Just left Washington DC where I attended the Location meets social networking event.  Extremely interesting and just a little scary (but no need to panic).  Will have a complete report within a few days.

Like everyone in America, we at SafeKids.com are horrified by what happened at Virginia Tech.  The tragedy reminds us that we can never take safety for granted.

 
Our mission is to help kids be safe on the Internet and, in the case of Virginia Tech, the Internet played a positive role.  It was the lifeline that students used to stay in touch with each other and let parents and loved ones know their status. At times the net was the only communications tools they had, especially when cell phone service became overwhelmed from heavy use.

 Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace were especially helpful during and immediately after the chaotic episodes. Students were able to tap into their personal networks of friends through these social networks.

 The tragedy also reminds us that, as much as we worry about safety on the Internet is only a small part of the overall picture of growing up safely in our society.   

by Larry Magid

Don Imus’ reference to Rutgers University women’s basketball players as “nappy headed hos” is not only a form of racial and sexual stereotyping, but an example of how far our society has come in permitting this type of innuendo. At the same time, the strong reaction to these remarks gives me hope that perhaps we may be at a turning point as a society by no longer tolerating this type of behavior.

I know what it’s like to be mocked on national radio. I’m a CBS technology consultant and when Howard Stern was with CBS Radio, he used to play my network sound bites, exaggerate my lisp and imply that I was a gay nerd. › Continue reading…

We hear a lot about predators but, from a numbers perspective, a bigger risk to kids is what kids are doing to each other.  This Reuters article spells it out as well as the danger that images could wind up being spread around the Internet.

Link to Schoolgirls bullied into stripping online – Yahoo! News

We are slowly entering the age of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) where TV shows are just as likely to come to us over Internet as they are via cable, satellite or antenna. Today most people who watch Internet TV are sitting at a computer or possibly watching video podcasts on their iPod, but the day will soon come when most of our TVs are connected to the Internet giving us not hundreds, but thousands or even millions of channels to watch. › Continue reading…

Link to Larry Magid’s PCAnswer.com » Blog Archive » Jot it down by cellphone