Teens, Nude Photos and the Law
You learn something new every day. And a few days ago my new thing was to learn that to send a nude photo of yourself to someone else's cell phone is called "sexting," and that one in five teenagers report that they have done this.
There are teen girls that have been charged with disseminating child pornography for sending nude photos to their boyfriends and teen boys charged with posession of child pornography for having said photos on their phones. One teen boy was charged with a felony for sending pictures of his genitals to female classmates. Many other examples are out there of teens becoming involved with the criminal justice system due to their sexting. Some of these crimes can require these teens to be registered as sex offenders for a decade or two!
I agree entirely with the author of this editorial that, in general, this activity should not be in the purview of police intervention. There are certainly instances where sexting can be used to harrass or intimidate, such as a case where nude photos of a teen girl were sent to over 100 of her classmates. But I would guess that the majority of the 20% of teens taking part in this new form of sexual behavior are innocently (though stupidly) trying to be flirty or sexy or adventurous. I'm sure if I thought about it, I could come up with similar behavior from when I was a teenager...it just wouldn't have been quite so public, permanent, or easy to reenact (copy).
There is much to be analyzed from this sexting behavior: the relatively new phenomenon of our public and private lives being blended through the use of network technology, the responsibility individuals have regarding the production and dissemination of inappropriate or embarassing text, pictures, audio, and video that can be saved forever, the role of parents, and the view our society has of sexual content in general (particularly involving children--though I am loathe personally to categorize anyone capable of getting to school themselves, getting homework done, doing chores, having jobs, going anywhere by themselves, or being able to get themselves fed as "children").
On my parenthetical note, and in fact segueing appropriately into what I wanted to discuss, let's ask ourselves what the point of having crimes related to child pornography is in the first place. Being an ardent civil libertarian, I would argue that "victimless" crimes are not appropriately handled by the criminal justice system at all. (And that broad statement leads to a whole other discussion, already incredibly handled by Peter McWilliams in Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do ). Child pornography, in the way it is understood by the general public, is not a victimless crime. Very young and preteen children used in child porn are being more than exploited for the pleasure of others, they are being abused. We begin to be sexual beings not so long after being born, but the playing of doctor between kids is much different than an adult taking pictures. The line becomes trickier with teens, but even a 16 or 17 year old can have older and wiser individuals take advantage of their inherent naivete to encourage the production of pornographic material.
But c'mon...do we really believe that the 13 year old girl sending a nude photo to her 14 year old boyfriend is being exploited? No. Immature, thoughtless, careless, hormonal? Yes. We live in a society where we desired the teenage Britney Spears BECAUSE her persona juxtaposed her supposed innocence and virginity with completely sexualizing dancing, costumes, and lyrics. She wouldn't have been as "hot" if she admitted to being "not so innocent." Is there a resistance to teens sexualizing themselves more honestly because there is an undercurrent in our society that then they are less desireable?
I more think the reality is that our culture and laws, as is the case with many other technologically related issues, have not caught up to the current reality. The consequences of this thoughtless behavior could still be criminal, but nothing like the charges of "distributing child pornography." Perhaps it could be put more into the realm of something like truancy. What it most brings into focus for me is that I as a parent need to continually be aware of the stupid things my kids can do to mess up their futures so that I can try to guide them away from those activities.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
The Kindle 2 and other eReaders
Tim O'Reilly Unplugged: The Kindle 2 And Transforming Industries
A journalist from the industry publication Information Week interviewed Tim O'Reilly, the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Publishing (which is a major publisher of tech guides). They had a very interesting discussion, with the entire transcript of the interview available for reading. David Berlind, the interviewer, also presents a lengthy introduction to the interview in which he gives an overview of the issues discussed.
The main issue that was presented was the old debate about open source vs. proprietary formats for distributing media. Amazon's Kindle 2 e-reader, about to be released on February 24th to a public that is already awaiting delivery of out-of-stock original Kindles, is made using a proprietary format for the books, magazines, and other media available.
O'Reilly talks about how currently he finds the open source products to be better, and he feels that after some period of time some kind of standard will be developed so that print media can be transferred to all sorts of mobile devices. He goes back to how the Web 2.0 standard is partly defined by this ability to useful on multiple devices and platforms.
Apple found that trying to be proprietary with their format of music ended up backfiring. Instead of simply distributing the universal MP3 format, they made their content only playable with iPods and through iTunes. They abandoned this model when it seemed to cut into their sales and people were just saving the songs into MP3 format (through multiple programs available for download online) and then giving them to others anyway.
