Government

The British government is considering treating video games in the same way it treats movies by imposing legally-binding age limits. At the moment, video games are covered by a voluntary industry code. The current administration says they could come ... under the authority of the British Board of Film Classification, which rates movies. At the moment the BBFC only acts over video games which are so violent or sexual that they are banned from sale to anyone under 18, affecting 3-4% of games. It appears the government is particularly concerned about games which, while having milder content, could ... (view more)

It appears increasingly likely that Comcast will face a formal rebuke from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its 'throttling' policy in which Internet access was deliberately slowed for those using peer-to-peer download services. The ... FCC won't announce any decision until its monthly meeting on Friday, but Reuters reports five of the nine commissioners have already agreed to uphold a complaint of throttling. (Source: guardian.co.uk ) That won't come as a major surprise, since FCC chairman Kevin Martin had already announced he considered Comcast's actions wrong and that he'd be ... (view more)

European mobile phone users should see the cost associated with 'texting' other countries on their continent drop by around two-thirds if regulators have their way. The European Commission is to crack down on network carriers which charge 'rip-off' ... prices when sending a text message (also known as an SMS) to somebody in another country. According to the European official in charge of telecoms, Viviane Reading, texts from one country to another cost more than 10 times as much as those sent domestically. She says the fees carriers impose are around 32 times the actual costs they incur in ... (view more)

Think regular old spyware is bad? How about government-inspired spyware? Most Americans probably forget the 'liberties' their government takes in intercepting phone and Internet traffic. Across the pond, Sweden is the latest European country whose ... national security worries have made spying on citizens the subject of a contentious bill. The government is debating implementation of a plan similar to an American surveillance program launched in 2001 that would facilitate the Ministry of Defense in 'combating terrorism'. The bill was originally introduced and rejected three years ago, but was ... (view more)

The Supreme Court has ruled that merely offering to give someone else explicit images of children is illegal, even if the pictures or videos don't actually exist. The ruling applies to all means of communication, but obviously most cases today ... involve the Internet. The specific case in question involved the crime of "pandering" images of children, defined as promoting material (real or 'purported') in a way designed to convince people that it is explicit. In this case, a Florida man named Michael Williams had been arrested after using an Internet chat room and offering to trade nude pictures ... (view more)

A member of Congress who campaigns for tighter controls on how children access the Internet says it should be illegal for schools and libraries to provide access to the online game Second Life. Described as a 'virtual world', Second Life allows ... players to create their own characters and interact with others in a surprisingly wide range of activities. Some comedians and singers have given performances 'inside' the game, while one computing firm held Second Life job interviews for a real-world post. But it's more adult activities such as (entirely fictional) drug dealing and prostitution which ... (view more)

Have you ever wondered what life would be like without your computer? Most people can't even fathom it. Would it surprise you to know that until last month, Cubans were restricted from owning computers, surfing the Internet, or having cell phones? ... Until recently, the communist Cuban government (under Fidel Castro) restricted all non-essential expenses, such as air conditioners, luxury cal rentals, and toasters. Average Cubans were not allowed any of these indulgences. (Source: iht.com ) In most countries, computers, Internet access and cell phones are an everyday, often integral, part of life ... (view more)

Facebook has made a deal with state attorney governors to better protect child members from online predators. The site is developing a system to ensure new members are telling the truth about their age, and they'll also add in an automatic warning ... to under-18s whenever they are about to give personal information to an adult. In addition, they'll crack down on members who change the date of birth listed on their profile. As with a similar agreement made earlier this year by rivals MySpace, only Texas decided against signing-up. It's not yet clear why they've opted out this time, but in the ... (view more)

It's no secret that most of us are guilty of driving with a "lead foot". Sooner or later, we all think twice about going just a little faster to get to our desired destinations. Often, it's not the risk of an automobile accident that deters us from ... putting the "pedal to the metal", it's that at any moment a police car zoom up behind, lights flashing. But what if there were no more officers on road patrol? How many of us would go just a little faster knowing that there would be no consequences for such actions? In some states and municipalities, police officers have stopped patrolling certain ... (view more)

Pakistan's government appears to have blundered big-time in an attempt to block its citizens viewing videos on YouTube. The state-run Pakistan Telecom attempted to perform what amounted to a hijacking of YouTube's web server addresses. The idea was ... that anyone attempting to access the site through a Pakistani Internet provider would automatically be re-routed to a different address. Unfortunately, it seems the technical detour was mistakenly copied to a Hong Kong server. From there, it was automatically repeated to all connected servers and, given the nature of the Internet, was almost ... (view more)