Free Republic

LONDON: Fresh research has confirmed what many parents and teachers already feared: social networking sites are damaging students’ academic performance. The researchers discovered that the majority of students who use Facebook every day are underachieving by as much as an entire grade compared with those who shun the site. In order to reach their conclusion, researchers discovered how students who spend their time accumulating friends, chatting and “poking” others on the site may devote as little as one hour a week to their academic work. “Our study shows people who spend more time on Facebook spend less time studying,” the...

In 2006, Thailand announced it was blocking access to YouTube for anyone with a Thai I.P address, and then identified 20 offensive videos for Google to remove as a condition of unblocking the site. ‘If your whole game is to increase market share,’ says Lawrence Lessig, speaking of Google, ‘it’s hard to . . . gather data in ways that don’t raise privacy concerns or in ways that might help repressive governments to block controversial content.’ In March of last year, Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google, was notified that there had been a precipitous drop in activity...

SAO PAULO -- Brazilian authorities have given Google Brazil 15 days to turn over user information from Websites that promote criminal activity, threatening the company with $23,000 in daily fines if they do not comply. Filed through a district court in Sao Paulo, the judicial order Thursday noted that Google had so far "unsatisfactorily met" investigators' data requirements, preventing them from identifying criminal elements using the Internet service. The government, monitoring online messages for possible crimes, wants the US company to turn over users' personal information to curb violence, racism, discrimination, pornography, and child abuse. Should Google Brazil refuse to...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil has butted heads with the United States this year on issues ranging from cotton subsidies to the war in Iraq. But perhaps none of the battles has been so personal as the one being fought on the Internet. Thousands of Brazilians have become devotees of Orkut (http://www.orkut.com), a popular new social-networking site from Web search leader Google Inc. Orkut allows members to organize themselves into online communities of friends, and friends of friends, to discuss everything from chess to sandwiches. But the rush of Brazilians...