According to its creator Andrey Ternovskiy, Chatroulette will now be able to trace people who broadcast inappropriate content when using the service.

A message from Ternovskiy earlier this week stated:

“With the help of a few good developers we’ve started collecting information, such as IP addresses, logs and screen captures of offenders who actually break US/UN laws by broadcasting inappropriate content in a specific situations. We’ve captured and saved thousands of IP addresses of alleged offenders, along with logs and screenshots which prove wrong behavior.“

Apparently, thousands of IP addresses have been blocked in effort to make Chatroulette a much cleaner service.

Unfortunately it appears that Ternovskiy’s efforts to rid the service of perverts is all in effort to encourage and attract investors. Many have taken a keen interest in the site but have commented on how it needs to clean up its act before its reputation becomes seriously damaged.

Personally, I’m not convinced – I can’t see the site ever being used purely just for innocent fun, although it’s a nice idea. There’s always going to be people out there who will abuse the service and use it for X-rated purposes. Even the prospect of a million pound investment wouldn’t be enough for Ternovskiy to source an effective enough measure to keep the whole site safe and clean.

The Telegraph reports that a law student left fearing reprisals after he was falsely named as a paedophile on Facebook has won a £10,000 libel damages payout at the High Court.

Chef, Jeremiah Barber, 24, posted child porn on the Facebook page of student, Raymond Bryce, along with the comment: “Ray, you like kids and you are gay so I bet you love this picture, Ha ha.” Barber, who had fallen out with Mr Bryce over an £80 debt, removed the post, made on 23 November 2008, within 24 hours.

But he later pleaded guilty to making and distributing an indecent image of a child at Stafford Crown Court and was ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work and handed a £1,200 costs bill.

Now top judge Mr Justice Tugendhat, sitting at London’s High Court, has awarded Mr Bryce £10,000 in libel damages for the stress he endured, including anxiety that hundreds of people in his local area may have seen the post.

Mr Bryce, 24, who lives with his parents in Stone, Staffs, suffers from high functioning Asperger’s Syndrome, but has secured a place on a full time degree course studying law at Stafford University.

In the witness box, Mr Bryce said: “Jeremy Barber put a defamatory blog (sic) on Facebook and made me appear to be a paedophile with homosexual tendencies, neither of which is true. He did so with intention and malice. When I viewed the pictures I was shocked because they were repulsive and disgusting and in no way reflected my attitude to life. I asked for an apology which I have not to this date received. The whole thing has been distressing, not only for myself but for my family,” he added.

Mr Bryce said there had been 11 links to the post, 2 comments from viewers, and more than 800 people would have been able to view the material.

Access the original article online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7912731/Law-student-wins-10000-after-being-branded-a-paedophile-on-Facebook.html

The Telegraph reports how Apple has been accused of censoring the iPad book chart after four pornographic titles mysteriously disappeared from the bestseller list.

Four erotic titles for the iPad featured in the top 10 on Monday morning. However, these all disappeared simultaneously and have been replaced with less risqué books by the afternoon. Book chart analysts said it was unlikely that all the erotic titles could have dropped out of the list at the same moment without being deliberately removed.

It is not the first time that Apple has censored such material – the company embarked on a “great porn purge” in February, ridding its iPhone App Store of all “overtly sexual content”.

Steve Jobs, chief executive, announced in April that he wanted the newly-launched iPad to remain free of pornographic applications. The crackdown was labelled “political correctness gone mad” by some bloggers. Apple declined to comment on the disappearance of the pornographic novellas from the book chart yesterday.

Access the original article online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7911821/Apple-accused-of-censorship-after-porn-disappears-from-iPad-book-chart.html

Some internet porn sites in China now accessible

The Independent reported on leaks from Twitter that internet porn that once was blocked by Chinese government censors was now openly available.

“Are they no longer cracking down on pornographic websites? A lot of porn sites and forums are accessible,” technology blogger William Long wrote on his feed.

Messages like that startled Chinese Web surfers, long accustomed to the authorities’ Internet blockades. The country had been in the midst of highly publicized anti-pornography sweeps, and there had been no announcement of any change in government policy.

Yet eight weeks later, the porn sites are still accessible. Still unanswered are questions about whether it’s an official change in policy, a technical glitch or some sort of test by the usually disapproving Chinese Internet police.

“This has never been done with the (Chinese) Internet before,” said Beijing-based Internet analyst Zhao Jing, who goes by the English name Michael Anti.

Whatever the reason, the change has thrown into sharper relief what many people see as the main mission of China’s aggressive Internet censors: blocking sites and content that might challenge the political authority of the communist government. Websites about human rights and dissidents are also routinely banned.

