May, 2005

Rolling the Dice on Internet Gambling

As part of an ongoing initiative to better inform the community about Internet Safety at home, the following information is being provided with the expressed permission of i-Safe (a non-profit organization funded by the U.S. Congress and the Federal Justice Department) as reprinted from their May monthly newsletter “The i-Safe Times”.  To date no incidents of online gambling have been reported at the Shelburne Community School and steps have been taken to filter out such sites via the school network.  More information on i-Safe can be found on their Internet site: http://www.isafe.org

You can’t flip on the TV without running into a handful of C-list celebs sweating in front of the camera playing poker for their favorite charity. Even the term “Flop” no longer describes the latest bad movie release, instead the common usage refers to the first three up cards in Texas Hold ‘Em.  Gambling is booming nationwide and slipstreaming behind the boom, Internet gambling is also doubling down.   

But adults aren’t the only ones placing bets. Armed with a credit card, Mom and Dad’s or their own, teens are wagering on everything from sporting events to your classic Vegas games of chance. While some studies say teen gambling overall is on the rise, there is little doubt that Internet gambling, much easier to hide and harder to monitor, poses an even greater threat.   

The most obvious downside is the possibility of a teenager using Mom’s credit card to gamble away their college savings while still in high school. There is also the fact that gambling by minors is illegal in every state.  Whether or not online gambling is illegal for everyone under U.S. law is a gray area.   Most online gambling can be found to be hosted by the small Caribbean countries of Antigua and Barbuda.  These websites do little to verify the age of the user and have scant interest in doing anything that might stem the flow of cash.  

Another danger is the addictive nature of gambling. Given that one of the key skills learned during adolescence is self-control, some studies show that youth are far more likely to have problems with gambling than adults. Instant gratification, the promise of material wealth, the adrenaline spike all combine to form an intoxicating cocktail for a web-surfing teen armed with a credit card. Additionally, the unrelenting presence of pop-up gambling ads on the Web and “fun” no money games used by gambling sites to entice youth increase the chances of exposure.   

To counter the threat, Senator Charles Shumer of New York has suggested an ambitious plan. Senator Shumer’s blueprint includes demanding that websites verify user’s age, urging universities to block gambling websites on campus computers, and requiring the websites to post explicit warnings aimed at minors. But these are only the first steps. Government action will no doubt help, but what can you do in the home as a parent? Watch for the warning signs of problem gambling and monitor your child’s Internet use; otherwise, it’s just a roll of the dice.   

The Red Flags of Problem Gambling: 

• Borrowing money from friends and family.
• Selling personal belongings.
• Unexplained debts or cash.
• Receiving phone calls from strangers.
• Mood or behavior changes.
• Online gambling sites charges on your credit card.

April, 2005

Pharming: Cultivating the New Online Scam 

As part of an ongoing initiative to better inform the community about Internet Safety, the following information is being provided with the permission of i-Safe (a non-profit organization funded by the U.S. Congress and the Federal Justice Department).  More information on i-Safe can be found on their Internet site: http://www.isafe.org

By now most people are wise to the phishing scheme. Indeed, if you have an e-mail account, chances are you’ve received a letter from a bank or eBay claiming to need your personal information to update their files. This old form of identity theft is child’s play when compared to a new emerging threat—pharming.  Pharming is a new name for an old threat otherwise known as “domain spoofing” or “DNS cultivating.” To understand the threat, one must understand a little how domains and routing work. Every webpage has two addresses. The specific one is an IP address, which tells machines how to route your request. This looks like a string of numbers such as “222.123.0.0.” However, such address would be too complicated to remember. Instead, most people remember the familiar address or domain name—i.e., Google, Amazon, CNET, etc. When you type these familiar addresses into the address bar of your browser you are, in essence, using a giant phone book. Your request is sent to a domain name server (DNS), which “looks up” the IP address and directs your query to the correct spot.  Unfortunately that DNS server you are routing through is a weak link in the Internet structure. In the past hackers have posed denial of service attacks, basically taking down these directing servers. But far scarier is the potential threat of altering the routing system. For example, you put in the common domain address of your local bank—say, Bank of America. Well, a hacker has altered the DNS server so that all requests for Bank of America are fraudulently forwarded to an alternate IP address. Therefore, you are directed to a webpage that may look for all intents and purposes like that of Bank of America, and your address bar may even say “Bank of America,” however, the hidden IP address is really that of a hacker who is stealing your personal information.  So what can you do to protect yourself? Unfortunately, not much. Some sites are using security certificates to verify that they are who they say they are. You can set your browser to warn you if the security certificate does not match up with the name of the site you are trying to reach. But until every site uses security certificates and the kinks of the system are worked out, one is pretty much powerless to verify they are where they think they are when online. By Kristi Lamoni-SAFE

