sexting

Report: Police examine Weiner's tweeting with 17-year-old

The saga of Rep. Anthony Weiner's social networking turns another page.

The New York Times reports that the Democratic representative from New York has admitted that as part of what seems like an extensive series of correspondences with a number of women, he sent at least five private messages to a 17-year-old girl in Delaware.

The Twitter exchange reportedly came shortly after the teen was part of a high school trip to Washington and heard Weiner speak.

Both Weiner's representative and the girl's family have reportedly said that the tweeting was in no way suggestive.

However, police … Read more

California Senate: Schools can expel for sexting

I'm not sure the kids are going to like this.

At least not the kids in California. For it seems the California Senate has, with a show of hands that left none hanging, decided to add sexting to the list of bad behavior for which a student can be expelled from school.

In a move that seemed designed to avoid too much naked publicity, the Associated Press reported that the Senate passed a bill Tuesday that specifically cited sexting and defined it as "the sending or receiving of sexually explicit pictures or video images by means of an … Read more

Congressman quits after shirtless-photo flap

This is a story with whose protagonist, I feel sure, many men will sympathize.

Especially if those men are politicians or NFL quarterbacks.

I refer, with sad, troubled eyes, to the demise of Christopher Lee, a Republican congressional representative from New York.

The 46-year-old Lee announced his resignation on his Web site after he allegedly sent a photograph of his rather fetching upper half (rather than his better half) to a woman he encountered on Craigslist.

It seems, according to Gawker, that the congressman was in need, as are so many male politicians, of female company.

So he reportedly scoured … Read more

The 404 706: Where Grandma got ran over by an iPad (podcast)

Scott Stein of CNET's Digital City Podcast is the latest victim we've pulled into The 404 studio to co-host the show while Jeff is honeymooning in Hawaii.

Scott brings his expertise in mobile computing to help us discuss today's stories about elderly iPad-ing, cracking iPhone 4s, the link between hyper-texting teens and risky behavior, mobile STD testing, and how to protect your kids from digital predators that happen to be named Wilson G. Tang.

The holidays are approaching quicker than we thought, but Scott is already prepared with a brand-new Apple iPad for his father-in-law, proving the universality of all Apple products. Scott's a dedicated iPad user himself, but still hopes for the day when all syncing is done in the cloud...unfortunately, that feature lives in same Apple dimension as external storage and flawless cellular reception, so we'll likely see it materialize in the iPad 19G.

We haven't completely fallen down the Apple rabbit hole yet, but we do come up with a new digital concept called the Syncing Centipede, so listen up, but don't you dare steal the idea.

Apple has its own internal problems to deal with, and yet another iPhone 4 flaw has surfaced, this time regarding several cases causing cracks and scratches on the back of the phone.

The irony of this story is twofold: first, Apple used to recommend these recalled cases to mitigate the initial reception crisis, and second, what about Apple claiming that the glass on the iPhone 4 was supposedly 30 times stronger than the 3G's plastic back and therefore less prone to scratches? Let's take bets on how many of these "flaws" will miraculously disappear with the introduction of the iPhone 5.

Or maybe we should just get rid of phones altogether, because apparently teens who text more than 120 times a day (media's calling them "hyper-texters") are more likely to engage in risky behavior like sex, drugs, and alcohol abuse.

So says a study done at 20 public high schools in Cleveland last year, where researchers found that one in five students were hyper-texters, one in nine are hyper-social networkers, and one in four students had sent or received a sext message!

This understandably makes Scott worried for his own young kids, and he makes a good point about the importance of parents setting rules to limit the amount of texting and Internet use per day. Semirelated story: We need more Superparents like this!

Episode 706 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

MTV: 'Draw Your Line' against digital abuse

A new resource from MTV is encouraging youth to "post an action" online that they have taken to combat digital abuse such as cyberbullying and sexting.

The resource, called Draw Your Line, is part of MTV's "A Thin Line" campaign, which was launched in February when the network aired a documentary about sexting.

An action can be something personal such as deleting inappropriate messages or images, blocking a user from sending hurtful or harassing messages, getting help or changing passwords. Or it can be social, such as arranging a school assembly or speaking up on … Read more

The 404 686: Where Caroline McCarthy debuts Apple Mac OS X Keyboard Cat (podcast)

The big news this morning is Apple's invitation to a Mac OS X event next week that came with an accompanying image of a lion peeking out of the Apple logo to tease the next iteration of the Mac OS X operating system.

We're letting the CNET experts handle the predictions for what the event will unveil, so instead we're taking bets on the feline-inspired nomenclature for the update: Mac OS X: Tiger Woods; Mac OS X: Pussy Cat; and Mac OS X: Liger are being thrown around, but we're guessing Apple might just go with Mac OS X: Lion.

CNET's social-networking reporter Caroline McCarthy comes on the show today to tell us why she literally ran away from our meetup. Caroline will be running the New York Marathon on November 7 to benefit Camp Interactive, a year-round program that introduces inner-city youth to technology through the inspiration of the outdoors. There are only a few weeks left to donate to her team, so head over to the Crowdrise Web site and help out if you can!

Speaking of protecting children, Apple just filed a patent application for "systems, devices, and methods" that will allow parents to block adult content from text messaging. In other words, no more sexting. The application will take into account the child's age or grade level to determine what words or content should be censored from messages, and the system will even notify the user and administrator when the dirtiness pops up onscreen.

So now that the Facebook movie "The Social Network" has been out in theaters for a few weeks, we can finally talk to Caroline about the validity of its content in relation to screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and Ben Mezrich, author of "The Accidental Billionaires." If you haven't seen the movie yet, this is your warning that this segment features serious spoilers!

Tune in to find out if Mark Zuckerberg is really as much of a jerk as his onscreen counterpart, if Napster co-founder Sean Parker really got busted for cocaine at a Stanford party, and if there's any truth to that scene with the flaming bed. Big thanks to Caroline for joining us on the show, and don't forget to donate what you can to help Camp Interactive!

Episode 686 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Apple patent would enforce parental controls on texting

Apple is trying to give more power to parents over their children's use of text messages.

The company yesterday reportedly secured from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent 7,814,163, which covers "systems, devices, and methods" that allow a user to determine what kind of text-messaging content can be sent or received from a given device.

According to the filing, either messages will be blocked entirely or the "forbidden content" will be "removed from the message prior to transmission or as part of the receiving process." In order to filter … Read more

Microsoft Kin upshirt ad called 'creepy'

I'm sure there are few people left in the world who have not, at one time or another, sent a picture of their most favorable body parts to someone they loved. Or at least coveted. Or at least knew. I am, therefore, moved to photograph the frothing in my brain caused by the controversy surrounding a video for Microsoft's new Kin phones aimed at young social-networking hipsters.

The film appears at Kin.com, a Microsoft promotional site that tells you the Kin is "impulsive" and that "the more you share, the more you get." … Read more

MTV's sexting show to air stark message for teens

While it doesn't break any new ground, MTV's half-hour special, "Sexting In America: When Privates Go Public," is a good reminder for teens that taking and sending nude pictures is never a good idea.

The show will air at 9 p.m. PST and EST on Sunday--Valentine's Day.

The program, which is aimed at teens, explores the consequences--to one's emotions, reputation, and legal standing--in posing for, taking, distributing, or forwarding nude pictures by cell phone or computer.

The show features 19-year-old Ally, who was 16 when she sent a nude picture to an ex-boyfriend … Read more