“The phrase “It’s absolutely the same with me, I…” seems to be an approving echo, a way of continuing the other’s thought, but that is an illusion: in reality it is a brute revolt against a brutal violence, an effort to free our own ear from bondage and to occupy the enemy’s ear by force. Because all of man’s life among his kind is nothing other than a battle to seize the ear of others.

Kundera, Milan and A. Asher (1996) The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Faber and Faber, London.

There’s something about blogging in that aphorism, I’m sure…

Online magazine Salon has a fascinating roundup of recent developments in the burgeoning market for kid tracking. I didn’t realise that intrusive technologies are already on the market - from GPS trackers (obvious) to RFID tags sewn into pyjamas or school ID badges (sneaky). It doesn’t go into surveillance of the online experience itself which is very common - AOL has a "guardian" feature that lists:

• Web sites your child successfully visited.
• Web sites your child attempted to visit but was restricted from.
• The number of e-mails and Instant Messages your child has sent.
• Your child’s Address Book and Buddy List activity.

But at least AOL’s tools notify your kid that you are tracking them - many other addon ‘parental control’ programs do not.
Is anything permissible in surveillance as long as you are monitoring a child? The UN convention on the rights of the child includes a right to privacy. But two countries have yet to ratify it - Somalia and the US.

Update: The department’s own Prof Sonia Livingstone has written a book chapter defending a child’s right to online privacy in “Information Technology at Home” (edited by Kraut, to be published by OUP).

Defining what is pornographic is clearly tricky - does the above plaque on board the Pioneer 10 spacecraft count? Perhaps… In the course of research on online pornography for an upcoming report on harm and offense in the media I came across this quote which raised a smile in the report Youth, Pornography and the Internet - an otherwise fairly grim read:

Content drawn from mainstream art and science has been called pornographic. For example, a plaque carried on Pioneer 10, the first space probe to leave the solar system, was called pornographic because it included engravings of nude human figures. … one newspaper published the images on the plaque, but erased the nipples, saying that "[a] family newspaper must uphold community standards." Another newspaper affiliated with a religious denomination said that the plaque should have had praying hands rather than nudes. And a major newspaper printed the image in full, but received a letter from a reader that said, "I was shocked by the blatant display of both male and female sex organs. . . . Isn’t it enough that we must tolerate the bombardment of pornography through the media of film and smut magazines? Isn’t it bad enough that our own space agency officials have found it necessary to spread this filth even beyond our own solar system?" On some of the committee’s site visits, various parties objected to Internet images of classical Greek statues of the human body and Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

I just heard about the Blogathon. On August 6th, bloggers will participate in a 24 hour marathon of posting for charity - one post every half hour. I think this is a nifty idea and there are some good charities on their suggested list (though in fact you can blog for any charity you like). I encourage anyone reading to participate themselves. I might do so myself on my (not very) personal blog but I am not sure there are enough people out there who would be willing to sponsor it to make it worthwhile. However if I get ?100/$175 of sponsorship I will go ahead, so please visit my blog and pledge!

P.S. If there is anyone out there with detailed knowledge of development charities I would welcome some help in choosing one to support. I normally give money to Oxfam or Unicef - I did a little research a while ago and it appeared they were doing good work and had a good income to administration/marketing ratio. But one hears so much criticism of aid agencies and it makes me a little worried. Can you either reassure me that one of these would be a good destination for my own money and others’ funds or suggest another better development charity?

A very interesting article has been produced outlining the privacy implications of Internet search engines. It isn’t just that they make it easy for others to get at publicly-held data - they also collect all sorts of data about your surfing habits and other information. Google and others say they don’t use such data or intend to use it in any way except to make your surfing easier, but will this always be true? And do people always realise the implications of their trading their privacy for convenience?

I have to say I use all of Google’s potentially privacy-intrusive functions, but I am addicted to new cool features…

P.S. I agree with Ray Everett-Mills who expresses surprise that a company like Google has no privacy officer. As far as I can tell they leave that stuff to the lawyers - lawyers can protect you from the consequences of mistakes but a good privacy officer would keep them from making mistakes. Here in Europe I like to think a company like Google would not think twice about having one…

As far as I know all those who blog here were unaffected by today’s attacks on public transport in London. If you are concerned about LSE staff and students, there is an emergency email at July7thIncident@lse.ac.uk and a voice hotline for relatives trying to reach people who might be at the School - +44 (0)20 7849 4900.

A new study conducted by UCLA children’s digital?media center shows that teens find information on sex when they want to, but also if they don’t want to. For the full report go here: http://www.cdmc.ucla.edu/?