Young girls are regularly pressured to send nude pictures or record sexual acts, according to a U.K. report, illustrating how technology can push harassment to new mediums.
"A Qualitative Study of Children, Young People and Sexting," a report by researchers at the London School of Economics, Open University and the U.K.'s Institute of Education, found a third of under-18 texters received a lewd sexual image by text or e-mail. On top of that, the focus group research revealed a substantial portion of young males had dozens of sexual pictures of their peers on their mobile devices, indicating their habit of sharing explicit photos with each other.
"Girls are being pressured by text and on BlackBerry Messenger to send 'special photos' and perform sexual services for boys from an early age. In some cases they are as young as 11. Even while we were interviewing them they were being bombarded with these messages," Institute of Education researcher Jessica Ringrose said, explaining how toxic the climate has become.
Navigating burgeoning sexuality is an inescapable facet of adolescence, and many teens dismiss the adult hand-wringing about the upswing in shared sexual images as unnecessary. After all, teens have engaged in sexual activity throughout human history, and some young people rationalize sexting as an extension of a natural exploration.
Some sexting can be just that, if it stays between the people involved, and the picture sender acts for the right reasons. But the type of persistent, pestering behavior exhibited by many of the young men in the study, coupled with their tendency to pass intimate images around and objectify their subjects, clearly marks this type of behavior as bullying and abusive, not an innocent sexual experiment.
Teen cruelty is nothing new, but recent high-profile suicides springing from relentless bullying is putting a spotlight on the issue, and parents, educators and adults everywhere are desperate to curb socially vicious behavior.
Mobile technology opened up new venues for bullying, letting aggressors bombard their targets at all hours of the day, through Facebook, Twitter, text messages and more. Hurling insults online affords the bully an emotional distance, so young teens making cutting remarks feel secure doing so via social networks or text messages. As a result of the attackers' ability to infiltrate more areas of their lives, bullied adolescents have fewer places of respite. Young people check their phones everywhere, including the home, which brings the problem to more intimate spaces.
In some cases, like the situation between Tyler Clementi and Dharun Ravi, bullying is inextricably linked with technology, with aggressors pursuing and humiliating their targets entirely by digital communication.
Boys far too shy to demand girls take their clothes off in person feel empowered by the distance built into texting, and young people who are well-mannered in person may behave like outsized charlatans on instant messenger.
With young people often outpacing their teachers and parents when it comes to tech savvy, the lack of supervision and education about online etiquette contributes to the churlish behavior. And though some research shows teen sexting is not as rampant as it is often portrayed in the media, this recent study suggests it is still a sizable problem that can lead to widespread self-esteem issues among bullied girls.
Even though U.S. law officials are trying to amend current child pornography laws to keep ignorant teens off sex offender registries, sending these salacious texts can often still land teens in trouble with authorities.
To quell this damaging behavior, parents and educators need to step up to the plate and begin a comprehensive online etiquette campaign. While teens may never stop sending each other naked photos of themselves, smart education strategies can point out and change the climate of blatant sexual harassment.
Cyber-attacks on small businesses are repelling customers and costing a fortune, leaving owners with tough choices on how to strengthen their online defenses against increasingly common security breaches.
According to a Neustar study, 70 percent of surveyed businesses experienced prolonged distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks that drove away countless customers and millions of dollars in potential revenue.
Over five hundred IT professionals admitted their greatest fear is the customer backlash and heavy cost of distributed denial of service attacks. DDoS attacks overload servers with requests, overwhelming websites in a heavy flow of traffic.
Retailers worried about hacking the most, as such attacks cost an average of $100,000 per hour.
"This is a significant amount of money," observed Ted Swearingen, director of the Neustar Security Operations Center. "People don't realize there are a lot of other costs associated with DDoS, such as brand damage."
Neustar's study suggests if large firms suffer monetarily from cyber-attacks, small businesses have an even harder time handling increased security breaches.
