey's plan to talk to ISPs about setting up an age verification scheme to govern access to pornographic sites. "This is a very serious matter," said Mr Vaizey. "I think it's very important that it's the ISPs that come up with solutions to protect children." "I'm hoping they will get their acts together so we don't have to legislate, but we are keeping an eye on the situation and we will have a new communications bill in the next couple of years."

In response to the government proposal, Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the Ispa industry body, said: "Ispa firmly believes that controls on children's access to the internet should be managed by parents and carers with the tools ISPs provide, rather than being imposed top-down." Mr Lansman said its members provided parents with many different means of controlling what is accessible via the computers in their homes. "Online safety is a priority issue for the internet industry and ISPA will be discussing the options available to protect children with Government," he said. "ISPs currently block child abuse content which is illegal and widely regarded as abhorrent," said Mr Lansman. "Blocking lawful pornography content is less clear cut, will lead to the blocking of access to legitimate content and is only effective in preventing inadvertent access." BT, the UK's largest ISP, said it would be "happy" to take part in any discussion of the issues, but added: "There are many legal, consumer rights and technical issues that would need to be considered before any new web blocking policy was developed."

Filter failure

"Unfortunately, It's technically not possible to completely block this stuff," said Trefor Davies, chief technology officer at ISP Timico. “If we take this step it will not take very long to end up with an internet that's a walled garden of sites the governments is happy for you to see” He said the sheer volume of pornographic material online and the number of ways that people access it, via the web, file-sharing networks, news groups, discussion boards and the like, made the job impossible. While some proponents of a national pornographic filtering scheme cite the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) as an example of how such a scheme might work, Mr Davies said it was not a good guide. The IWF circulates a list to ISPs of sites found to be hosting illegal images of child sexual abuse.

However, said Mr Davies, the IWF draws up its list largely using information passed to it by the public. In addition it only tackles illegal content found on websites. Such a system would not work if it was used to deal with millions of porn sites, chat rooms and bulletin boards, he said. Experience with filtering systems, he said, shows that they are a very blunt tool that often blocks access to sites that could be useful. "You end up with a system that's either hugely expensive and a losing battle because there are millions of these sites or it's just not effective," he said. "The cost of putting these systems in place outweigh the benefits, to my mind," he said.

“What we are talking about is censorship to protect our children”

Mr Davies also feared that any wide-scale attempt to police pornographic content would soon be expanded to include pirated pop songs, films and TV shows. "If we take this step it will not take very long to end up with an internet that's a walled garden of sites the governments is happy for you to see," he said. His comment was echoed by Jim Killock, chair of the Open Rights Group which campaigns on digital liberties issues. "This is not about pornography, it is about generalised censorship through the back door," said Mr Killock. "This is the wrong way to go," he said. "If the government controlled a web blacklist, you can bet that Wikileaks would be on it."

Miranda Suit, co-chair of Safer Media, which campaigns to make media safe for children, told the BBC that the pornography available on the internet was "qualitatively and quantitatively" different from any that has gone before. Ms Suit cited a report compiled by the US conservative think tank The Witherspoon Institute which suggested that easy access to pornography was damaging some young people. "Children are becoming addicted in their teens to internet pornography," she said. "They are being mentally damaged so they cannot engage in intimate relationships." Safer Media backed the government call to block pornography "at source", said Ms Suit. "What we are talking about is censorship to protect our children," she said.

[via]

German Schools to Teach Online Privacy

By Jessica Donath

Social networking sites such as Facebook play a large role in young people's lives - but not all children and teenagers know how to keep their data safe. Social networking sites such as Facebook play a large role in young people's lives, but not all children and teenagers know how to keep their data safe.

