“Parental Controls & Online Child Protection” PFF special report (Version 4.0 Release)

by Adam Thierer on July 27, 2009 · Comments

ThiererBookCover062007The latest edition (Version 4.0) of my PFF special report on “Parental Controls and Online Child Protection: A Survey of Tools & Methods” is now up.  For those not familiar with the report, it explores the market for parental control tools, rating schemes, education and media literacy efforts, and various other tools, methods, and initiatives aimed at promoting online child safety.  After evaluating that state of this market, I conclude: “There has never been a time in our nation’s history when parents have had more tools and methods at their disposal to help them decide what constitutes acceptable media content in their homes and in the lives of their children.”  Moreover, I believe that the parental controls and content management tools cataloged in the report represent a better, less restrictive alternative to government regulation.

Version 4.0 of the report is now over 250 pages long (up from 200 pages in Version 3.0) and it contains almost 70 exhibits (up from 50), 725 references (up from roughly 500), and numerous updates in all five sections of the book. Major updates have been made to the Internet, social networking, and mobile media sections, reflecting the growing importance of those sectors and issues. Other new sections or appendices have also been added to the report, including:

  • a new section examining how many households really need parental control tools;
  • a new appendix on the downsides of mandatory parental controls and restrictive default settings;
  • a new section on the dangers of “deputizing the online middleman” solution as an approach to solving child safety concerns;
  • a new appendix reviewing the findings of 5 past online safety task forces;
  • … and much more.

I issue major updates once a year and 1 or 2 minor tweaks during the course of the year to reflect the evolution of the parental control and online child safety marketplace and debate. The report is available free-of-charge on the PFF website, and the previous editions of the report are housed there too in case you want to see how it has evolved over the past couple of years. For those interested in taking a quick look at the report, I have embedded it down below the fold as a Scribd file. Finally, as is always the case, I encourage readers to send me updates and suggestions for how to improve the report and I will incorporate them into future versions.
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Comments Posted in: First Amendment, Free Speech & Online Child Safety

Reply Comments in FCC’s “Child Safe Viewing Act” Notice of Inquiry

by Adam Thierer on May 20, 2009 · Comments

As I mentioned in a post last month, dozens of comments were filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as part of the agency’s “Child Safe Viewing Act” Notice of Inquiry.  Again, this proceeding was required under the “Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007,” which Congress passed last year and President Bush signed last December. The goal of the bill and the FCC’s proceeding (MB 09-26) is to study “advanced blocking technologies” that “may be appropriate across a wide variety of distribution platforms, including wired, wireless, and Internet platforms.”  I filed 150+ pages worth of comments in this matter, and here’s my analysis of why this bill and the FCC’s proceeding are worth monitoring closely.

Anyway, this week saw many of the same groups that filed before (and some new ones) file reply comments about those earlier submissions.  To make things simple, I have collected most of the notable reply comments down below in case anyone is interested.
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Comments Posted in: First Amendment, Free Speech & Online Child Safety

NTIA names Online Safety Technical Working Group members

by Adam Thierer on April 28, 2009 · Comments

Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the members of the new Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG).  I am honored to be among those chosen to participate in this new task force and I look forward to continuing the work started last year with the Harvard Berkman Center’s Internet Safety Technical Task Force (ISTTF), which I also served on.   I was very proud of the work done by the ISTTF and the impressive final report that Prof. John Palfrey crafted to reflect our findings.  I am eager to investigate these issues further and take a look at the latest research and technologies that can help us better understand how to protect our kids online while also protecting the free speech and privacy rights of Netizens.

The new NTIA working group, which was established under the “Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act,” will report to the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information on industry-implemented online child safety tools and efforts. Within a year of convening its first meeting, the group will submit a report of its findings and make recommendations on how to increase online safety measures.

Below the fold I have listed the complete roster of OSTWG task force members.  I very much looking forward to working with this outstanding group.  And I’m happy to report that my TLF blogging colleague Braden Cox will be joining me on this task force!

