Skype 5.5

Just as soon as Facebook and Skype announced their major integration deal a few weeks back, Skype for Windows v5.5 Beta hit the download page. Now, the final version is here: Skype 5.5 for Windows is available for download, and based on user feedback since the June beta, there have been a number of updates that the company says warrant an upgrade.


The Skype 5.5 for Windows update comes with a deeper Facebook integration. Without having to leave Skype, you can check out when your Facebook friends are online and instant message with them from the new Facebook Contacts Tab (located in between the Skype and Recent Contacts tabs). You can also view and update your Facebook status and even view comments or 'like' posts from your Facebook Wall, directly from Skype Home.

They also improved the controls for video and group video calls for Windows, enhanced video call reliability and made several design changes to improve overall experience. Plus for all the emoticon fanatics, the Skype emoticons have received an update, with smoother animations that stand out.

Facebook

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week said that younger children should be allowed on the site—for education purposes. "In the future, software and technology will enable people to learn a lot from their fellow students," Zuckerberg said at the NewSchools Summit in California, according to Fortune.


Currently, Facebook only allows people 13 and older to sign up for the site. It's easy to get around that, however, and Consumer Reports recently reported that there are approximately 7.5 million underage kids on Facebook.

"That will be a fight we take on at some point," Zuckerberg said in regards to allowing younger kids on the site. "My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age."

Hampering that effort is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which bans Web sites from collecting information from users under 13. As a result, "we haven't even begun this learning process," Zuckerberg said. "If they're lifted then we'd start to learn what works. We'd take a lot of precautions to make sure that they [younger kids] are safe."

It could be an uphill battle. Facebook chief technology officer Bret Taylor appeared on Capitol Hill Thursday, where Sen. John Rockefeller grilled him about underage kids on the site.

"I want you to defend your company here because I don't know how you can," Rockefeller said.

Taylor insisted that "whenever we find out that someone has misrepresented their age on Facebook, we shut down that account. We don't allow people to misrepresent their age."

In March, Facebook said that it removes about 20,000 profiles from the site per day for various infractions, including users who are underage.

In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said the site is currently designed for two age groups: 13 to 18 and 18 and up.

"However, recent reports have highlighted just how difficult it is to implement age restrictions on the Internet and that there is no single solution to ensuring younger children don't circumvent a system or lie about their age," the spokesperson continued. "As Mark noted, education is critical to ensuring that people of all ages use the Internet safely and responsibly. We agree with safety experts that communication between parents or guardians and kids about their use of the Internet is vital. We believe that services such as Facebook have a role to play in encouraging this."

Facebook

Facebook is about to start cracking down hardcore on child pornography shared through or stored on its site. The social networking site and Microsoft have announced that they will be joining forces in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's (NCMEC) PhotoDNA program to combat child pornography.


The program relies on a technology developed by Microsoft Research called PhotoDNA to digitally analyze images and look for matches in data against other known images of child pornography, which the NCMEC holds. Only photos of prepubescent children (under the age of 12) will be targeted.

According to a post on The New York Times' Gadgetwise blog, PhotoDNA currently can search for matches against 10,000 photos in NCMEC's database of 48 million images and videos. NCMEC has a Congressional mandate to act as a clearinghouse for the sensitive and illegal material to help identify victims and assist law enforcement with investigations, the Times reported.

Microsoft's technology analyzes photos in sections, rather than trying to match an entire image to another complete image, and can even detect matches when the images have been digitally altered.

Facebook's involvement in the program is a significant step toward actively rooting out child pornography online because it is the largest online sharing site for images. The site is also the first online service provider to join Microsoft and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the PhotoDNA project. Facebook will host a FacebookLive event and discussion to formally announce the partnership tomorrow (May 20) at 3 p.m. ET.

Underage Play with Facebook

Facebook might have to start checking IDs at the door with a more discerning eye. According to a new survey, 7.5 million profiles on the site are operated by users younger than 13 years old, the minimum age to have a Facebook account.

According to a survey by Consumer Reports, a large majority of these kids on Facebook are under 10, and their parents don't monitor their activity on the site, which leaves them open to threats like cyber bullying or sexual predators.

"Despite Facebook's age requirements, many kids are using the site who shouldn't be," Consumer Reports' technology editor Jeff Fox said. "What's even more troubling was the finding from our survey that indicated that a majority of parents of kids 10 and under seemed largely unconcerned by their children's use of the site."

Facebook has admitted that it's aware of the problem, and earlier this year the company said it removes about 20,000 profiles every day, many of which belong to users that are younger than 13.

Out of 500 million Facebook users worldwide, Consumer Reports says 20 million are under the age of 18. Absent any manner of actually verifying a user's age, kids younger than 13 can simply join the site by providing a false birthday.

Some of the blame for the issue clearly lies with parents. A recent poll conducted by Liberty Mutual's Responsibility Project revealed that 17 percent of parents permit their pre-teen children to have Facebook profiles. It appears parents are becoming less concerned that a significant number of children are active in social media; the figure reported by Liberty Mutual more than doubled in just a year. In 2010, just eight percent of those polled said they allowed their kids to have accounts on sites like Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace.

Maybe Mark S. Zuckerberg should change his name to Winklevoss. The Indianapolis lawyer with nearly the same name as Facebook founder Mark E. Zuckerberg has reportedly been kicked off the social networking site with "identity fraud" cited as the reason.


Meanwhile, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the Harvard alums who keep suing Mark E. Zuckerberg for an ownership stake in the multi-billion dollar company, get to keep their profiles.

"I hope it's all just a misunderstanding on their part," Zuckerberg the lawyer told the Indianapolis Star Wednesday.

"All my friends are upset with me because they think I de-friended them," he said said. "I've had to do a lot of explaining."

It's not the first run-in the bankruptcy attorney has had with Facebook. The 48-year-old Mark S. Zuckerberg told the Star that Facebook demanded a slew of identification papers before giving him a profile two years ago, including his driver's license, birth certificate and Indianapolis Bar Association license.

He's also had to deal with "about 500 friend requests a day," the newspaper reported last year. Not to mention a dozen or so calls a day to his office from Facebook users asking for customer support.

Zuckerberg said he stumbled across his namesake on Google several years ago when the Facebook founder, now 26, was still in high school. Mark S. Zuckerberg was himself a relatively big presence on the Internet at the time. He was named one of Indiana's Top 50 lawyers by Law & Politics and is regarded as a national authority on consumer bankruptcy law.

But now the search engines have little interest in Mark S. Zuckerberg, he told the newspaper. His younger namesake's exploits are splashed across media throughout the world, pushing links to the older Zuckerberg's clippings far down the search rankings.

"I was always on the first page, always number one. Now I'm pages and pages back. This guy is killing me," Mark S. Zuckerberg told the Star last October.

The lawyer is an admirer of Mark E. Zuckerberg's accomplishments, according to the newspaper, even though "[h]e swears [Facebook] ruined his marriage."

Perhaps as a consolation prize, Mark S. Zuckerberg said he once got great service from a Las Vegas reservations desk when he told them his name.

USA Yesterday reported that Mark S. Zuckerberg's Facebook account had been restored and the attorney received an apology from the social networking giant.