Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, and Ford all have products in the works and we should be seeing them as soon as Spring. Ford Motors was actually the first one to start incorporating modern communication systems into their dashboards with their Sync technology. Now users will be able to interact with their Twitter account, watch streaming video, and get their news right from the drivers seat.

Another dashboard integration we can expect will also come from the Ford Sync system. Currently Ford is developing an array of voice-activated health and wellness-based tools to aid drivers with issues like diabetes, allergies, and asthma. While this could still be considered a distraction, it sounds like it will do more good than harm.

Of course we all know that distractions like cell phones in the car can make accidents more likely, I am surprised we’re not hearing more buzz about these innovations from the government. I know there’s going to be some users who abuse these technologies on the highway and that’s going to be a problem. I think there is the possibility that integrating these technologies into our dashboards could actually make them safer for us. Yes, it’s distracting to check your e-mail while your driving, but if your going to do it on your smartphone anyway, it might as well get integrated into your dash so at least your eyes are fixed in the general direction of the road.

The first improvement we may benefit from is the appointment of an Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections. This group would advise officials on customer service improvements and monitor changes.

Also there will be mandatory timeframes for follow-up on customer complaints combined with new regulation for how the complaints are handled. A study currently underway will increase the possibility of the airlines reimbursing travelers for delayed or lost baggage.

Another item on the bill would offer discounts to military passengers and their families. If you travel with a carseat or child safety seat, the airline will be required to post the maximum dimensions prior to a flight on their website. It will also be decided shortly, if travelers with smaller musical instruments can avoid checking them and take them aboard as a carry-on.

Cell phone users will be happy to know that the new bill requires the airline to begin a study that reveals whether usage actually has an impact on airline communication and decides if cell phone use will be permitted during flights. Of course the new bill reasserts that no smoking is allowed on any flights.

Customers who do have complaints can file them with the new DOT hotline, a dedicated line right to the department from the airline.

All and all it sounds like the new bill orders that many things be studied and investigated rather than calling for immediate change. The good news is that it does cover some legitimate territory. Hopefully the friendly skies are about to become a lot more friendly.

According to Ad Age, Google is running print ads for their Good to Know with USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Google’s own Good to Know site states that the advertisements will also appear on public transport and, yes, online. It’s basically Internet Safety 101 to help newbies avoid getting drained by online vampires (not real vampires, for any newbies reading this – there are no vampires on the Internet. Promise).

The campaign is segmented into four areas regarding staying safe on the Internet and successfully keeping one’s personal information secure. The first, perhaps best considered the primer for understanding Internet security, is simply called “Stay safe online” and contains a list of online jargon (e.g., malware, spyware, phishing), ways to look out for yourself, password security, and so on. The main course of Internet safety, if you will. The accompanying video should help newbies catch on:

Following that, other topics include how your data is used online, how Google uses your data, and how to manage your data. Again, Google provides another video via their campaign:

The ads themselves are pretty benign, almost child-like in their aesthetic. It’s pretty disarming if not outright inviting. Some examples of what you can expect to see from these print ads:

That’s a pretty and fun welcome manual to the Internet, yeah?

So now for the question such a marketing campaign begs: Why would Google, the company many people tend to think as synonymous with the Internet, take out ads in newspapers and outdoor billboards? My thinking on it is thus:

People who are regular Internet users likely already have this whole Internet safety/security message down cold. However, there are people who don’t use the Internet regularly and, due to all news being bad news these days, probably only hear mostly bad things coming from this Internet place. Identities stolen, loved ones stalked, bank accounts emptied, dogs and cats living together, etc. This class of advert, methinks, is directed at those people uninitiated in the ways of the Internet and hopes to assuage any of the trepidation and intimidation when they are confronted with Internet.

And the more people that are online, the more Google stands to gain. So why compete with the Facebooks and Twitters with long-time Internet users if you can just create a new pocket of Internet users while painting yourself as the good guy at the same time?

Pretty clever, Google. Pretty clever.

At the Family Safety Center, users can find articles related to safety and privacy. It has sections on the company’s philosophy, the community, tools/resources, parents, teens, teachers, and law enforcement, as well as direct links to relevant Facebook Pages, which can be “liked” for continuous updates.

The company says it will also be providing a downloadable guide for teachers in the coming weeks.

