Internet Safety classes taught in the 21st century elementary classroom.

Back when I was in elementary school, we did such things as story time, show and tell, and (when the teacher was feeling extra challenging) math. Today’s youngsters whom are bombarded by the digital world in countless aspects have come to find the world wide web a wonderful and scary world. So much so that kiddies as young as 5 will begin seeing internet safety taught in their classroom. Think of it as a new “stranger danger” plan that so many of us fondly remember shouting.

The think tank behind the whole initiative is the UK Council for Child Internet Safety and has labeled their new offensive the “Click Clever, Click Safe.” campaign. While I tend to shy away from supporting any laws aimed at mandating the internet, kids do need a helping hand. There’s tons of good stuff out there. But there’s also equal amounts of bad stuff that kids simply don’t need to see. Heck, I see the whole plan as a two bird, one stone coinsurance. Just think, kids will be safer with internet safety classes and growing up with increasingly complex net nannies which will lead to us the hackers and jailbreakers of tomorrow. Pretty exciting.

Overall it’s a nice gesture by the UK government and school system. Technology is here to stay and enveloping people of all ages. Does your child know how to stay safe?

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Electric Pig > The Home Office

Verizon CTO claims: “Metered Broadband is the way of the future”

According to Verizon’s CTO, “Metered Broadband is the way of the future”. Apparently someone forget to tell him how the future is supposed to work.

Look at the title and give yourself a minute to think. Who does this benefit? Obviously the company doing the metering and billing. While on one side, metering is a legitimate answer to raise more revenue for businesses as heavier users pay more, the thought of metering usage and having tiers still doesn’t sit well with me. It makes sense on the most basic level, however, I can’t help but to envision the near future full of metered internet plans that are all grossly overpriced. Even though providers in support of such packages and plans argue otherwise, if internet packages are overpriced now, just wait until metered tiers take hold. Still, with more companies jumping on the support wagon of tiered services and lawmakers in the pockets of those this benefits, the odds of the outcome benefiting consumers is looking slim. Care to vent?

GigaOM