March, 2005

The Disconnect Between Parents and Children When Using the Internet 

by Greg Thweatt 

Say you are a parent of a 13 year old daughter who tells you that she will be going to a book club with 30 year olds, further she explains she will be attending the gathering on her own and you do not know any of the adults that will be at the book club.   This situation was posed to parents at a March 14^th gathering at the Shelburne Community School by Dianne Lynch, Dean of Communications, Ithaca College, New York, on the invitation of the Alpha Team Parent Council.   Lynch’s point was that the common parental response to this situation would be “What are you doing?” or “Why would you be doing that?” or very likely “No”.  And yet, children are frequenting such venues via the Internet, all without the knowledge of their parents. 

This inconsistent distinction between the physical world and the Internet led to a series of questions by  Lynch while preparing for her PhD dissertation.  Such questions included: “Why are teenagers different today than teenagers ten years ago?”, “Are these differences related to the use of the Internet?”, and “Does the Internet affect the day-to-day perceptions of teenagers today?”  In an attempt to answer these questions,  Lynch approached the CSSU Information Technology Committee and Gregg Martin (CSSU Information Technology Directors) during the fall of 2003 with a proposal to survey teenagers of all CSSU schools and their parents.  The resulting online questionnaire spanned three weeks during the months of April and May of 2004 and captured data from 117 CSSU children.  A report was then generated and the results shared with the CSSU schools.  

According to Lynch, her findings paralleled similar national studies of “Cyber-Kids” (10-17 years old) and punctuated trends with youth and the Internet.  Of significance are the compelling differences between children today and adults.  Cyber-Kids are the first generation to be born after the advent of the Internet explosion during the 1990’s.  These children often find themselves equal to or more experienced than the adults that care for them.  Lynch pointed out that culturally children are doing more with adults than in prior generations (examples including: children eating out late in the evening with their parents and exposure to sexually explicit and/or violence through a variety of medias much earlier in life) and former adult/child barriers are being broken down.  Accessing the Internet expands these exposures to adult material, content that far exceeds what children had access to before the Internet.   

“Kids are different now”  Lynch explained “children view themselves as equals to adults, increasingly more, even though they are not emotionally, psychologically, or intellectually ready”.  Compounding this is the reality that children are being “allowed to do this [access adult content] completely outside the purview of the adult authorities in their lives”.  Lynch believes that the implications in terms of the “power relationship” between children and adults are immense, and that these changes are a direct result of a child’s life experiences through the Internet. 

So what do these experiences look like for children using the Internet?  According to  Lynch’s survey, children use the Internet for communicating (e-mailing homework to and from school, Internet Messaging or “IM”, “hanging out” in chat rooms, and participating in WebLogs or “blogs”), finding information online (games, music, school assignments) and for shopping.  Of these reasons for going online, the most important revolved around communications.    Lynch explained that through these forms of communication children interact and gain social exchanges in ways that they feel are not available in school.   When involved with adult-centered chats, blogs and Internet sites, children find that “there is something very powerful and empowering where a child’s opinion is treated the same as everybody else and those other people are adults … age doesn’t matter on the Internet”. 

It is the transparency, or perceived secrecy by children when using the Internet that  Lynch found to be of concern.  Children are increasingly acting online in ways that they would not in a non-Internet environment.   Lynch termed this online action as “practicing their personalities”.  By “practicing” online, children are more likely to act in ways that that they would not do so in a physical world filled with checks and balances (such as social norms and peer pressure).   Evidence of this was seen in the CSSU survey that showed 33% of children admitting to doing something online that they would not do in person.  Additionally, 28% pretended to be someone else online including intentionally using another person’s “screen name” (IM account) to make untrue or hurtful comments, as a way to learn about others secretly, or as a form of “entertainment”.  

At a national level, children are becoming more deceptive, hostile and sexually explicit online as their fear of discovery decreases.  Conversely, they are also at greater risk of being exposed to these same behaviors by others (26% of those answering the CSSU survey indicated that they had received suggestive or threatening messages).  This alternating between online and physical world personalities can become confusing for children and it is Lynch’s fear that over time the child’s emotional and psychological norm will gravitate towards their online personality.  “What they [kids] are doing online is every bit as important in terms of their identity and who they are as people”  Lynch observed. 

Of equal concern is the naïve belief of children that their online identity is safe and that the discovery of their personal information is difficult.  One reason for this lack of understanding stems from the misconceptions on what information is personal and what is not.   Lynch explained that from her research, 20% of the children described their screen name as including something depicting them physically (i.e. soccerkid or Vermontgirl).  Over 40% of children reported that they had given out personal information via an online questionnaire (including name, address, school attending and sports played) and 21% admitted that they gave personal information to someone online.   

