News for the Week of April 2, 2006
The top story in kid-tech news this week was a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday about exploitation of online kids and law enforcement...
The darkside of Webcams
How these cheap, easily concealed little videocams are used in the sexual exploitation of online kids was the focus of the high-profile hearing before the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. The lead witness was Justin Berry, who, the New York Times reported, "was molested as a teenager by people he had met online, and then went on to run a pornographic Web site for five years, featuring images of himself." It all started when Justin, at age 13, started using a Webcam to make friends online, the Times reported in a front-page story last December ( see my summary, with links). Before Justin went public, he turned over the names of some 1,500 people who, over about five years, had paid him to perform on camera." According to the Times, no peers contacted him when he posted in a Webcam directory - only adults with exploitation in mind.
Testifier Justin Barry, 19
Justin told the Department of Justice Tuesday it's "moving too slowly" in prosecuting those 1,500 cases, the Associated Press reported. The Justice Department "disputed that, citing a threefold increase in federal prosecutions of child pornography and abuse cases nationally over the past decade. The unit investigating Berry's case," the AP added, "has seen its workload increase 450% in the last four years." Internet News reported that "congressional estimates put the online child pornography business at $20 billion a year and growing." It added that yesterday's hearing was "sparsely attended," though it was covered by news outlets nationwide and in South Korea, India, Ukraine, and other countries. The Louisville Courier-Journal and CBS News focused on Justin's testimony.
The CBS piece links to an audio interview with Ernie Allen, CEO of the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children, who also testified at the hearing, conducted by CBS tech reporter and SafeKids.com publisher Larry Magid.
In Other News...
- Tougher to buy 'M' games. The Federal Trade Commission did some undercover shopping at 400+ videogame stores nationwide and found that it's getting harder for kids to buy games rated "M" (Mature). The FTC had "secret shoppers" aged 13-16 try to buy M-rated games without a parent, and 42% were able to buy one, down from 69% in 2003. "National sellers were much more likely to restrict sales of M-rated games," the FTC found. Regional or local sellers sold M-rated games to the shoppers more frequently - 63%." The shoppers noted other improvements, too: More stores provided info about ratings, and more cashiers asked the shoppers' age as they were trying to buy M games. Here's coverage from GameDaily.com and the Wall Street Journal.
- Net-music update. Music file-sharing hasn't been on US media radar screens much in recent months, but it certainly was across The Pond this week. File-sharers face what the BBC called a "legal onslaught," as the IFPI, the international umbrella for recording industry associations like the US's RIAA, announced it was suing nearly 2,000 P2P service users in 10 countries. Reuters added that the IFPI released data showing it had lost 1 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) in the past three years, due to file-sharing. But piracy isn't only on the P2P front. Two California men "involved in what US authorities called the largest bust of pirated music CDs [burning some 200,000 of them] and computer software in America each pleaded guilty to five criminal counts on Monday, Reuters reported.
- "Podsafe" music. If you're looking for legal music to enhance your homemade videos (so they won't get deleted from YouTube.com because the copyright owners complained to the Webmaster), PCWorld has some sources (and explains "fair use" in these days of home-made media).
- MI videogame law killed. A federal judge overturned a Michigan law restricting sales of violent videogames to minors, saying the law is unconstitutional. "Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed the law in September, and it was scheduled to take effect December 1," the Associated Press reports, but US District Judge George Steeh issued a preliminary injunction in November, which was made permanent with Judge Steeh's decision this past week. CNET reports that this is just one of a series of similar free-speech-related decisions concerning videogames, including federal court decisions in Washington, California, and Illinois.
