Google collecting kid's SSNs

The short version: under the guise of a drawing contest, Google is asking parents to give up their children's social security numbers, place, and date of birth. If you missed it your bank and insurance company are no longer allowed to gather this kind of info, because of fears of identity theft and/or misuse of personal information. But somehow Google thinks they're different.

What could be wrong with filling out a few entry forms?

A national, commercial database of names and addresses of American children, especially one that includes their dates of birth and SSNs, would be worth many millions to marketing firms and retailers.

Of course, data collection is not the reason Google gives for doing this competition. Their FAQ says it's because "We love to encourage and celebrate the creativity of young people..." etc. If that's so, then why on earth would the contest's original Parent Consent Form ask for the child's city of birth, date of birth and last four digits of the child's SSN? Along with complete contact info of the parents.

You see what Google knows and many parents don't know is that a person's city of birth and year of birth can be used to make a statistical guess about the first five digits of his/her social security number. Then, if you can somehow obtain those last four SSN digits explicitly -- voila, you've unlocked countless troves of personal information from someone who didn't even understand that such a disclosure was happening.

This kind of data can be linked with other databases to target advertising. It's worth many times more than what Google will spend on prizes (each State Finalist gets a T-shirt!).

Mother's experience may produce phobias in children

Okay, this is a weird one. Scientists have found that the experiences of mothers during pregnancy may influence the behavior of their offspring. This may explain why many human babies appear to be born with a phobia of snakes and spiders, prior to any experience with them.

The newborn crickets whose mothers had been exposed to a spider were 113 percent more likely to seek shelter and stay there. They were also more likely to freeze when they encountered spider silk or feces — a behavior that could prevent them from being detected by a nearby spider. Overall, these newborns had better survival rates than other newborn crickets, eaten by the wolf spiders for the sake of science.

At the risk of freaking out pregnant mothers even more then normal, it makes me wonder just how many other behaviors are influenced by maternal experience. It should encourage fathers to do whatever they can to minimize the stress of their wives during this fragile time.

Should parents of young children tip more?

Here is a hard question for you. Should parents of young children tip MORE at restaurants? On the one hand, when a family has young children, that tends to be the time of life when they have the least disposable income. On the other hand, it also tends to be the time of life when children are the least controlled and most disruptive. One waiter argues that if you ask the restaurant staff to deal with your children's misbehavior, you should compensate them for their trouble.

What do Mod-Bloggers think? We have a number of young parents reading this blog, so this single, childless guy is interested to know what they think.

Should we ban chocolate milk from schools?

When I was a kid, I hated milk. It was a mostly irrational hatred, but the white stuff simply had no appeal to me. There were only two ways to convince me to drink milk: soda milk or chocolate milk. Now, facing the obesity epidemic, some are arguing that chocolate milk should be banned from schools. I will admit that cutting sugary drinks (i.e. soda and lemonade) from my diet did make a huge difference in my weight.

While milk has been the keystone of America's school lunches since the federally subsidized program was established in 1946, the role of chocolate (and other flavored) milk has become a focus of late following a 2006 rule that required schools to establish comprehensive "wellness programs." Public school districts in Berkeley, Calif., and Boulder, Colo. — two of America's more progressive towns — have removed the drink from their list of daily offerings, opting for low-fat, organic white milk instead. That's a perfect way to force kids to shun milk completely, says the dairy industry.

My own opinion is that banning chocolate milk is likely to backfire and cause kids to drink soda instead. That's what they really want, after all, thanks to persistent advertising. Thus, the kids are left without the nutritional value of milk entirely. But I am interested to see what Mod-Bloggers think.

Continental Express Misdirects Unaccompanied Children

I have always thought parents who sent children by plane without a responsible adult were putting their children at risk. I know there are rare circumstances where it is the only choice, but these are RARE cases. Recently, Continental Express proved just how dangerous it is by misrouting two children in two days.

Taylor Williams of College Station, traveling alone on a Continental Express commuter flight departing from Bush Intercontinental Airport, went to Fayetteville, Ark., instead of her destination of Charlotte, N.C., where her father was to meet her.
The next day, 10-year-old Miriam Kamens boarded a Continental Express plane at Boston’s Logan airport and landed in Newark, N.J., instead of her intended destination of Cleveland to visit her grandparents.
The two Continental Express flights were operated by ExpressJet under contract with Continental.
In a statement Tuesday, Continental spokeswoman Kelly Cripe said both incidents occurred when flights with different destinations were loaded simultaneously from the same doorway and that “miscommunication among staff members resulted in the child being boarded on the wrong aircraft.”