“Maybe they are thinking that if Internet users have some porn to look at, then they won’t pay so much attention to political matters,” Anti said.

The government has not said why the porn sites were unblocked. Repeated calls to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology went unanswered, and the Ministry of Public Security and State Council Information Office – all involved in Web monitoring – did not respond to faxed requests for comment.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/some-internet-porn-sites-in-china-now-accessible-2033867.html

India unveils world’s cheapest laptop

The Guardian reports that India has developed the world’s cheapest laptop – a touchscreen device which resembles Apple’s wildly popular iPad but will cost just £23.

The prototype was unveiled today by Kapil Sibal, the country’s human resource development minister, who said 110 million Indian schoolchildren would be the first recipients.

Then, from next year, the device – designed to bridge the digital divide and boost India’s economy – will become available to students in higher education.

Sibal said: “The solutions for tomorrow will emerge from India. We have reached a stage that today, the motherboard, its chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around $35 [£23], including memory, display, everything.”

Past low-cost technologies produced by the country include the £1,450 Tata Nano car and a mobile phone costing less than £11. The iPad retails at about £429 in the UK – 18 times the cost of the Indian laptop.

The tablet computer, developed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengalooru, will eventually be made available to the public. It will run on an open source Linux operating system with Open Office software and can be powered by solar panel or batteries as well as mains electricity. It will have no hard drive but users will have access to a USB port, 2GB of memory and a video-conferencing facility, internet browsing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/23/india-unveils-cheapest-laptop

Be careful what you tweet

The BBC discusses how online tools and services such as Twitter and Facebook create a social space that encourages informality, rapid responses and the sort of conversation that typically takes place between friends in contexts that are either private or public-private, like the street, pub or cafe.

Unfortunately, online interaction has other characteristics which are very different from those of a casual conversation in a cafe.

Not least the fact that many services make comments visible to large numbers of people and search engines ensure that a permanent record is kept of every inane observation, spiteful aside or potentially libellous comment on a respected public figure.

This is something that TV nutritionist Gillian McKeith has just discovered the hard way, and her experience offers a salutary lesson for anyone who wants to use social media tools to enhance their reputation rather than expose themselves to public ridicule.

It all started last week when Twitter user @rachelemoody made a remark about Bad Science, Dr Ben Goldacre’s much admired book on the poor state of media coverage of medicine and science. The book includes a chapter that criticises Gillian McKeith’s work…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10740954

The BBC reports that one of the killers of toddler James Bulger is due in court on charges of accessing indecent images of children.

Venables is expected to appear at the Old Bailey via video-link from prison and will be asked to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.

He is charged with two offences under the 1978 Protection of Children Act. It is alleged that he downloaded 57 indecent images of children between February 2009 and February 2010.

He is also accused of distributing seven images between 1 and 23 February this year by allowing files on his computer to be available through a peer-to-peer network.

After eight years in custody for the murder of two-year-old James, Venables was given a new identity on his release in 2001.

He was then on licence for nine years, under probation supervision, before being sent back to jail in February over the latest allegations.

Venables’ former solicitor, Lawrence Lee, said the court’s decision to reveal the date of Friday’s hearing has undermined Venables’ anonymity and jeopardised his safety.

Access the original article online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10735857

At the beginning of the week we reported on Coca Cola making a pretty big mistake – posting pornographic material on young Facebook users’ profiles for a Dr Pepper advertising campaign.

Coca Cola is now reported to be considering cutting ties with the agency that created the campaign, which led to parents accusing them of targeting children by referencing a notorious pornographic film.

The soft-drinks giant has told the agency that it must stop all advertising work on Coca-Cola brands until a decision is reached on whether to terminate the relationship.

“We have stopped all our ongoing work with [digital agency] Lean Mean Fighting Machine and are currently reviewing our relationship with the agency,” said a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola GB.

The company was forced to pull the Facebook campaign for its Dr Pepper brand, in which users allowed their Facebook status box to be taken over by the company. Users could choose from three levels of “embarrassingness”, and the contract with Facebook stipulated that all content had to be moderated by Coke before going live.

However, the promotion backfired when a Mumsnet user saw her 14-year-old daughter’s Facebook page – or rather the Dr Pepper campaign she had joined – had been updated with a message that made direct reference to a hardcore pornographic film. Coca-Cola apologised and announced an investigation into its promotion procedures.

It said the offending line had been approved by them, without them realising its true meaning.

Dr Pepper is no stranger to flirting with social media controversy in its marketing activity, which uses the strapline “What’s the worst that can happen?”. For April Fool’s Day the brand launched a push on Chatroulette featuring a cheerleader.

