Strollerderby : internet safety

Yet Another "Kid-Safe" Version of Facebook Launched

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:32:00 GMT

Now entering the growing market of social networking sites aimed at making parents feel like their kids are safe, safe, safe: Kidswirl. Clearly modeled on Facebook, Kidswirl won't fool your older child but might help you keep your younger kids (say, under 11) from figuring out about the real thing. It's hard to figure out, though, what the real differences are. The interface is a complete lift from Facebook -- unless they have prior legal permission, I'd bet it's likely they'll be sued soon. But the site's PR wants to assure you that it's, like, a zillion times less potentially offensive and dangerous:

The number one priority of the site is KID SAFETY! As a result, we have blocked all bad language, inappropriate and suggestive phrases, and any other word usage that is requested by the parents and users.

So, what if some parents request that word usage like "trans-kid" or "gay teen" is blocked? How "safe" is the space then? Is profanity itself dangerous to kids, and if so, how? I'm pretty sure bullying and harrassment (the main sources of danger to kids online as well as offline) don't require profanity to work.

And what about the other danger so frequently cited in pleas for more kid-safe online spaces -- that of creepy adults who would want to interact with kids online? As much as the research I've read indicates this is a tiny, tiny problem, I actually can't tell whether Kidswirl provides real safety from it -- I just signed up and got an account and all of a sudden my newsfeed features updates from dozens of real live kids who I don't know! And I can see their entire profiles! As a mother who actually doesn't find the online world any more dangerous than the offline one, even I find this a bit troubling.

Bottom line: if you think protecting your kids from "bad words" is among your highest parental duties, Kidswirl is for you. Otherwise, maybe you should do what the experts suggest: talk to your kids about how to manage their online relationships, make sure you understand what they're doing and set appropriate limits, and more than anything, listen to them. It's kids themselves, not grownup marketing types, who can really educate parents about what's going on in their worlds, virtual and real.

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Is It OK To Be Scary And Inappropriate To Get Through To Teens?

Amy S.F. Lutz — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:45:00 GMT

A police officer's talk on internet safety outraged an auditorium of high school students in Windsor, Colorado on Tuesday, when he made examples of students' actual MySpace pages without asking them first.

John F. Gay III was trying to teach the students about how easily pedophiles can access personal information posted on MySpace and similar sites - which, I think we can all agree, is an important lesson. But the students and their parents think he crossed the line when he referred to one girl's page as "slutty," and told another girl that he showed her page to a prisoner, who then masturbated to her picture. When that student fled the room crying, Officer Gay called her, with a phone number he had found on the internet.

Now, maybe Officer Gay went a little too far when he painted a picture of a convicted sex offender jerking off to some poor high school girl's photo - but on the other hand, would anything less shocking have gotten through to these kids?? And these teens are at risk - they're posting a lot of personal info on their web pages, which makes them vulnerable to online predators. Would a straightforward presentation with a few bullet points on a blackboard have driven the point home as effectively?

Is Facebook Safe for Children?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:00:00 GMT

As the days of “Can Jimmy come out to play?” give way to “Can I invite Jimmy to be my friend on MySpace?,” social networking sites are faced with an obligation to protect youth from predation and inappropriate content. Following in the footsteps of MySpace, Facebook has agreed to implement increased protections for young users. From now on, users under 18 must affirm that they’ve read safety tips when they sign up; a “report abuse” icon will be prominently featured throughout the site; users will not be able to change their age from over 18 to under 18 without being reviewed by Facebook staff; and material flagged as inappropriate will be removed within 24 hours. Facebook is also working on developing behavioral technology that will make it easier to identify when a user is lying about his or her age.

Naturally, no matter how “safe” Facebook becomes, it’s up to parents to make sure their children fully understand the importance of Internet safety. How have parents out there dealt with this issue? What age is it appropriate for a child to join MySpace or Facebook? Do you monitor your children’s online interactions?

There’s also the simple danger of youth wasting far too much time on the computer. Call me old-fashioned, but I miss the days when a “friend” was someone you built a fort in the backyard with, not someone you gossiped with while sitting in front of a computer screen.

