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Connect Iowa targets elderly for help getting online

February 28, 2012 By

A nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding broadband in Iowa is turning its attention to the state’s elderly population. Jeremy Thacker, with Connect Iowa, says a recent study found 73% of people over the age of 70 don’t have internet access in their homes.

Thacker notes his own grandmother is “fearful” of the technology. “And I see that as being very sad for her because she is missing out on a lot of services that could really make her life easier in terms of coordinating her medications and ordering through an online pharmacy or talking to some of my cousins who live hundreds or thousands of miles away,” Thacker said.

Connect Iowa has launched an initiative to possibly create community based programs that teach seniors how to use computers. Thacker believes too many Iowans over 70 don’t know how to go online.

“Because of fear of the technology or not having access to the technology, they’re missing out on life-enhancing benefits,” Thacker said. The new initiative involves an assessment of the internet needs of 50 Iowa communities by the end of this year.

Thacker hopes to eventually have a certification program where people will be awarded discounts on broadband for learning how to use the internet.

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With: ,

Senator Grassley says internet sharing bills may need tweaking

January 17, 2012 By

Several popular websites, including Wikipedia, plan to go “dark” on Wednesday to protest two bills pending in Congress that aim to stop the illegal sharing of music and movies on the Internet. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the bills, known as SOPA and PIPA, may need a little tweaking but the intent of the legislation is very well meaning.

Grassley says, “They may not be perfect the way they’re written and I’m going to be part of the process to try to perfect them so that we can find a balance between people stealing copyright, trademarks and inventions and I guess you’d call it the freedom of the Internet.”

Leaders at Wikipedia, the massive online encyclopedia, claim the bills would force websites into the impossible task of policing cyberspace. Several other major websites, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, will still be online Wednesday, but their chiefs are joining Wikipedia in opposing the two pieces of legislation.

“If these search engines, like Google, are taking the position that nothing needs to be done, they’re taking the position that stealing is okay,” according to Grassley. The bills are SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, which stands for Protect I-P or Internet Protocol.

Grassley says the Senate version of the bills should be out of committee next week and will go to the floor for debate. He’s hoping common ground can be reached. Grassley says, “If everybody takes the position that stealing of copyrights, trademarks are wrong or that theft just generally is wrong and we start from the premise of what can we do to stop the stealing, then I think we can meet a friendly consensus on this issue and get the job done.”

Other websites that will be joining Wiki with off-line protest on Wednesday include Reddit and BoingBoing. Their complaint focuses on how the bills would require Internet service providers to block websites that are involved in the illegal sharing of movies, music and other content.

Search engines would also be stopped from linking to those websites, which they say is in direct opposition to the concept of an open Internet.

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Program teaches kids how to be safe on the internet

October 5, 2011 By

A program designed to help young internet users stay safe online was the subject of a workshop last night for parents and students in Council Bluffs. Shannon Seeger, spokeswoman for the Internet Keep Safe Coalition or i-Keep-Safe, says children are growing up in a world where their social life is coordinated through interactions on-line or through a cell phone.

Seeger says kids need to be reminded how to act and interact. “Keeping and maintaining a positive reputation, keeping your personal information to yourself, also, when you interact with people, how to be a citizen about it,” she says. Children need to be aware of predators, cyber-bullying, harassment and other threats.

While the Internet can be a great place to connect with friends, Seeger says some people use social networking sites to humiliate and degrade others. “It doesn’t just deal with bullying, it’s harassment of all kinds, child-to-child harassment, parent-on-teacher, child-on-teacher,” she says.

“There are many, many different variations on cyber-bullying.” Seeger says there are increasing reports of children missing school, dropping out and event taking their own lives because of non-stop bullying. “One-million children were cyber-bullied last year on Facebook alone,” she says.

“That doesn’t take into count all of the other social media and all the networking and messaging that children are doing back and forth.” The first workshop Tuesday in Council Bluffs was for teachers only and was directed at helping to teach their students to be responsible online.

The second workshop last night was for parents and students, urging them to start their own at-home programs for safe, healthy and ethical internet use. Learn more at: “www.ikeepsafe.org“

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With: ,

Grassley not sold on internet tax bill

April 19, 2011 By

Legislation that would tax all online purchases and potentially funnel billions of dollars back to states is being introduced in Congress, but Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley isn’t a fan. Grassley, a Republican, says the proposal called the Main Street Fairness Act goes against one of his primary political creeds.

