News Archive 2014

The Warehouse is taking R18 video games - such as the violence-laden Grand Theft Auto - and DVDs off the shelves following a review of its range.

As a result the Warehouse Group will no longer be stocking R18 games and DVDs within The Warehouse and Noel Leeming stores and online, reinforcing its family-friendly brand values, it said.

The Warehouse chief executive Mark Powell says that the business' foundations were a result of "putting our people and communities at the core of what we do".

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The newest version of Grand Theft Auto allows players to experience sex with a prostitute from a first-person perspective.

What's more, players of the massively popular video game may also then beat the woman up.

It's all made possible in the revamping of the 2013 game for the newer Playstation 4 and Xbox One consoles.

Previous to this new version, which launched in New Zealand on Tuesday with an R18 rating, prostitutes did exist in the game, but the player's sexual encounters with them was not explicitly visible.

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It was important for parents to teach their children that respecting others in how media was shared, tagged and commented on, reduced risk. [Photo / Thinkstock]

Top Tips:

• Even if posts are set to private, bios are not, so ensure they are appropriate;
• If somebody else is in a photo you post, make sure they are okay with the photo being shared or tagging them in it;
• Think about the impact of a post, sometimes it's the friend not included who could be hurt;
• Before turning on location-sharing, think about if you want people to know the location of the shot; and
• Don't forget that sharing a post to a social networking site such as Twitter, means it's available for anyone to see.

The rise of mobile devices means keeping children safe online has become more difficult, experts say.

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SAFE AND SECURE: Faraday mobile bags allow schools to confiscate a phone and keep it safe from students who might try to delete the contents remotely.

Schools are looking into new technology that stops teenagers deleting sexual images from their phones.

The move comes as schools are increasingly concerned about students' ability to remotely delete explicit images that could be used as evidence in cases of sexual misconduct.

Education leaders working on cyber-bullying guidelines for schools, to be published next month, have been alarmed by feedback that sexual images and recordings are being increasingly shared among students.

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PLAY-N-SKILLS: Featuring Lil Jon and Redfoo are the artists behind, "Literally I Can't (STFU)".

Rapper and X Factor host Redfoo has taken to Twitter to defend his new song in the face of growing criticism and calls for Channel Seven to sack him as a host on the network.

The rapper came under fire yesterday following the release of his new song, Literally I Can't, a collaboration with artists Play-N-Skillz, Lil Jon and Enertia McFly, which has been called 'the most sexist song of the year' and criticised for promoting sexual harassment against women and rape culture.

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NO BREACH: The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has found broadcaster Rachel Smalley took sufficient action after she described some women as "heifers" and a "bunch of lardos". [Fairfax NZ]

Broadcaster Rachel Smalley took sufficient action after she described some women as "heifers" and a "bunch of lardos", the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has found.

It declined to uphold a complaint that her comments breached the good taste and decency standard.

Smalley tearfully apologised for the remarks, made on NewstalkZB on April 2 when she thought she was off air.

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He may have been dubbed "the master evangelist of the digital age", but even the late Steve Jobs worried about the effect technology has on children.

While he persuaded millions that Apple's chic but pricey gadgets were a must-buy, turning the company from a basket case to a global powerhouse, he prevented his own children from using iPads and limited their access to the internet generally.

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Spark

Advice from Spark covers such topics as:

• Dealing with unwanted calls and text messages
• Mobile Safety: Advice specifically for children

Vodafone

Cyberbullying - advice for parents

It covers such topics as:

• What do I need to know about cyberbullying?
• What action can I take?
• Cyberbullying video.
• Where can I go for more information and support?

2 degrees mobile

Advice on Bullying

It covers such topics as:

• What is mobile bullying?
• What to do if you're being bullied or harassed.

By Media Matters President, JOHN TERRIS

You can't really credit the amount of I-told-you-so ing, He-said-she-said ing, and the big-time strikings of attitudes of moral outrage which have been around this week, in relation to the so called Dirty Tricks Campaign.  Judith Collins has been forced to come out of her hidey hole, where she has been all week, and Male T Shirt Model of the Year, Cameron Slater, has suddenly departed for an overseas holiday of unstated duration.

Oh the breast-beating, the navel-baring, the unmitigated moral posturing which has filled the media in the last week, you would have to say that if it gets much worse, the Governor General would be quite justified in calling for a National Day of Mourning, so that we could all repent of our own particular roles in this particular moral cataclysm.

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NEW STUDY COMMISSIONED: NZ On Air wants to know more about children's media use.
[Photo: Fairfax NZ]

A survey is planned on how much television New Zealand children watch.

Government funding agency NZ On Air is commissioning a survey on children's media use, including TV, computers and radio.

It follows a study focused on New Zealanders older than 15.

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There is plenty of digital entertainment for children, but how much is too much? Photograph: Alamy

Writing about children's use of technology can be surprisingly controversial, judging by some of the comments on yesterday's feature on apps that kids might enjoy using while travelling.

...  if you're a parent, how do you manage screen-time for your children?

