Electronic Devices Inhibit Children's Learning Speech and Social Skills

[From article]

Parents’ immersion in smartphones has left some neglected children starting primary school unable to hold conversations, new research warns.
Almost a third of children starting school are not ready for the classroom, with many lacking social skills, having speech problems or not toilet trained, the survey of senior primary school staff has found.
Teachers warned of children suffering from a lack of attention and interaction from parents obsessed with their smartphones.
[. . .]
One head teacher said: “There is limited parent/child interaction. Four year-olds know how to swipe a phone but haven't a clue about conversations”.
Another primary school leader warned: “We are having more and more children entering our early years stage with delayed speech and a lack of school readiness.
“I feel much of this is down to challenging family circumstances alongside the rise of mobile phones and other mobile technology, which means parents are more often to be seen on the phone than talking to their children.”
[. . .]
The State of Education report found four-fifths of teachers were worried about poor social skills or children having speech problems. More than two-thirds had seen children lacking “self-help skills”.
Teachers also reported levels of reading, writing and numeracy were lower than they should be.
[. . .]
"An agreed definition of what 'school-readiness' means, could be the first step to helping schools, parents and early years practitioners identify what national or localised support is required to meet this growing issue."
Gareth Jenkins director of poverty policy at Save The Children said the report "provides yet further evidence that too many children are not getting the support they need to thrive in their early years".
He said: "Research for Save The Children has shown that falling behind in their early years can drastically limit a child's chances of success later on, affecting results throughout school, and even earnings as adults.”
Last year, a leading child psychiatrist suggested parents enforce a “talk not tap” rule at the dinner table to stop smartphones and tablets taking over children’s lives.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/05/09/parents-smartphones-harming-childrens-ability-to-hold-conversati/

Parents' smartphones harming children's ability to hold conversation, say teachers
Ben Farmer
9 MAY 2016 • 11:06AM

Harvard University Students Urge Anonymous Sex Offense Complaints By Smart Phones

"an app that allows students to electronically and anonymously report instances of sexual assault" Is anyone aware that smart phones are not secure? That they can be hacked. That apps seldom have any security?
But even with security what prevents spoofing? Two anonymous complaints?

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/4/18/uc-considers-callisto-app/

UC Considers Mobile App for Sexual Assault Response
By BRIAN P. YU

Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
April 18, 1016

Government Demands Apple Unlock Terror Phone. Ignores Service Provider's Data Bank

Beginning To Suspect This is One More Media/Government Campaign to Divert People's Attention

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/17/apple-unlocked-iphones-for-the-feds-70-times-before.html

02.18.16 12:05 AM ET
Apple Unlocked iPhones for the Feds 70 Times Before
A 2015 court case shows that the tech giant has been willing to play ball with the government before—and is only stopping now because it might ‘tarnish the Apple brand.’
Shane Harris

* * *

[From article]
This is no different, in principle, from the phone company telling the FBI how to tap into an old-fashioned hardwire phone system. In either case, in order to tap into one phone the government needs a search warrant. And one can compare these situations even further, and note that the government never used the power to wiretap to tap into everyone’s phone, only those suspected of crime.
The Fourth Amendment clearly states that government may seize documents and what is today called "data" only if a warrant is issued, a warrant that clearly specifies the place, type of information, and reason for the search.
That does not change in this case. If it is possible for Apple to obtain that one phone the FBI is concerned about, and decode only that phone’s data, then this is still consistent with the Fourth Amendment, and protect all others’ phones. Even if everyone else’s phones can then be decoded, the government must still have a search warrant to obtain the information.
The FBI did not say it wants to decode all phones, just the one owned by the terrorist. This was clearly intended to assist the FBI in only one investigation. If Tim Cook is concerned that then all persons’ phones can be decoded, then one can only point to the situation today where almost anybody -- including the government -- can have their personal records hacked, seized without permission, and used in crime. This is impossible to stop, and eventually may be impossible to stop even with iPhones.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/02/apples_issue_with_iphone_encryption.html

February 18, 2016
Apple’s Issue with iPhone Encryption
By Michael Bargo, Jr.

Immigrants Know How To Litter, and Have Smart Phones Too

Immigrants also arrive fully informed of their rights to be free from discrimination too. It seems as if there are those charming, thoughtful public spirited lawyers who travel to Guantanamo and elsewhere preparing immigrants to know their rights. But poor white Americans, persons with disabilities remain free from any exercising of their basic rights and from access to attorneys. It just makes your heart grow warm. Ahem!



