The Great Geek Manual News

Even as sex crimes against minors decline, a new report from the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center released this week found an massive increase in the number of online child predators arrested in undercover sting operations. Despite this, the survey rejects the idea that the Internet is an especially perilous place for minors, and finds that while the nature of online sex crimes against minors changed little between 2000 and 2006, the profile of the offenders has been shifting—and both differ markedly from the popular conception.

Extrapolating from a nationwide survey of law enforcement agencies, the authors estimate that 2006 saw 615 arrests of online child predators in cases involving actual minors as victims (up 21 percent from 2000), and 3,100 arrests in cases where the “child” was actually an undercover law enforcement officer (a whopping 381 percent increase over 2000). During the same time period, the proportion of minors aged 12-17 on the Internet rose from 73 to 93 percent. Those numbers, the authors believe, don’t represent an actual increase in the national pervert population, but rather reflect the broader trend over the same period of interactions moving online, combined with more vigorous police sting efforts.

In the vast majority of cases, it’s worth noting, the child victims were teens who knowingly went to meet their older interlocutors intending to have sex, which may explain why stings so vastly outnumber actual-victim arrests. Though the victims are too young to legally consent to sex with an adult, relatively few cases involve physical coercion, which makes it likely that many—indeed, quite possibly a majority—don’t come to the attention of law enforcement.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Ars Technica

One in three young Britons have been the victims of cyber-bullying with girls the most likely victims, according to research published on Tuesday.

A survey by the Beatbullying charity of more than 2,000 youngsters aged 11 to 18 said text messages, prank mobile phone calls and content posted on social networking sites were at the heart of a “growing epidemic.”

Teenage girls were four times more likely to be bullied this way than boys, the research found.

“Clearly, cyber-bullying is a growing problem affecting millions of children across the UK and to date efforts to tackle the epidemic have fallen short,” said Emma Jane Cross, the charity’s chief executive.

The findings coincide with the launch of a new nationwide social networking site CyberMentors, backed by celebrities and politicians such as Prime Minister Gordon Brown, which allows trained schoolchildren to provide help and advice for their peers.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Reuters

More than half of teenagers mention risky behaviors such as sex and drugs on their MySpace accounts, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

They said many young people who use social networking sites such as News Corp’s MySpace do not realize how public they are and may be opening themselves to risks, but the sites may also offer a new way to identify and help troubled teens.

“We found the majority of teenagers who have a MySpace account are displaying risky behaviors in a public way that is accessible to a general audience,” said Dr. Dimitri Christakis of Seattle Children’s Research Institute, whose studies appear in the journal Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.

In one of two studies, Christakis and Dr. Megan Moreno of the University of Wisconsin analyzed 500 randomly chosen MySpace profiles of 18-year-olds in 2007.

Overall, 54 percent of the publicly available accounts they checked contained information about high-risk behaviors: 41 percent mentioned substance abuse, 24 percent sexual behavior and 14 percent violence.

Christakis said many teens are unaware of how public and permanent Internet information can be, while parents often do not know what their kids are up to.

“No one says, “Whoa! Why are you putting that up there?’” Christakis said.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Reuters

Two-thirds of online shoppers carry out internet-based research about retailers before making a purchase, yet only half of retailers actually monitor their own reputation, according to new research by 1&1 Internet.

The hosting firm surveyed over 1,500 consumers and over 400 companies and found that nearly half of UK shoppers read online reviews or recommendations about specific products before buying them.

One in three consumers are willing to publish a review online, 44 per cent of men and 34 per cent of women frequently rely on independent star ratings and rankings, and one in four actively seek customer service commitments on retailers’ web sites.

Yet online retailers seem to be ignoring the increasing importance to customers of online reviews, blogs and other information. Some 48 per cent of retailers said that they have no means to help influence or control their online reputation.

Half admitted to having never monitored the internet for comments or customer reviews posted online, and just 30 per cent said that they actively and regularly search the internet for customer comments and reviews published on consumer websites, social networks and blogs.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: iT News

Intel, with the help of Harris Interactive, conducted a survey of American adults under the ordinary banner “Internet Reliance in Today’s Economy.”

A key finding in the study found that 46 percent of women and 30 percent of men would give up sex for two weeks over giving up Internet access for the same period.

Of discretionary spending items, Internet access ranked highest as the item those surveyed could not live without. Others mentioned included cable television, dining out, and shopping for clothing.

Sixty-one percent of women said they would rather loose TV for two weeks, than go without Internet access for one.

“The survey revealed that 65 percent of adults feel they cannot live without Internet access, and even more — 71 percent — responded that it is important or very important to have Internet-enabled devices, such as laptops, netbooks and mobile Internet devices that can provide them with real-time updates on important issues including the state of the economy,” said an Intel spokesperson.

Harris Interactive surveyed 2,119 American adults for Intel.

