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American schoolchildren continue to lag behind those of major competitors in math and science exams given globally, despite progress on some of those tests, according to results from international achievement exams.
Students in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Finland, among others nations, bested U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students on the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, known as TIMSS. The nation's fourth-graders made some progress on the math exam since it last was given in 2007, but U.S. scores on the other exams were statistically unchanged. Despite that, U.S. students still outperformed the international averages and were among the top performers compared with the 60 countries and educational systems that administered the fourth-grade math and science tests and the 59 systems that gave the eighth-grade exams. U.S. students either placed in, or tied for, the top 13 spots on all those exams.
Competitors Still Beat U.S. in Tests
Across his Administration, President Obama has taken bold steps advancing a digital environment that rewards innovation and empowers individuals the world over. This is why the United States is strongly represented at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) treaty conference in Dubai this month, where over 100 delegates from the public sector, private sector, and civil society are joining with our international partners to ensure the future of global, interoperable telecommunications networks.
From the start, the U.S. position has been clear: the WCIT should be about updating a public telecommunications treaty to reflect today’s market-based realities — not a new venue to create regulations on the Internet, private networks, or the data flowing across them. Today, over 85 percent of the world has access to mobile phones because of modern, competitive marketplaces. And while much is left to be done connecting more to this digital future, the solution is not counterproductive regulation at the national or international level. By supporting principles that expand telecommunications infrastructure to underserved and developing populations, the WCIT can play a valuable role in ensuring technological innovation continues for the benefit of all. But we should not confuse telecommunications infrastructure with the information that traverses it. The global consensus for a free and open Internet is overwhelming. Millions in the United States and around the world have already added their voices to this conversation, and their position is clear: they do not want the WCIT to govern the Internet or legitimize more state control over online content. Our Administration could not agree more – and will not support a treaty that sets that kind of precedent.
United Behind the Free Flow of Information
The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) calling for an investigation of and action against the Mobbles Corporation for operating the mobile application Mobbles in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Mobbles, a game involving virtual pets, is directed at children under age 13. It collects personal information from children without providing any notice to parents (nor even attempting to obtain verifiable parental consent), as required by law. Available since May 2012 on iTunes for the iPhone and from the Google Play store for Android devices, Mobbles has ranked among the top 100 grossing “Entertainment” iTunes apps in 24 countries, and among the top 10 in 10 countries. Between 10,000 and 50,000 users downloaded Mobbles over the last 30 days in the Google Play store alone. An elaborate, location-based game that involves capturing, collecting, trading, and caring for virtual pets, “Mobbles” raises a number of privacy and child-safety issues, CDD’s complaint explains. First, because Mobbles is a location-based game, it uses smart-phone technology both to determine and to share the precise physical location of children playing the game. Second, because users must be within 54 yards of a Mobble to “catch” it, the game encourages children to wander around at all hours to get close enough to capture a particular Mobble (some of which are only available at night). Third, through its newsletter sign-up and registration required for pet trading, Mobbles collects children’s email addresses and other contact information without parental notice or consent. And, finally, although many of the game’s items are available free (as is the game itself), Mobbles encourages the expenditure of actual funds (via credit-card accounts) to acquire virtual items that are only available for purchase.
As CDD’s complaint makes clear, Mobbles violates COPPA’s requirement that any online service directed at children provide notice “of what information it collects from children, how it uses such information, and its disclosure practices for such information,” and obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from a child. Mobbles provides no privacy policies nor does it make any attempt to obtain parental consent before collecting a child’s physical address, online contact information, or the online contact information of a child’s friends.
CDD Charges Mobile Game Company with Violation of COPPA
In the growing realm of mobile news, men and the more highly educated emerge as more engaged news consumers, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, in collaboration with The Economist Group.
These findings parallel, for the most part, demographic patterns of general news consumption. But there are some important areas of difference between mobile and general news habits-particularly among young people. While they are much lighter news consumers generally and have largely abandoned the print news product, young people get news on mobile devices to similar degrees as older users. And, when getting news through apps, young people say they prefer a print-like experience over one with high-tech or multi-media features. These are key findings of an analysis of mobile news habits across a variety of demographic groups. This report builds off an earlier PEJ and The Economist Group report, The Future of Mobile News, which found that half of U.S. adults now own mobile devices and a majority use them for news. Both reports are based on a survey of 9,513 U.S. adults conducted from June-August 2012 (including 4,638 mobile device owners). Men, especially young men, are heavier mobile news consumers than women. More than 40% of men get news daily on either their smartphone and/or tablet, compared with roughly 30% of women. On the tablet specifically, men check in for news more frequently and are more apt to read in-depth news articles and to watch news videos. Women, on the other hand, are more likely than men to use social networks as a way to get news.
