Ad4dcss/Digital Citizenship

Internet child molesters may be the modern parent's great fear but new research suggests this electronic monster is mainly the stuff of bad dreams. Is letting your kids go online the same as dropping them off at the Vince Lombardi Rest Stop in fishnet stockings at 3 a.m.?

Remember that time you got hammered, dressed up in drag, vomited on your shoes then passed out at the bar only to wake up with marker all over your face?No?Pity the Internet doesn't forget so easily.

TEENAGERS should think twice before posting personal information and photos on the internet, as they might come back to haunt them, privacy experts warn. Young people risked losing jobs or being embarrassed by teachers and relatives viewing party pictures or sexually explicit images uploaded on social networking websites, Victoria's Privacy Commissioner Helen Versey said. Ms Versey and privacy commissioners from the Asia-Pacific region and Canada will today launch "Think before you upload", an animated, online video warning young people of the dangers of documenting their life on the internet.

Apple May Offer Age Controls for iPhone Apps

School resource officers from across Alabama and the nation fielded complaints about an Internet extortionist badgering girls for nude pic­tures. Victims even created a Facebook page warning fe­males not to talk to the per­son with the username Meta­scape. Metascape turned out to be Jonathan Vance, an Alabama man who made lewd cyber re­quests of 206 girls and young women and attempted to hack into and gain control of their e-mail, Facebook and MySpace accounts, federal authorities say. He was suc­cessful in at least 53 cases.

A local woman believes her story illustrates just how frustrating it can sometimes be fighting Internet harassment.   Tina Austin claims someone harassed her by posting information on the popular trading website, craigslist.org, last February.   The postings gave Austin’s name and work cell phone number.   The three separate postings claimed Austin was giving away a diamond necklace, a Chevy Suburban, and another which was, let’s just say an “R” rated request.   “I ended up getting [the most phone calls for the diamond necklace],“ Austin said Wednesday.  “[I didn’t get] quite as much for the Suburban.“

PARENTS have been urged to confiscate their children's mobile phones at night and monitor computer use after two year 9 students from the prestigious Sydney girls' school Ascham were forced to leave the school because of cyber-bullying.

BACKYARD bullies have moved into cyberspace with such speed and aggression that police, governments and lawyers are testing new ways of slowing their spread.