Source: Red Orbits

Young people exposed to violent media are more likely to lash out violently themselves, new research published in Pediatrics shows.

“Our findings add to the growing evidence that violence in the media is related to aggressive behavior, including seriously violent behavior among youths,” Dr. Michele L. Ybarra of Internet Solutions for Kids in Santa Ana, California and her colleagues report. “Reduction in youths’ exposure to violent media should be viewed as an important aspect of violence prevention.”

Many studies have examined exposure to violent media and violent behavior among young people, Ybarra and her team note in their report. In fact, they point out, the American Academy of Pediatrics calls media violence “the single most easily remediable contributing factor” to youth violence.

The researchers examined the relationship between media violence and “seriously violent behavior,” defined as shooting or stabbing someone, robbing someone, or committing aggravated assault or sexual assault, in a survey of 1,588 young people 10 to 15 years old. The average age was 13 years old and 48 percent were girls.

Five percent of those surveyed reported having engaged in some type of seriously violent behavior over the past year, while 38 percent said they had visited at least one type of violent website. With each additional type of violent website a study participant reported viewing, the likelihood of violent behavior increased by 50 percent.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Reuters

Young people exposed to violent media are more likely to lash out violently themselves, new research published in Pediatrics shows.

“Our findings add to the growing evidence that violence in the media is related to aggressive behavior, including seriously violent behavior among youths,” Dr. Michele L. Ybarra of Internet Solutions for Kids in Santa Ana, California and her colleagues report. “Reduction in youths’ exposure to violent media should be viewed as an important aspect of violence prevention.”

Many studies have examined exposure to violent media and violent behavior among young people, Ybarra and her team note in their report. In fact, they point out, the American Academy of Pediatrics calls media violence “the single most easily remediable contributing factor” to youth violence.

The researchers examined the relationship between media violence and “seriously violent behavior,” defined as shooting or stabbing someone, robbing someone, or committing aggravated assault or sexual assault, in a survey of 1,588 young people 10 to 15 years old. The average age was 13 years old and 48 percent were girls.

Five percent of those surveyed reported having engaged in some type of seriously violent behavior over the past year, while 38 percent said they had visited at least one type of violent website. With each additional type of violent website a study participant reported viewing, the likelihood of violent behavior increased by 50 percent.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Reuters

Although now overtaken by social networking sites as the most visited places on the web, pornography sites remain well-trafficked. But spending too much time online in the pursuit of carnal pleasure might have serious implications for your mental health, according to researchers in Australia.

The work, presented at a meeting in Australia last month, finds a link between clinical depression and an online sex life. 1,325 men from the US and Australia were surveyed about their Internet sex habits, which might include trolling for porn, participating in online chats, or doing things with webcams. They were also asked questions designed to elucidate the respondents’ state of mental health with regards to depression.

A significant percentage (27 percent) of those surveyed displayed moderate to severe depression, with similar numbers suffering from anxiety (30 percent) and stress (35 percent). Marcus Squirrell, a PhD student at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and the author of the study, found a correlation between the severity of depression and the amount of time spent engaged in online sexual activity.

However, before you toss that bottle of Xanax, remember that correlation does not always imply causation. Is the reliance on online sex responsible for the depression and anxiety, a symptom of those feelings, or a relief mechanism? It’s certainly possible that underlying psychological issues in the users’ lives are driving them to reliance on online sex.

Source: Ars Technica

The last-minute pounding Wall Street gave Google’s shares was caused by “erroneous orders” that Nasdaq says it is cancelling.

Minutes before the closing bell Tuesday, a flurry of trades sent the Web search leader’s stock plummeting 10 per cent to close at $341.43.

Nasdaq said in a statement that erroneous orders routed to Nasdaq from another market centre were responsible for the high volume of trades.

The exchange raised Google’s closing price to $400.52 — a 5 per cent gain for the day — and cancelled all trades below that amount and above $425.29 between 3:57 p.m. and 4:02 p.m. EDT.

Source: Globe and Mail

For men, bliss is often just a mouse-click away while quality time with family is guaranteed to put a smile on women’s faces, according to an Australian study of what makes people happy.

The “Happiness Index” study, which polled more than 8,500 Australians aged 18-64 years, showed rest and relaxation were the most enjoyable activities while physical exercise was least likely to make people happy.

“Australians are made happy on a week-to-week basis, not by possessions and achievements, but by entertaining experiences and by meaningful interactions with others,” said Karen Phillips, managing director of The Leading Edge, the business consultancy that conducted the survey over a week in August.

“This index gives insight into the way we tick, with the results being useful to Australian businesses who want to better communicate with their customers,” she added.

Both men and women — or 63 percent of overall respondents — picked relaxation as the activity that made them happiest, but that is where the similarity between the sexes ends.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Reuters

Wars are costly in terms of lives and resources – so why have we fought them throughout human history? In modern times, states may fight wars for a number of complex reasons. But in the past, most tribal wars were fought for the most basic resources: goods, territory, and women.

