In September Victorian Premier John Brumby launched a new cyber-safety initiative for schools in Victoria.

The massive monopoly for downloading music for so long is gone – what was used by so many over so many years shut down so quickly.

In The Wood Verdict, US Federal judge Kimba M. Wood forced Limewire to disable “searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality” of its software, as it “intentionally encouraged infringement”, was used “overwhelmingly for infringement” and it knew about the “substantial infringement being committed” by its users.

Anti-piracy advocates and organisations in the US and Australia have lauded it a victory for anti-piracy, Sabiene Heindl, the General Manager of Music Industry Piracy Investigations saying, “we’re very optimistic that this court result today will mean that there will be a reduction in illegal file sharers” to the ABC’s PM program.

But technology expert Mark Pesce was spot on on that program too to say that “you really have a cat and mouse game here, where neither side is really going to gain any sort of permanent long-term advantage over the other, but that gap is large enough for a lot of file sharing to take place.”

More than anyone today is a victory for Frostwire, Limewire’s fully free, open source sister.

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The case will be back in the courts in January where after ruling in May that Limewire and its operator are liable for damages just how much they will have to pay will be decided – which will really depend on how tough Judge Wood wants to be, as the real cost would be many, many billions.

But as Marc Pesce says this result is just another move in this cat-and-mouse game and long-term advantage by either side will fail to result.

What I believe is needed is Guvera.

The file-sharing networks run by peers are practically unstoppable, enforcement options are erratic and impracticable.

Peter Coroneos, the CEO of the Internet Industry Association is right to say, “A better question to ask is how do you package paid services in a way that the convenience that they provide, perhaps that the security that they provide is such that it becomes a compelling proposition for people that they wouldn’t feel any motivation to use unlawful means of accessing content.”

Guvera is a free, advertising-supported music downloading service, that is legal – with enough content and convenience that it just may penetrate the establishment, avoid the tit-for-tat cat-and-mouse and take the higher moral and tangible ground.

Some people will always buy music because they think it’s right.

Some will buy or contribute financially to those they really like.

Most, will not – and they will continue, to get it for free.

There will be no winners.

But if the music industry can invest the time and energy on perfecting and implementing models like Guvera where they can reach a point of equilibrium, making as much profit as they can while providing users a service they will use, this pointless game may just come to an end.

The era of location networking has just begun, largely thanks to the advent of Facebook Places, and GPS-capable devices like the iPhone.

This is a great logical next step for social networking that will really add it value – to share places out of interest, and crossovers into the real world to meet up with friends who might be close.

But this new era opens a can of worms in terms of privacy risks.

Obviously where you are is something you don’t want everyone to know, so it’s important you take extra precautions to make sure your privacy is kept safe.

Something many haven’t done, personally observed by Facebook friends checking in at home.

But they’re friends, so it doesn’t really matter.

Wrong.

I tried to check in on my iPhone, and in ‘Nearby Places’ searched for ‘home’.

What came up was a plethora of homes near me people had checked into, and if you clicked on them you could see their exact location!

Luckily by default Facebook doesn’t let people who aren’t your friends see where you have checked in on your profile or in places. But many people are friends with people they don’t know that well, who wouldn’t want following their every move.

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All across Australia and around the world, people are letting their privacy guard down evidenced by just how many people are checking in at home.

This should be a wake up call to all the users, those with influence and the providers of these services to minimize the privacy risks it can present.

And if you can’t not check in at home, at least don’t add friends you don’t know.

3 Years ago Labor gained office with a progressive cyber-safety agenda.

Has Labor honored their commitments? What has changed in that time? Importantly, what difference has been made for kids? And what are the political parties offering as we move forward?

In this post I will be assessing the policies, and performance of political parties going into this Federal Election, and expressing what more needs to be done.

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In November 2007 Labor released a ‘Plan for Cyber-Safety’ – outlining their policies going into the term that’s coming to an end.

