Cyber Safety Blog

While the concept of Internet TV may be changing how some people watch their favorite programs, there should be no confusion about where the emphasis is in the term – Internet TV. Just as the Internet itself is all about freely available, unregulated and unedited content, so is Internet TV. This is not about simply providing access to your favorite over-the-airwaves programming – it is about making ALL content available via an Internet delivery mechanism.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, most of the digital media player devices leave the “parental controls” concept up to the content provider – that is, it is up to the “channel” that brings the content into your home to provide you with the ability to restrict what content they bring to you. Many of these channels pride themselves in offering “uncut, unedited” content , and the concept of “parental controls” goes completely against their philosophy. Be aware of what content is available through the channels you allow on your Internet TV.

Let’s discuss a couple of examples of how you might control what is available in your home. One of the most popular services for devices like these is NetFlix (www.netflix.com). On the NetFlix website you can log into your account and set preferences that restrict the movies and TV shows that Netflix offers you to only those that meet a certain maximum rating. Netflix will then honor that setting, and simply will not present you with options for movies and shows that exceed that setting.
Another good example is Pandora (www.Pandora.com), which is an Internet radio service. By logging into your Pandora account, you can set an “explicit” filter, so that music with explicit lyrics is not played over your Pandora stations – regardless of whether you are listening over your Internet TVor via the website from a computer.

I have found that most of the “channels” that are offered on my Roku also have a website where I can log in and set preferences for that channel. In our family, we have decided that if they don’t offer a way for us to control what content is offered through their service, we will not add that channel to our Roku lineup.

Unrated Content

Sometimes we think that because a channel is not marketed as “adult”, then it must be OK for the family. This may be true with regular TV (although that is arguable), but for Internet TV it is even less so. For example, one of the first things I noticed on when I installed my Roku was that it was promoting Crackle (www.crackle.com), which is available for free on the Roku. I quickly realized that Crackle offers several “adult” programs, and it doesn’t have any parental controls to allow me to restrict that content. In addition, it doesn’t sound like they are considering adding parental controls any time soon. Crackle seems to be proud of the fact that they offer unrated, unedited content, and they have no desire to allow people to throttle their content availability in any way. Because of this, I removed the Crackle channel, and I set the password option on the Roku so the channel cannot be re-added without the password.

Another difference between regular TV and Internet TV is the availability of user-generated content, such as what is available on Youtube. Youtube is currently available on all of these devices, although there is a legal battle going on right now between Roku and Google regarding Youtube content. Youtube has some extremely graphic content, and when you are watching Youtube on a computer your filter will kick in and help protect your home from the unwanted content. But, when streaming through a digital TV device, your filter is not in effect. Be very cautious about what you allow to be streamed into your home, and decide beforehand how you will enforce your family standards using the digital media player before you purchase and install it.

Final word

Finally, please remember that the best way to protect your family when it comes to content coming into your home is:
- Have a “family standard” that everyone follows – parents, children, friends, etc. If you and your children live by the same media standard, it is much easier to enforce the rules and lock the devices so they help you enforce your family standards.
- Know what your children are watching, and be involved in their media consumption. Be aware – talk to them!
- Use the technology available to limit what is allowed in your home to those things that meet your “family standard”.
- Use the monitoring capabilities of these devices. Many of these devices, or at least the content providers, have a “recently viewed” capability. This is much like the browser history on your computer, and lists what has been recently viewed through the device. Look at this often, and let your children know that you will be watching it.

In my next blog post, I will share some of my favorite Roku channels, and how to add them.

As a follow up to my last blog post about Internet TV, here are some specific things to keep in mind with regard to protecting your family when bringing a digital media player into your home:

FCC regulations do not apply to Internet content. Even though this is considered “Internet TV”, the emphasis is on “Internet”, not “TV”. It is important to understand that the regulations that control what is allowed to be broadcast over TV signals does not apply to the Internet streams that come through these digital media players.

Content availability: With “regular” TV, you control what is brought into your home based on what packages you purchased for your satellite or cable subscription. If you don’t want R-rated or adult content, don’t sign up for networks that provide that content. With Internet TV, you can find content from all types of networks – including those that have no restrictions on the graphic and sexual content they offer. For example, Hulu and Crackle are two popular Internet TV channels. Both offer R-rated content, and neither has a mechanism to restrict that content. So, if you add either of these channels to your Internet TV system, you cannot restrict access to only those shows that meet a criteria you have set. Be aware that by bringing a digital set top box into your home, you are providing access to all of this content. Use the parental controls (if available) to lock the device down to only that content that you want to allow into your home.