[From article]
On my walk to the park this morning, I came upon a huge mess on and around two picnic tables: paper, food, cans, bottles, and (the worst) a broken whisky bottle on the concrete beneath a table. Not just a few pieces, but a million pieces. Shattered.
Something glittered amid the trash: a new Apple iPhone. I brought it home, turned it on, and waited. A few hours later, it rang. A woman said that it was her little brother's phone, and she wanted it back.
I: "Yes, I have no problem with that, but first he needs to go to the park with a dust pan and broom, sweep up the glass, and pick up all the trash."
She: "I don't know where he is. His phone is on my account, so it's my property."
[. . .]
Since the woman had an unusual name, I looked her upon Facebook. She's from Khartoum, Sudan. A refugee? Christian or Muslim? With friends named Ali, Mohamed, Hassan, and Ibrahim, I'm just guessing she's not Christian. But I could be wrong.
Curious, isn't it, how soon they learn to assert their property rights, but cleaning up a mess is someone else's problem? In Sudan, the way to dispose of trash is to pitch it out the window. If you're feeling extra energetic, you loft the bag into someone else's yard. Or am I thinking of some other country?
These are the people who come here as "an act of love" (Jeb Bush), who will revitalize the German workforce and offset Germans' low birth rate (Angela Merkel).

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/meditation_on_a_lost_iphone.html

January 17, 2016
Meditation on a lost iPhone
By Henry Percy

Lyft Launches App To Enable Seniors Without Smart Phones Access To Ride Sharing

[From article]
In an effort aimed specifically at improving access to medical care for senior citizens, Lyft has announced the launch of an application that allows users to hail rides for other people.
In a blog post Tuesday, Jan. 12, the ride-sharing company pointed out that senior citizens — especially in a place like New York City, where personal car ownership is low — often have trouble getting to medical appointments. In fact, the company cited research suggesting that more than 3 million people miss medical appointments or delay care each year in the U.S. because of a lack of transportation.
[. . .]



So, working with the National Medtrans Network, Lyft is launching a third-party application called Concierge. With the app, users can enter a pickup and dropoff location for somebody else and, like the main Lyft app, a driver will receive a notification and come pick the person up.

http://www.govtech.com/fs/Lyft-Looks-to-Open-Services-to-Seniors-Without-Smartphones.html

Lyft Looks to Open Services to Seniors Without Smartphones
The company has launched a third-party application in New York City that allows people to hail rides for others.
BY NEWS STAFF

JANUARY 14, 2016

Husband Placed Spyware on Wife's Phone During Divorce Proceedings

Crocker Coulson (left) and Anne Resnik 
Photo: Patrick McMullan (R)

[From article]

Anne Resnik — whose late dad, Frank, was CEO of Philip Morris USA — says hubby Crocker Coulson put the spyware on her phone just before he dumped her last year.
The Brooklyn Heights woman claims that Coulson could read messages from her celebrity lawyer, Raoul Felder — and that he accused her of sneaking off to see a boyfriend because he could track her with the phone’s GPS.
The bug stayed in place for some four months until it was uncovered by a computer expert Resnik had hired, according to court papers.
Felder said they stumbled upon the spyware by chance when they called on the expert to get info off the phone for their case in a more thorough way.
“In the course of that, it was discovered it was [hacked],” said Felder.
The installation of the software, which is called mSpy, allegedly took place on Oct. 6, 2014 — just three weeks before Coulson sued Resnik for divorce, according to a ruling by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Sunshine.
During a subsequent deposition, Coulson invoked the Fifth Amendment 58 times when questioned about bank records that show he purchased a “premium” mSpy subscription, as well as IPVanish software to allegedly hide his tracks.
Resnik says Coulson — with whom she has 6-year-old twins — clearly relied on GPS data from her iPhone to claim that she had “spent several hours with her boyfriend while he was at the hospital after an incident on Oct. 14, 2015.”
In an application to the judge, Resnik sought and won permission to have all of Coulson’s electronic devices impounded on the grounds that he may have been able to read some 202 emails to her from Felder’s firm.

http://nypost.com/2015/09/30/ex-hubby-hacked-phone-to-keep-tabs-on-tobacco-heiress-wife/

Ex-hubby ‘hacked’ phone to keep tabs on tobacco-heiress wife
By Lia Eustachewich, Frank Rosario and Bruce Golding
New York Post
September 30, 2015 | 2:38am

Uber Drivers Ruled Employees In California

[From article]
The June 3 ruling, which applies only in California, came to light on Tuesday after Uber appealed it in a filing in state court in San Francisco, where both the company and the driver in the case are based.
Classifying Uber drivers as employees could mean considerably higher costs for the company, including Social Security, workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance.
That in turn could affect its valuation, currently above $40 billion, and the valuation of other companies that rely on large networks of individuals to provide rides, clean houses and other services.

http://news.yahoo.com/uber-drivers-employees-not-contractors-california-labor-commission-144227418--sector.html

California pokes big hole in Uber's business model
By Sarah McBride and Dan Levine
June 17, 2015

Finding Lost Smart Phones Now Easy, But . . .