I'm personally really excited by the Kindle product, and I've been wanting one ever since Amazon first developed it. However, the more I read, the more convinced I am that I just want to wait. Just as swiss army knife cell phones like the iPhone have gone down in price, I expect that eReaders in general will go down. I also dislike proprietary formats, though it bothers me less than it bothers other people I know.
While thinking about this interview, I went and read other articles about the device. I grabbed little pieces here and there to think more deeply on. For one, I read that some libraries have been loaning out Kindles, probably for in-library use only (I hope!). That's interesting, and certainly would save the library space (eventually, when eReaders become a lot more common), and money (eBooks are cheaper). Once there is a more consistent standard and eBooks will be available on many different devices, I forsee a time when the current method of having people "check out" copies of books from eBook Libraries (like the Ohio e-Book Project) will be extended to eReader format. This would be a vast improvement over the different software reader formats available from current eBook libraries which can generally only be used on a computer or specific mobile devices.
And what a great world it will be when for a wait in the doctor's office a person could have available a small paperback sized device that contained up to 1500 books (and other print formats like magazines)! Or to just have an eReader in the house instead of a huge mountain of books. Of course there will always be good reasons to have a print copy of some books. (Classics, favorites, beach reads...) but do I really need the hundreds of books science fiction and fantasy collection that takes up an entire wall in my basement? (And I just weeded hundreds out!--I only kept the ones I really loved, or that I still plan to read sometime because I hadn't read them yet).
The eReader technology is just getting off the ground, and I think the sleek design, readability, and wireless subscription and purchasing aspects of the Kindle 2 are great. I look forward to seeing the developments that come about in the future, and I think it is entirely possible that the world will change so much because of it that my youngest daughter will not have to break her back in college carrying around a huge backback full of books.
A journalist from the industry publication Information Week interviewed Tim O'Reilly, the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Publishing (which is a major publisher of tech guides). They had a very interesting discussion, with the entire transcript of the interview available for reading. David Berlind, the interviewer, also presents a lengthy introduction to the interview in which he gives an overview of the issues discussed.
The main issue that was presented was the old debate about open source vs. proprietary formats for distributing media. Amazon's Kindle 2 e-reader, about to be released on February 24th to a public that is already awaiting delivery of out-of-stock original Kindles, is made using a proprietary format for the books, magazines, and other media available.
O'Reilly talks about how currently he finds the open source products to be better, and he feels that after some period of time some kind of standard will be developed so that print media can be transferred to all sorts of mobile devices. He goes back to how the Web 2.0 standard is partly defined by this ability to useful on multiple devices and platforms.
Apple found that trying to be proprietary with their format of music ended up backfiring. Instead of simply distributing the universal MP3 format, they made their content only playable with iPods and through iTunes. They abandoned this model when it seemed to cut into their sales and people were just saving the songs into MP3 format (through multiple programs available for download online) and then giving them to others anyway.
I'm personally really excited by the Kindle product, and I've been wanting one ever since Amazon first developed it. However, the more I read, the more convinced I am that I just want to wait. Just as swiss army knife cell phones like the iPhone have gone down in price, I expect that eReaders in general will go down. I also dislike proprietary formats, though it bothers me less than it bothers other people I know.
While thinking about this interview, I went and read other articles about the device. I grabbed little pieces here and there to think more deeply on. For one, I read that some libraries have been loaning out Kindles, probably for in-library use only (I hope!). That's interesting, and certainly would save the library space (eventually, when eReaders become a lot more common), and money (eBooks are cheaper). Once there is a more consistent standard and eBooks will be available on many different devices, I forsee a time when the current method of having people "check out" copies of books from eBook Libraries (like the Ohio e-Book Project) will be extended to eReader format. This would be a vast improvement over the different software reader formats available from current eBook libraries which can generally only be used on a computer or specific mobile devices.
And what a great world it will be when for a wait in the doctor's office a person could have available a small paperback sized device that contained up to 1500 books (and other print formats like magazines)! Or to just have an eReader in the house instead of a huge mountain of books. Of course there will always be good reasons to have a print copy of some books. (Classics, favorites, beach reads...) but do I really need the hundreds of books science fiction and fantasy collection that takes up an entire wall in my basement? (And I just weeded hundreds out!--I only kept the ones I really loved, or that I still plan to read sometime because I hadn't read them yet).