Content filters: When viewing content on the Internet from your computer, your filter can help protect you from the content that you do not want brought into your home. For example, if you decide that you do not want the adult content available on Hulu and Crackle available in your home, you can simply add them to the filter settings for your computers, and the filter will block access to those sites. However, filters do not exist for digital media players. So, on the computer you can limit what content is available, but from the Internet TV box you must rely on the parental controls to do so. So, you need to be aware of what the device itself offers from a parental control standpoint, and make sure you set it according to the family standard you have set for your home.

Parental Controls vary widely based on the device, from “non-existent” to “pretty good”. Here is the breakdown per device:

WD Live: The WD Live doesn’t currently have any parental control capabilities. They rely completely on the content provider to offer these controls. If you want to have any semblance of control over what comes into your home, I would not recommend the WD media box until they offer some type of parental control.

Google TV has very minimal parental controls. You can lock down safe search, and you can restrict access to the Internet by locking access to the Chrome browser. Although, they say that if you use a V-chip in your TV, it will still react to the ratings of the TV content streamed through the Google TV. But, remember that much of the content available through the Internet is unrated – such as everything on Youtube. The V-chip on your TV will only react to content that has a rating.

Roku allows you to require a password in order to add any channels. This at least provides some control over what comes into your home – if the content provider doesn’t have parental controls, you can block them completely from your device.

Apple TV has the best parental controls, allowing you to control content based on rating. You can also block access to the Internet browsing capabilities, and you can specifically block Youtube, Podcasts and purchases.

In my next blog post, we will wrap up our discussion of Internet TV by discussing some specific examples regarding how to enforce your family media policy when using a digital streaming, or Internet TV, device.

In my book, “Cyber Safety”, I sounded a warning that in the very near future the Internet would be used to provide unrated TV and movie content directly into our homes, without needing to subscribe to specific TV channels. With the availability of digital media boxes that connect to the Internet, that prediction is now coming true. There are several devices on the market that you can purchase today, and immediately have Internet content streamed directly to your HD TV.

In the next few blog posts I will discuss the dangers that come with these digital media boxes. Before we explore that, however, let’s learn a little bit about what is available today. There are four major competitors in this space, they are:

Google TV: Google TV can be brought into your home via a dedicated box, sold by Logitech and currently selling for around $200. Or, you can purchase a Sony blue-ray Internet TV for around $400 which is also compatible with Google TV.

Apple TV: Available from Apple for $100, this is a dedicated set-top box that is compatible with iTunes, iPhone, etc.

WD live: Several versions are available, for between $100 – $199, depending on the features you need.

Roku: Several versions are available, ranging in price from $60 -100, depending on the features you need.

All of these devices will play audio and video content directly from the Internet – like NetFlix, Hulu, Pandora, Youtube, etc. Using one of these devices, you can choose what you want to watch, when you want to watch it, and it is streamed directly to your TV over the Internet. No need for TV service through a cable or satellite system – all you need is a TV and an Internet connection. These devices are available in HD, and with a fast enough Internet connection into your home, you probably won’t see any difference between watching something on “regular” TV and streaming content through a digital media player from the Internet.

As for functionality, I consider these to be “DVR on steroids”. Instead of telling my DVR to record my favorite shows, I can simply find the show on the Internet TV device, and watch whichever episode I want, whenever I want. I don’t have to worry about telling my DVR to record it, having enough storage space (since it is all stored “in the cloud” for these streaming devices). I don’t have to worry about missing an episode because some “breaking news” broke into the programming when it was supposed to be recording my show, or because a live event went over time, so I only get a partial recording of my episode. All of these issues go away, and I can now watch anything I want whenever I want – as long as there is an Internet “channel” offering that content. And, chances are that if it is a popular show, it is available somewhere to be watched. Also, most of these services have shows from many years ago – so we can watch our favorite shows from our childhood, even though they are not on regular TV any longer.

I can see how in a very short time this will change completely how we watch television and movies in our home. No longer will we be tied to the programming schedule of our favorite tv shows, no longer will be have to purchase channels that we don’t want simply because our cable or satellite provider forces us to – we will be able to watch what we want, when we want, and only pay for the content we really want to pay for.

But, as we move into this new content frontier, we need to make sure we do so with our eyes open to the dangers that come along with it. While this is a medium for bringing TV content into our home, it is also just as unregulated and unrated as the Internet itself. In the next few blog posts, I will explore some of these dangers, as well as what is available today to combat them.

