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Coalition Blog
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Safer Internet Day is organised annually by INSAFE in February to raise awareness of the network's mission. The role of Insafe (www.saferinternet.org), the European network of Awareness Centres, is to promote safe and responsible use of the internet and mobile devices  to young people, educators, parents and carers. On 9 February 2010, more than 60 countries, including Insafe network members and SID Committees as well as international organisations will gather on a common virtual meeting place to create digital bridges across age-groups, continents, cultures and time-zones.
This year's theme "Think B4 U Post" aims to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world.
To learn more go to:
http://www.saferinternet.org/web/guest/safer-internet-day
We certainly support safer internet for children and everyone else. And many companies (such as Ning, Yahoo and others) do other services aimed at protecting privacy. The big question for parents and others is what happens when their children surf a much bigger online world than just those sites. This is a really tough question, since a fundamental element of the Internet is its openess and freedom. We here at the Coalition do not have those answers. And so we applaud INSAFE and anyone else who is trying to keep the conversation going. |
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FTC Report Finds Sexually and Violently Explicit Content in Online Virtual Worlds Accessed by Minors |
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Coalition Blog
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The Federal Trade Commission today issued a report that examines the incidence of
sexually and violently explicit content in online virtual worlds. The congressionally mandated report, “Virtual Worlds and Kids: Mapping the Risks,” urges operators of virtual worlds to take a number of steps to keep explicit content away from children and teens, and recommends that parents familiarize themselves with the virtual worlds their kids visit.
The Commission makes five recommendations to virtual world operators to reduce the risk of youth exposure to explicit content. All of them have to do with providing better tools (more effective age-screening mechanisms, language filters, etc) to protect children. Which is precisely the point that we have been making - its a big, complex, scary media world out there and parents and children need tools to help them navigate it.
A copy of the report text is attached. |
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Gates Foundation Working with Viacom on Education. Maybe Smoking Could be Next? |
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Coalition Blog
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The Gates Foundation has a created a partnership with Viacom, titled Get Schooled, that involves consultation between Gates Foundation experts and executives at all Viacom networks that make programming decisions. Their goal is to weave education-theme story lines into existing shows or to create new shows centered on education.
Here at the Coalition we applaud this kind of partnership between the entertainment industry and the non-profit/philanthropic community. And we offer another suggestion. Given the concern over teen smoking, wouldn't it make sense for the TV ratings to also contain information about smoking content? This would be incredibly easy to do now that DTV allows for the updating of ratings systems. |
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FCC Parental Controls NOI posted in the Federal Register |
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Coalition Blog
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Let the commenting begin!! Comments are due by January 25 and then follow-up comments due on Feb 22. My sense of this NOI is that it has the real questions that the FCC Chairman wants answered. There seems to be a strong focus on trying to get data, not opinions. I will have much more to add after the Thanksgiving break. Have a wonderful holiday everyone!
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National Institute on Media and the Family to Close |
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Coalition Blog
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This is sad news. NIMF was best known for its annual Video Game Report Card. But it did much more in the way of educating parents and even whole school systems. We are heartened to hear from NIMF president David Walsh that "the work is far from finished and I look forward to transitioning the Institute's programs to worthy organizations that I am confident will continue to educate parents and caregivers on our rapidly changing digital culture." The release from NIMF can be found here.
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