For instance, Sony stands out as a significantly damaged brand, following a string of Anonymous DDoS hacks from April until October 2011. The attacks cost millions in cleanup and forced the company to compensate disgruntled users for failing to protect their data.
The Japanese company was big enough to stay afloat following this disaster, but most small entrepreneurs would have sunk in its wake. And in this case Anonymous hackers didn't even aim to steal from Sony's financial centers, preferring instead to humiliate the electronics maker by publicizing user information.
"While Anonymous has been getting a lot of headlines, our data tells us that most of these attacks are happening for the old-school reasons of why you'd want to knock out a site: financial gain and competitive advantage," said Sweringen.
Small businesses are just as vulnerable as big corporations against financial DDoS attacks, since the payout is lower but the threat of retaliation much slimmer. And financially motivated attacks are increasingly common, as Swearingen states.
"You have a one in three chance of a DDoS attack. It is something that IT teams and companies need to prepare for," he warns.
But under five percent of participants in Neustar's study have any protection against DDoS attacks, using only firewalls and rudimentary software to discourage hackers.
Further, many businesses use generic passwords like "password1" and "1234" to shield sensitive data rather that switching to complicated, unhackable codes.
Cyber-insurance, sold by firms like Travelers Companies and Chubb, also offer a refuge to both small and large businesses seeking protection against cyber-criminals. Still, this method is only partially helpful as it may not cover certain claims like civil lawsuits.
New government regulations may also soon enable small businesses to collaborate with the National Security Administration in warding off cyber-criminals. But civil rights advocates say these bills violate the First Amendment and may eliminate more liberties than they grant.
With the number of cyber-hacks is the rise, small companies will need to set aside finances for comprehensive preparations to fortify their electronic defenses to avoid Sony's fate. However, they will also need to weigh whether the investment will be money well-spent, or if any company can really be protected against the ever-increasing -- and more aggressive -- amount of cyber-attacks.
New data suggests Google+ is not capturing users the way the Google suggests, but the research may not be as damning as analysts think.
Research company RJ Metrics found that of the 40,000 Google+ accounts it monitored, 30 percent of users who make a public post on Google+ never post again. Metrics also discovered that the average number of public posts is declining steadily each month, and the average post gets less than one reply.
Finally, Metrics said that Google+ users spent just a little more than 3 minutes a month visiting the site, while the average Facebook user spent more than seven hours on its social network over the course of one month.
Metric's data may pour cold water on the glowing statistics Google likes to put out about its new service, which they say boasts 170 million users, but the research does not necessarily mean all is doom and gloom for the young social network. All the activity Metrics observed and recorded was of the public variety; the company was not allowed to watch private interactions between Google+ users.
For example, if a member made a post that was only viewable to a specific circle of friends it went unnoticed by Metric's research. All replies and interactions on those posts were also subsequently ignored.
The exclusion of private posts and interactions in Metric's Google+ research skews the company's findings against the social network. Users' ability to post things so that only specific groups will see the content is one of the biggest draws of the service. Google said that more interaction and sharing occurs privately than publicly on Google+, making public posts just a small part of the social network's overall package.
Still, while Metric's research does not represent all the user's activity on Google+, it's safe to say the service still lags far behind Facebook. The software giant continues to attempt to put a public spin on its social network, and not admit it has fallen short up to this point. It has made recent moves to boost photo sharing and improve its mobile app, but measures have not yet been able to close the distance between the two social network rivals.
Google's social network may not be as vacant as Metric's research makes it seem, but the company is likely telling less than the truth when it says it's happy with its performance. In this case, reading between the lines both parties are putting out gets closer at the reality of the fledgling social network's popularity.
Amazon is banking on a 10-inch tablet to gain market share, but it may be too little, too late, as the Kindle continues to lose its footing.
Kindle sales slowed this quarter, according to IDC, partly due to a drop-off after brisk holiday business, but its lackluster performance may hint at trouble on the horizon for Amazon as customers continue snapping up iPads.