Do you have one of these devices? Are you thinking of purchasing one? Please leave a comment – I’d love to hear about your experiences!

My classes have been scheduled for BYU Campus Education Week 2011. If you are attending, please drop by – I’d love to meet you!

Monday, August 15:

Cyber Safety Overview -3108 JKB – 12:30 – 1:25 pm
Becoming a Digital Missionary – 3108 JKB – 1:50 – 2:45 pm
What is the “Mormon Channel” anyway? – 3108 JKB – 3:10 – 4:05 pm

Tuesday – Friday, August 16 – 19:
Cyber Safety for Digital Immigrants
B190 JFSB 8:30 – 9:25 am

Sessions:
Tuesday: The dark side of cyberspace: pornography, gambling and other online dangers
Wednesday: Cyberspace: Opposition in all things
Thursday: Raising the digital native
Friday: Cyberspace tools and rules

See you there!

Even though it has been voted down several times in the past, and the public has clearly stated opposition to it, it looks like ICANN will add a .XXX domain tomorrow. This will increase, rather than decrease, access to pornography on the Internet. It is important to understand that while they are adding the .XXX domain, there is no requirement to remove pornographic content from other top-level-domains. Rather than helping segment away pornography from our families, this move simply makes even more pornography available on the Internet. For more information see the “Pornography Harms” write up on the issue here.

There are many concerning things about this story, which reports that 33 SEC workers have been disciplined for accessing pornography while at work. This occurred over a 5 year period, and in some cases was an hourly distraction.

Topping my list of concerns here is the simple fact that this is just another example of how the tidal wave of pornography is affecting our society. The mere fact that these people cannot go one hour without viewing pornography is clear evidence of the addictive nature of this content, and the fact that they would do so at work is clearly an indication that they simply could not control their addictive tendencies. Those who would argue that pornography is not harmful are akin to those in years past who would argue that smoking was neither addictive nor harmful. The evidence continues to build that pornography is both.

The other concerning issue for me, however, is the lack of consequences for these actions. One person received a 14 day suspension. All have “been disciplined”. If people are viewing pornography at work, especially to the extent that these individuals were doing, they should be fired. Apart from the legal and ethical issues, if they had been caught wasting this much time on ANYTHING, they should be fired. By spending so much time on this, they have stolen from their company (which our tax dollars fund, incidentally). I know many companies that have a clear zero-tolerance policy regarding pornography – and I personally think more companies should take that stance.

This is truly a sad example of the effect pornography has in our society.

One of the filters that I often recommend has just made it even easier to recommend them. K9 Web Protection is now available through the AppStore on the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone. Please share your experiences with this new app! I’d love to hear how it works for you.

According to this article, in March of this year you will be able to obtain full, uncensored access to playboy magazine via the iPad. Parents beware.

This is a very interesting article on Cyber Snooping. Essentially, a husband is in legal trouble for reading his wife’s email when he suspected her of having an affair. While the issue of cyber privacy is still being defined under the law, this has some possible ramifications for parents and children as well. For example, many filters have the ability to report on Internet usage. The filter my family uses (Net Nanny) also allows individualized reports -so while it is possible for me to review where my children have been surfing, I can also see where my wife has been. Likewise, she can see where I have been. We both are aware of this, and are completely comfortable with it – but as new laws are created, this may become an illegal act.

Another potential danger is when using tools that will search a computer for pornography. I have several tools that I use on a regular basis on our home computers, just to make sure that nothing has gotten through our filter (as any of you know who follow my blog, while I am a big fan of filters, I also warn often that they are not perfect). A tool such as this doesn’t limit itself to showing me only what images my children may have brought onto our computers – it shows everything: things brought onto our computer by me, my wife, my kids, their friends, our extended family – anyone who has used the computer.

Is this considered “snooping”? Or is it considered protecting our equipment and ensuring it is used appropriately in our own home?

As the lawmakers consider new laws with regard to cyber snooping and privacy, I hope they carefully consider parental rights and the ongoing need to protect our families from the filth available on the Internet.

Great article in the Chicago Tribune regarding parenting in the digital age. The only thing I would state differently is that I believe that some sort of filter should be standard on every computer that accesses the Internet. While being a “digitally responsible” parent is most important, a filter is one tool that should not be overlooked. Otherwise, all great suggestions in this article. Worth the read.