Photo: srenrique.com

Brits Get Serious About Internet Safety

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:44:00 GMT

How many times have I clicked that little box swearing to the invisible Internet gods that I’m over 18 and thought of how great it would be if it were that easy to tell bald-faced lies about myself during, say, job interviews or insufferable dates? (And get your minds out of the gutter; there’s one reason and one reason only that I ever need to verify my age online: the porn.)

Well, a British psychologist named Tanya Byron wants to change all that, making it impossible for a perfectly mature seven-year-old to surf the Web at his leisure. Byron has published a report calling for all new family PCs to come with filtering software and for greater family involvement in Internet use. She contends that parents and grandparents need to educate themselves about Web technology such as parental controls built in to most browsers, so that kids are not the only ones who understand the family computer. With 99 percent of youth between the ages of eight and 17 now regularly using the Internet, it might not be a bad idea for all adults to check out Byron's 10 tips to protect children.

Photo: blogs.webmd.com

Growing Up Online

Madeline Holler — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:09:00 GMT

I tend to play down the effect of computers on kids, probably because my oldest is only 6. But she likes to do stuff on the computer -- take care of her Webkinz, check out PBS websites. I'm fooling myself if I think that's where it all begins and ends. Sooner than I know it, she'll be all over IMing, and Facebook and whatever else will no doubt come along to grab her attention, ask for her personal details, dumb down her education, etc.

Tonight, a PBS Frontline airs the documentary Growing Up Online, which looks at all the different angles of kids and the Internet and their parents who are often in the background feeling (as I do) fully in control but actually are not.

They tell the story of Jessica Hunter, a shy 14-year-old who reinvented herself online as "Autumn Edows": ... an alternative goth artist and model who posted provocative photos of herself on the Web, and fast developed a cult following. “I just became this whole different person,” Jessica tells FRONTLINE. “I didn’t feel like myself, but I liked the fact that I didn’t feel like myself. I felt like someone completely different. I felt like I was famous.”

The program also covers what parents fear most online: sexual predators. Also cyberbullying, and online communities that might not be in the best interest of your vulnerable child -- tips for staying thin from anorexics or ways to commit suicide for depressed teens. They film also hits more banal seeming stuff (incomparison to all the nakedness and injury and covert seduction), like how much easier it is to cheat on homework, how computer use might interrupt real learning, that kind of thing.

These are the kinds of things I'd much rather bury my head in the sand over, since the options for dealing with it seems so few: get rid of the computer, raise kid on remote island. Here's how a law expert sees it.

“You have a generation faced with a society with fundamentally different properties thanks to the Internet,” says Danah Boyd, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. “We can turn our backs and say, ‘This is bad,’ or, ‘We don’t want a world like this.’ It’s not going away. So instead of saying that this is terrible, instead of saying, ‘Stop MySpace; stop Facebook; stop the Internet,’ it’s a question for us of how we teach ourselves and our children to live in a society where these properties are fundamentally a way of life. This is public life today.”

I think I'll watch the program. On PBS tonight, check local listings. And remember, many Frontline episodes can be watched online at the PBS website.

MySpace Tries to Clean Up for the Kids

Karen Murphy — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:02:00 GMT

Oh, MySpace, home of the pornbots, the spambots, the obsessive commenters. Where people really do have 289,000 friends. Where a teenager's parents can help humilate another teen into suicide. And where kids lie about their ages to create a profile and post inappropriate photos of themselves for all to see.

Well, MySpace is trying to clean up its act to protect the underage, and is allying with the attorneys general of 49 states (I wonder which state was the lone holdout here?) to "fight sexual predators and clean up social networks". Think it'll work? Here's what they're doing:

Letting parent submit a list of their kids' email addresses to MySpace so that if the kid tries to create a profile there they are turned down. Except, uh, a kid can create a new email address in like 20 seconds. Brilliant, MySpace!