Target announced it will not sell Kindles starting this spring, another hit for the company, as it was the third-largest Kindle retailer. The retailer's announcement is a double blow to Amazon, following news Apple is launching mini-stores in the popular big-box store.
The Kindle sold well as a Christmas gift, but Amazon is having a hard time keeping sales steady as competition in the tablet market increases. The debut of the new iPad likely cut into Kindle sales, as did a strong entry into the tablet market by smaller rival Barnes & Noble.
Amazon has a hard road ahead, because in addition to its sales decline, research shows customers prefer the iPad to the Kindle, despite the price difference. Budget-conscious shoppers took a chance on the Kindle and picked it up as a gift, but the lukewarm consumer response suggests buyers bit the bullet and paid more for a tablet that performs better.
Amazon is prepping a 10-inch version of the Kindle Fire set to move into Apple's turf. The company is also testing an in-app purchasing system, looking to boost revenue and offer better apps. Amazon's decision to make its tablet bigger and give it more apps demonstrates the company's wish to be more like the iPad, but unless it successfully explains what makes the Kindle unique, it will have a hard time grabbing back its corner of the market.
Amazon also faces competition beyond Apple. Google is prepping a line of branded tablets, and Microsoft's recent investment in Barnes & Noble means the smaller bookseller will have ample resources to develop innovative features on its next e-reader.
Unless Amazon can rectify some of the issues plaguing the Kindle -- such as a lack of camera and poor battery life, among others -- while keeping an appealing price, business will continue to spiral downwards.
Amid the gloomy news, Amazon does have a concrete advantage over Apple in one arena: e-books. Apple is embroiled in lawsuits over its e-book pricing strategy, but Amazon is moving in and dropping prices to attract customers. At the same time, Amazon faces problems of its own if antitrust investigators find its pricing is too low for rivals to compete.
The Kindle's sales slump should have Amazon worried, and if the upcoming 10-inch version flops, it will have a difficult time re-proving its worth to consumers.
A new virus is infecting Android devices, the latest in a persistent threat to Google's operating system.
The new Trojan virus, called "NotCompatible," downloads automatically to users' phones and tablets without their knowledge upon visiting certain websites, according to security firm Lookout. Once a person's device gets infected, all personal information on the handset is at risk to the hackers behind the virus.
Analysts say the threat on Android devices is not widespread at this point, but the fact that a virus can be downloaded through a mobile browser at all is damaging to the platform and could widen the threat of malware to a bigger pool of users. Malware issues within the Android Market have plagued Google's OS for some time, but users could steer clear of threats by making sure their downloaded apps were legitimate.
This new Android virus can hide in Web pages that users visit all the time, leaving all users susceptible to malware without any warning. NotCompatible has only popped up on websites with very little traffic. However, if hackers are able to affect larger sites visited by millions everyday, the Android platform will have a tremendous black eye that may drive off current users and scare away new ones.
Android has a history of issues with viruses that only seems like it's getting worse, but its competitors have nearly pristine reputations. Apple's iOS has a clean record for a mobile platform, and Microsoft's Windows Phone, beginning to emerge as a real player in the market, has shown very little permeability.
Google's OS is still the market share leader in smartphones, but if it can't contain viruses through its mobile browser, its numbers will take a severe hit as customers turn to Apple and Microsoft.
The timing of viruses affecting Android devices through Web browsers couldn't be worse for Google's planned venture into tablets, which will likely find large amounts of users clicking on websites and downloading apps and media. The company is planning on diving deep into the tablet market later this year with Android 4.0 powered devices, but consumer fears about viruses could put a serious damper on those plans.
In the past, Google has fought malware in the Android Market with its Bouncer software, and has defended its OS from claims that it's prone to viruses. However, the steps the company has taken to fix the problem with its apps thus far have been unsuccessful, and issues that continue to pop up suggest the problem is as bad as critics say.
Google needs to get out in front of the this Android virus issue and assure users they won't continue to fall victim, or it runs the risk of its mobile platform becoming the ultimate casualty.