It involved:

• Requiring ISP’s to offer a filtered internet service, using an expanded ACMA blacklist
• Supporting and providing educative resources
• Overhauling and making the government’s cyber-safety website relevant and effective (now http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/),
• Making a dedicated site for kids
• Providing an online helpline (chatline) where kids can access experts to help with problems confidentially and in real time
• Ensuring student teachers are trained in cyber-safety from 2009
• Ensuring existing teachers are trained in these areas
• Expanding the terms of reference for the Consultative Working Group from online predators to cyber-safety in general
• Establishing a ‘Youth Advisory Group’ on Cyber-Safety, to report to the Working Group
• Support research into cyber-safety
• Establishing a Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee on Cyber-Safety
• Funding for the Federal Police, DPP, ACMA and the DBCDE

Since then, there have been some changes and additions to the policy:

• The filter policy has been specified to not just require the offering of filtering by ISP’s, but making filtering of RC content on the ACMA blacklist mandatory
• The Youth Advisory Group involves hundreds of kids from many schools, rather than a small specialized committee
• A Sub-Committee on Cyber-Bullying has been established as part of the Consultative Working Group
• $17 Million more funding has been added to ACMA’s Outreach program
• There has been an announcement of a ‘Teachers and Parents Advisory Group’ to operate similarly to the Youth Advisory Group

In terms of implementation of these policies;

• After lengthy trials, the filter policy still lies in limbo after a lengthy review of filtered content takes place, possibly involving expanding the ACMA blacklist
• The NetAlert website was overhauled into a better, more effective, age and party-relevant website called CyberSmart, launched in July 2009. In terms of content however, it could still be organized more efficiently, completely and with more effectiveness. Some good smaller initiatives have been launched such as the innovative Cybersmart Heroes program earlier this year, video’s and brochures
• Personalized assistance for kids has been taken over by the Kids Helpline, both on the phone and confidentially as chat on the internet. However I’m not sure it has been promoted enough and if Kids Helpline staff have been supported with enough training
• The ACMA education initiative Outreach program with experts speaking at schools has been continued and been provided more funding
• Training programs for existing and trainee teachers have been developed, their reach and whether they’re mandatory I am not sure
• The Consultative Working Group has been expanded
• A Cyber-Bullying Sub-Committee have been made
• The Youth Advisory Committee was made, now involving 30 schools, substantial online and physical interaction. Their input has been taken in developing a downloadable help button
• A Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee has not been made, rather a Select Committee, that has been running this year, the difference of I’m not sure
• Research was commissioned and funding provided to the leading Professor Donna Cross at Edith Cowan University in Perth, and another project by the Illawarra Regional Information Service and Australian Council for Educational Research. I believe there should have been more time and funding given and support for original local research. And the responses to research recommendations has been less than adequate.
• $3 Million to an Alannah and Madeline Foundation Pilot Program for Schools which is good
• A new ISP Code of Practice was recently established
• The AFP and DPP have received funding for their continued important roles

In this election, the coalition if offering:

• Scrapping the ISP-Filter
• Providing $60 Million for PC-based filtering
• Providing $30 Million more to ACMA’s Outreach program
• Empowering Principals and provide $10.5 Million for a new national anti-cyber-bullying campaign
• Establishing a Ministerial Advisory Committee on Social Networking

I expect the coalition to support most of the good general educative and collaborative programs that have run in this term. However I think the $60 Million for PC-based filtering is excessive and unnecessary, given their limited value, previously low take up rates, availability of free ones such as K9, and money that could spent on education. The proposed expansion of the Outreach program is good, as well as funding for a new campaign, however I think it should be more general than just cyber-bullying. I’m not sure exactly how Ministerial Advisory Committee’s work, but it’s probably good, but should be more general too – not just social networking.

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I would expect the smaller parties to support the the general education services too with Family First for filtering and The Greens and Sex Party strictly against it.

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I believe the performance of the current government in regards to cyber-safety has been moderately good. I probably expected too much and now realize without the involvement of state governments, making cyber-safety education compulsory in classroom curriculum’s is practically impossible.

Back in January it was Corey Corey Corey.

Now it’s iPhone iPhone iPhone.

On the tip of every tech-teen’s tongue.

And it will take Cyberia into its next era.

The era of: The Smartphone.

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Voice, then text communication have been the core functions of mobiles since they rose to prominence in the late 90′s.

But only in the last few years has other, more exciting functions been widely incorporated, such as cameras, video reordering and calling, Bluetooth transfer, picture transfer (MMS), and theinternet.

Mobiles have already had their fair share of cyber-issues – text bullying – text addiction – fake sender id’s, scams, the spreading of party details, the production and access of inappropriate content, and theft to name a few.

But their focus, in general, thus far, has still been on talking and texting.
And that’s all about to change.

Smartphones have been around for years. But they haven’t really taken to kids yet – rather their prominence is in the business community.

