Daily Archives: September 17, 2008

New South African Law Journal – Constitutional Court Review

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The South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC) and the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria will release the inaugural issue of “Constitutional Court Review” later in September of 2008. This will be an annual, peer-reviewed publication.

Constitutional Court Review 

http://www.saifac.org.za/programmes/concourt_review.htm

Journal description from the SAIFAC Web site:

The journal contains lead essays, responses, short articles and case comments devoted to the jurisprudence of the South African Constitutional Court in the previous year. The journal has a 20-person editorial board, including 10 international members. The inaugural issue of the CCR will be published in September 2008.  In order to stimulate research for this publication, an annual conference will be held in July of each year at which contributing authors will present their draft papers.  The first such conference will take place at the Lourensford wine estate in Somerset West, Western Cape, in July 2008.

Harvard Law Library’s John Palfrey Noted and Quoted

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In these two stories:

Underage kids flock to social networks
‘They keep signing up and we keep chasing them,’ says Nexopia’s Chris Webster

DAVID HUTTON
Globetechnology.com
September 15, 2008 at 11:27 PM EDT

According to a recent study, more than 750,000 kids between the ages of 8 and 12 have set up a profile on the big social-networking sites. Most simply enter a false birth date when they register; others get a friend or sibling to help them circumvent the age-restriction policies.

. . . Attorney-General Michael Mukasey has commissioned an Internet safety task force to find better ways to verify the age of users.

The task force is looking at implementing age-verification technology from Microsoft and IBM on several sites and even opening the process of enshrining age restrictions in law, said John Palfrey, . . .  who chairs the task force. But determining the age of users is a complex problem without clear answers, Mr. Palfrey said. “There’s no way to stop people from getting on to the site at the front end, when they sign up,” he said. “But I think there are ways we can improve the systems that work behind the scenes to find the underage kids and deter them from using sites where they shouldn’t be.”

 

CNET

Harvard professor sees answers to nagging Web-youth issues

John Palfrey, one of Harvard’s leading thinkers on the Internet, has recently finished a study on kids raised in the digital age. He now has a few tips to share about Web porn, online piracy, and Sen. John McCain’s lack of tech know-how–Palfrey, who wrote a book about the study called Born Digital, was fairly upbeat about the Web’s affects on young people. That’s not going to surprise too many people as Palfrey is a recognized Internet booster. But after completing 100 “in-depth interviews” with young people, ages 13 to 22, Palfrey sees some possible solutions to problems confronting Web-connected youth.

 

Source: Source:  Harvard Law School’s News@Law – September 17, 2008