It will also set the profiles of all 16 and 17-year-olds to private, so only their established online friends can visit their pages - essentially creating a “closed” section for users under age 18. Except, uh, what kid doesn't have the ability to lie about his age and create a profile of someone slightly older? Even my incredibly naive 12-year-old knows this is what you do to set up a profile on some site that has problems with the, say, under-13 crowd. Besides, how many MySpace profiles have I seen of people that purport to be 99 or 100? Think they're really that old? I mean, does anybody think that, even MySpace?

MySpace is also planning to hire a contractor to identify and delete pornographic images on the site. Think they're having a bit of a bidding war on that contract? And who decides what is "pornographic"?

And MySpace will also "take charge of an Internet safety technical task force to develop age and identity verification tools for social networking sites." Huh? Is that newspeak? Uh, ok, so what would these tools be, exactly? Sounds good, doesn't it? But I don't see how you could possibly insist people be 100% honest about their age or identity on a social networking site. Good luck with that one.

Photo: parentdish.com

Miss America Web Browser Keeps Kids Off Some Sites While Perfecting Their Pageant Waves

Kelly Mills — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:54:00 GMT

Miss America Lauren Nelson has teamed up with the Children's Educational Network to create a web browser for kids. The Miss America Kid-Safe Web Browser uses boring old blocking technology anyone can get, but has added bonus of an animated Lauren Nelson, who will keep your kids away from inappropriate sites. Cuz I totally don't want my kid surfing porn sites featuring naked or scantily-clad women who haven't even won a talent competition. You can also get the animated Miss America to remind kids to do chores or say while checking e-mail, "Don't forget to e-mail your parents now and then!" The purpose of which, I assume, is to make the internet utterly unappealing to children, thus reducing their likelihood of encountering online danger.

When the surfing starts, the animated Nelson walks across the screen in her glittery tiara while the Miss America theme song plays. Does it have lyrics? Could my child learn, "There she is, Miss America/ There she is, your ideal..." Yippee. I do wonder if the browser allows access to child beauty pageant sites. Seems only right. Well, at least it blocks access to places where pedophiles lurk. Ahem.

Kids And Naked Pictures on the Internet

Kelly Mills — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 18:08:00 GMT

One big media topic of late is the debate over teens and women posting naked pictures on the internet. Why, do a google search for "naked pictures internet" and...um, scratch that. While some of the coverage, especially after the discovery of naked photos of a certain "High School Musical" star, centers on the concern that children will see these photos, others are lambasting the way many women and teens post these photos themselves, asserting that this self-objectification will result in women being treated as sex objects.

Let's take both things as they relate to kids. I'm not particularly hysterical when it comes to the idea that my child might see nudity, and so I guess the fact that there's more nakedness on the internet than before doesn't worry me too much. But then there's the idea of teens posting pictures of themselves, and whether or not that's a problem or if it will just become so common that no one will bat an eye after a while--like we'll all have nude photos of ourselves on Facebook. And here's where we get into the debate that Jezebel has been covering, the "women and girls promoting themselves as sex objects" idea.

As I read about things like the lad mag site Nuts.com, where women send in topless photos of themselves to be voted on in a feature called "Assess my Breasts" I get completely skeeved out by the idea that teen girls (and grown women) would choose to do this. There's a fine line between "empowered sexuality" and "exploited sexuality," like in the MILF dilemma, but this one clearly has crossed over. I detest the idea that teenagers would go the sex-doll route because teenagers are so vulnerable, and I shudder to think of them trying to get something from an online boob ranking or by garnering page hits for a revealing picture.

It's not the nakedness that bothers me, it's the hungry search for validation, and looking for validation is kind of inherent to adolescence (or at least it was to mine.) Are we women setting an example for our teenage girls by being so stripper-pole and "I'm hot"? I don't think this is a black-and-white issue, and frankly, I'm leery of blaming women, but I do believe the difference is less about whether a nipple is covered and more about who is in control. And I think there are places in which it's hard for any of us to know the latter.

Kids and Cyberdanger

Kelly Mills — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:28:00 GMT

Maybe you thought the internet was this real boon, allowing us to access all kinds of information and meet people and whine about parenting, but noooo. Of course it is really a highly dangerous place for kids, where their every step is tracked by cyberpredators and they access all kinds of grown-up stuff that you had to view by digging those interesting magazines out from under your dad's bed. Symantec, which sells (surprise!) internet security products, commissioned a study about how kids are in way over their heads on the internet and their parents DON'T EVEN KNOW. In other overhyped news: childhood obesity is a problem.

