children

State attorneys general push online child safety snake oil

Updated:This post originally contained incorrect information about Sentinel's products. That has been corrected (see below).

Attorneys general from a number of states have given their support to a collection of weak and ineffective age verification technologies, all of which aim to protect children on the Internet. At a meeting of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force at Harvard University on Tuesday, the consensus seemed to be that while none of the technologies actually work, doing anything at all was better than nothing. Simply put, no one wants to be blamed for inaction against online child predators.

Kicking off … Read more

The 404 189: Where Dee is not Eric Franklin

Our No. 404 fanboy Dee Wren takes time out of his busy filming schedule to bring some positivity to our Monday morning. After revealing some news about the upcoming Google Android release tomorrow, we talk about the weekend box office, touch on Facebook porn, and make an overall attempt to shade ourselves from Jeff's rays of hate (unsuccessfully). Happy Monday!

To make up for all the lives we've ruined with The 404, we invite our buddy Dee Wren into the studio to pimp his philanthropic project, From Us With Love. It's a nonprofit organization that supplies aid to children in South Africa and Dee is helping to shoot a documentary on their efforts to send a group of them to Australia for the Homeless World Cup. We'd love for you to contribute as much time, money, and resources as you can to their foundation. The best part of this endeavor is that For Us With Love is already corporate-sponsored, so the full 100 percent of your contribution will go directly into the project, no filters. It's a very noble cause, please check out the Web site and do what you can to help!

Episode 189 Download today's podcast … Read more

iTeddy: Advanced teddy bear or digital babysitter?

No, it's not Internet lingerie (how would that work exactly, anyway?), but it might be just as questionable. According to its Web site, iTeddy is the "cuddly way to watch, learn, and play." Is it just me, or does that sound slightly foreboding?

In any event, the U.K.-based company iTeddy appears to focus on just the one product: an otherwise standard-looking stuffed bear with a screen on its belly and memory in its brain...512MB of it, to be exact. The iTeddy also includes an SD card slot for memory expansion, built-in external speakers, a … Read more

The Iomega eGo portable hard drive can take a serious beating

It's been awhile since we've seen a ruggedized external hard drive come to the market. The last one we reviewed was the LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive; it scored well in the speed tests and even withstood a 30-inch drop off a desk in nonoperating mode.

Iomega's eGo camo portable hard drive takes it a step higher and bumps the maximum drop height to 60 inches (5 feet), or so they report. Along with the standard read and write tests, we also took the liberty of performing a drop test to prove its toughness. The day we … Read more

1 euro eBay baby goes home

The German baby taken from his parents after they put him up for sale on eBay for a euro--apparently as a joke--is back home, according to the Associated Press.

"The child has been returned to his parents," prosecutor Johannes Kreuzpointer told the AP on Thursday.

The parents had told the authorities the posting had been a joke. Prosecutors eventually agreed and dropped their investigation into child trafficking, the news service reported.

The original ad that ran May 24 stated: "Offering my nearly new baby for sale, as it has gotten too loud. It is a male baby, … Read more

The 404 133: Where we stay together for the kids

Sixteen of Wilson's illegitimate children ventured into the preshow, but don't worry--we kept it G-rated for the little Tangers. Check out the video courtesy of UltimateBuster for evidence of the wackiness. Once they leave, though, we revert back to our old selves and bring you another show filled with skally stories from around the Internets, including the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update, Laser Speedos (no affiliation with Laser Cats), the overweight American workforce, and this country's obsession with nonfat half-caff triple-grande quarter-sweet sugar-free nonfat lactaid extra-hot extra-foamy caramel macchiatos. Episode 133 Download today's podcast

Johnny and the Sprites, 'Numbers in a Bag (EK's Back to Skool Remix)': Free MP3 of the Day

If you need proof that children's music has grown quite credible, look no farther than the soundtrack to the Disney show "Johnny and the Sprites." The subject matter--spaghetti and self-empowerment, mostly--doesn't hide the serious Broadway smarts of the songwriting.

Download free MP3 now!

 

Top chef for tots

Although it isn't technically an appliance or a kitchen gadget, I felt that it was incumbent upon me to sound off about the MagiCook Kitchen by Little Tikes, a toy set that comes with several food look-a-likes that are embedded with RFID tags.

Radio-frequency identification is a way for an electronic receiver to identify items with radio waves. This means that the toy can sense when Junior pops something into the oven, and will respond with phrases in up to three languages that are appropriate to the meal of the moment.

Why is this kind of thing important? Well, … Read more

Baby cribs, computers share toxic traces

SAN FRANCISCO--Nearly one-third of children's car seats, cribs, and strollers in California contain toxic chemicals tied to cancer, learning disorders, and infertility that are also common in consumer electronics, according to a report Tuesday by Friends of the Earth.

The nonprofit group's study, "Killer Cribs," found higher levels of halogenated flame retardants in the 150 baby products and 350 furniture items it tested from California stores than in reported rates from other states.

California standards require children's products classified as furniture to contain flame retardants. At a press event in downtown Union Square, state Assemblyman … Read more