These reproduction-enhancing resources prompted our ancestors to fight in order to pass down their family genes. With war as a driving force for survival, an interesting pattern occurred, according to a new study. People with certain warrior-like traits were more likely to engage in and win wars, and then passed their warrior genes down to their children, which – on an evolutionary timescale – made their tribe even more warrior-like. In short, humans seem to have become more aggressive over time due to war’s essential benefits.

In their study, Stanford University scientists Laurent Lehmann and Marcus Feldman have presented a model showing that aggressive traits in males may have evolved as an adaptation to limited reproductive resources. Because tribal war serves as a method for appropriating territory and women, war may have driven the evolution of these traits.

The scientists use the term “belligerence” to refer to a trait that increases the probability that the person’s tribe will attack another tribe. Likewise, “bravery” refers to a trait that increases the probability that the person’s tribe will win a war, whether they have attacked or are being attacked.

Lehmann and Feldman demonstrate in their model that belligerence and bravery continue to genetically evolve through the male line. When one tribe conquers another, males in the conquering group mate with females in the conquered group, and pass the warrior traits to their male offspring.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Phys Org

Podcasting continues to grow at a rate that’s faster than a snail’s pace, but not by much. The Pew Internet and American Life project reports that almost one in five Internet users (19 percent) say they have saved a podcast for later listening. That’s up from 12 percent in Pew’s August 2006 survey.

But the latest study also concedes that “podcasting has yet to become a fixture in the everyday lives of Internet users, as very few Internet users download podcasts on a typical day.” Just 3 percent do so, in fact. And there’s a real generational divide here of which media trend watchers should take heed. After 30, podcasting download rates take a dip; after 50, they take a serious dive; after 65, forget it.

Podcasting isn’t just an important issue for content fans, it’s an important question for broadcast ownership regulators, especially at the Federal Communications Commission. They, and the rest of us, are constantly being told that the FCC’s rules limiting ownership of radio and TV stations are no longer relevant because of the proliferation of new platforms. Podcasting is often cited here; it was mentioned constantly by boosters of the now completed merger of Sirius and XM satellite radio, a move that raised some widespread antitrust concerns.

The podcast solar system has its hot spots. Podcast Alley has cataloged over 43,000 podcasts with more than 2 million total episodes. iPod users gravitate toward certain subjects, listed in order of popularity: technology, comedy, religion and spirituality, and business. And you can download and read the Wall Street Journal on your iTunes desktop.

But the Pew report suggests once again that Internet-based venues that require more than the usual flick of the on/off/record switch have yet to offer serious competition to legacy media—TV, radio, newspapers—especially for older media consumers.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Ars Technica

An analysis of Microsoft’s instant messaging system has concluded that there aren’t six degrees of separation between everyone — the number is 6.6.

A team of researchers analysed 30 billion messages sent on the company’s instant messenger client to see if the theory that everyone can be linked to everyone else by six degrees of separation was accurate.

“To me, it was pretty shocking. What we’re seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity,” Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who conducted the study with colleague Jure Leskovec, told the Washington Post.

“People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore.”

The six degrees of separation argument, popularised by American psychologist Stanley Milgram, posits that everyone is one degree removed from people they know, two degrees from people their friends know and no more than six degrees away from everyone on the planet.

The idea has been around for nearly 100 years but has never been proven due to the difficulties of testing the hypothesis.

The Microsoft team came up with using data from their Messenger client. The researchers took an IM message between two unnamed individuals as a link and then examined how to connect 180 billion different pairs of users in the database

They found the actual number of links was 6.6, although 78 per cent of the world’s population can be linked in seven steps or less. However some took over twenty links to find a connection.

Source: iT News

A U.S. study has identified Internet use, sleep, alcohol and coffee consumption as contributing factors to weight gain in adolescent girls.

Researchers surveyed more than 5000 girls between the ages of 14 and 21 years about their weekly habits during the past year. Girls who spent more recreational time on the Internet were found to sleep significantly less and consume more alcohol.

While no relationship was found between coffee consumption and Internet use, researchers found that girls who drank more coffee got less sleep and tended also to consume more alcohol.

“These relationships are partly due to girls taking up more than one of these behaviours as they get older,” explained Catherine Berkey, who conducted the study with colleagues at the Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and Washington University.

Berkey identified e-mail, instant messaging (IM), social networking and Web surfing as online time-sinks for adolescent girls.

“Our research indicates that the rise in Internet use for recreational purposes — including email, social networking [such as] Facebook, IM, MySpace, [and] surfing the web — may be responsible for part of the weight increases,” she told iTnews. “Girls in our study who did these the most tended to gain more weight over time,” she explained.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: iT News