A while back, I posted about some “safety online” videos that Quentin D’Souza had posted. One of them shows a photo of a girl lying on a bed; the photo is posted on a bulletin board, and every time someone pulls the photo off the board, it magically reappears there. The moral: once you post a photo of yourself online, it stays there for pretty much eternity.
Today, I came across the case of a naturalized German historian who has trouble travelling freely, due in part to malicious defamations posted on his Wikipedia biography page and on Amazon.com as “reviews” of some of his books about a contentious period in Turkish history. Food for thought.
Wired magazine has
an interesting article on cyber-attack and possible responses, particularly a wartime and peacetime responses:
Last month Marine Gen. James Cartwright told the House Armed Services Committee that the best cyberdefense is a good offense… The general isn’t alone. In 2003, the entertainment industry tried to get a law passed (.pdf) giving it the right to attack any computer suspected of distributing copyright-protected material…. Of course, the general is correct. But his reasoning illustrates
perfectly why peacetime and wartime are different, and why generals
don’t make good police chiefs.
Read more.
The indefatigable
Quentin D’Souza has created a
SplashCast Channel that shows public safety videos on the subject of online sexual predators and cyber-bullying. Pretty interesting videos. There were 6 at the time I visited. Could be useful resources for teachers and parents.
A Japan-based native-speaking English uni teacher rambles about teaching EFL at university