[ Read full article ... ]

Children between 8 and 17 said their parents didn't know about all their web usage, a survey shows. (AAP)

Seventy per cent of children aged between 8 and 17 said their parents didn't know about all their web activities, a new survey reveals.

Most young Australians think their parents have no idea what they're up to on the internet, while some have faked profiles or blocked their search history to avoid scrutiny, new research shows.

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A new study shows that background TV noise harms children's learning and development. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Yet another study shows that background television noise may harm a child's learning and development, as electronic screens continue to proliferate in the home.

Specifically, the background noise from television distracts children from play and other learning activities, squandering attention better used on cognitive development, according to Deborah Linebarger, an associate education professor who led the research at the University of Iowa.  "Kids are going to learn from whatever you put in front of them," she said in a press statement.  "So what kinds of messages, what kinds of things do you want them to learn?  That would be the kinds of media you'd purposefully expose them to."

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Report finds there is a real online danger because of threat to mental health.

Netsafe chief executive Martin Cocker said his organisation was seeing an increase in serious cases of cyberbullying for both children and adults. Photo / Thinkstock

More than 40 per cent of children who use the internet are victims of cybercrime while girls are more likely to be bullied online than boys, a survey has found.

The Norton Report Family Edition by Symantec, found 43 per cent of New Zealand children were harmed by cybercrime during 2012-13 or were involved in a negative online situation.

Cybercrime includes visiting malicious links, being harassed or threatened online, having online accounts hacked and viewing adult content.  The study, which surveyed more than 350 New Zealanders, found that 57 per cent of those children admitted to hiding what they did online from adults.

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A new Instagram account pokes fun at petite women posing with food. Photo / 123RF

It seems that no matter what your size, you can come under fire - as a new Instagram trend dubbed "thin shaming" proves.

You Did Not Eat That was set up in April by an anonymous user and regrams images of slender women posing with fatty foods with the hashtag #youdidnoteatthat (YDNET) - and has already gained a following of 96,576 people.

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Kiwi parents are more likely to use browser history to snoop on their partners than to monitor what their children are doing online.

A survey by internet security software firm AVG Technologies found that 40 per cent of 600 New Zealanders surveyed monitored their partners' internet use, compared with 33 per cent who monitored their children's online usage.

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Nearly half of Kiwis surveyed think their children spend too much time on devices.

Kiwi parents believe their children spend too much time online and more are using digital technology as a babysitter, a survey says.

The report from online security company AVG Technologies also found 31 per cent of Kiwi parents said their child threw a tantrum when a device was taken off them.

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[UK] Prime Minister David Cameron and MPs have voiced their support for an internet child safety initiative, helping to protect "the innocence of our children".

World of their own: many children could face potential harm online because parents do not understand social media.      [Photo: Alamy]

 
The Prime Minister has voiced his support for a new child internet safety initiative launched today, which is intended as a hub resource for giving parents advice on how to keep their children safe online.

The project, called Internet Matters: internetmatters.org, was created in collaboration with the 'big four' internet providers - BT, Sky, Virgin and Talk Talk - and will cement the UK's position as a world-leader on child internet safety, advising parents to 'learn about it, talk about it, deal with it'.

The initiative will also encourage the wider technology industry, experts, policy makers and parents to work together to establish world-leading resources for parents which are effectively sign-posted.

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Internet Matters: the UK's ISPs unite for a child-safety initiative
 

The UK's four biggest internet service providers (ISPs) have today launched a child-safety initiative called Internet Matters: internetmatters.org, as part of the Government's crackdown on the content children have access to online.

Sky, TalkTalk, BT and Virgin Media have partnered to launch a dedicated online portal that provides information, advice and links to specialist resources for British parents concerning internet safety.

The initiative has come about following political pressure from prime minister David Cameron, who is pushing through measures that will have every household forced to opt-out of filters to access adult content on the internet.

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SHARING CULTURE: Danah Boyd's new book, It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens.

Danah Boyd has made a name for herself at the research division of Microsoft for painstaking work examining social media, Big Data and the tension between public and private lives, but it's her teens'-eye view of the digital world that sets her apart.

Now, Boyd has written her first book, It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, available for free on her website, Danah.org.  Earlier this year, she added another accomplishment to her list: mum.

Boyd interviewed more than 150 teens from a range of backgrounds for the book, also relying on extensive research on all aspects of their digital lives.

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CONFUSING: Studies show young children are unable to differentiate between advertisements and TV programmes. [Photo: Fairfax NZ]

Two Otago University researchers have called for government intervention to stop children watching so much television.

In the wake of a Swedish study that has correlated childhood TV watching with adult "metabolic syndrome" - obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes - Otago University's Dr Helena McAnally and Dr Robert Hancox have called for interventions.

Writing in the international Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, they said it would be "a step in the right direction" if similar actions were taken to "reduce excessive media consumption" as had been taken against tobacco.

Hancox said it appeared there was possibly a time in childhood when you were "programming your health for the rest of your life".  The Swedish study showed a medium strength correlation between the amount of TV watched at 16 years old and BMI at 30.

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There is a correlation between children's TV screen time and higher consumption of sweetened beverages and 'junk foods', says new Swedish research.