“We also recently unveiled a new social reporting tool that allows people to notify a member of their community, in addition to Facebook, when they see something they don’t like,” says Facebook’s Arturo Bejar, a director of engineering. “Safety and child psychology experts tell us that online issues are frequently a reflection of what is happening offline. By encouraging people to seek help from friends, we hope that many of these situations can be resolved face to face. The impact has been encouraging, and we’re now expanding social reporting to other major sections of Facebook, including Profiles, Pages and Groups.”

The company says that the report flows are in place for photos and wall posts, but they plan to extend the functionality to Profiles, Groups, Pages, and events.

A couple months back, we found that Facebook was working with the National Eating Disorders Asosociation on a content removal mechanism. At the time, a company spokesperson told us, “We don’t have anything specific to share, but we work with a variety of Internet safety groups in conjunction with our Safety Advisory Board to constantly refine and improve our reporting infrastructure and FAQs to provide a safe environment for all our users.”

As part of the new announcement, Facebook has introduced “Two Factor Authentication” to help prevent unauthorized access to accounts. “If you turn this new feature on, we’ll ask you to enter a code anytime you try to log into Facebook from a new device. This additional security helps confirm that it’s really you trying to log in,” says Bejar.

Earlier this year, Facebook launched its HTTPS support to provide a more secure experience for users.

Marne Levine, Facebook’s Vice President for Global Public Policy, said in a statement, "We are thrilled to welcome the National Network to End Domestic Violence to our global Safety Advisory Board, and look forward to working with them closely to make sure that we are always taking into account the needs of domestic abuse victims."

Cindy Southworth, a vice president and founder of the NNEDV’s Safety Net Technology Project, also said, "We are honored to join Facebook’s Safety Advisory Board.  We’re grateful that Facebook regularly works with us to collect feedback on privacy features and online safety.  We look forward to continuing our efforts together in an even greater capacity to create the safest possible online networking space for everyone – including survivors of domestic violence, dating abuse, cyber-stalking and harassment."

Other members of Facebook’s Safety Advisory Board include Childnet International, ConnectSafelyGo.org, the Family Online Safety Institute, and WiredSafety, by the way.

This development should win Facebook more respect in certain circles.  A hat tip, meanwhile, goes to Caroline McCarthy.

The ClickCEOP app gives Facebook users a link to advice, help and the ability to report a problem to CEOP if they are worried about someone’s behavior toward them online.

The ClickCEOP Facebook app allows users to share it with their friends via their news feeds and places an icon of the app in plain view so others viewing their profile can see it.

Visits to the ClickCEOP profile on Facebook, since its launch, have been over 100,000 and over 20,000 people have liked the ClickCEOP which then provides regular status updates in their news feeds. CEOP says it has received over 211 reports about suspicious behavior online.

"It’s great news that so many users have interacted with ClickCEOP  by downloading the application or by liking their Page," said Johanna Shields, Facebook’s Vice President for EMEA.

"There is no single answer to making the Internet safer but CEOP have taken a great step forward by setting up their ClickCEOP page.  It now means that they can have an ongoing dialogue with thousands of Facebook users, educating them about how to stay safe online in a place and language they are familiar with.  I look forward to continuing our successful relationship with CEOP."
 

"Safety Mode goes above and beyond the flagging system and manual review to use community signals to filter out content that may be objectionable," YouTube tells WebProNews. "YouTube’s filters use proprietary technology and algorithms to identify and filter potentially objectionable content."

That’s about as in-depth as they were willing to get on that, but YouTube has acknowledged that it’s not 100% perfect, calling it just another step in their ongoing desire to give users more control over what they see on the site.

Don’t expect YouTube to start accepting more "objectionable" content now that it has Safety Mode available. All content still has to comply with YouTube’s community guidelines.

To use Safety Mode, simply click on the link at the bottom of any video page. The setting can be locked on that browser with your YouTube password.

Google demonstrates how to to lock SafeSearch with the following short clip:

When SafeSearch is locked, there is a big image in the top right-hand corner of Google that shows colored balls. This makes it easy to tell whether or not SafeSearch is locked. "Even from across the room, the colored balls give parents and teachers a clear visual cue that SafeSearch is still locked," Google says. "And if you don’t see them, it’s quick and easy to verify and re-lock SafeSearch."