And because the focus of mobiles so far hasn’t been their extra features – such as internet – the negative effects of such things on mobiles hasn’t been that big, pretty minimal.

But the focus of Smartphones is just the opposite – the internet, camera’s and all the like – to make them as useful as possible.

The Nielsen Online Australian Internet + Technology report 2007 looked at the difference between features of mobiles, and the use of them. The biggest difference was to do with mobileinternet. The report found that although about 66% of mobiles had internet functionality – only about 27% of people who had it, used it – so less than half who have it use it.

I think the 2 main reasons why the mobile internet hasn’t been embraced by kids are; 1) It is very expensive to use and a lot of the time kids are worried because they’re not sure what the cost will be and 2) The sheer effort of visiting, navigating and using the web on tiny little screens is so inconvenient kids just can’t be bothered to.

And that wasn’t making businesses money. So Apple came up with a cunning plan – to address these issues – creating a mobile with internet that people will love to use. So they firstly put in wireless internet – so when you have access to that, which in many places there is – the internetwill be completely free – and make it much easier to use, to navigate, to type in addresses, have multiple pages sites, click on links, zoom in and out and all the like. Essentially, to make mobileinternet use as convenient as pyshically possible.

And make it cheap. Very cheap.

Through Apple’s own research, they found the main reason people didn’t buy the original iPhone was that it cost just too much. I was expecting it to be near $1000 when it came out in Australia. So they cut it right down into a really competitive contention, around $250 for the smaller model – and with some phone plans – free at first.

Sounds very profitable – that’s why we’re soon going to see a flood of other, similar devices coming onto the Aussie market soon – such as the HTC Diamond, Nokia N96, Blackberry Bold, Samsung Omnia and the LG Secret.

Don’t have any doubt though – none of them will conquer the iPhone. Apple just has that invinsible X-factor.

So say goodbye to mobiles. Welcome to the rise of the smartphone – the iPhone perhaps being the catalyst of this rise.
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So how does this associate with the main cyber-safety issues of: Bullying, Addiction, Privacy, Security and Inappropriate Content?

Firstly, the simple increase of time kids spend on the net – on social networking sites and MSN, that smartphones will result in, will obviously increase the internet-bullying that goes on.

And if there is wireless internet in a school – expect kids to be looking down under their desks all day – as instead of doing maths, they’ll be on MySpace. And they won’t have to worry about the cost – wireless internet is free of course.

It’ll increase the amount of coordinated technological harassment taking place – groups of kids will sit around planning their cyber-attacks on social networking sites and MSN – more cyber-gangs, if you like.

Kids will film, and take photos of other kids secretly, or knowingly but without consent – manipulating them and doing whatever they want, embarrassing and humiliating them via visual means.

So it will increase and intensify internet-bullying quite a bit.

Then comes addiction.

Now it’s easy for parents to take a physically grounded PC out of a kids room and put it in an open family area to help prevent internet addiction. It’s a little harder for kids to smuggle laptops into their rooms and be on the internet wirelessly under their covers throughout the night – but it is happening.

And mobiles aren’t as much of an issue – text addiction is just not as common.

But the pure portability of smartphones, not much bigger than credit cards – detached from all but kids hips pockets, will change this all. If you have wireless internet at home – or your neighbours have open networks, which many do – then kids will be able to go on the internet as much as they want throughout the night – possibly without their parents having a clue. Chatting on MSN – Social Networking in the dark hours – what could be better?

Addiction, and the time kids spend online, will get out of control. And it’ll be extremely hard to stop.

Privacy shouldn’t be inflicted upon that much.

Security will a bit – more bluetooth connections to hack, and a lot of valuable material to steal.

And it will be an inappropriate content nightmare.

Girls, and fewer boys, already take pictures of their nude bodies and send them to certain people on mobiles – and often, for many different reasons, they are forwarded on and spread around and around until everyone’s seen them. They feel destroyed. Just this week statistics were released revealing that 32 Victorian teens were charged with the production of child pornography over this sort of thing in 2007! - link – Obviously that is just the tip of the ice berg, but none-the-less, this will be happening much, much more.

And such a portable, and personal device will open up access to porn like never before – again with wireless internet behind closed bedroom doors at night – and with their hefty hard drives a whole load will be able to be saved to watch whenever they desire.

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So what can be done?