To be fair, the airline took care of the children the whole time, and eventually got them where they were supposed to go. But let's honest here - unless you have absolutely no other choice, sending a child alone on an airplane is a bad idea. Be responsible parent and either go with them, or find someone who can.

If you have kids who wear "crocs" keep them off the escalator!!!

I am not a parent, so normally the many panics involving children (Don't let them eat anything red! Don't let them near cell phones! Avoid nature at all costs!) roll off of me like water off a duck's back. But a recent problem has really caught my attention. Apparently, "crocs" - a kind of waterproof show/sandal - hybrid are very popular with kids right now. Problem is these things have very soft soles, and when they get hot and are pressed against the wrong kind of thing, they can stick tight. And when the "wrong kind of thing" is an escalator it can mean the kids are being dragged to their deaths.

If you are a parent or even temporary guardian for kids, now is the time to set the rule. No Crocs if you are going to the Mall or anywhere with escalators. Feel free to use them on the Boardwalk or the beach, but nowhere where getting stuck might mean threat of bodily injury. Please note, this is NOT an urban legend.

"Magic Hour"

I am still single, but as more and more of my friends have children, I see the truth of this comic more and more.

Good Job CBS

CBSSportsline did a courageous thing with publishing on the front of their spots section an article on NFL draft prospect Darren McFadden. They were courageous because the article wasn't about his football talent (which is immense), but is about him probably fathering 3 children out of wedlock before his 22nd birthday. The author of the article rightly argues that NFL teams should be careful before giving lots of responsibility and lots of cash to players who have not shown that they have matured enough. Kudos to CBS for publishing an article that doesn't pull any punches.

The other interesting thing in the article is that the author argues that the next big sports scandal will be about players having children out of wedlock. Wilt Chamberlain used to brag that he slept with 10,000 women in his lifetime. NFL star Travis Henry has a bunch of children all by different women as well.

Siblings Sharing Birthdays

An Ohio couple has three children who were all born on the same day of the year. Their two boys were born in 2003 and 2006 on October 2. They just had a girl also born October 2. I have two cousins (same immediate family) that are similar, but aparantly the odds of having three children all with the same birth day are about 7.5 in 1 million.

Are we de-naturalizing our children?

I suspect BowHunter will have the strongest opinion on this particular story. It describes how children in only 4 generations have lost the freedom to wander and explore the natural world around them. A child born in 1926 was free to wander 6 or 10 miles from home in search of fun, and thus was able to explore the natural world. A child born in the 2000s, on the other hand, is likely to never be allowed more than 300 feet from his own lawn unsupervised and thus have very little interaction with the natural world.

"It's not just about time. Traffic is an important consideration, as is the fear of abduction, but I'm not sure whether that's real or perceived."

...The report's author, Dr William Bird, the health adviser to Natural England and the organiser of a conference on nature and health on Monday, believes children's long-term mental health is at risk.

He has compiled evidence that people are healthier and better adjusted if they get out into the countryside, parks or gardens.

Stress levels fall within minutes of seeing green spaces, he says. Even filling a home with flowers and plants can improve concentration and lower stress.

"If children haven't had contact with nature, they never develop a relationship with natural environment and they are unable to use it to cope with stress," he said.

"Studies have shown that people deprived of contact with nature were at greater risk of depression and anxiety. Children are getting less and less unsupervised time in the natural environment.

"They need time playing in the countryside, in parks and in gardens where they can explore, dig up the ground and build dens."

I am hardly a good judge of this, since I have always been the great INdoorsman - preferring my own imagination to green spaces - but this makes a lot of sense to me. I know my mother spend most of the summer outside wandering the neighborhood and adjacent spaces, while I see most friends kids never allowed out of the sight of parents until they are well into their teens. Can this NOT have an impact on our development as human beings?

Religion is good for kids... if it is not a source of parental conflict

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament agree on something. It recommends that believers not marry unbelievers. Why? A new study suggests it is because while religious children tend to be "better behaved and adjusted than other children", the benefits are completely lost if the parents are constantly arguing about their religion.

The kids whose parents regularly attended religious services—especially when both parents did so frequently—and talked with their kids about religion were rated by both parents and teachers as having better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than kids with non-religious parents.

But when parents argued frequently about religion, the children were more likely to have problems. “Religion can hurt if faith is a source of conflict or tension in the family,” Bartkowski noted.

Those who believe love conquers all should keep in mind that there are practical concerns to a marriage... especially if you plan to bring children into that marriage by birth or adoption.