You can lock SafeSearch by simply going to Search Settings from the Google home page. There is a "SafeSearch filtering" section there, where you can adjust the settings and lock them if you choose. When you lock SafeSearch, you are automatically choosing the "strict" setting (as opposed to moderate).

Can Certain Words Get My Content Blocked?

People have often wondered if their content is being blocked in SafeSearch if they have certain words on an otherwise family-friendly site. In fact, Google’s Matt Cutts recently addressed such concerns in a video at Google’s Webmaster Central YouTube channel.

"We try to write our algorithm such that just having a single word mentioned here or there really won’t have that much of an impact," says Cutts. "Now, of course some words are worse than others. If you’ve got some slang or something that’s misspelled and really is not a word that you can repeat in polite company, that makes it more likely that that page will get flagged. But in most cases you should be in relatively good shape as long as most of your content or most of the words on your page are family-friendly."

It stands to reason that if you are producing content that you are hoping that families and children will view, it’s in your best interest to keep your language family-friendly. That’s pretty much common sense, but Google has put it into a search engine visibility light as well.

Related Articles:

> Google’s Safe Search Filters

> Google Won’t Remove Pages About You

"In today’s digital environment, parents have less time to supervise their kids’ behavior," says James Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media. "Communication and socialization in our kids’ world is increasingly moving from face-to-face to face-to-cyberspace, and parents vastly underestimate the amount of time that kids spend on their networks. That makes it more challenging for parents to actually parent in the crucial areas of social interaction and development, and, in a digital world, parents need to play a more important role than ever in ensuring that our kids get the best of these technologies and are using them safely."

You may recall Common Sense Media from this video on Google’s Tips for Online Safety page:

Here are some key findings from the poll:

- 22% of teens check social networking sites more than 10 times a day, while only 4% of parents believe kids are checking that much

- 51% of teens check social networking sites more than once a day, while only 23% of parents say their kids check more than once a day

- 28% have shared personal information that they normally wouldn’t have shared in public

- 25% have shared a profile with a false identity

- 39% have posted something they regretted

- 26% have pretended to be someone else online

- 54% have joined an online community or Facebook/MySpace group in support of a cause

- 4% have volunteered for a campaign, nonprofit, or charity

Common Sense Media says that conversations that start in the hallway move online to the social networks. "Teens are using social networks to share information, make connections, and develop their identities in new, exciting ways," says the organization. "But when teens communicate either anonymously or through a disguised identity, the doors are left wide open for them to not be held accountable. That kind of communication also leads to a disconnect between actions and their consequences, which is how irresponsible behaviors like cyberbullying become a reality."

Last month, the PointSmart ClickSafe Task Force (of whom Google is a part) released guidelines for best practices for online safety and literacy for keeping kids safe online. Google has tips here, and the task force’s site is here.

"The most important and timely recommendation from the report (which previous online safety task forces all agree upon) is the need for digital media literacy and safety education that empowers kids, parents, and educators," says Google Policy Analyst Jennifer Marsh. "It’s important that kids of all ages learn what it mean to be a digital citizen and how to navigate the online world safely, and it’s equally important that parents and educators have the resources and online tools to help kids make the right choices online."

The guidelines discussed in the Task Force’s document cover things like:

1. Education and information
2. Registration/creation of user profiles
3. Identify authentication and age verification
4. Content screening
5. Safe searching.

Google views its own role in the online safety of children as consisting of three primary elements.

"First, we empower families with powerful and innovative tools to create a safe experience online, like SafeSearch, community flagging tools, and granular privacy controls for our products," says Marsh. "Second, we partner with law enforcement and industry partners to stop illegal content and activity online — we’re especially proud of our work with NCMEC and the technology we provided them to fight child exploitation online. Third, we support educational efforts — both Google and YouTube have developed online safety resources for parents and kids, including a Online Family Safety Guide, and we continue to work and support many of the non-profit organizations doing great work in this space including FOSI, NCMEC, Common Sense Media, and iKeepSafe."

Marsh says Google supports the SAFE Internet Act, which would establish a $175 million competitive grant program for state and local education agencies and nonprofit organizations to promote Internet safety education.

Google provides tips for online safety here. Of course there is more information at the Task Force’s site.