Internet companies such as Facebook and Google have come in for repeated criticism in Germany, where the government has concerns about what they do with users' data. Now one state, worried about the amount of information young people reveal online, plans to teach school pupils how to keep a low profile on the web. Many of Facebook's 2 million users in Germany are young people who might not give a second thought to posting pictures of themselves and their friends skinny-dipping or passed out at parties. Unfortunately, being casual with one's data also has its risks. After all, potential employers also know how to use social networking tools.

Now the government of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, recognizing that young people are not always aware of the dangers of revealing personal information on the Internet, is planning to teach school students how to deal with the Internet and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. "Our goal is to convey that the Internet doesn't only offer chances and opportunities, but also has risks that students should understand in order to exercise autonomy with regards to digital media," said North Rhine-Westphalia's media minister, Angelica Schwall-Düren, in an interview with the Thursday edition of the regional newspaper WAZ. "Many young people are unaware of how many details they reveal about themselves online," Schwall-Düren told the newspaper. Children need to know that future employers and friends can follow their digital footprint online, something that could negatively affect their professional and private lives, she explained. Social networking sites such as Facebook are controversial in Germany, where they have been criticized over data privacy concerns.

Schwall-Düren also stressed that young people need to learn how to be more critical when watching the news. "Many people just believe news on television or on the Internet without giving it a second thought," said the minister, who says she does not use Twitter or Facebook herself. To address the problem, the minister said the government wants to introduce a so-called "media literacy driver's license" in schools, whereby children would learn "how to deal with media responsibly."

'Cultural Differences'

The teacher's union GEW reacted to the new plans with a mixture of interest and caution. "How to conduct oneself in the virtual world and how to use new media are already topics in our schools on a daily basis," Michael Schulte, head of the local chapter of GEW, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Schulte, however, said he had noticed "palpable cultural differences" between his generation and his students when it comes to new media. He fears that teachers "may not be equipped" with the necessary tools and resources for the new initiative. The state government still has to work out exactly how schools will help to make children fit for the digital age. Beate Hoffmann, a spokeswoman for the state's Media Ministry, told SPIEGEL ONLINE that an inter-agency study group will be established when politicians return from summer recess to decide on the scope, form and content of the new media literacy "driver's license." The government in North Rhine-Westphalia could turn to their colleagues in Bavaria for inspiration. A pilot project in which elementary school children are taught about different kinds of media with the aim of strengthening their independence started in 30 elementary schools there in the fall of 2009.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,710320,00.html

HERE'S why you should be worried about privacy on Facebook.

A team of software engineers and developers in San Francisco has created the ultimate in online voyeurism – a website that lets you search through the status updates of Facebook users all over the world. The site, called Openbook, scours status updates written by people who have not set them to private. At the time of writing, a search for "sad" returns more than two dozen status updates posted within the last 60 seconds, by users located anywhere from the US to the Middle East. For example, one user from Canberra said: "pretty good day today (: bit sad that i cant go to netball :(" Another from Phoenix, Arizona: "Had so much fun at applebee's! hahaha:D tonight was sad but good." The search results show each user's name, photo and a link to their profile alongside the full text of their status and can be filtered to include only men, only women or everyone. Some of the most recent search phrases on the site include "naked pictures", "going to a strip club" and "rectal exam". All three return dozens of results – though they might not be as raunchy as searchers were expecting.

The people behind Openbook say they created the site to draw attention to Facebook's recent controversial privacy changes that mean more of each user's information is set to public by default. "To us, it was immediately clear that many people's privacy was being breached," developer Peter Burns told news.com.au. "But in this raw form it was also clear that only very technical folks would understand what was happening. "Someone has to draw attention to this breach of privacy in a way that people will understand." Mr Burns created the site with fellow Californian geeks Will Moffat and James Home. He said the amount of private information being shared with the world through Facebook status updates was staggering. "We've seen people post their private medical history, their phone numbers, their home addresses, personal tragedies and private moments with loved ones," he said.

