The Cybertraps Newsletter
What Is a Cybertrap?
“Cybertrap” is the term that I use to denote “an undesirable or unanticipated consequence arising out of the use or misuse of a digital device.”
In 2011, I published my first Cybertraps book, entitled Cybertraps for the Young. I chose that title as a nod to a book published in 1883 called Traps for the Young. It was written by Anthony Comstock, a stern moralist who served as Secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and as a Special Agent of the United States Postal Service. For more about his career and his profoundly futile attempts to stamp out indecency, lewdness, immorality, and obscenity in America, read the excellent book written by my wife, Dr. Amy Werbel: Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock (Columbia University Press, 2018).
The goal of this newsletter is to provide analysis and commentary on relevant news reports involving cybertraps and to offer in-depth legal, technical, social, and historical analysis of the most common and destructive cybertraps.
About the Publisher, Frederick Lane
I am an author, attorney, expert witness, and professional speaker on the legal and cultural implications of emerging technology. After graduating from Amherst College and Boston College Law School, I clerked for two years for the Honorable Frank H. Freedman, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. During my five years of private practice, I wrote my first book: Vermont Jury Instructions — Civil and Criminal (with John Dinse and Ritchie Berger) [Butterworth 1993].
In response to the passage of the Communications Decency Act in 1996, I began researching the legislative and media response to the rise of the online adult industry. The resulting book, Obscene Profits: Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age, was the first of now ten mainstream non-fiction books. The others are:
The Naked Employee: How Technology Is Compromising Workplace Privacy (Amazon 2003) [out of print];
The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture (Prometheus Books 2006);
The Court and the Cross: The Religious Right’s Crusade to Reshape the Supreme Court (Beacon Press 2008);
American Privacy: The 400-Year History of Our Most Contested Right (Beacon Press 2010);
Cybertraps for the Young (NTI Upstream 2011);
Cybertraps for Educators (2015);
Raising Cyberethical Kids (2020); and
Cybertraps for Educators 2.0 (2020).
In addition to those books, I have written numerous magazine articles on a variety of topics, including constitutional rights (particularly freedom of speech), personal privacy, the impact of technology on our rights and liberties, and the separation of church and state.
From October 2001 through March 2011, I served on the Burlington (VT) School Board. I chaired the Board’s Finance subcommittee from April 2006 to March 2009 and served as Clerk of the Board from April 2003 through March 2009. I served as Board Chairman from April 2009 through March 2011. I also served as a member of the Board of Directors for Vermont Community Access Media, one of the region’s three public access television stations, from May 2008 through May 2010.
On August 23, 2006, I had the honor of appearing on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” to discuss The Decency Wars. I have also appeared as a guest on a variety of other national television programs, including ABC’s “Good Morning America Weekend,” NBC’s “Weekend Today,” ABC’s “Nightline,” CBS’s “60 Minutes,” and assorted documentaries, including the BBC and CNN. In addition to those televised appearances, I have been interviewed by numerous radio shows, magazines, and newspapers around the world on topics relating to my books.
Over the last twenty years, I have frequently been invited to lecture to school communities, colleges, universities, and various professional audiences on topics ranging from Internet technology, workplace misconduct, personal privacy, computer forensics, and censorship issues.
I currently live in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY with my wife, Dr. Amy Werbel.
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