“Social networking website MySpace says comparing user profiles with a[n Australia] national database of sex predators would be a useful development to improve internet safety.”

The UK govt is looking into links between videogames & violence. NB: Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers’ Association (ELSA) : “only 2% of games released in the UK receive an 18 certificate and the average age of a gamer is 28.”

Google “is expected to introduce a service on Tuesday to allow Web sites in its ad network to embed relevant videos from some YouTube content creators.” And YouTube video creators are to get a small percentage of the pie! (How EPIC.)

“Today’s students will be tomorrow’s university recruiting agents on the social web, Swinburne University of Technology vice-chancellor Ian Young has predicted. “Prospective students are getting more and more information on universities from … Facebook”

Is Twitter in for some serious competition as Google buys Jaiku, a more orbust Twitter-clone (well, Twitter ancestor, actually I think…)?

“The anti-piracy arm of the Australian music industry has threatened to start suing individuals for illegal downloading if internet providers do not exert more control over their users.”

Henry Jenkins interviews Jean Burgess about her work on the idea of Vernacular Creativity and the creativity found in the digital practices of everyday life.

“US Ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants are using an unusual recruiting tool: the violent video game Halo.”

A survey of educators using Second Life – not surprisingly, a fairly positive response from the EdTech crowd, although, reading between the lines, there is something of an admission about the amount of time needed to get started!

The Internet is graying, as social software targeted to baby boomers hits the web and marketers look toward the most stable and richest of demographics.

“The marches, organized at a lightning pace by volunteers using Facebook, show the increasing power and reach of a social-networking site … Facebook members in dozens of cities worldwide have planned demonstrations for Saturday.”

“The Oct. 24 episode of “CSI: NY” will feature the virtual world of Second Life, Bill Carter reports in today’s Times. Here is a clip of the episode. Anthony Zuiker, the creator of the “CSI” franchises, leapt at the chance to place his character

Once again, the webisodes or minisodes are geo-locked to the US, so global viewers need to look elsewhere to enjoy these 2 minute BSG snippets with young Billy Adama! There might be torrent options, too.

“A Spanish neighbourhood watch association hopes that the video-sharing website YouTube can help clean up their streets of the prostitution that they say the local government has done nothing to curb.”

Even the New York Times is running with the story of US teen Alison Chang whose image was used by Virgin Australia in an advertising campaign via a Creative Commons licensed Flickr photo. (Lawsuits have ensued.)

“… social networking website Facebook has been warned that it could face a consumer fraud charge for failing to live up to claims that youngsters there are safer from sexual predators than at most sites and that it promptly responds to concerns …”

“When ABC’s senior foreign correspondent Jim Sciutto crossed into Myanmar today from neighboring Thailand the authorities took away his camera. So he filed his report for World News and the webcast, with the next best thing, his cell phone.”

“while this rapid response may be able to mobilize voters very quickly, I also wonder what gets lost in this form of just-in-time participation, especially as people move on to the latest video after a few days of breathless commentary on the video of the

“A chance encounter in a Myanmar coffee shop turned teenage backpacker Alex Bookbinder into a political activist … Bookbinder, 19, is the creator of the “Support the monks protest in Burma” campaign on the Internet social networking phenomenon Facebook”

“An Apple software update is disabling iPhones that have been unlocked by owners who wanted to choose which mobile network to use. Earlier this week Apple said a planned update would leave the device “permanently inoperable”. …”

Ridley Scott talks about Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Even though he’s certain Deckard is a replicant, even here the argument continues in the comments section!

During Milan fashion week “a billboard showing the naked 68-pound [31kg!!] anorexic French actress Isabelle Caro is causing a visual shock.” The campaign is created by ting a Oliviero Toscani, called No-Lita – No Anore