We have reported on various occasions about the dangers of Chatroutlette. The site is rapidly growing in popularity but unfortunately with perverts, voyeurs and those looking for explicit webcam chats with strangers.

Probably due to the sheer amount of people using the site inappropriately, rumours are circulating that it’s looking to introduce software to automatically block images of male genitals.

Although web traffic to the site has more than quadrupled in recent months, the site has come under fire from users who complain that it now the domain of men who only use it to flash.

But the site’s owners are looking to tackle this problem. Its 17-year-old Russian developer Andrey Ternovskiy is believed to be looking at implementing a service that may add software that can quickly scan video to determine if male parts are being shown.

The site will also flag up those users who are frequently ‘nexted’, or who people do not want to remain chatting with, as this will usually mean that they are engaged in something unsuitable.

However, some users did not seem so keen on the idea of censoring what is one of the internet’s wilder websites. ‘So if you remove the spectacle, what is left? Only, Banal, and uninteresting conversation, which will send chat roulette into the dead pool,’ wrote one fan on a forum.

It will be interesting to see how effective the software is – and if it works well, will it be demise of Chatroulette as we know it? Filters or no filters though, the site still won’t be suitable for children. If you’re a parent, make sure the www.chatroulette.com URL is blocked using parental control software.

Foursquare blocked in China

The Telegraph reports that Chinese authorities appear to have blocked access to the Foursquare service in mainland China. The reasons for the censorship of the geolocation service remain unclear, but some have speculated that it could be linked to the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The Chinese government is notorious for stifling discussion about the event, and already blocks internet searches that contain those key terms.

It appears that some Foursquare users have been “checking in” to Tiananmen Square in a show of solidarity with Chinese dissidents, and to commemorate those who died in the massacre. The current “mayor” of Tiananmen Square is a Foursquare user called Chommy.

According to Techblog86, a website that covers technology news in China, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people using the Foursquare service to ‘visit’ Tiananmen Square. The blog has a screenshot of a user’s Foursquare app on the iPhone, which shows hundreds of people checking in at the site of the massacre.

It remains unclear whether the blocking of Foursquare in China is a permanent or temporary move by the authorities. It already uses its “Great Firewall” to filter content that it deems unsuitable for Chinese citizens, such as websites about Tibet, the religious group Falun Gong or the Tiananmen Square massacre, in which hundreds of student protestors were crushed by government tanks. Access to Google and Facebook is also blocked in China.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/7802992/Foursquare-blocked-in-China.html

Bangladesh unblocks Facebook

Bangladesh has unblocked Facebook after officials said the US-based website had agreed to remove caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and “obnoxious” images of the country’s leaders.

Dhaka blocked the site a week ago, angered by the content.

Last month Pakistan briefly blocked all access to Facebook in the run-up to “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” – a contest planned by some users. Most Muslims consider representations of Muhammad to be blasphemous.

Bangladeshi officials, apparently in response to the same issue, said Facebook had “hurt the religious sentiments of the country’s majority Muslim population” by carrying “offensive images” of Muhammad.

At the time, Dhaka also raised objections to images of political leaders including current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/10247858.stm

Skinbook: the social network for nudists

The Times to Karl Maddocks, who two years ago created Skinbook, the world’s largest nudist social network.

Thousands of people have flocked to the site that has many of the same features and functions as Facebook — except everyone on it is naked.

Skinbook sees itself as a safe haven for those intrigued about stripping off in public, but without having to meet the strict regulations of many nudist clubs. It does have some rules though. Blank profiles are not accepted, or overtly sexual chatter. The site claims to have had 150,000 applicants but only 10 % make the grade.

“You’ve got to be there for the right reasons,” said Mr Maddocks. “With the nature of the site, we’ve got to do our best to protect people’s privacy,” said Mr Maddocks. The site has quickly gained popularity and is beginning to approach the same size as the country’s largest nudist organisation, British Naturism, thought to have about 13,000 members.

Skinbook says it has a younger audience, with the average age of members between 35 and 40, compared with the country’s more established nudist organisations where ages are about 55 to 60. Skinbook also claims to have more females and couples in its membership than most similar groups.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7144381.ece

A new study conducted by Psychologies magazine has found that one in three kids have seen porn on the internet before they are 10 years old.

