Daily Bits

texting

Apple Goes After “Sexting”

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I think I first heard of the term “sexting” from the kids at Glee (yeah, cat’s out of the bag, I used to watch the show).  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what sexting means (sexually explicit text messaging, in case you aren’t sure), and the guys at Apple are going out of their way to make sure that users who shouldn’t be sexting will not be able to do so – in the future.  (Something to think about: who is to determine who shouldn’t be engaging in a certain activity?)

The news is that Apple has just been granted a patent that can block sexually explicit messages – both at the sending and receiving stages.  The patent was originally filed back in 2008 but was only granted now.  This move is not really surprising as Apple has always taken a stand against sexually explicit material.  Remember that the Apple Store already has a ban on sexually explicit applications.  Steve Jobs himself has spoken out about this stand, and says that it is unlikely to change in the future:

You know, there’s a porn store for Android. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go — so we’re not going to go there.

Here’s an abstract of the patent:

Systems, devices, and methods are provided for enabling a user to control the content of text-based messages sent to or received from an administered device. In some embodiments, a message will be blocked (incoming or outgoing) if the message includes forbidden content. In other embodiments, the objectionable content is removed from the message prior to transmission or as part of the receiving process. The content of such a message is controlled by filtering the message based on defined criteria. The criteria may be defined according to a parental control application. These techniques also may be used, in accordance with instructional embodiments, to require the administered devices to include certain text in messages. These embodiments might, for example, require that a certain number of Spanish words per day be included in e-mails for a child learning Spanish.

I find the clause about other applications particularly interesting, don’t you?  If ever this technology finds its way to the market, there will certainly be a lot of takers, I think.

Text Messaging Among U.S. Teen Explodes

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Following our recent coverage of  how young online people value their privacy, here comes another report centering on the same demographics this time looking into the exploding text messaging habit of U.S. teens. The study, conducted by Pew Internet shows how teen-agers have embraced text messaging and made it as their main communication medium among circle of friends.

According to the study, some 75% of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones.  And those phones have become indispensable among teens when communicating with their friends. Around 72%  of American teens engaged in text messaging. Even more interesting is the fact that more than half or 54% to be exact of American teens are daily texters. In fact, texting has overtaken other forms of interaction and communication among American teens today.

Other key findings of the Pew Internet study include:

  • One in three teens sends more than 100 text messages a day, or 3000 texts a month.
  • Calling is still a central function of the cell phone for teens and for many teens, voice is the primary mode of conversing with parents.
  • Girls more fully embrace most aspects of cell phone-based communication.
  • For parents, teens’ attachment to their phones is an area of conflict and regulation.
  • Most schools treat the phone as a disruptive force that must be managed and often excluded from the school and the classroom.
  • Cell phones help bridge the digital divide by providing internet access to less privileged teens. Still, for some teens, using the internet from their mobile phone is “too expensive.”
  • Cell phones are seen as a mixed blessing. Parents and teens say phones make their lives safer and more convenient. Yet both also cite new tensions connected to cell phone use.
  • Cell phones are not just about calling or texting – with expanding functionality, phones have become multimedia recording devices and pocket-sized internet connected computers
  • 4% of teens say they have sent a sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude image of themselves to someone via text message

So there. Now you know what your kids are up to in case they use their mobile phones more often than you’ve expected.

Do Suffer From Text Neck?

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Texting

Remember the hullaballoo about the Blackberry thumb, a condition that supposedly arose due to overusing Blackberry phones and mobile phones in general? That was many years ago, and now, there is some other medical condition that can be blamed on using mobile phones way too much.

Called text neck, the medical condition is supposed to be the result of spending too much time hunched over your mobile phone, presumably texting. While the name is limited to one activity, the text neck may actually result from other activities that you do on your mobile phone and/or tablet. Whatever it is that you like doing on those devices, the fact that you spend considerable time in a hunched over position can result in text neck. [Read more…] about Do Suffer From Text Neck?