In addition to sharing personal information, either knowingly or unknowingly, children continue to exhibit behavior that increases their chances of communicating with people online that they have never met in person.  Despite the desire to disguise their identities, children consistently are willing to IM and chat with strangers online.   Chat rooms allow for children to meet and then share IM screen names with both personally known and unknown individuals.  Additionally, sharing IM address lists is common with children as a large “buddy” list suggest a badge of distinction (the longer the list, the more “friends” one has).  This sharing increases the chance of a child contacting someone that they do not know.  From the CSSU survey 30% of the respondents explained that they would be willing to meet someone in person who they only knew online if they felt they “got to know them well”.   It is the combination of naivety and willingness to trust online strangers that leads to potential or actual dangerous outcomes. 

So what can parents do to help their children thrive in their online and physical worlds?  Lynch offered several suggestions.  First, it is important that adults do not answer this question by restricting access.  If blocked at home, children will find other ways (such as a friend’s house) which will entirely prevent the parents from having any oversight of Internet use.  Dependence on blocking and filtering software is not the answer as Lynch found that 40% of students know how to disable these programs.  Parents need to be involved with their children online.  Rules are important, according to Lynch, however, even the commonly prescribed suggestions do not reduce the likelihood of a child acting irresponsibly or being solicited online.  Two rules that Lynch encouraged parents to implement, based on current research, are to have a regular “lights out” time and not to allow access after 8 pm.   

Despite the fact that children will not want their parents to scrutinize their online profiles and “buddy lists”, these two areas are critical in the health and safety of each child having access to the Internet.  Parents need to view all profiles that their children create and to check for information (including pictures) that may identify their child.  “Buddy lists” should be reviewed including the question “how do you know this person?”  For some parents (and statistically, a majority of parents) having these conversations are challenging due to the fact that their children will know more about the Internet than they do.  Parents need to become better educated and not be afraid of using their children to help them better understand online communications. 

Above all safe Internet use is about good parenting.  It is about educating children and developing healthy habits.  Communicating online is about good communications between the child and the parent.  Children need to trust in their parent that if something happens online which concerns them they can tell their parent without the risk of losing access.  Parents need to make sure that their Cyber-Kids understand the importance of protecting their personal information and make safe decisions as they “practice” their online and physical world personalities.  The internet offers a wealth of wonders and opportunities, it is through education and personal interactions that these advantages can be fostered while preventing potential dangers.

February, 2005

Podcasting: Transmitting from a Computer Near You 

As part of an ongoing initiative to better inform the community about Internet Safety, the following information is being provided with the permission of i-Safe (a non-profit organization funded by the U.S. Congress and the Federal Justice Department).  More information on i-Safe can be found on their Internet site: http://www.isafe.org

If you haven’t heard of “podcasting” yet, chances are that you will.  Podcasting is the newest trend to hit the Internet community. A podcast (“iPod” and “broadcast”) is an Internet radio show that the listener signs up for online. The software enables the subscriber’s computer to seek out and automatically download a new podcast whenever it is posted. The audio file can then be transferred onto a portable MP3 player, where the subscriber can listen to it at their leisure. Since it is an audio file, the podcast can be stopped, rewound and fast-forwarded, unlike the traditional streaming Internet broadcast. Much like the Internet has given private journals a very public ear as weblogs, now any computer with an Internet connection is a radio station.

Already, big players in radio are jumping on the bandwagon—Public Radio International, the BBC, and Minnesota Public Radio now feature their own podcasts.  It holds the potential to be a very lucrative marketing tool. Some estimates place the number of podcasts at over 2,000 since its inception last summer.  As you might guess, the podcasters range from the professional outfits exploring the new medium for a profit model to the hobbyist with nothing more than a burning desire to be the next Howard Stern and a couple of loose hours every week. 

Podcasting is so new that the ground rules are still being written.  But where parents and their children are concerned, the general tenets of safe Internet conduct still apply.  If your teen is podcasting, s/he should not release any personal information such as age, sex, or location in the ‘cast. Your teen should respect copyright and intellectual property laws while podcasting. Recording a concert live and then podcasting it without the artist’s permission could be illegal, as would using any copyrighted music.  Last but not least: Podcasts are completely unregulated, unlike radio and TV, where the FCC oversees content. Advise your teen to turn off podcasts that contain inappropriate or offensive material. The best measure you can take as a parent of a cyber-savvy teen is to keep up to date on the ever-expanding Internet and its emerging technologies.

