As a new school year gets underway, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is joining Florida AG Bill McCollum and other political leaders and law enforcement officials around the country who are promoting online safety education in schools. "Online safety is now an essential part of a child’s education," said Madigan. "As the online environment continues to evolve, those of us who can take action to protect children – including law enforcement, teachers, and parents – need to continue to improve our methods of teaching Internet safety so that our messages are clear and easy for students to follow." Madigan’s approach is the right way to keep kids safe online, and a lot more realistic than the politically attractive, but unworkable, regulations like age verification and parental consent, that some other politicians are pushing.
The AP is reporting that Google will call on businesses and regulators throughout the world to adopt international standards for protecting consumer privacy online and offline. The proposal, to be unveiled today in France, comes as the online search leader battles privacy concerns that threaten its plans to buy Internet ad service DoubleClick.
Lawyers from Microsoft, Yahoo, Wal-Mart, Dell and Time Warner have filed lawsuits in New York, Washington, and Indiana aimed at shutting down more than 20 major cybersquatting operations. The International Trademark Association, organizer of the group effort, has issued a warning alerting the public to the growing threat of domain name cybersquatters who deliberately mislead consumers and defraud online businesses.