Find My Phone
Google has unveiled a new feature that allows users to track down their lost phones whenever they have an internet connection. Simply typing “find my phone” into the search engine will bring up the feature, which shows the handset’s location on a map as well as allowing users to ring it so that it can be found. The update relies on having the latest version of the Google app on the phone, but can be used from any browser.

But then there is this:

Apple wants to track iPhones – even when they’re turned off
The plan, for which Apple was awarded a patent at the end of January, would allow phones to go into a kind of zombie mode – apparently shut off, but actually tracking the phone’s movements. But while the feature might sound like a way of Apple and other governments tracking your location, it will likely make the phones more secure. Apple’s Find My iPhone service allows users to track phones if they’re lost or stolen, allowing them to be traced and found. But at the moment, thieves can simply turn the phones off, stopping the tracking feature.

Smart Phones Affect Youth Health

[From article]
There has been an explosion in numbers in mental health problems amongst youngsters.”
[. . .]
“Something is clearly happening,” she says, “because I am seeing the evidence in the numbers of depressive, anorexic, cutting children who come to see me. And it always has something to do with the computer, the Internet and the smartphone.”
Issues such as cyber-bullying are, of course, nothing new, and schools now all strive to develop robust policies to tackle them, but Lynn Evans’ target is both more precise and more general. She is pointing a finger of accusation at the smartphones - “pocket rockets” as she calls them – which are now routinely in the hands of over 80 per cent of secondary school age children. Their arrival has been, she notes, a key change since 2010.
[. . .]
Parents also need to think about what example they set their children by their own attachment to their smartphones. “We know all about the importance of childhood attachment and good healthy childhood relationships with parents. Yet, if you look in the local park, you see children at a very early age not getting the tender, intense love they used to because their parents are always on their smartphones.
[. . .]
She is keen to point out that this isn’t happening to all children, and that there are other potential causes for the current crisis – “results-driven school programmes”, busy parents and the recession are three
[. . .]
She is keen to point out that this isn’t happening to all children, and that there are other potential causes for the current crisis – “results-driven school programmes”, busy parents and the recession are three

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/children/11486167/Are-smartphones-making-our-children-mentally-ill.html

Are smartphones making our children mentally ill?
Leading child psychotherapist Julie Lynn Evans believes easy and constant access to the internet is harming youngsters
By Peter Stanford
7:00AM GMT 21 Mar 2015

Five Digital Tricks From Kim Komando

File photo. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/12/13/5-digital-tricks-youll-use-almost-every-day/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fmost-popular+%28Internal+-+Most+Popular+Content%29

Five digital tricks you'll use almost every day
By Kim Komando
Published December 13, 2014 
The Kim Komando Show

Cambridge City Council Approves Smart Phone Guided Transportation

One more example of "Let's do it." without consideration of the benefit or harm to the public. Fascination with new can undermine perfectly good protocols. Compare the creation of the new health care law which was passed by intentionally confusing voters and government officials. And mainly by relying on the "stupidity" (MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber's characterization) of American taxpayers.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/11/11/council-approves-transportation-startup/

City Council Approves Transportation Pilot Program
By ARJUN S. BYJU,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
November 10, 2014

Updated: Bypassing Taxis, Using Smartphones for Private Car Services, NY AG Bans

Posted July 1, 2014 9:14 PM ET; Last updated July 14, 2014 9:16 PM ET


[From article]
The lawsuit was filed Friday, hours before San Francisco-based Lyft planned to enter the New York City market. The suit says the company actually operates as a traditional for-hire livery service using mobile technology, not a peer-to-peer transportation platform as claimed.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says the company operates “in open defiance” of state and local licensing and insurance laws. He seeks a court order to stop its New York service until the suit is resolved, plus a civil penalty and loss of profits.

http://nypost.com/2014/07/11/new-york-ag-sues-to-block-lyft/

New York AG sues to block Lyft
By Associated Press
July 11, 2014 | 1:41pm
New York Post

* * *

Updated July 10, 2014 8:57 PM ET

[From article]
A New York man visiting D.C. claims he was kidnapped by his Uber driver.
[. . .]