Eight in 10 children between the ages of 14 and 16 admitted to viewing porn online at home, due to lack of parental controls on the computer or being tech-savvy enough to bypass the restrictions.

However, 70% of British teens report that they haven’t been physically intimate with someone, so are viewing explicit and often violent pornographic content well before it comes to the real thing.

Experts warn that this makes individuals more likely to have relationship problems in the future and more worryingly, commit rape.

Sociologist Michael Flood commented, “there is compelling evidence that pornography has negative effects on individuals and communities. Porn shows sex in unrealistic ways and fails to address intimacy, love, connection or romance. It doesn’t mean every young person is going out to rape somebody but it increases the likelihood.”

Two in three teens report that they can easily access porn using the internet on their mobile phones.

Talking to children about what they look at online is important in helping to protect them. Make sure kids aren’t allowed to access the internet in the privacy of their bedrooms – keep the family computer in a public place where you can check what they are up to. Installing parental control software will also help to block sites with pornographic content, to help protect children online even when you’re back is turned.

CNN news reports that some young people from China are choosing to study in Hong Kong in order to escape their country’s strict internet filtering.

“We are a small elite who can afford freedom beyond China’s great firewall,” says “Li Cheng” from Shanghai. “In Shanghai, I use special software to access sites blacklisted by the government, like Twitter or the uncensored version of Google. “In Hong Kong, I am taught to integrate these tools in my research.”

In the past, students such as Li would have to travel to far-away countries to get around Beijing’s control of information. Now, they are taking advantage of Hong Kong’s special administrative status that allows for a “one country, two systems” rule until 2047. Hong Kong is nothing like mainland China in terms of its free flow of information, freedom of speech and multiparty political system.

Li Cheng said he considers himself very lucky to be studying in Hong Kong. “Free access to information is a need and a privilege,” he said.

More than 70% of the more than 1 million Chinese students abroad did not return home after graduation between 1978 and 2006, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Aware of this brain drain, the Chinese government has recently introduced a plan to attract highly qualified students back to the mainland promising better living standards, including favourable access to medical care. But that hasn’t tempted Li Chang who, like many of his friends, wants to stay in Hong Kong. “I love my country, but I don’t want to give up on my right to access information,” he said.

Access the original article online at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/06/03/hong.kong.students.google/index.html

iPad to be porn-free – apps have had to self-censor

The Guardian reports on Steve Jobs’ latest battle to target pornography on Apple devices. Developers making apps for the iPad have had to censpr any explicit content themselves in order to be sold in the Apple app store.

Jobs has made his thoughts on the topic very clear twice this year. In April, he told a press conference: “You know, there’s a porn store for Android [phones using Google's software]. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go – so we’re not going to go there.”

The Guardian suggests that Apple is setting itself as the opposite pole to Google, which as a search engine can always be accused of being a gateway to pornography and objectionable content.

By contrast, Apple controls exactly what appears on its App Store; to make that match the clean lines of its products and adverts, it needs to enforce a “clean” approach to content. But where will the line be drawn? Would an app of images of famous classical art nudes be acceptable?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/may/25/ipad-porn-free-steve-jobs

Children ‘more likely to own a mobile phone than a book’

A study by the National Literacy Trust has revealed that almost nine-in-10 pupils now have a mobile compared with fewer than three-quarters who have their own books in the home.

As part of the latest study, the trust surveyed more than 17,000 schoolchildren aged seven to 16. It found that 85.5% of pupils had their own mobile phone, compared with 72.6% who had their own books. Among children in Key Stage 2 – aged seven to 11 – 79.1% had a mobile compared with 72.7% who had access to books.

With such an increase in children owning mobiles, parents should be aware that phones with internet access allow kids to view anything at all on the web. Make sure that if you do allow your child a phone with internet access that you contact the network provider to find out how to enable the parental control settings.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7763811/Children-more-likely-to-own-a-mobile-phone-than-a-book.html

Facebook privacy settings to be made simpler

From today, Facebook will roll out a new set of privacy settings to all its users. The site has faced a barrage of criticism from users over a series of tweaks that left its members unsure about how public their information had become.