The Demographics of Mobile News
DirecTV has imposed a new "regional sports fee" on new customers in parts of the country, highlighting how the rising costs of sports programming is raising the price of pay TV packages.
The satellite TV operator in late summer began adding the new fee of about $3 a month to the bill of new customers that subscribe to a channel tier above basic entertainment packages. The fee is only being added in markets like New York and Los Angeles, where multiple regional sports networks broadcast games of several major teams, a DirecTV spokesman said. Consumers who don't want to pay the new fee will have to settle for DirecTV's lower-tier packages, which come without the sports channels and various other channels such as the Cooking Channel and Fuse, a music channel. A spokesman for DirecTV said the new fee "is a way of recovering some, but not all, of the skyrocketing cost of sports in certain markets." The spokesman said that the "vast majority" of new customers still opt to buy the TV packages with regional sports networks, despite being informed of the surcharge.
DirecTV Imposes Sports Fee on Some Customers
Some of Netflix's biggest fans don't even have a credit card. Luckily for the Internet video company, their parents do. With a dedicated children's portal, recently bolstered by a theatrical deal with Walt Disney, Netflix is solidifying its place as a go-to network for young kids. For parents, Netflix offers a commercial-free collection of age-appropriate content, viewable on televisions and tablets alike.
For Netflix, children offer a captive audience that generally cares less about the newness of programming, allowing the company to serve them content that typically costs less. But Netflix's popularity with children could be a double-edged sword. Analysts say the streaming service could be undermining the very companies that supply it with most of its children's television content, namely Disney and Viacom. Ratings for the kids' cable genre were up 8.5% year-over-year in the first quarter among those who didn't stream content and only 0.4% among those who did. Disney ratings grew 11% for nonstreaming users and 6% for streaming users, while Viacom ratings grew 6% for nonstreaming users and only 2% for streaming users.
Netflix Is Doing It for the Kids
Verizon Communications named Randal S. Milch executive vice president of global public policy and communications, the lead role in Washington for the telecom giant. Milch in effect replaces Thomas J. Tauke, who is switching gears to advise chief executive Lowell McAdam on legislative strategy including federal telecom law and corporate tax reform, the firm said. The changes were part of a broader organizational shift with Verizon merging federal, state and legal operations. Tauke, 62, served as a Republican representative of Iowa from 1979 to 1991.
Verizon names new head of Washington operations
A profile of Erin Egan. She joined Facebook in September 2011 and became the company chief privacy officer for policy, located in the nation’s capital.
The company needed her. Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has amassed a mountainous hoard of user data and has been scrutinized by lawmakers and federal regulators for how it uses that data and keeps it private. Egan’s job is to help explain the company’s privacy policies to its gigantic user base, which reached 1 billion monthly active users in October. She also ensures that feedback from lawmakers and regulators is incorporated into Facebook’s policies and weighs the privacy implications of new products the social network is looking to roll out.
Facebook’s chief privacy officer works to keep 1 billion friends in the loop
Nick Clegg has told the British Home Office to go “back to the drawing board” on proposals for police and security services to monitor e-mail, web searches and Skype phone calls, after a cross-party committee issued a scathing report on the plans.
The deputy prime minister commissioned a joint committee to scrutinize the government’s draft legislation on communications data earlier this year, following concerns that awarding police new powers would breach civil liberties. In its report, the group of peers and MPs has accused the Home Office of using “fanciful and misleading” figures to justify its proposals, which it says go much further than is needed to pursue criminals and do not include necessary safeguards. Clegg highlighted the “serious criticisms” in the document, covering the scope of the plans, proportionality, cost and checks and balances. While the deputy prime minister said he understood that law enforcement agencies needed new powers to fight crime, he made clear that the government needed to have a “fundamental rethink” about the legislation. “We cannot proceed with this bill and we have to go back to the drawing board,” he said.
Clegg orders Internet monitoring rethink UK gov't told to rethink data surveillance plan (Associated Press)
A Russia-led coalition withdrew a proposal to give governments new powers over the Internet, a plan opposed by Western countries in talks on a new global telecom treaty.
Negotiations on the treaty mark the most sustained effort so far by governments from around the world to agree on how - or whether - to regulate cyberspace. The United States, Europe, Canada and other advocates of a hands-off approach to Internet regulation want to limit the new treaty's scope to telecom companies. US ambassador Terry Kramer welcomed the decision to withdraw the Russia-led plan. But he also said: "These issues will continue to be on the table for discussion in other forms during the remainder of the conference." China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates had co-signed the aborted proposal. The UAE insisted the document had not been withdrawn.
Russia backs down on proposals to regulate the Internet Tough internet regulation plan dropped (FT)