School Survival

By Cory Doctorow According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The […]

China said remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticizing China’s censorship of the Internet were unjustified and damaged bilateral ties. In a speech in Washington yesterday, Clinton called on U.S. technology companies to resist censorship of the Internet and said perpetrators of cyber attacks such as those who targeted Google Inc. must […]

The New Hampshire House of Representatives on Wednesday rejected a bill that would tightly regulate homsechooling. The state House voted 324-34 against changes to the current law. "Winning by such a significant margin is welcome relief for New Hampshire homeschool families," said Mike Donnelly, staff attorney for Home School Legal Defense Association. The bill was […]

Delaware’s child welfare law, known as The Delaware Child Care Act, is being used by state officials to unreasonably burden some homeschooling families with government oversight. As amended in 2001, the law defines “child care” to include, in part, any person, association, agency, or organization which (1) has in custody or control one child or […]

by Amy Hasinoff: Some excellent quotations from attorney Larry Walters in this in-depth interview: When Sex and Cell Phones Collide: Inside the Prosecution of a Teen Sexting Case, touching on a number of key points absent in most mainstream media coverage of sexting: 1. Sexting is normal for teens. It’s not a trend, a plague, […]

Youth under 18 years of age seen off campus during school hours may be stopped and questioned by police officers. (SALEM) - Salem police would like to remind parents that Salem has a daytime curfew for kids under the age of 18. The Salem-Keizer School District is working with law enforcement and the Juvenile Department […]

Stun gun maker Taser wants to help parents, not with jolts of electricity but with a tool which allows parents to effectively take over a child's mobile phone and manage its use. "Basically we're taking old fashioned parenting and bringing it into the mobile world," Taser chairman and co-founder Tom Smith said at the Consumer […]

Parental controls are in everything - and now in your car By Gary Marshall CES has barely begun and we're depressed already: the good people at Blackline GPS are showing off their Young Drivers Report Card, a GPS-based monitoring system that ensures you'll never have to trust your teenager again. According to the blurb, you […]

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student Adam Bauer has nearly 400 friends on Facebook. He got an offer for a new one about a month ago. “She was a good-looking girl. I usually don’t accept friends I don’t know, but I randomly accepted this one for some reason,” the 19-year-old said. He thinks that led to […]

A backlash against anonymous commenters and trolls seems to be underway. Only last month, a court case was settled where anonymous commenters ended up having to pay big fines to the women who they defiled using vulgar, derogatory remarks on an internet forum. And previously, an anonymous blogger in the modeling industry was forced to […]