“It’s a tax increase and I’m not ready to vote for tax increases,” Grassley says, “particularly, I don’t want to be responsible for voting for tax increases at the state level.” The bill is being introduced by Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois. Durbin sponsored a similar measure last year that never reached the floor for a vote. Grassley says he’ll try to keep an open mind about the legislation and won’t say he’s absolutely against it.

“I’m not going to co-sponsor the bill,” Grassley says. “If the bill comes up for a vote, I’m going to wait until that happens and decide at that particular point, but I don’t think that I’m ready to say that Iowans ought to be paying higher taxes.”

Grassley says the legislation would counter a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said states could not collect taxes on Internet purchases unless the seller had a brick-and-mortar building within the state’s borders.

“If the state of Iowa can find some way of collecting that tax, then that’s okay with me, but I don’t want to be responsible for that burden,” Grassley says. “Particularly in times of recession, you don’t increase taxes.” Some estimates say Internet sales are rising at a rate of 15% per year, with one report saying online purchases last year hit a record $165-billion.

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Gambling treatment official not taking stance on internet gambling bill

March 5, 2011 By

The manager of the Iowa Gambling Treatment and Prevention Program isn’t taking a stand on the bill that would allow internet gambling in Iowa. Mark Vander Linden was asked about the proposal during a presentation at the Racing and Gaming Commission meeting.

Vander Linden says internet gambling will increase the number of people who gamble, but he says his hope is that there will be enough safe guards to keep underage people from gambling. And he says those safe guards will hopefully limit the harm that could be done to problem gamblers.

Vander Linden says he doesn’t have an opinion on the long-term impact if Iowa became the first state to legalize internet gambling. He says you generally see a spike in interest when a new gambling options is introduced, because it is new and interesting and people want to try it out, and then interest levels off.

Vander Linden says he doesn’t really have a position on the bill. Vander Linden says internet gambling is not a major source of problems in Iowa right now. Vander Linden says their tracking shows internet gambling was identified by only one-and-a-half percent of the people who came in to get treatment last year for problem gambling as their primary form of gambling. He says the most prominent form of legalized gambling in the state is the one that is credited with causing the most problems.

He says 61% of the people who came in for treatment identified slot machines as the reason for their problem. The internet gambling bill was passed this week by a senate committee. New Jersey’s governor vetoed a bill that would have made his state the first to allow internet gambling.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With: , ,

Roll out continues for new website seeking to prevent internet crimes against kids

June 30, 2010 By

The Iowa Task Force on Internet Crimes Against Children is launching a new website that aims to educate parents on how to prevent on-line crimes before they happen. The website’s main feature is a cyber tip link, where parents can alert officials about a potential on-line threat. Criminal investigator Mike Ferjak says the site can help parents educate themselves and their kids about on-line risks.

“We want to focus on what the proactive measures can be,” Ferjak says. “By the time you call the task force or the police department, something bad has already happened. This is our effort to get proactive, to get the information out there before there’s a tragedy.” Iowa

Attorney General Tom Miller says the new website offers tips on talking to teens and kids. Miller says it will make parents the front line of defense against child predators and other on-line risks. “The whole idea is prevention,” Miller says. “Once a crime has taken place, that’s a very serious matter and a very harmful one. So the main thrust here is to let people know what they should be looking for, how they should be dealing with their kids, what their kids should know, having their kids on this site as well.”

The site features safety tips for children as young as five all the way through high school. It also provides information about the legal consequences of sexting, which can result in serious charges for young people who make or send sexual messages by phone or on-line. The address for the Internet Crimes Against Children website is: “www.iaicac.org“.

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Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With:

DCI unveils website to combat on-line predators

June 10, 2010 By
D.C.I director John Quinn, Attorney General Tom-Miller (L-R)

D.C.I director John Quinn, Attorney General Tom Miller (L-R)

The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation today unveiled a new website designed to protect children from on-line predators.

Mike Ferjak, with the D.C.I.’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, says the site will help parents, teachers and others talk to kids about the dangers communicating with strangers on-line.

“We now have a page where they can go and get some ideas,” Ferjak said at a press conference in Ankeny. “They have the resources on the website to flesh out those ideas. Maybe they can make it a part of their family routine, go on the Internet together and establish household rules for the Internet.”

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Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With:
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