Facebook is keeping tabs on users beyond what they may expect, Consumer Reports discovered, highlighting how people like insurers and burglars can exploit the activity feed.
For example, Facebook compiles information from users who visit pages with "Like" buttons, even if they do not click on the button or post the page. Consumer Reports found that nearly 5 million users publicly posted their whereabouts on their page, which can tip-off burglars, while another nearly 5 million "liked" health-related pages that insurers can use against them.
The gaping holes in Facebook's privacy settings speak to the widespread challenges in keeping online information private. In addition to its data practices, Facebook's custom privacy controls are often too complicated for users to fully grasp, ramping up their risk for security problems.
Facebook insists it keeps its data collecting records private, but past security breaches demonstrate third parties can sometimes track users' Facebook movement, which may prove problematic in the future.
One thing that surprises even privacy-savvy users: friends can share personal information about other friends through third-party apps -- so posts set to "friends only" can end up stored in other companies' records.
Consumer Reports, which advised users how to avoid this, illustrates how personal information gets proliferated in subtle ways.
Facebook isn't intentionally sharing information, but rather, these are "holes" in the privacy system it has in place. The social network won't risks the ire of regulators and a loss of public confidence if it doesn't protect user information, but data aggregators understand Facebook is a treasure trove of valuable information, and are equally unlikely to stop trying to grab hold of the site's potent data.
Responding to government scrutiny, Facebook plans to release reports providing details on the data it collects, but people still need use common sense to protect themselves.
A large swath of users are not Facebook-literate enough to filter their profiles to prevent strangers, employers, the police, the >courts, and even debt collectors from gathering sensitive information, prompting lawmakers to examine the issue.
So part of the problem is a social failure, not Facebook's -- people are not taking the time to understand how the controls work, which can put them in a precarious position, often unknowingly giving an edge to burglars, advertisers and insurance companies.
To play it safe, Facebook users may want to assume anything they post or look at on the site is tantamount to public information. Despite efforts from both the public and Facebook to tighten security policies, companies looking to mine the site for data may find new ways to infiltrate the network, or become more sophisticated about tracking users' history.
More tween girls are turning to the Web to take quizzes and play social role-playing games, illustrating how a key demographic is paving the way for future gameplay.
A new report by tween gaming platform GirlsgoGames.com's 7.6 million U.S. site visitors found nearly 50 percent of girls between the ages of 8 and 12 are turning to the Internet for entertainment and social gaming. They are also spending more time once they get there, with monthly playing times doubling from 38 minutes to one hour and 18 minutes.
The news reflects something people have known for some time: girls typically focus on being creative, cultivating friendships and engaging with a community of fans, a trend that is carrying over into adulthood and influencing digital gaming.
Tablets, laptops and mobile devices are replacing yesterday's cardboard cut-outs and tween celebrity magazines. Girls are using the devices to take quizzes, formerly the domain of the teen beat magazines, and virtually dress up their favorite electronic "paper doll" celebrities in new clothes and makeup.
Not surprisingly, the tween girls and their $260 billion in U.S spending are especially attracted to the social aspects of online gaming and to interactive games where they can share content. Games that involve cooking, dressing up and quizzes topped the list, followed by make-up/makeover and animal games.
The report dovetails with news earlier this year from MocoSpace that more women than men play mobile games and underscores this gaming industry shift may be more substantial and enduring.
The mobile social network's survey reports more than a quarter of women age 30 and over play mobile games for more than three hours a day, compared to just under 19 percent of men in the same age group, challenging the notion of a "gamer" as a teenage boy hunched over a console controller in a dim basement.
And women, like the girls they once were, are playing social games, fueled in part by the rise in social gaming on smartphones.
Many popular mobile games like "Words With Friends" encourage people to play against others via social networking sites. The social aspect of these games may continue to draw in more women and girls, especially as developers take advantage of the trend and start creating more titles with female players in mind.
The video game industry is taking note of the growth of social gaming reflected in Zynga's popular Facebook games like "FarmVille" and "CityVille." These gaming companies will likely continue developing increasingly social mobile games, especially to feed the growing appetites of the "pink" gamer who, as she ages, continues to demand creative and social titles.