January, 2005

Internet Safety Tips for Students and Parents

As part of an ongoing initiative to better inform the community about Internet Safety, the following information is being provided with the permission of i-Safe (a non-profit organization funded by the U.S. Congress and the Federal Justice Department).  More information on i-Safe can be found on their Internet site: http://www.isafe.org

Learn the 4 Rs
RECOGNIZE techniques used by online predators to deceive.
REFUSE requests for personal information.
RESPOND assertively if you are ever in an uncomfortable situation online. Exit the program, log off or turn off the computer, tell a trusted adult, or call the police.
REPORT to a trusted adult any suspicious or dangerous contact that makes you feel uncomfortable.

for Students
Most studies agree, by 2005 there will be 77 million of you on the Internet! Almost as many students as there are things to do online. The Internet has infinite possibilities, and it is easy to get lost. Sometimes when you are lost you discover wonderful new places, but just as easily you can find yourself in a dangerous situation. You must protect yourself from the pitfalls lurking online. To help you, i-SAFE America has come up with these tips.

• Guard your identifying information (name, sex, age, address, school, teams).
  It only takes a little information for a predator to identify you.
• Always remember, responsible adults do not pursue relationships with kids and teens.
• Make your username generic and anonymous.
• Make your online profile generic and anonymous.
• Know how to exit an inappropriate website.
• Attachments in e-mails from strangers can contain Viruses and Worms.
• Pictures are great to hand to a friend, but it’s not cool to send them to an Internet “friend.”
• Posting your picture on the Internet gives hackers the chance to doctor your picture and make fun of you to everyone on the World Wide Web.
• Chat room “friends” are not always who they say they are.
• Know the rules about Intellectual Property. Do not illegally download music and movies.

Students and Meeting Online "Friends"

*Taken from an i-SAFE America survey of students nationwide.

for Parents
Our children are the first generation to grow up with the Internet. Technology only changes the advantages kids and teens have. It does not change the way you parent. The rules may have changed with the Internet, but you are still the one making them. In an effort to help parents, i-SAFE America has come up with a list of tips to protect your children. Whether you are computer savvy or Internet illiterate these tips are easy to understand, follow, and implement.

• Always keep your child’s computer in an open area. Never allow a computer with Internet access in your child’s bedroom.
• Communicate. There is no better tool to bridge the Digital Divide.
• Become a part of your child’s online experience.
• Respect your child’s privacy.
• Regularly review your computer files.
• Teach your child the responsible use of online resources.
• Talk to your child about online dangers. Let them know you are there to help them get out of a bad situation.
• Educate yourself on the ins and outs of the Internet.
• Talk to other parents about your experiences. It will help everyone.
• Let your child know responsible adults do not purse relationships with minors

Students and What Their Parents Know

*Taken from an i-SAFE America survey of students nationwide.

Online Tips for the Holiday

Starting this year, the Shelburne Community School in conjunction with the Chittenden South Supervisory Union will begin helping students learn more about safe behavior when using the Internet.  Using a Federally funded curriculum called i-Safe, SCS has begun training a core group of teachers and guidance councilors who will work with students on Cyber Citizenship, Cyber Security, Internet Safety, Cyber Relationships, Intellectual Property and Plagiarism.  Plans are also being made to help empower parents through a community outreach initiative including parent information evenings and communications such as these (via the Shelburne News and the SCS Home Page).  This is the first of such communications and with the holiday season upon us, it makes sense to start with  a short article reprinted with permission from the i-Safe web site, for more information you can visit their site at http://www.isafe.org

“Fast, easy, convenient. The reasons people shop online…or the reasons thieves troll the Internet??? Either way, the two worlds collide head–on during the holiday season with more members of each going online now than at any other time of the year.

If you know what to look for and what to avoid, you will have a wonderful experience online. You will also avoid the crowds at the mall and the post office, leaving you with more time to spend with loved ones. Here are a few tips from i-SAFE to help you avoid the Grinch:

• Avoid giving out personal or sensitive information through e-mail. Many websites require personal information when ordering online, but never send it to someone who requests it through e-mail.
• Make sure the website you are on is official. Beware of false websites with similar URLs and contact the company directly if you are unsure.
• When checking out, look for information on the website about security. Most legitimate sites will place make this information obvious for the benefit of their shoppers.
• Avoid suspicious e-mails. One of the more recent scams involves e-mails that look official. These e-mails will ask for your personal or financial information. Never reply.
• Do not open attachments from e-mail accounts you do not know. Do not open attachments unless you are expecting an attachment from the sender.
• If you think you are being scammed or have been the victim of a scam go to http://www.ftc.gov to report the crime.

This is also the time of year when many parents buy a personal computer for the family. The PCs have instructions for usage, but no instructions for the responsible and safe usage while online. Parents, as well as their sons and daughters must be prepared. The Internet never sleeps and danger lurks 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Tips for the entire family can be found in the i-SAFE "Newsroom."  Happy Shopping!