S 2326 Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act Of 1998

Campbell and Stack (both in political science, Florida International U.) present seven contributions that explore the evolution of political right in American society, as played out in the legislation of Congress, the rulings of the federal judiciary, and the frequent tension between the two. Authors examine the Supreme Court's recent limiting of the power of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution for social reform, the unanticipated sexual harassment consequences of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the "judicially created" right to privacy, the ability of gay rights organizations to bargain with Congress over anti-discrimination legislation, the recent redefinition of state's rights by the Rehnquist majority of the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers in defending the interests or "rights" of Congress in the courts, and a comparative analysis of the differing perspectives of rights between the United States and the rest of the world. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

There was a day when society shielded its children from the often cruel world. At least in the so-called developed countries, the exposure of children to the worst perversions society can conjure up, has never been greater. Children have reached the exalted level of being treated, seduced and targeted to as a 'market'. This bibliography brings together the literature providing access by subject groupings as well as author and title indexes.

The role that children and youth play in the emerging digital media culture; as consumers targeted by marketing campaigns, as creators of their own digital culture, and as political participants. Children and teens today have integrated digital culture seamlessly into their lives. For most, using the Internet, playing videogames, downloading music onto an iPod, or multitasking with a cell phone is no more complicated than setting the toaster oven to "bake" or turning on the TV. In Generation Digital, media expert and activist Kathryn C. Montgomery examines the ways in which the new media landscape is changing the nature of childhood and adolescence and analyzes recent political debates that have shaped both policy and practice in digital culture. The media has pictured the so-called "digital generation" in contradictory ways: as bold trailblazers and innocent victims, as active creators of digital culture and passive targets of digital marketing. This, says Montgomery, reflects our ambivalent attitude toward both youth and technology. She charts a confluence of historical trends that made children and teens a particularly valuable target market during the early commercialization of the Internet and describes the consumer-group advocacy campaign that led to a law to protect children's privacy on the Internet. Montgomery recounts—as a participant and as a media scholar—the highly publicized battles over indecency and pornography on the Internet. She shows how digital marketing taps into teenagers' developmental needs and how three public service campaigns—about sexuality, smoking, and political involvement—borrowed their techniques from commercial digital marketers. Not all of today's techno-savvy youth are politically disaffected; Generation Digital chronicles the ways that many have used the Internet as a political tool, mobilizing young voters in 2004 and waging battles with the music and media industries over control of cultural expression online. Montgomery's unique perspective as both advocate and analyst will help parents, politicians, and corporations take the necessary steps to create an open, diverse, equitable, and safe digital media culture for young people.

In . . . And Communications for All, 16 leading communications policy scholars present a comprehensive telecommunications policy agenda for the new federal administration. This agenda emphasizes the potential of information technologies to improve democratic discourse, social responsibility, and the quality of life along with the means by which it can be made available to all Americans. Schejter has assembled an analysis of the reasons for the failure of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and offers an international benchmark for the future of telecommunications. Addressing a range of topics, including network neutrality, rural connectivity, media ownership, minority ownership, spectrum policy, universal broadband policy, and media for children, it articulates a comprehensive vision for the United States as a twenty-first-century information society that is both internally inclusive and globally competitive.