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Comments Posted in: First Amendment, Free Speech & Online Child Safety

Boxee vs. the DMCA

by Tim Lee on January 18, 2009 · Comments

I was very interested to read Berin’s post about the Boxee, a device I had not heard about until today. I’ve been asking for years why there are no good video jukebox products on the market, so I’m always interested to see new entrants in the market.

If Wikipedia is to be believed, Boxee is a fork of the XBMC Media Center, which I first wrote about way back in 2006. The reason you may not have heard more about the XBMC Media Center is that it sits in an uncomfortable legal grey area. Thanks to the DMCA, one of its most inportant features—the ability to play and rip DVDs—is illegal. And there are probably other DMCA- and software-patent-related legal impediments to releasing a product like the XBMC. As a consequence, the major consumer electronics manufacturers have released relatively crippled set-top boxes that have not caught on with consumers.

Boxee’s wikipedia page suggests that Boxee uses libdvdcss, a cousin of the DeCSS library that the courts ruled to be an illegal “circumvention device” back in 2001. And the DMCA holds that someone who “trafficks” in a circumvention device “willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain” should be fined up to $500,000 and imprisoned for up to 5 years.

Now, the NYT article says that “Lawyers say that Boxee does not appear to be doing anything illegal,” although it doesn’t quote any actual lawyers, nor does it say which legal issues those lawyers examined. It’s possible that Boxee stripped out libdvdcss and replaced it with code that has been approved by the DVD founders. Moreover, it seems that Boxee’s strategy is to just build cool technologies and let the legal chips fall where they may:

Mr. Ronen said that like many start-ups, Boxee was definitely leaping without looking. “Don’t assume we have lawyers. That’s expensive,” he said.

This is a very risky strategy, both from a business perspective and for Ronen personally. But it’s also likely to pay off. If Ronen is able to get enough customers before the MPAA can be roused into taking legal action, they have a pretty good shot at winning the resulting PR war and forcing the MPAA to back down, even if the MPAA has the law on its side. And indeed, that may be the only way to break into this market, because if he plays by the rules he’ll never get the studios’ permission to build a set-top box the studios don’t control.

Fortunately, courts tend to be swayed by the perceived “legitimacy” of a technology’s designers. Remember, for example, that just 7 years after suing to keep MP3 players off the market, the recording industry insisted to the Supreme Court that everyone knew MP3 players were legal. There weren’t any changes to the law in the interim. Rather, MP3 players had become a familiar technology and so judges intuitively “knew” that any interpretation of the law that ruled out MP3 players must be wrong. If Boxee can grow fast enough, and can cultivate a “good citizen” image, it may be able to pursuade judges that any interpretation of the DMCA that precludes Boxee must be wrong.

The more fundamental point, of course, is that it’s ridiculous that Ronen has to worry about these legal issues in the first place. The copy protection technologies Ronen is circumventing haven’t stopped piracy, they’ve simply given Hollywood a legal club with which to bludgeon technology companies it doesn’t like. Had the DMCA not been on the books, we likely would have seen a proliferation of XBMC-like device and software on the market several years ago.

Comments Posted in: DMCA, DRM & Piracy

Senate passes “Child Safe Viewing Act” (S. 602)

by Adam Thierer on October 2, 2008 · Comments

Yesterday, the Senate passed S. 602, “The Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007,” which was introduced by Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) in February 2007. The bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to study the market for “advance blocking technologies” (i.e., parental controls and rating systems) that parents can use to protect their kids from inappropriate content from various sources and platforms. On the surface, the measure seems harmless enough, but in practice, it could have some troubling long-term free speech implications if it leads to more government meddling with parental controls and ratings systems.

The measure requires the FCC to initiate a notice of inquiry to consider measures to examine:

  1. the existence and availability of advanced blocking technologies that are compatible with various communications devices or platforms;
  2. methods of encouraging the development, deployment, and use of such technology by parents that do not affect the packaging or pricing of a content provider’s offering; and
  3. the existence, availability, and use of parental empowerment tools and initiatives already in the market.

That all sounds harmless enough. Indeed, such a study could produce some useful information about the state of the parental controls marketplace.  (Of course, I could save them some taxpayer dollars and just send copies of my big Parental Controls & Online Child Safety report to all FCC officials!)