Openbook uses the tools Facebook makes available to developers who want to search its data – called APIs – to operate. The site doesn’t "hack" anyone's information, but relies on users forgetting to set their status updates to private. Mr Burns said many people didn't realise their information was public because Facebook didn't make a point of telling them. "They change the rules frequently and give no indication when you're sharing something with the entire planet," he said. And if Openbook seems a bit creepy, Mr Burns said there were worse ways people could take advantage of Facebook's "newly relaxed" privacy settings. "An insurance company could build a database of people engaging in risky behaviour or exhibiting precursors to expensive medical conditions," he said. "(Or) thieves could look for status updates indicating people would be out of town on extended vacations."

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How to Handle Facebook Privacy Settings for Your Kids

by Leslie Harris, CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology.

The explosive growth of the social media site Facebook now boasts a user demographic so diverse that at least one family member in nearly every internet-savvy household is on it. The popularity and reach of Facebook represents an anomaly among today’s technology landscape: Households with children, parents and grandparents all using the same online service. This generational ubiquity provides several intriguing story lines, but perhaps the most relevant is the “teachable moment” that allows us to provide our kids with valuable life lessons on protecting their personal privacy in a digital world. Facebook is now a kind of “social hub” for teens. As the social network has increased its offerings and integrated more with third-party applications and software, it now functions as their main portal to all online communications including e-mails, news and chatting with friends. The convenience and functionality is the main pull for teens and, let’s face it, for adults, too. With such a strong reliance upon a relatively new technology, how can we ensure that our kids know how to stay safe as they integrate more and more of their lives onto Facebook?

The first step is to make sure you and your teen are making full use of the privacy controls that Facebook provides. Those controls allow users to decide whether and how personal information is distributed and to whom. Facebook users do not always make full use of privacy controls, perhaps because they do not have a full understanding of what personal information may be widely exposed when privacy is not taken into account. Now is the time to instill the privacy habit in your kids. If they make a habit of setting privacy controls on social networks, that lesson will carry over as they move into the workforce and begin to use the internet and other technologies for work and an increasing number of sensitive uses. Compared with other social networks, Facebook offers arguably some of the most extensive privacy-control settings out there (Allfacebook.com did an extensive post on the best ones), so it’s advisable to pick a few critical areas that are most relevant to your kids rather than bury them with a laundry list of do’s and don’ts. It’s also important that teens know there’s a difference between information that’s appropriate for casual friends (and later, “work friends”) and that better suited for “family” and probably other reserved only for their BFFs. Explaining the importance of grouping friends into lists to control information output is vital to a teen’s understanding of how big a shadow they cast online.

Now that you’ve set up the “who sees what” of the nuts and bolts of their personal lives, it’s a good time to tie in the photo privacy settings so your kids are aware that if they post it on Facebook and it’s embarrassing, the world can see it. Another key privacy setting is the level of connection another Facebook user needs to have with you in order to contact you. Controls can be set to allow only those who know you to send you messages or comments, which helps protect them from spammers and potentially dangerous interactions. Kids also need to know how to set contact information privacy settings to make their e-mail, phone number, screen name and even home address unavailable for public view. Since Facebook has begun to integrate more and more with third-party websites and applications, there is potentially a whole new arena of individuals and organizations that have access to the information stored in a Facebook profile. A key privacy setting that is often overlooked by even the most advanced social media users is the option to not allow your public profile to be accessible in search results outside of Facebook (i.e. Google or Yahoo searches). Your teens must be educated on how much of their information is out there and that they have a right, the ability and the responsibility to keep personal information private.

The responsibility to protect privacy does not rest with social network users alone. Industry must adopt strong privacy policies and the government must vigorously police those privacy promises. And Congress needs to step up to enact a baseline consumer privacy law to give users more information and a bigger say in whether there personal information is collected and how it is used. But the first line of defense in protecting privacy rests with the user. The privacy controls are getting better and more granular, now it’s your responsibility as a Geek Dad to make sure your kids use them.

See also: http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/#comment-25000