Considers problems that have arisen with the vast quantities of information available as a result of the popularity of computers. Topics include inequity; capitalism, commodification, and privatization; hacking, privacy, and fraud; censorship; monitoring and surveillance; cyberethics; and integrity in an age of electronic communication. (LRW)

Sound technology policies can spell the difference between an effective website and an online nightmare. An effective web development policy addresses six key areas: roles and responsibilities, content/educational value, privacy and safety, adherence to copyright laws, technical standards, and use of commercial sites and services. (MLH)

Discusses how predicting violent activity with a youth violence profile in school raises legal concerns focusing on the validity and use of profiles as social science evidence: the impact of potential discrimination, search and seizure, and the implications for privacy. Argues that these issues rest on fundamental concerns about the general…

The First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's ruling in a Massachusetts case involving an AIDS awareness program. Disagrees with ruling that the defendants had not violated the plaintiffs' federal rights and contends that parents should have the right to remove their children from a one-time performance that is not part of a…

Discusses the issue of e-mail and employee privacy rights. Highlights include laws and proposed legislation, ethical dilemmas, task and nontask messages and organizational misconduct, and policy guidelines for decision making about e-mail monitoring. (AEF)

Discusses the importance of creating retreat spaces for young children in child care settings. Identifies special challenges and opportunities for creating such spaces in family child care homes. Outlines research findings detailing the benefits of retreats for children, and discusses the contributions of location, form, and materials in creating…

Discusses librarians' use of electronic resource (e-resource) statistics. Topics include the historical context of computerized monitoring of human-computer interaction; where e-resource usage statistics originate; organizational efforts to gain value from e-resource usage statistics; practical aspects, including funding decisions, measuring…

States that if Greek-letter organizations are to be effective learning communities, they must meet the challenges associated with recruiting and retaining members of underrepresented populations, as well as educating all members about diversity issues. Includes a list of questions that provide a framework for self-assessment by Greek-letter…

In 1996, a small group of Roman Catholic parents in a suburban New York district filed suit, claiming that a new program was promoting Satanism, occultism, and New Age spirituality. Activities included a Ganesha story, worry dolls, stories on Buddha and Quetzalcoatl, poetry writing, psychic phenomena, and a cemetery visit. To be continued. (MLH)

Suggests that the primary barrier to successful commercial development of the Web is lack of consumer trust in the medium. Examines how customer concerns are affecting growth and development of consumeroriented commercial activity on the Web and investigates the implications of these concerns for potential industry response. Suggests that radical…

By upholding a student's refusal to provide a urine sample, the Seventh Circuit Court correctly avoided further erosion of the Fourth Amendment's privacy principle. In "New Jersey v T.L.O." (1995), the U.S. Supreme Court shrunk the probable-cause standard to reasonable suspicion in the special context of public schools, retaining the…

Fernando Viesca has a 24-year-old son who suffers from Angelman Syndrome, a little known chromosomal disorder that has left him with significant functional deficiencies. When Nando lived at home, his father took care of him full time, thus alleviating any worries about medical care. However, now that Nando lives in a group home, his father is no…

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 (PL. 104-191) is a multitiered, comprehensive, convoluted, and controversial federal law for sweeping health care reform. Although HIPAA is dramatically broader in scope than privacy protections for health care information, a provision for privacy in the form of a Privacy Rule…

Noting that corporations and academic institutions are struggling with issues of balance between system security and freedom of speech, this paper reviews current literature concerning privacy in computer-mediated communication (CMC) from the perspectives of both the individual user and the system administration. Focusing on the communicative…

This handbook presents course information, reading materials, and application/research projects for a distance education course that provides an introduction to the genre of texts targeted for adolescent/young adult readers. The first section of the handbook discusses the goals, structure, assessment scheme, readings, and resources for the course.…