But it’s what comes next in the bill that causes me some heartburn. As part of the review mandated by the bill, S. 602 commands the FCC to “consider advanced blocking technologies that”:

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Comments Posted in: First Amendment, Free Speech & Online Child Safety

Version 3.1 release: “Parental Controls & Online Child Protection”

by Adam Thierer on September 16, 2008 · Comments

Just FYI, the latest update of my booklet on “Parental Controls and Online Child Protection: A Survey of Tools & Methods” is now live. The new version, Version 3.1, provides minor updates to all sections of the book and a new appendix of relevant research in the field. I issue major updates early each year and 1 or 2 tweaks during the course of the year to reflect the evolution of the parental control and online child safety market and debate. ThiererBookCover062007

For those not familiar with the report, it explores the market for parental control tools, rating schemes, education efforts, and initiatives aimed at promoting online child safety. I believe that the parental controls and content management tools cataloged in the report represent a better, less restrictive alternative to government regulation. As I conclude after evaluating that state of the market: “There has never been a time in our nation’s history when parents have had more tools and methods at their disposal to help them decide what constitutes acceptable media content in their homes and in the lives of their children.”

The report is available free-of-charge on the PFF website, and the previous editions of the report are housed there too in case you want to see how it has evolved over the past two years. For those interested in taking a quick look at the report, I have embedded it down below the fold as a Scribd file. Finally, as is always the case, I encourage readers to send me updates and suggestions for how to improve the report and I will incorporate them into future versions.
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Comments Posted in: First Amendment, Free Speech & Online Child Safety

FCC’s DRM ban may derail distribution of new-release films on cable TV

by Ryan Radia on August 5, 2008 · Comments

There’s been a lot of FUD floating around about the MPAA’s plan to offer new release films for cable subscribers to watch at home on pay-per-view channels. Currently, movies come out on DVD about four months after their theatrical release, and are typically available on pay-per-view a month or two thereafter. As box office receipts have waned, Hollywood has warmed to the idea of letting consumers watch movies at home just a few weeks after being released in theaters.

Due to piracy concerns, new movies would be subject to an extra layer of copy protection. The movie studios want to use a technology called Selectable Output Control (SOC) to prevent new release films from being viewed on analog outputs. SOC makes it possible to seal the “analog hole” by disabling all unprotected paths.

Consumers are willing to pay to watch new movies at home, and content producers are willing to transmit them, but government is standing in the way. FCC regulations forbid multi-channel video programming distributors from activating SOC, but firms may apply for a waiver from these rules if they can demonstrate that consumers stand to benefit. The MPAA has applied for a waiver, arguing that “These new Services are exactly the type of ‘new business models’ that the Commission contemplated when it adopted the encoding rules.”

Under Section 304 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC is tasked with “assuring commercial consumer availability of equipment used to access services provided by multichannel video programming distributors.” FCC regulations, therefore, mandate that all video transmitted on cable TV must be viewable on all outputs, including legacy analog connectors like RCA and S-Video. In a 2003 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC stated that, “we are concerned that selectable output control would harm those ‘early adopters’ whose DTV equipment only has component analog inputs for high definition display, placing these consumers at risk of being completely shut off from the high-definition content they expect to receive.”

But it’s expected that early adopters will sometimes encounter technical hurdles. Why should Selective Output Control be any different? Just as HD-DVD players are effectively obsolete, and K56flex modems are no longer supported by most dial-up ISPs, people who bought HDTVs several years ago prior to the adoption of HDCP might have to live without the ability to watch new release movies at home.

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Comments Posted in: DMCA, DRM & Piracy, Telecom & Cable Regulation

The Perils of Mandatory Parental Controls and Restrictive Defaults

by Adam Thierer on April 11, 2008 · Comments

I have just released a new PFF white paper on “The Perils of Mandatory Parental Controls and Restrictive Defaults.” It points out the dangers of government mandating that parental controls be defaulted to their most restrictive position. I’ve gone ahead and just pasted the entire text below (but without the footnotes):
_______________

During ongoing debates about parental controls, ratings, and online child safety, there have occasionally been rumblings about the possibility of requiring that media, computing and communications devices: (1) be shipped to market with parental controls embedded, and possibly, (2) those controls being defaulted to their most restrictive position, forcing users to opt out of the controls later if they wanted to consume media rated above a certain threshold.

