Although there has been a lot of talk and efforts by service providers and others over the past couple years, child pornography on the web is not going away. The ISPAI, which represents Internet Service Providers in Ireland, recently announced the number of sites concerning child pornography reported to it in 2007 increased almost 62 per cent compared to 2006. The service found that the majority of the reported sites are hosted in the USA and Russia. None were hosted in Ireland, it said.

The organization said not only does there seem to be more child pornography online, but - and this just makes you sick - it is getting “worse.” Analysts reportedly are finding more “extremely explicit” photos and videos of the rape and sexual abuse of children.

An ISPAI official said there were not that many complaints about illegal content on peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing services, but that does not mean these are not a problem. Just the opposite actually, the official stated. Some of the most disturbing material seen by analysts in 2007 was found on P2P services.

Robin

Have you been trying to get the point across to your kids that they need to be careful about what they post on social networking sites? If so, you should show them this recent Associated Press article.

If anything can drive the point home, it will be the possibility of a long time spent behind bars. The story highlights how what a person posts on MySpace could have a negative impact on sentencing if they have been involved in a bad accident.

For example, a California prosecutor was inclined to recommend probation for Lara Buys. Buys, then, was a 22-year-old who was involved in a 2006 drunk driving crash that killed her passenger. While preparing for the sentencing, the lawyer decided to check out Buys’ MySpace page. It showed pics of Buys - after the crash but before sentencing - holding a glass of wine and making jokes about drinking.

If anyone has been on MySpace, those pics and comments don’t sound that unusual. However, in this situation, the lawyer used the photos to argue for a jail sentence and Buys got two years behind bars.

This is just one of the situations highlighted in the AP article. None of the people mentioned in the story set out to do any harm, but poor chocies resulted in tragic accidents. These mistakes then were compounded by poor choices in regards to their online lives, which resulted in extended time behind bars.

Robin

Do you know what your kids are doing online? U.K. parents think they do with a poll showing that 87 per cent said they are fully aware of the content their kids have looked at online. Eight-six per cent said they didn’t think their children would do anything they disapproved of.

However, a poll of children was also done and - SURPRISE - the results were different. Many admitted to surfing the net while their parents thought they were doing homework. Thirty-three per cent of the children surveyed said they would be in trouble if their parents knew what they were looking at.  Twenty-eight per cent said they accessed adult websites.

It is not just what they were seeing online that is concerning, but who they interacting with and the extent of those conversations. Eleven per cent of children said they had sexually explicit conversations online. Twenty-seven per cent said they had conversations with strangers, while 10 per cent actually met up with people they only knew from the net.

An interesting part of the survey was that there were situations online where the kids themselves knew something “wrong” was happening. One in seven said they felt uncomfortable at times online.

One thing that came across loud and clear in the survey is that answer to keeping kids safe online is not banning them from the screen. Fifty-five per cent the Internet had “vastly improved their life” and access at home was “as essential as a fridge or cooker.”

Robin

Just so you don’t think I hate the Internet I have to share with you the story of 13-year-old Danielle Fisher from England. In October she began suffering from severe headaches and fatigue. Doctors diagnosed her with all kinds of problems: meningitis, a tumor, psychological problems …

Unfortunately, Danielle got worse. In the next six months she couldn’t walk and had severe vertigo. Her mom, Dominique, hit the Internet and began using the information she gleaned to help diagnose her daughter. It turned out Danielle had lyme disease. The mother took her daughter to see a professor who confirmed that diagnosis and also noted she had three other infections. Danielle is now on antibiotics.

This story shows the amount of information available online and what it can do for people. Lyme disease once was not well known in the U.K. but the number of incidents is increasing.

However, it is important to note that medical information can be used to help and should not replace a doctor. This was shown in the extreme on a recent episode of the TBS comedy, My Boys. Brendan created the alter ego of Dr. Brando to diagnose himself using the Internet. While hilarity ensued - including him eating moldy bread in the place of penicillin - the episode illustrated the possible danger of relying on the net for all your medical info!

Robin

They say the camera adds 10 pounds. How much does a computer add?

Recently released research seems to show that the Internet is a factor in weight gain among teenage girls. The study, conducted in the United States, included data on more than 5,000 girls and women between the ages of 14 and 21.

According to the study, conducted by a biostatistician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard Medical School, teenage girls who spend more than 16 hours a week of “recreational” time on the Internet are almost twice as likely to have a change in their body-mass index. This is even after the researchers controlled for sleep, coffee and alcohol use. After physical activity, TV and video game use was factored in, the young women with the most Internet use still were about 57 per cent more likely to gain weight. The theory seems to be that those people who are online a lot are often not active when they are not on the computer.

