From My Inbox: TV For Tots, Blogging Turns 10, Sugarscape
Posted by anastasia on 12-18-2007
Instead of writing one massive Essentials post, I figured I would start with what’s in my email and then do a separate post of links I have gathered. After today, I will have officially “dug out” from being gone. First up Ypulse reader Ashley sent this link to a post about whether TV for tots under 2 is a bad thing — the gist is that a few educational DVDs won’t ruin your child. It’s written by Mallory Lewis, the daughter of the children’s entertainer, Shari Lewis (and Lamb Chop – does anyone else find it disturbing that the cute puppet is named for the food he will become? It’s like calling a pig, “Bacon”).
The Campaign For A Commercial Free Childhood sent an email about their latest target, Webkinz, for running outside advertising on its site. Izzy Neis explores this on her blog. Sites like Nick.com have advertising, too. I’m not sure where you draw the line on this, which kids’ sites should or shouldn’t run ads for movies, etc.
Ypulse reader and regular tipster Bob reminded me that yesterday blogs became tweens – or turned 10. Ypulse is still a toddler (will be 4 in May!), but it’s an opportunity for those of us who do it to reflect on how we got started. I attribute my original blogging inspiration to one Robert Duffy, my Netscape carpool buddy back in 2000. He launched his music blog Donewaiting.com when we were working together in Columbus, OH, for AOL Web Properties. When I was thinking about how to start Ypulse, I thought of him, and decided it was a no-brainer. Thanks Duffy!
danah boyd forwarded this satirical video called Web Site Story spoofing the whole “To Catch A Predator” thing…it’s both sort of funny and sort of offensive.
I received an email alert that Pew published its latest research on privacy revealing that most adults don’t really seem to care about what they share online. According to the survey, “fully 60% of internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available about them online. Similarly, the majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of information that can be found about them online.” It’s kind of interesting when you think about how freaked out they are about how much information teens are posting.
On a related note, Ypulse reader John wrote, “I was recently at a gathering of bloggers and online community people, and I found that everything they had to say rang totally true for me and my values except that none of them thought there was, or should be, any real right of privacy nor were they much concerned about it. They didn’t see it as a problem at all. These 3 European guys attending were shocked. One of them said, ‘do you have to go through what we went through in Europe in the 1930′s and 40′s to see why it matters?’”
From across the pond, the folks at UK teen mag Sugar informed me that they launched their social media effort called Sugarscape. From their email: “The site will allow teen girls to share and comment on webpages from around the web with their friends and other Sugarscape.com users. In addition to this, the site will also provide users with typical social networking tools such as profile pages, friends lists and public/private messaging.”
Finally, Ypulse reader Melissa wrote to let folks know that the very cool non-profit org L.A. Youth is holding an event Tuesday, January 29th, 8:30 am-10am at their offices. Here’s the description:
Interactive dialogue to focus on 20 year retrospective of “best of” articles, highlighting trends in youth-driven content as well as First Amendment challenges. Teens will also share concerns about issues confronting them in today’s world. The dialogue will be moderated by L. A. Times Columnist Kurt Streeter. To RSVP, email Melissa.
Categorized under: International, Magazines, TV, Tweens, Web, Youth Media