Imagine, for example, a law requiring that every television, TV set-top box, and video game console be shipped with on-board screening technologies that were set to block any content rated above “G” for movies, “TV-Y” for television, or “E” for video games, which are the most restrictive rating designations for each type of media. Similarly, all personal computers or portable media devices sold to the public could be forced to have filters embedded that were set to block all “objectionable” content, however defined.

If “default” requirements such as this were mandated by law, parents would be forced to opt out of the restrictions by granting their children selective permission to media content or online services. In theory, this might help limit underage access to objectionable media or online content. Such a mandate might be viewed as less intrusive than direct government censorship and, therefore, less likely to run afoul of the constitution.

For these reasons, such a proposal would likely have great appeal among some policymakers, “family” groups, child safety advocates, and parents. But mandating parental controls and restrictive defaults is a dangerous and elitist idea that must be rejected because it will have many unintended consequences and not likely achieve the goal of better protecting our kids.
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Comments Posted in: First Amendment, Free Speech & Online Child Safety, Video Games & Virtual Worlds

“Parental Controls and Online Child Protection” – Version 3.0 release

by Adam Thierer on March 26, 2008 · Comments

PFF has just releasing an updated edition of my booklet on “Parental Controls and Online Child Protection: A Survey of Tools & Methods.” The new version, Version 3.0, includes two new appendixes and updates to each section to reflect new parental control tools and programs developed in the last nine months.
ThiererBookCover062007

The updated report is timely as it comes on the heels of the recently-announced Internet Safety Technical Task Force, which is being chaired by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. I am privileged to serve as a member of the Task Force, which is evaluating various online safety technologies and strategies and then reporting back to state attorneys general with our findings.

Those issues and much more are covered in the latest edition of my report. The report explores the market for parental control tools, rating schemes, education efforts, and initiatives aimed at promoting online child safety. I believe that the parental controls and content management tools cataloged in the report represent a better, less restrictive alternative to government regulation. As I conclude after evaluating that state of the market: “There has never been a time in our nation’s history when parents have had more tools and methods at their disposal to help them decide what constitutes acceptable media content in their homes and in the lives of their children.”

Version 3.0 of the special report, now over 200 pages, contains over fifty exhibits and numerous updates in all five sections of the book. Major updates have been made to the Internet, social networking, and mobile media sections, reflecting the growing importance of those sectors and issues. A greatly expanded section on video empowerment technologies has also been included. Finally, two appendices have also been added: a comprehensive legislative index cataloging over thirty bills introduced in Congress on these issues (complied with John Morris of Center for Democracy & Technology), and a glossary of 35 relevant terms and cases.

The report is available free-of-charge on the PFF website, as are the previous editions. And I am happy to provide hard copies to those who are interested.

Comments Posted in: First Amendment, Free Speech & Online Child Safety

Parental Control Perfection

by Adam Thierer on October 11, 2007 · Comments

PFF has just released my latest paper entitled “Parental Control Perfection? The Impact of the DVR and VOD Boom on the Debate over TV Content Regulation.” In the report, I focus on the extent to which new video technologies, such as digital video recorders (DVRs) and video on demand (VOD) services, are changing the way households consume media and are helping parents better tailor viewing experiences to their tastes and values. I provide evidence showing the rapid spread of these technologies and discuss how parents are using these tools in their homes. Finally, I argue that these developments will have profound implications for debates over the regulation of video programming. As parents are given the ability to more effectively manage their family’s viewing habits and experiences, it will lessen—if not completely undercut—the need for government intervention on their behalf.

This 16-page report can be found at: http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/pop14.20DVRboomcontentreg.pdf

Comments Posted in: First Amendment, Free Speech & Online Child Safety

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