When a D.C. Taxicab Commission inspector noticed the driver's Virginia license plate and came toward the vehicle the driver allegedly floored it speeding into the 9th Street tunnel and onto I-395 in Virginia.
[. . .]
Last month, Virginia banned Uber and Lyft saying they don't have the right licensing to operate.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/25985330/man-claims-he-was-kidnapped-by-uber-driver-in-dc

Man claims he was kidnapped by Uber driver in DC
Posted: Jul 10, 2014 9:22 AM EDT Updated: Jul 10, 2014 9:57 AM EDT FOX Washington DC

* * *
[updated July 9, 2014 9:28 PM ET]
embed
[From article]
Fans of the firm even began an online petition to persude it to open in New York.
The company, which is in more than 60 American cities, plans to have more than 500 Lyft drivers available when the service starts in New York, the firm said.
[. . .]
Instead of using official taxi operators or limousine service drivers, Lyft recruits regular people who wish to make extra money by offering rides in their own cars in exchange for 'donations' from passengers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2685187/Look-pink-moustache-Ride-sharing-service-Lyft-launches-Queens-Brooklyn-arch-rival-Uber-yellow-cabs.html

Look out for the pink moustache! Battle of the ride-sharing apps come to New York as Lyft launches in Queens and Brooklyn to take on arch-rival Uber and yellow cabs
Firm allows anyone to sign up to become a driver
Uses app similar to Uber to match passengers with drivers
Cars have distinctive pink moustache fitted to front grill
By MARK PRIGG
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 16:21 EST, 8 July 2014 | UPDATED: 18:53 EST, 8 July 2014

* * *

embed
[From article]
New York's attorney general says the car service Uber has agreed to limit prices during emergencies, natural disasters or other market disruptions consistent with the state's law against price gouging.
The firm came under fire in December when huge snowstorms left people stranded - and Uber charged up to eight times its normal fare.
Under the new agreement, it will set a cap during 'abnormal disruptions of the market,' limited to the range charged in the preceding 60 days and excluding the three highest prices.
[. . .]
While Uber has grown rapidly since its 2010 launch in San Francisco, it has run into serious regulatory issues. Ordinances keep it out of cities such as Las Vegas, Miami and Vancouver, British Canada.
In some places, including Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., Uber and similar companies face lawsuits from taxi companies hoping to keep the new competition out.
In Colorado, Governor John Hickenlooper signed a bill on Thursday that legalized drive-for-hire services in consumers' own vehicles, including UberX.
In California, ridesharing is currently regulated through the state's Public Utilities Commission, although taxi drivers and Uber itself are challenging that authority.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2685112/Uber-forced-stop-surge-pricing-emergencies-natural-disasters-charging-EIGHT-TIMES-normal-fare-snowstorms-New-York.html

Uber agrees to stop 'surge' pricing during emergencies and natural disasters after charging EIGHT TIMES its normal fare during snowstorms in New York
Will set a cap during 'abnormal disruptions of the market,' limited to the range charged in the preceding 60 days and excluding the three highest prices
Firm operates in 128 cities across 37 countries
Came under fire in December when huge snowstorms left people stranded - and Uber charged up to eight times its normal fare
By MARK PRIGG
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 14:30 EST, 8 July 2014 | UPDATED: 17:35 EST, 8 July 2014

* * *

[From article]
The University of California (UC) has banned employees from using Uber, Lyft and Airbnb, on business trips — claiming the companies are so dangerous that they present “insurance concerns.”
The system’s Office of Risk Services determined that these and other service startups "are not fully regulated" and therefore "do not protect users to the same extent as a commercially regulated business,” according to an email sent out to the University of California - Los Angeles campus.
The rules apply to the employees of all schools in the UC system. Tweet This
According to an article in Inside Higher Ed in UC officials decided that using these services was so risky that it could present “insurance concerns.”

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=5719

U of California bans employees from using Uber because it’s too dangerous

Katherine Timpf, Reporter
@kctimpf
on Jun 25, 2014 at 3:37 PM EDT
The Office of Risk Services determined these startups "are not fully regulated" and therefore "do not protect users to the same extent as a commercially regulated business.”

