Group items tagged

"The online environment is an integral part of modern economic and social activities, and a vast resource of education, information, communication and entertainment. Further, the evolution of new technologies is diversifying the ways in which Australians connect with each other and the world. As part of the Government's comprehensive commitment to cyber-safety, the Australian Parliament established this Committee in March 2010. This report focuses on how young people can be empowered and connect to the Internet, and use new technologies with confidence, knowing that they can use them safely, ethically and with full awareness of risks and benefits. The facilitation of safer online environments requires government, industry and the broader community to work together to realise the benefits of the online environment while also protecting Australians from dangers and enabling them to use existing and emerging tools to mitigate risks.  

An interesting post about the web and how in reality it simply can't be trusted, but that is life.

An interesting post about the web and how in reality it simply can't be trusted, but that is life.

Interesting piece by Danah Boyd challenging the belief that we should track our children and wall their digital wall.

The issue of cyber bullying of school children goes to the zeitgeist of our age. It is a collision point between three competing forces: educating our children to be responsible, autonomous individuals; the intervention of the state; and the seemingly unfathomable reach of technology. This week the new Commonwealth Director of Cyber Safety Policy and Programs. begins sifting through the many submissions responding to the government's cyber safety discussion paper. Twenty years ago who would have even imagined such a position would need to exist?

The issue of cyber bullying of school children goes to the zeitgeist of our age. It is a collision point between three competing forces: educating our children to be responsible, autonomous individuals; the intervention of the state; and the seemingly unfathomable reach of technology. This week the new Commonwealth Director of Cyber Safety Policy and Programs. begins sifting through the many submissions responding to the government's cyber safety discussion paper. Twenty years ago who would have even imagined such a position would need to exist?

"Facebook has been analysing our relationships all along, to the point where they are able to make predictions about our behaviour. Most interestingly, Facebook monitors the quantity of wall-posting interactions between potential suitors to determine what phase of the relationship they are in. 100 days prior to becoming 'Facebook official' and updating their relationship status, Facebook observes a steady increase in the number of interactions between suitors. Is social media that engrained that we are conducting courtship on Facebook instead of real life?"

"Privacy Badger is a browser add-on that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web.  If an advertiser seems to be tracking you across multiple websites without your permission, Privacy Badger automatically blocks that advertiser from loading any more content in your browser.  To the advertiser, it's like you suddenly disappeared."

"A CYBER safety expert has slammed primary schools for letting students as young as eight use Twitter. Roxburgh Homestead Primary School is one of a number of schools to set up classroom Twitter accounts so students can share snippets of their work with the outside world. Parents have been encouraged to 'follow' the accounts for an insight into their children's school life."

"Google started as a search engine, but now it's one of the biggest collectors of data in the world. Whether it's your personal details, shopping habits, or even where you travel, Google has a lot of ways of keeping track of it. This infographic scratches the surface of Google's data collection systems."

"Planet Nutshell produces short animated videos to explain products, services, and concepts. One of their series of videos is all about the Internet and Internet safety for K-12 students. The series is called NetSafe and it has 17 episodes that were produced for the Utah Education Network. The videos are labeled with grade levels so that students in high school don't watch videos designed for K-3 students. "

"These days whenever things go wrong - or even right - it's search engines we turn to for answers and affirmation. So how did the internet become our best friend, confidant, oracle - and what do the questions we ask reveal about our lives? Kate Bussmann investigates."

"Generate a random fake name, address, username, password, and (usable) email address for use with online message boards, social media, or whatever else."