Time Warner Cable recently announced that it has released five essays on the future of digital communications, policy and technical perspectives based on its Research Program on Digital Communications. One of the five was written by Harvard Law School Professor John Palfrey, who contributed an essay entitled “The Challenge of Developing Effective Public Policy on the Use of Social Media by Youth.”

The Time Warner Cable Research Program on Digital Communications awards stipends to foster research dedicated to increasing understanding of the benefits and challenges facing the future of digital technologies in the home, office, classroom and community. The recently published essays and more information about the program can be found at www.twcresearchprogram.com.

Palfrey is the co-author (with Urs Gasser) of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (Basic Books 2008), which addresses concerns about the management of personal and social identities of Internet-Age youth. Palfrey was also the recent subject of a Q&A for the technology column of Urbanite magazine in which he discussed the safety, privacy, and parenting of those born post-1980.