* * *

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=5724

Update: University of California says it isn't banning Uber, other peer-to-peer services

Katherine Timpf, Reporter
@kctimpf
on Jun 27, 2014 at 5:20 PM EDT

* * *

[From article]
The company is using a $1.2 billion windfall it got from Boston investors last month to start a national price war with cabs.

http://nypost.com/2014/07/07/uber-cuts-prices-to-compete-with-yellow-cabs/

Uber cuts prices to compete with yellow cabs

By Rebecca Harshbarger

July 7, 2014 | 1:12pm
* * *

[From article]
Uber, Lyft and other ride-share companies use smartphone apps to dispatch drivers who use their own personal vehicles.
PUC enforcement officer Charles Bowser testified at a hearing in Pittsburgh that allowing the services to operate without state oversight is a “recipe for disaster.”

http://nypost.com/2014/07/01/pennsylvania-judges-asked-to-shut-down-ride-share-companies/

Pennsylvania judges asked to shut down ride-share companies
By Associated Press
July 1, 2014 | 5:36pm
New York Post

* * *

[From article]
The move is aimed at providing Uber customers with a point-to-point service. Uber users would in theory be able to order up a ride to the East Side heliport at 34th Street and then board Blade’s fleet of choppers and have an Uber vehicle waiting at the other end to whisk them to their beach houses.
The helicopter rides are much higher margin than Uber’s typical car rides and some speculate they could figure larger in Uber’s business model in the future.

http://nypost.com/2014/06/30/uber-car-service-hooks-up-with-blade-choppers-for-hamptons-trips/

Uber hooks up with Blade choppers for Hamptons trips
By Claire Atkinson
New York Post
June 30, 2014 | 9:19pm

* * *

http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/06/lyft-uber-get-banned-from-virginia/372367/

JUN 6, 2014 4:26PM ET

TECHNOLOGY
Lyft and Uber Get Banned from Virginia
POLLY MOSENDZ

* * *

[From article]
Maher said in the statement. “We are the worldwide leader in innovation and we have no intention to back away from the progress we have made.”
[. . .]
“It is fictional that Uber is not a taxi,” Bruce said. “It is a taxi, and it should be regulated like a taxi, meaning that their insurance coverage should have to be as full as a taxi’s. It should have to [undergo] police checks, safety checks, safety checks of their vehicles just like we do, and be licensed by the police and relevant government entities."

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/6/24/cmbridge-license-commission-ride-share/

Cambridge License Commission Discusses Crackdown on Ridesharing Services
By ALEXANDER H. PATEL, 

Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
June 24, 2014

* * *

[From article]
The most recent alleged assault was eerily similar to one last August, when a woman told police she flagged down a livery sedan and was driven to a secluded spot in Newton, where she was raped. Both rapes have prompted renewed calls for regulations on livery drivers.

And how does this affect the petition of Uber to allow them to operate in Cambridge?

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/06/cops_rape_alert_not_needed

Cops: Rape alert not needed
Friday, June 27, 2014
Boston Herald
By: Owen Boss

Are Smart Trash Cans Tracking Smart Phones In US Too?

Photo: AP
Officials say that an advertising firm must immediately stop using its network of high-tech trash cans, like this one, to track people walking through London's financial district.The City of London Corporation says it has demanded Renew pull the plug on the program, which measures the Wi-Fi signals emitted by smartphones to follow commuters as they pass the garbage cans.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/smartphone_officials_people_track_bv3eT01yLgLoXl9M2J86jO

UK officials tell ad firm to pull plug on high-tech 'spy cans' that track smartphone data as people pass by
New York Post
From ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last Updated: 4:59 PM, August 12, 2013
Posted: 4:57 PM, August 12, 2013

Gov't Can Watch All Your Movements

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/06/20/194505/government-could-use-metadata.html#.UcPPid00jDo

Government could use metadata to map your every move
Posted Thursday, June 20, 2013
By Lindsay Wise and Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Washington Bureau

Basic Online Security Tips

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2300976/The-handy-tips-protect-identity-theft-online-using-password-password-start.html

How to protect yourself against online identity theft (not using 'password' as your password is a start)
Cases of identity theft rapidly increasing every year
Creating strong passwords and protecting smartphones important
By ANTHONY BOND
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 05:22 EST, 29 March 2013 | UPDATED: 10:12 EST, 29 March 2013

Expert Shows Secret App Reveals Locations, Encrypted Info

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/30/smartphone_spying_app/

[17 minute video embedded]
BUSTED! Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps
Researcher says seeing is believing
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
Posted in Security,
30th November 2011 02:34 GMT

* * *

http://townhall.com/columnists/floydandmarybethbrown/2011/12/03/you_have_no_privacy

You Have No Privacy
TownHall.com
Floyd and Mary Beth Brown
December 3, 2011