Two-thirds of Americans say they are unwilling to pay more than $50 per month for a mobile data plan, but eventually they'll have to eat those words or change the way they use their smartphones.
The launch of LTE networks, which carriers claim are ten times faster than their 3G predecessors, will eventually have customers paying more than they ever dreamed of for data. Faster speeds open up new possibilities on mobile devices and make data-heavy tasks like video streaming, downloading apps and sending large files very easy to do.
For example, four years ago, 5-gigabytes of data at AT&T cost users $20 per month, and two years ago, the company upped the price to $30 a month. Today, that same amount of data cost $50 a month.
Performing such data-heavy tasks with such ease is both a gift and a curse for customers. Suddenly, smartphone owners who were only using 1-gigabyte of data a month could find themselves using three or four to watch a few movies a month on their phones, and those few customers who do need a 5-gigabyte plan could be looking at more-expensive options as well.
Even if a customer makes a conscious effort to stay within their current data limit when they buy a LTE smartphone, they will still fall victim to the same price increases as everybody else. AT&T or Verizon's $30 a month plans offering 3-gigabytes and 2-gigabytes of data respectively may still work just fine for many customers, but as data use continues to increase and the spectrum crunch gets tighter, history shows, and analysts expect, those prices will go up.
As a result, customers will be forced to adapt: pay more, or use their smartphone less. In a world where people rely so heavily on access to their email, downloading apps, social networking and watching video on the go, what will be the more popular choice among users? It's likely most customers will opt to pay more, and every wireless carrier knows it.
There are certainly customers out there who do not rely on data and never will, but as mobile technology becomes ingrained in our society, more people will require it, and even more may not even realize how big a part of their everyday lives mobile access has become.
Two-thirds of Americans may have said they're unwilling to spend over $50 a month on mobile data, but most of them were probably lying, at least to themselves.
In March, consumers downloaded two million fewer iPhone apps, or a 30 percent drop, highlighting a shifting taste from cheaper novelty programs to higher-quality service software.
Smartphones, which accounted for around one in five phones sold last year, pushed apps to the mainstream. Sometimes free, and often wacky, the first crop of these handheld-programs turned hundreds of thousands of smartphones into barcode scanners, arcade machines and photo booths.
But the novelty is wearing off, and consumers increasingly demand sophisticated apps to run on a growing spate of faster smartphones. As a result, consumers are downloading fewer of these free or cheaper programs, which often cost 99 cents, and instead, are willing to pay for apps that can help the blind to read, check-out customers or monitor the health of patients.
In short, apps are no longer required to run locally, on the device, but instead in the "cloud," opening a channel for developers to create better apps and monetize on in-app purchases and recurring service charges.
"With the novelty factor of the iPhone 4S launch and the holidays well behind us, March's download dip was expected," said Micah Adler, CEO of research firm Fiksu.
Carriers, competing to expand their 4G service, are partly responsible for the shift. As faster broadband-like speeds reach customers, more powerful smartphones are able to run more robust apps, allowing them to stream music and television shows.
In the past, developers were largely crippled by slower infrastructure, limiting the features they could build into mobile versions of their programs. But 4G is opening up higher-quality services, and as a result, pushing out cheaper and simple first-generation apps.
In fact, carriers, which used to make money largely on calling and texting services, have largely capped plans to cash in on data. But now, the trend is trickling down to developers, giving them a larger canvas to create better apps, and increasing the competition to stand out.
Despite the drop in downloads, Fiksu said the cost of marketing held steady. The cost of acquiring a loyal customer, or a user that opens an app more than three times a month, fell to a cent to $1.30 last month.
As flood of apps overwhelm consumers, independent developers, such as the 12-year-old whiz kid that topped the charts, will likely be pushed out. And established brands, like Angry Birds, spend millions in marketing dollars to push their titles to the top of the rankings, and continue to garner the most downloads.
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