Access the original article online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/21/facebook-dr-pepper-coca-cola

A web hosting company has said it shut down a blogging platform that was home to over 70,000 bloggers because a “link to terrorist material” and an al-Qaeda “hit list” was posted to the site. BurstNet said Blogetery.com also posted “bomb-making instructions”.

The company said it acted after receiving “a notice of a critical nature from law enforcement officials”. But the move has angered bloggers who use the platform and say they were given no notice of the shutdown.

In response Blogetery.com said its server had been “terminated without any notification or explanation.” The site added that it is trying to resolve the situation.

“The posted material, in addition to potentially inciting dangerous activities, specifically violated the BurstNet acceptable use policy” said the web host firm.

BurstNet also claimed that the site had a history of previous abuse. The news blog Cnet.com reported that officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told BurstNet on 9 July that al-Qaeda materials had been found on Blogetery’s servers.

It also claimed that material allegedly found on the server included “the names of American citizens targeted for assassination by al-Qaeda” as well as messages from Osama bin Laden and other leaders of the terrorist organisation.

BurstNet’s chief technology officer, Joe Marr, said that the FBI sent a “Voluntary Emergency Disclosure of Information” request to the firm.

Sources have confirmed to the BBC that this was the case but FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said the bureau does not comment on active investigations. However he did say that the FBI had not asked for any websites to be shut down.

The FBI does not have the power to remove content from websites or to take them down. That can only be done with the authority of a judge.

Calls to BurstNet were not returned.

Access the original article online at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10692501

The Telegraph reports that Coca-Cola has been forced to pull an internet campaign after parents accused the company of using hardcore pornographic references to target children on Facebook.

A Facebook promotion for Dr Pepper, part of the Coca-Cola drinks range, posted a reference to a notorious pornographic film on the “wall” of an underage girl. As part of the promotion, users allowed the company to hijack their Facebook status box, posting apparently embarrassing messages under their names.

More than 160,000 people signed up for the hoax statuses. But the marketing drive backfired when a parent complained that her 14-year-old daughter’s hijacked status claimed that she had watched a hardcore pornographic film.

The status referred to the film by name, and the mother said she was particularly distressed after finding that her daughter had subsequently searched for it on the internet.

Mrs Rickman wrote on the parents’ networking site Mumsnet: “I am absolutely fizzing with rage and disgust, and want a full apology and explanation.”

She said Coca-Cola had “offensively” offered to compensate her with a night in a hotel and West End theatre tickets, adding: “Fat lot of use to me, we live in Glasgow”.

Other Mumsnet users reacted furiously to news of the “disgusting” promotion, and praised Mrs Rickman for bringing it to light.

Coca-Cola has since apologised and announced an investigation into its promotion procedures. Executives said they had approved the offending message without realising its true meaning.

A spokesman said: “It has been brought to our attention that the Dr Pepper promotion on Facebook posted an offensive status update. We apologise for any offence caused. As soon as we became aware of this, we took immediate action and removed the status update from the application. We have also taken the decision to end the promotion. We will take all steps necessary to ensure this does not happen again”.

Access the original article online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7897706/Coca-Cola-accused-of-using-porn-to-target-children-on-Facebook.html

The Daily Mail reports that a transsexual who downloaded images of child pornography escaped jail because a judge said prison would be too tough a place for her.

Laura Voyce, 20, who was born a man, faced being locked up for nine months in a male prison after being convicted of 14 counts of downloading indecent images of children.

But despite this Judge Lesley Newton allowed Voyce, who is in the middle of a sex change which means she is biologically a man but legally a woman, to walk free with a nine-month jail term suspended for a year. She must also complete 100 hours of unpaid work. The judge said prison would be an ‘appalling experience’ for the sex offender.

Last night children’s charities reacted with anger to the leniency of Voyce’s sentence. Michelle Elliott, founder of Kidscape, said: ‘This ruling is absolutely absurd. It sends out entirely the wrong message that this transsexual’s feelings are more important than the emotions experienced by the children in these images who have gone through this terrible abuse. She should have gone to jail. There should be no special circumstances where child abuse in concerned.’

Judge Newton said she was satisfied Voyce had downloaded the images for her own ‘perverted-sexual gratification’, but refused to jail her.

The judge said: ‘I take these offences very seriously; these are real children who are being abused so that people like you can look at them. Frankly, you deserve to go to prison, but I can’t bring myself to send you to prison, entirely because I think prison would be an appalling experience for you. I do not see how you could be kept safe in a prison environment with the best will in the world on the part of those who run such establishments.’

Voyce was told she must sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and warned she would be immediately jailed if she fell foul of the law again.

Access the original article online at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1294620/Transsexual-pervert-downloaded-child-porn-spared-jail.html