While the potential association between TV advertising and obesity among children has been widely investigated, there is very little research investigating the appearance of junk and sugary food in children's programmes.

[ Read full article ... ]

This past week I attended the Idaho State Prevention and Support Conference. 

The focus of this conference is to offer tools, resources and ideas for educators and law enforcement professionals to prevent destructive behavior of the children in our community. 

The behaviors this conference attempts to prevent include underage drinking, drug use, bullying, helplessness, suicide and abuse and neglect.

In every keynote and breakout session I attend, two themes were consistent.  First, kids need to feel important, loved and valued by the people around them.  Secondly, screens are stealing children's ability to emotionally attach to the human race.

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A study by Harvard University and Project Viva suggests that children lose seven minutes of sleep for every hour of television that they watch.

Young children who had a television in their room lost an average of 30 minutes of sleep a night. [Photo: Alamy]

Children lose seven minutes of sleep for every hour of television they watch a day, a study has warned.

Researchers who followed more than 1,800 children aged six months to nearly eight-years-old found a "small but consistent association" between increased television viewing and shorter sleep duration.

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Media Matters thanks the Herald on Sunday of February 23, 2014 and their reporter Susan Edmunds for giving the lie to claims that crime is going down.

A crowd of youths fight on Queen Street. [Photo / Michael Craig]

Crimes involving youth violence are going UP... 

Police are having to deal with increasing numbers of people who are so drunk they are a danger to themselves and others, statistics reveal.  While overall crime rates are decreasing significantly, violence, especially alcohol-fuelled offending is proving especially stubborn.  Police say our city streets just aren't safe at night. 

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CHARLOTTE DAWSON: Tormented by trolls online, will her legacy be new cyber-laws to protect from internet bullying? [Photo: Fairfax NZ]

Charlotte Dawson's legacy should be a kinder world where people are not judged by the life they appear to lead, her friends and colleagues say.

A funeral was held in Sydney yesterday for the 47-year-old television personality, who was found dead in her apartment last weekend.  She took her own life after a long and public battle with depression.

Dawson was constantly judged for who she appeared to be, and did not have the strength to cope with life in the public eye, TV personality Suzanne Paul said.

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Sally and Jamie Ridge talk about Charlotte Dawson and online abuse. [Photo: TVNZ]

Sally Ridge says she and her friend, Charlotte Dawson, were the two most hated women in New Zealand for a long time, while several TVNZ reporters and presenters say they are often the victims of cyber-bullying.

Dawson was found dead in her Sydney apartment on Saturday after a long battle with depression.

Ridge told TV One's Breakfast show Dawson had always looked out for her when the media started bagging her.

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Charlotte Dawson, in an image posted on her Instagram account the day before her body was found

An online petition calling for the creation of "Charlotte's Law" against online bullying has been launched following the death of Charlotte Dawson.

The petition, launched on the Change.org website by Dawson's friend Em Mastronardi, had received 15,000 signatures by Monday midday.

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The New Year's honours list always provides a bit of a lift during the holidays.  Various worthies declare themselves every year as being either staggered, astounded or amazed that they have been chosen.  This is curious, given the fact that they have agreed in writing some months prior, to accept the honour if or when it is offered.  Understandably, the Palace does not take kindly to some Charlie deciding to reject the honour offered, in a fit of equalitarianism.

I miss the old honours list, I have to admit, with its ancient and royal associations ... [replaced with] a shower of much less impressive sounding honours, ONZM, CNZM, MNZM and so on, ... [so] I have, this year, decided to award my own list, which is a sort of Send-Up of a Send-Up.

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WASHINGTON (AP) A woman whose childhood rapes by her uncle were captured on camera and widely traded on the Internet wants the Supreme Court to make it easier for victims of child pornography to collect money from people who view the brutal images on their computers.

The case being argued at the Supreme Court on Wednesday involves a Texas man who pleaded guilty to having images of children engaged in sex acts on his computer.  Doyle Randall Paroline is appealing an order holding him responsible for the full amount of losses, nearly $3.4 million, suffered by the woman known as Amy.  Of the several hundred incriminating images on Paroline's computer, just two were of Amy.

Advocates for child pornography victims say that holding defendants liable for the entire amount of losses better reflects the ongoing harm that victims suffer each time someone views the images online.  The threat of a large financial judgment, coupled with a prison term, also might deter some people from looking at the images in the first place, the advocates say.

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Online predators are increasingly resorting to "sextortion" - blackmailing child victims into providing explicit images.

Internet safety watchdogs say they are seeing new trends in the methods used to extort kids as young as eight into sending pictures of themselves to perverts, who often masquerade as youngsters online.

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Parents shouldn't worry about youngsters using tablets — the activity is the important thing

iPads have joined playdough and crayons as educational tools at preschools.

Photo / Sarah Ivy

Young children who use an iPad or other touch-screen device can get the same benefits as physical play, new research indicates - although the type of virtual activity is crucial.

As the cost of tablets and smartphones tumble, more parents are allowing their toddlers to use the technology, and iPads have joined playdough and crayons as educational tools at preschools.

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