Mobile security solutions: phones are cyber safer

It is interesting to watch phones emerge in the safety venue for young people. The littlest ones can now carry mobile phones so they can talk with parents, who can also track where kids are through GPS. A whole line of cell/mobiles that include features where parents program limited numbers the child-owner can call, are making it possible for the kid when lost or in danger to summon help with the push of a button.

A post today on SmartMobs reports an article about the 300% increase last year in Internet access in Vietnam, where now 12.5 million of the 85 million population are online. But here come the cyber-alarmists (well, murder IS alarming) in the article:

The government said Friday it will step up inspections of Internet cafes beginning July 1, after several people participating in online chat rooms were murdered. “It’s easy to manage youngsters at home with parental supervision,” said Hai. “But when they are out at internet cafes no one supervises them. They could log onto websites with depraved content and information.” Currently anyone using a public Internet connection must show their identification. However, users report that café owners rarely ask for their papers. The government also announced this week that game shop owners must install software intended to limit the number of hours gamers can play each day. After three hours online, players’ characters will only be able to rack up half the number of points.

Think of this, though: if the chatroomers and gameplayers were using mobile phones, the dens of Internet iniquity (cafes) would lose their reason to exist. “Security” from the government point of view (censorship) would loose its tentacles as well.

The media drumbeats [swampthink instead of goldthink] signaling cyber threats to security have, for years, muffled focus on the good news potential for delivering things to learn through the Internet. If you if you build a website that teaches something, it can now reach 12.5 million Vietnamese. That is huge progress where, as the quoted article reports: “Broadband has been available in Vietnam since 2003, when it had just 183 users in its first year of operations. Today all of Vietnam’s provinces have high-speed Internet connections.”