As always, educate – but no matter what the impact won’t be able to be controlled as effectively as in the past. That’s because of the portability.

Parents will have to understand that giving kids these portable, multifunctional devices is giving them the ability to look up any material whenever they want, as long as they have wirelessinternet. So essentially parents would be saying I have my full trust in you, have this. And many kids are trustworthy – so as long as they are, and don’t show risk factors, then that may well beok.

But at home wireless networks, if parents are concerned about addiction, should be turned off at night time. But sometimes that won’t work because neighbours will have them… which really leaves no option – other than to ban the devices at night.

Schools as they always do can filter the internet at the source (installing a filter on the devise itself will be most likely disabled my a kid in minutes) – but I expect a range of proxy applications to soon be made that will help void any filters at the source anyway.

To stop inside-class wagging schools could consider disabling access to wireless networks in certain classes, time’s etc.

Clear cyber-safety policies backed up with effective education programs teaching clearly how to prevent/deal with any bullying should be implemented to ensure that is kept at a minimum.

This should also make kids vividly aware of the possible ramifications of sending inappropriate pics of oneself to others – and to stop porn being saved, spread … well just like controlling neighbour network addiction … will require someone much smarter than me to figure out how to fix.

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All strategies of dealing with the Internet based problems that could be dealt due to the physically grounded nature of computers in a house will now become redundant.

The PC will really be in the pocket.

Apple, a company thats image is nothing less than cutting edge, is in a perfect position to consider and help address these issues through funding research and education programs themselves – but this will really show, whether behind their slick face, Apple is just in it for the money.

So unless, again I say, we get the education and strategies to all the parties involved – the rise of the smartphones will conquer us all too soon.

Keep in mind, it is not your fault, and sometimes people don’t really mean what they say, sometimes things get lost in translation. Don’t let the emotion of the moment guide your actions, step back, think for a while, maybe give it a day, and work through the steps below to resolve the situation so you can use the computer happily again. Finally, if you see someone else being bullied online, don’t be a silent bystander, but report the abuse yourself (but don’t intervene in the argument!), and it might really help someone who might not know they can do that.

Adults

Do not dare overreact or punish a child if they experience harassment online. 78% of kids are worried if they tell an adult; they will be disconnected from the computer, hence stopping them from sharing it. Kids also worry that it’ll complicate the situation, by having worried adults adding to the trauma and kids often think adults mightn’t be able to help. So firstly, don’t appear to be bothered (even if you are), and don’t disconnect a child. Let them know this. Let them know they haven’t done anything wrong, and you’ll talk to them about it, and work through the steps below to peacefully resolve the issue so they can use the computer happily again.

Schools

Make a cyber-safety policy, and endeavour to implement student involved education programs with a cyber-bullying component comprised of something like my guide below. If students are cyber-bullied by other students, in school time or not, you have a legal duty to intervene, do whatever necessary to support the victim, deal the perpetrator, remove the content and contact authorities if necessary. Also, the terminology ‘Cyber-Bullying’ can be perceived as corny and not taken seriously, so perhaps use online/internet bullying/harassment instead.

To Prevent – Tips

• Be extra sensitive about what you say online – what you intend may be perceived differently
• Don’t incite abuse, by arguing, flaming or annoying someone
• Consider it might not mean what you think – things can be perceived not as they were meant online
• Don’t Share Passwords with friends – they fight!
• Make hard-to-guess secret questions so people can’t get into your accounts
• Turn on comment moderation to stop offensive comments from being published
• Tell your friends if a joke goes too far
• Only get Formspring profiles etc. if you can take abuse
• Ask them to stop harassing you, and if they don’t…

To Resolve – 5 Steps

1. Don’t respond AT ALL (It will make it worse)
2. Save the evidence for future reference (Instruction Below)
3. Block and Delete the perpetrator from the website or service (Instruction Below)
4. Report Abuse to the Admins of the website or service, to remove the content and punish the perpetrator (Instruction Below)
5. Tell People you Trust – friends, adults, teachers, parents to support you, and help deal resolve it, and police if necessary – especially if it’s anonymous – as it can be a criminal offence

Saving the Evidence

Make a folder on your computer to save all the evidence in. To save text, highlight it (press Ctrl-A, or Apple-A on Macs to highlight it all), and copy it into a notepad or word document. To take a screenshot (a picture of your computer screen), search for the ‘snipping’ application. On Windows XP and older and press the print screen button (above the arrow keys, top right of the keyboard), then go into the start menu, programs, accessories, paint, press Ctrl-V (copy), and click file and save. On Macs you can press apple-shift-3 to save a screenshot to the desktop. To save an image on a webpage right click on it (or control-click on Macs) and select ‘save image’. To save a YouTube video or other online video, visit – http://vixy.net/ – post the ‘web address’ of the video into the ‘URL’ box, and then click start. It will convert the video into the .avi file type that can play on Windows & Macs, and then let you download it onto your computer.