Some profile owners have threatened to quit the site on 31 May in protest. Founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted the company had “missed the mark”.
“I can confirm that our new, simpler privacy settings are starting to roll out tomorrow evening so stay tuned on our blog for more details,” said a spokesperson.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10157454.stm

OFT calls for action to protect internet users from targeted ads

The Telegraph reports that the Office of Fair Trading has called for tough new rules to protect shoppers from online advertisers that collect personal information about internet users’ browsing history.

The watchdog said the rapidly growing “behavioural advertising” market raised “privacy issues” and the “possibility for the misuse of personal data”.

It called on websites to inform users when personal data is being collected and for what purpose, and to clearly label targeted adverts. The OFT warned that the data could be used to vary the price of goods for specific items depending on users’ browsing history or previous purchases.

The report, which has taken seven months to produce, warned that the OFT may consider formal regulation of the industry unless companies act to protect consumers’ interests. It called on the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade association for online advertising, to work with the industry to “provide clear notices alongside behavioural adverts and information about opting out”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7764647/OFT-calls-for-action-to-protect-internet-users-from-targeted-ads.html

According to the Facebook group, today is ‘Everybody draw Mohammed day!’ – well, not any more, due to the global outcry the page caused.

The group was created in protest against threats made by a radical Muslim group after a South Park cartoon broadcast images of Mohammed in a bear suit, earlier this year.

“We are not trying to slander the average Muslim,” the Facebook creators wrote on the information section of the page, which was still accessible this morning. “We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Mohammad depictions that we’re not afraid of them. That they can’t take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us into silence.”

But the page has caused outrage in Pakistan and across the Muslim world, as to draw images of the prophet is considered incredibly blasphemous.

In response to the criticism, the Pakistani government has ordered internet service providers to block the page. Then a group of Islamic lawyers asked the Lahore High Court to order the government to fully block Facebook itself, arguing that the site should not have allowed the page to be posted in the first place.

The court complied with the request and ordered the government to temporarily block the site until May 31. Lawyers outside the courtroom hailed the ruling, chanting ‘down with Facebook’.

Breaking news on the BBC this morning also reports that Pakistan has blocked YouTube, due to its “growing sacrilegious content”. Authorities say they have ordered internet service providers to bar access completely to the site from Pakistan. Latest reports also state that some Wikipedia pages are also restricted.

Leading chemists are selling diet pills to children and those suffering from eating disorders, an investigation has found. The £1-a-day slimming pill Alli should only be available over the counter without a prescription to over-18s with a high body mass index.

But the BBC’s Watchdog programme found Boots sold the drug to a schoolgirl online while both Boots and Lloyds Pharmacy sold Alli to a recovering anorexic over the web.

When the drug was sold in branches of the chemists, patients’ height, weight and BMI were checked – and if underweight they were refused the tablets. But online the vetting procedures were much more lax. Applicants were able to lie about their BMI and their purchase was then approved.

Alli prevents the body from absorbing fat in food and in trials helped slimmers lose anything from 10lb to five stone over six months. When confronted with the investigation’s results, Lloyds Pharmacy said it would tighten regulations. But Boots said it ‘could not let the actions of a few’ stop it helping millions of people lose weight and it would not change its policy.

Watchdog launched its investigation after leading eating disorder charity Beat warned Alli was easily available online. It found that Boots sold Alli to a 16-year-old girl who gave her real age but that the Lloyds website turned her away.

Professor Steve Field, of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said that Alli interfered with vitamin absorption and so can be dangerous for children.

Boots said: ‘We have taken the isolated incident very seriously. We have reminded our e-pharmacy teams of the checks that they should follow for the sale of pharmacy medicines to ensure we remain vigilant.’ Lloyds Pharmacy said it had introduced ‘additional cross-checks’ to its online service.

If you are concerned about your child buying medicines online, you can prevent them from visiting sites that reference drugs by using Brightfilter Parental Control software. Even with a 15 or 18 profile activated, the drugs category can then also be blocked. Individual URLS can also be blacklisted, so children are unable to visit pharmacy and other drug selling websites.