What do you think? Does this make sense?

Robin

So, you have read all the stories about young people meeting strangers online. Chatrooms, Facebook, MySpace … you know about all of them.

However, it is just not your computer that you need to worry about when it comes to your child meeting new “friends” online. Video games are becoming more and more sophisticated and some feature the ability to players to meet and chat online.

At the E3 games summit in Los Angeles recently, Microsoft announced it is redesigning its XBox 360 console with a plan on building communities. The company believes strongly in social gaming.

This means parents need to do more than grasp what is happening in the “conventional” online world. They also need to understand what their family’s video game console can do and discuss with their children the potential pitfalls.

Robin

Should cyberbullying be a crime? Canadian teachers seem to think so. Delegates at a meeting of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation conference recently voted to urges the government to change the Criminal Code to make cyberbullying an offence.

According to the federation, a survey of Canadians showed 34 per cent know a student who was a victim online. Twenty per cent know of a teacher who has been a victim.

While these numbers certainly do show there is a problem, some wonder if making cyberbullying a crime will be effective. A McGill University professor argues an educational campaign would be more effective than legislation that will leave a young person with a criminal record. An editorial in the Calgary Herald states the Criminal Code has all of the laws needed to handle cyberbullies.

What do you think? Is a separate cyberbullying law needed? Is something that would leave a teen with a criminal record for something like this too much?

Robin

Just another high profile example of “no pictures are good pictures” when it comes to the Internet:

While Elyse Umemoto is in her final days as Miss Washington, the Pacific Lutheran University beauty has attracted some national attention. Good old TMZ recently posted 14 photos of the Miss America second runner-up making a one-finger salute to the camera and sexually suggestive gestures.

Umemoto apologized this week for the photos. She emphasized they were stolen by someone she trusted and the case is being investigated by the Pierce County prosecutor’s office. She also noted the photos were taken 18 months to 2 years ago, which she said was before she was Miss Washington. However, at that time Umemoto was Miss Seattle and in some of the photos is wearing a tiara. The organizers of the Miss Washington pageant say they are not going to take away Umemoto’s crown or punish her.

One can say this is just another case of a young person having some fun with her friends, with alcohol involved, and getting caught. However, it just illustrates once again that people need to be careful about what they are taking pictures of or allowing pictures to be taken of! Umemoto has said most of the photos were taken by her own camera in a “private setting” and she thought she was around friends she could trust.

A good rule of thumb for young people is “see a camera, run!”

Robin

Following up on last week’s post about a man coming from Europe to Canada in pursuit of a potential young lover, a recent news story depicts a Canadian looking over the border for love.

A 58-year-old Newfoundland man has been charged with communicating with a person whom he believed to be under the age of 16 for the purpose of facilitating an indecent act. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been informed by the U.S. authorities that one of their officers pretending to be a 14-year-old girl had been contacted multiple times online by man. The RCMP did not seem to release complete details of situation but a spokesperson did confirm the nature of the alleged messages was for sexual gratification and involved indecent exposure.

The case takes a bit of a twist as the man has also been charged with causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. Police said it was a dog but would not confirm or deny whether the dog was involved in the alleged communication between the man and the “girl.”

Robin

Each week I open Sports Illustrated excited to see what is inside. You can usually predict some of the content based on the season, but the weekly sports magazine usually provides some sort of suprise with its features and columns.

In a recent issue, the surprise for me came after I flipped open the back cover. I should explain to people who might not be regular readers that many people read their “SI” by reading the last article first. This is a holdover for the days of the “Life of Reilly,” where Rick Reilly would write columns on a variety of subjects that were laugh out loud funny, insightful or pieces that just made you bawl your eyes out. Reilly departed for ESPN in late 2007 and the space has been filled lately by former New York Times scribe Selena Roberts.

In an issue that featured standout pitcher Tim Linnecum with the words “The Freak,” on the cover, Roberts wrote about a program designed to try to make the loners in high school feel less like freaks. The program involved having athletes, club leaders and prom queens reaching out.

A crucial part of the article was its mentioning about the harassment and bullying that occurs electronically.

“If it’s a physical confrontation, you have a chance to fight back,” a program member was quoted as saying. “It’s the emotional stuff  - the online stuff - that leaves the scars.”

Robin