Deleting, Blocking and Reporting Abuse to the Administrator

Facebook

Log in, visit a profile and select ‘unfriend’ at the bottom left to remove a person. You can select ‘Report/Block This Person’ there too and follow the steps if you want to block them too. To report abuse, click ‘Report/Block This Person’, and follow the steps. Sometimes there are report links accompanying posts.

YouTube

You need an account, to get one click ‘Create Account’ up the top right, and register. If you have a Google account you can sign in with that too. Login to your account, when watching any video click the flag icon, which will give you an option of selecting why you want to report it, probably ‘bullying’ under ‘Hateful and Abusive Content’, or otherwise if it’s something else, and click ‘Flag This Video’.

Formspring

To report people click ‘Help’ at the bottom, ‘Submit a Request’ at the top and fill in the details. To block a user
select ‘Block Their Name’ at the bottom right of their profile.
To make your Formspring private click ‘Settings’, ‘Privacy’, and select ‘Protect
My Account’. In the same section you can disallow anonymous questions from people who
aren’t logged in, or disallow anonymous questions completely.

MSN

Log in, right click on contact in your contact list and select ‘Delete contact’. When the dialogue box pops up, select ‘Also block this contact’ as well and click ok. Click the ‘Help’ menu (Alt-H if it doesn’t appear), and click ‘Report abuse’ – Type your name, email in – the bullies email – what type of abuse, and then paste the evidence in the box. You could also turn message history on to ensure the evidence is recorded. To do this, click ‘tools’, ‘options’, ‘messages’ and tick the box that says ‘automatically keep a history of my conversations’. If you want to, you can download Messenger Plus here – which has a function of recording your message history with password security.

Bebo

Login, click ‘Friends’, click the cross icon on the perpetrator to delete the perpetrator. Now visit the perpetrator’s profile, and click ‘Block’ and click ‘Report Abuse’, then click ‘Report Abuse Only’. Make your profile private by clicking on ‘Profile’, ‘Edit profile’, ‘Privacy Settings’, select ‘My friends only’ and ‘Update Privacy Settings’.

MySpace

Log in, select ‘Friends’, select who you want to delete, and click ‘Delete’. Visit their profile, click on the arrow next to the clog wheel icon, and select ‘Block User’. To report abuse visit the perpetrators profile, click on the arrow next to the clog wheel icon, and select ‘Report Abuse’. Put in your name, email, type of abuse, detail the relevant evidence, provide links and click ‘Report’. To make your profile private, hover over ‘My Stuff’ up the top, select ‘Privacy Settings’ and selection ‘My Friends only’ and save the changes.

Email

Right click on message or open the options menu and click ‘view source’ or ‘headers’, and copy and save that. Block the perpetrator’s address in settings if you can. Notify your ISP, notify the perpetrator’s ISP if you want.

Games

Runescape, click the report abuse button down the bottom right. For others, Google search the games name and report abuse. Eg. Runescape report abuse.

Mobiles

Only some phones can block numbers, go into the settings and select block caller – put the perpetrators number in. Contact your service provider, report it to them. Contact the perpetrator’s service provider (if known) and report it.

Random websites/forums

Click contact admin button, send them an email or message and most likely they will take action against the perpetrator. For services/website’s you’re not sure about visit abuse.net’s web lookup page to see if they have an email address, or try emailing it to abuse@thewebsite.com oradmin@thewebsite.com etc.

Finally, contact your local police if you need more help, or want to take it further.

New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
South Australia
Western Australia
Tasmania
Northern Territory
Australian Capital Territory – 131444
Federal Police – 131444, (02) 6131 3000 in Victoria and Queensland

You can also call Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or access web counselling if you want personalized support.

* http://www.couriermail.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/cyberbullying-hits-1-in-10-australian-teenagers/story-e6frer7o-1225852147677

This guide may be reproduced free of charge as long as I am notified and author details are included.