Access the original article online at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1278280/Teenagers-sold-diet-pills-online-chemists-investigation-finds.html#ixzz0ntTzI4kR

Emma Mahony of The Telegraph provides some help to parents who feel they are ‘digitally divided’ from their children.

She describes how after attending the Government’s “Click Clever, Click Safe” campaign launch earlier this year, she learnt that it’s possible to set up a password on her sons’ Xbox console to stop them “adding friends” without her authorisation.

We certainly agree with Emma’s her statement: “Talking to your children is rule number one in protecting them from perils online. The home is no longer a refuge from the outside world; every winking screen or mobile phone carries a potential intrusion from adults.”

We’ve looked at and added to some of her advice, which we feel should be reinforced to all parents…

Stranger danger – The best way to safeguard children is to set up the family computer in a central part of the house, with the screen facing into the room. Be aware of any built-in webcam on the computer.

Social networking – Children under 13 are not allowed to set up Facebook accounts, although it’s very difficult to control false ages being used to sign up for accounts. If banning your child is not an option, ask to be added as a “friend” on their profile. (See our top ten tips tips for safe social networking for further detailed advice.)

YouTube – Accounts are not open to under 13’s, but little heed is taken. With preteens, you can block access to YouTube and other specific sites using parental control software. YouTube also includes parental control features once you’ve signed up with an account too.

Mobiles - Smartphones enable inappropriate photos to be taken and within minutes posted on YouTube or “bluetoothed” to other phones. If you have concerns, block access via the service provider. Children can still listen to music, but will have to download songs via their (protected) home computer.

Gaming - The new Digital Economy Bill at last makes it illegal to sell video games rated 12 or over to an underage buyer, and gives games classification to the stricter Video Standards Council. If your child is playing video games online via Xbox, PlayStation 3 or Wii, set up passwords to restrict strangers playing them in public games.

Cyberbullying - The Byron Review showed how people often alter their moral codes on the internet due to “the lack of gatekeepers and visual cues from others”. With 2009 figures showing that one in three 11-16 year-olds report being bullied via the internet or mobile phones, the problem is widespread. If you suspect something similar going on with your child, contact the Beat Bullying charity (beatbullying.org).

Shopping - The UK Council for Child Internet Safety urges all parents to have their own passwords for computers and online shopping accounts and to “zip it” at all times.

Internet addiction – A survey of secondary school “screenagers” revealed that more than a quarter are spending more than six hours a day on computers. The Capio Nightingale Hospital in London has started a dedicated therapy programme for children addicted to the internet. The first step is to limit screen time to an agreed daily amount of one or two hours. (Brightfilter Parental Control will enable you to filter internet access for set time limits and depending on the time of the day.)

Tweets and apps – If your children use Twitter, check that their musings only go to their followers by ensuring they are in “private” mode. Encourage them to turn off the location mode, so strangers don’t know where they are.

Access the original article online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/7714843/Online-security-Become-a-cyber-savvy-parent.html

A new British Internet Service Provider called Tibboh has launched today, which attempts to help parents control what their children see on the web. The ISP has teamed up with the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) to assign an age rating to web pages, just like with films; U, PG, 12, 15, 18.

According to Tibboh’s ratings, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and search engines such as Google and Bing, are given a “12″ rating. News websites such as the BBC and the Apple and Microsoft websites have a “U” certificate, so suitable for all. Sky and Virginmedia however are rated PG, along with web browser Mozilla. Blogging hosts Blogger and Wordpress are given a “15″ rating.

Sounds like a good idea that should have been thought of a long time ago? Well it has! By Brightfilter Limited, who use a similar age rating system to restrict unsuitable web access to help protect children online.

Tibboh’s service is only available at the moment through a Vodafone mobile broadband package, which can only be used via a USB dongle or SIM card for a mobile phone. It also charges £19.99 a month for the service, which has a 15 gigabyte data limit.

Alternatively, Brightfilter offer its Parental Control software for just £24.99 a year – with no download limits. It can also be used by anyone who has internet access and a PC.

Click here to find out more information about the software and how its filtering categories work.