Young people share the most intimate details of personal life on social-networking Web sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, portending a realignment of the public and the private. A post on YouTube can provoke global ridicule with the press of a return key. Social networks are forcing us to redefine what is truly private and what is public.

Anne Collier recounts the saga of the Windsor High School teen who was recently singled out at a school assembly meant to warn students about the dangers of providing too much personal profile information on MySpace. She asks us for input on whether we think this is effective cybersafety training - or a form of public humiliation.

How much information about your daily life gets recorded by big business and Big Brother? Play this simple interactive scenario by conducting your normal transactions as you would on any given day. We'll show you how often you feed information about yourself to corporate and government databases. Then, play them again and try to see if you can reduce your digital footprint and see what benefits you'll lose trying to get off the grid.

A group of eight Windsor High School parents will file grievances with Re-4 School district in the wake of an Internet safety assembly that saw one girl leave in tears. The eight parents came together feeling nothing has been done since several high school students and their MySpace pages were used in an Internet safety presentation by Cheyenne Police Department officer John Gay on Aug. 19, the first day of school in the Windsor-Severance Re-4 School District.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is the key privacy regulation that protects children from having information about them collected by web site owners. In effect since April 2000, COPPA prohibits a web site owner or operator from "knowingly collecting information from children under the age of 13 unless the operator obtains parental consent and allows parents to review their children's information and restrict its further use."

An attorney for a suspended Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher said Thursday she never intended for the public to view negative comments she made about students on Facebook. But the case is now part of a national debate that pits teachers' right to free expression against how communities expect them to behave.

Cybercriminals have launched a massive new wave of Internet-based schemes to steal personal data and carry out financial scams in an effort to take advantage of the fear and confusion created by tumbling financial markets, security specialists say.

Court order sent to YouTube in Spalla hacking incident

When Dawn and Bart Beye's 15-year-old daughter began showing signs of an eating disorder, they immediately took action. The Beyes enrolled the girl in a treatment program they thought was covered by insurance. Three weeks later, their insurance provider, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, informed the couple they would no longer pay for the child's treatment. Horizon claimed the disorder is not biologically-based, but emotionally-based, and therefore, not their responsibility to cover. The Beyes sued. And in what could have been a dangerous precedent-setting lawsuit, Horizon subpoenaed the daughter's online writings from MySpace and Facebook to prove it.

The vast array of data points that make up "personal information" in the age of online media are nearly impossible to quantify or neatly define. Name, address, and phone number are just the basics in a world where voluntarily posting self-authored content such as text, photos, and video has become a cornerstone of engagement in the era of the participatory Web. The more content we contribute voluntarily to the public or semi-public corners of the Web, the more we are not only findable, but also knowable.

Larry Magid and Anne Collier of ConnectSafely.org have put together HELPFUL TIPS TO PREVENT SEXTING for Educators, Parents and Students. They did a lot of research to pull these tips together, including talking with current prosecutors, a formal federal prosecutor and legal scholars and they include what-to-do advice for parents with kids involved. Getting teens the facts will help with the trend.

Story about protecting one's digital footprint in difficult economic times. You never know what a potential employer is going to dig up.

A comparison of MySpace and FaceBook Safety Features

You may think that because you uploaded a piece of information about yourself, that you can control it, but your digital footprint may be harder to manage than you may think.

Privacy Awareness Week is an annual promotion by the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) group. This year, Privacy Awareness Week will be held in May for the first time. The Week will see a variety of programs and initiatives hosted by public and private sector organizations from across the Asia-Pacific region to promote awareness of privacy rights and responsibilities.

Internet users in full-time education (2) are almost twice as confident online as other internet users - more than half (51%) consider themselves 'very' internet literate, compared to the national average of 26%. Despite this, they are the most dismissive of the risk of online crime and of the importance of basic security tools (such as anti-virus software) in protecting them against it.

Try this: Take a photo and upload it to Facebook, then after a day or so, note what the URL to the picture is (the actual photo, not the page on which the photo resides), and then delete it. Come back a month later and see if the link works. Chances are: It will.

Do you use strong passwords? Password Checker can help you to gauge the strength of your password. It is for personal reference only. Password Checker does not guarantee the security of the password itself.

Rising concerns about computer security are evident in the San Jose Mercury News three-part series which focused on everything from phishing schemes and identity theft to student safety on the Internet. In many districts, technology directors are finding they have to do more and more to insure that data is not compromised and to see that students are not using school networks to access inappropriate content.
Part I: How online crooks put us all at risk
Part II: How well are we protecting ourselves?
Part III: U.S. targets terrorists as online thieves run amok

You can print this list of books and free downloads for parents and distribute it at your next PTA meeting.