The eReader technology is just getting off the ground, and I think the sleek design, readability, and wireless subscription and purchasing aspects of the Kindle 2 are great. I look forward to seeing the developments that come about in the future, and I think it is entirely possible that the world will change so much because of it that my youngest daughter will not have to break her back in college carrying around a huge backback full of books.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Three for the Price of One
I'm going to look like I'm taking the easy way out in writing about three things less deeply than I usually talk about one thing, and it might bite me gradewise...but that's OK. I have good reasons for this ;) I've had all three of these tech articles in my thoughts for a few days now.
***
First--it's not really tech, but I mean no sarcasm when I say that Bill Gates is one of the most important people of our time. He is on his way to surpassing Rockefeller in success and philantropy (in fact, probably has passed), and his contribution to the computing revolution is practically incalcuable. (Whether this be through the software of Microsoft or through his business practices).
I'm not kidding. This dude is awesome.
Bill Gates makes his point on malaria
Kudos to Bill for making his point to a bunch of ivory tower, stuffed shirt, celebrity, self-inflated individuals. But the story made me feel itchy the first time I read about it, for sure. The Bill and Melinda Gates (also an incredible person) Foundation is about real results, not drawn out discourse about what might work for the world's problems.
And, because I can, I give you The Incredible Bouncing Bill (Head)
***
Do you know where your kid is? Check Google's maps
Very interesting. I can now be tracked via Google Maps. Very Enemy of the State, except this isn't government spy technology. Of course, being unscared of what people can find out about me, and curious about new google gadgetry, I went straight to sticking it on my iGoogle page. In order to get this installed you have to click "Agree" on this:
So right from the get go, your settings have you visible to the world. You are not yet visible in that you have to install something on your computer to make that location visible, and I think you do something similar on your phone. But once you get all that done you might forget to go check out your privacy settings.
***
First--it's not really tech, but I mean no sarcasm when I say that Bill Gates is one of the most important people of our time. He is on his way to surpassing Rockefeller in success and philantropy (in fact, probably has passed), and his contribution to the computing revolution is practically incalcuable. (Whether this be through the software of Microsoft or through his business practices).
I'm not kidding. This dude is awesome.
Bill Gates makes his point on malaria
Kudos to Bill for making his point to a bunch of ivory tower, stuffed shirt, celebrity, self-inflated individuals. But the story made me feel itchy the first time I read about it, for sure. The Bill and Melinda Gates (also an incredible person) Foundation is about real results, not drawn out discourse about what might work for the world's problems.
And, because I can, I give you The Incredible Bouncing Bill (Head)
***
Do you know where your kid is? Check Google's maps
Very interesting. I can now be tracked via Google Maps. Very Enemy of the State, except this isn't government spy technology. Of course, being unscared of what people can find out about me, and curious about new google gadgetry, I went straight to sticking it on my iGoogle page. In order to get this installed you have to click "Agree" on this:
So right from the get go, your settings have you visible to the world. You are not yet visible in that you have to install something on your computer to make that location visible, and I think you do something similar on your phone. But once you get all that done you might forget to go check out your privacy settings.
Privacy Group: Google Latitude Could Track Unsuspecting Users
Before I even read this article I thought of several ways to abuse this technology. One thing I didn't see mentioned in any of the articles I read was that despite Google's claims that it retains no information about past locations for a person using this service, and thus no one can track movements, it is simply not true. I can track movements by checking back at intervals through the day and recording the data on MY computer. Patterns can easily be determined. You can get a feed for every other Google service, so I'm sure it would be possible to acquire this information as well.
I can't get "Gears" to install correctly on my computer at the moment, so no one can find me in my "Unknown" location. But one of my friends actually responded to my Latitude invite, and um wow, I know she's at work right now...or at least her phone is. And it comes right up on my iGoogle front page. You know, forget technological methods of stalking her...someone could know I'm friends with her and stand behind me while I'm doing a quick search, or just wait until I step away a moment to grab a drink.
***
Lastly:
Google taking security a little too seriously?
I missed seeing the great Google catastrophe by only a few seconds. I had gotten to work, and had not yet done one of my tens of Google searches for the day. A friend I was chatting with through Gmail suddenly started freaking about the broken Google. I went to check and it worked fine for me.
But what if I'd gotten to work an hour earlier and had already started helping patrons and doing research? Wow, I would have been very disoriented. There's a lot more analysis that could be done on what this issue brings to light about what might happen if a major online resource breaks down...but I see it's 11:58. ;)
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Mashups
We are discussing the Web 2.0 creation of "mashups" which utilize information from different web sources for some (not always useful) purpose. I found one called Liveplasma which takes information from Amazon to create visual maps of how closely artists are related to each other and what they have done. You can then click on something to buy it on Amazon. I doubt I'd use anything like this to determine buying choices but the bubble maps are cool looking.
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