Marinko Jankovic, a 61-year-old teacher at Berwick Secondary College in Berwick, Australia (just down the road from Melbourne) is facing six months in jail on charges of surreptitiously taking upskirt photographs and videos of female students in his classroom. Although he pleaded guilty to making 106 videos over a four-year period and to possession of…
Earlier this month, I attended the initial roll-out of the proposed Model Code of Ethics for Educators at the annual convention of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification in Portland, Oregon. The proposed national code — a first for P-12 educators — is the culmination of a multi-year effort by…
A four-month investigation resulted in the arrest and jailing of a 39-year-old elementary school teacher named Eric Shank Van Eenige. According to Van Eenige’s public defender Sandra Bennewitz, he has taught at the Ariel Elementary Community School in Chicago’s North Kenwood neighborhood for the past decade, earning just over $85,000 per year from the Chicago…
In late March, Allstate was issued US Patent No. 2014/0080100 A1 with the relatively innocuous title of “Motor Vehicle Operating Data Collection Analysis” (see below). The legalese that is typically used in patent applications obscures some of the potentially invasive aspects of this patent. Here’s the text from the abstract (or summary) of the patent:…
This story does not describe a common cybertrap for young people, fortunately, but it does help illustrate a couple of relevant points: first, that if young people have a camera available to them at all times (as nearly 100% do), they will occasionally take photos of private activities, and second, even if those private activities…
This case does not involve a cybertrap per se, but it does help to illustrate two related topics: 1) the ongoing profound impact that video is having on both policing and the policing of the police; and 2) as always, the perils of attempted cover-ups. (Actually, this is a case in which a cover-up would…
It was the pool party seen round the world. On June 5, a number of officers from the McKinney Police Department allegedly responded to a “disturbance” or “reports of possible violence” at a pool party at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool in McKinney. It’s not entirely clear who phoned in a report or why,…
As I discussed in Cybertraps for the Young, virtually every new technology has been adapted by students to cheat on exams. It has led to a digital cat-and-mouse game between schools and their pupils, and by and large, the students seem to be winning. Now Internet security firm iSheriff is warning that Apple’s latest consumer…
In a press release issued June 2, Acting United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr. (W.D. Kentucky) announced that his office had arrested Patrick Newman, 35, and charged him with violating child exploitation laws. Prior to the announcement by Kuhn, Newman taught Social Studies at Trinity High School, an all-boys Catholic school located in Louisville,…
During my lecture this morning at Simmons College, a phrase occurred to me which summarizes an approach parents can take to choosing technology for their children. The phrase is “Least Feasible Technology” (LFP). It is a philosophical and practical approach in which parents begin by figuring out what their children need to accomplish and then…