Here's the PR bullets from the selfless folks at Symantec:

-Twenty-one percent of children have reported having an experience with inappropriate material via the Internet that made them feel uncomfortable

-Eighteen percent of children have had an experience with cyberbullyng or cyber pranks (such as receiving messages, images or videos intended as a joke or prank)

-Twenty-three percent of children have had an encounter with a stranger on the Internet, including seven percent of children who reported having met someone in the real world from the Internet

-Twenty percent of children wish their parents were more interested in using the Internet

This tells me that: 1) kids get pranked and chatted up way less than grownups, and 2) I'm stunned any kid wants their parents on the internet more. Do they really want us to find the online diary where they write, "OMG I H8 MY MOM!!!"

Family Surfing: A Site We Like

Kelly Mills — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:05:00 GMT

There's debate over the benefits of family video game playing and T.V. watching, but around our house, we surf together. The internets. You know, we use the Google to find stuff we like, and then gather around the monitor as a snuggly family, screen light reflecting off our pasty faces, and we laugh. I think I've seen almost every wacky kitten video ever posted on Youtube.

The current favorite is Cute Overload. Lots of baby animals, pets wearing clothes, strange interspecies co-mingling, and so on. We wuv the widdle animals, oh yes we do. In fact, every time I try to sneak off to fold laundry or make dinner, I hear, "Mom! C'mere!" or "Sweetie, you've got to see this kitten and turtle. Awwwwww." Someday I may actually get my laptop back to do actual work. And since many of these things have no audio, there's real human interactions happening too. How 1900's! I doubt this is messing with our child's social skills, unless people actually expect her to make eye contact.

Glubble Helps Firefox Users Surf Safely

Patti — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:36:00 GMT

Yesterday when I found out about Glubble, a Firefox extension that allows parents to create a safe browsing environment for their youngest web users, I thought "great, I'll download this later and let the kids check it out".

Then I went about my business, and while I was making dinner, the girls went on a mad spree of tab-opening while trying to replay some streaming video on the Disney site. They clicked on anything clickable and in the end opened about a dozen tabs, a couple of which were credit card applications. Funny thing, those credit card applications, you can't just click the X and move on. Much like internet porn behaves, or so I am told, the Disney Visa windows stubbornly refused to close. I had to force quit the browser.

Glubble could prevent this kind of thing in the future. It limits kids to certain sites, even filtering search results. Glubble's "white list" of approved sites includes some preloaded URLs, anything you add yourself from the parental master controls, and in finest Web 2.0 tradition users can create a social network of trusted Glubblers and share their site lists.

Glubble works with the Firefox browser and claims to be compatible with other filtering and monitoring products, and shouldn't affect the browsing experience at all for adults.

Amber Alert ID Kit Could Save Your Kids

Patti — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:51:00 GMT

The Amber Alert program organizes and distributes information about a missing child in the attempt to ensure that every organization and individual who may be able to aid in the search is notified. They are adding a new product to help make the job easierl: the Amber Alert Child ID Kit, a flash drive, pre-loaded with software that allows you to input your child's vital statistics, photographs, medical and emergency contact information. Furthermore, you can store information about your child's online habits: MySpace page, instant message handles, blog addresses. The ID Kit can be easily updated with new information and photos, and is virtually indestructable. It's also secure: the information is not stored on your personal computer where it could be hacked, and the drive itself is password protected (so if you're asking yourself why you couldn't just load this stuff on that USB drive you got for free at a conference, now you know).

The drive is just one more possible tool in your arsenal, and it makes good sense to me. I don't carry pictures of my kids, I'm lucky to remember their middle names off the top of my head much less their height and weight--what the hell would I do on one of our frequent flights to visit Grandma if one of the kids went missing at the airport? Unfortunately for me, the Amber Alert Child ID Kit is currently only available in a Windows format, although a Mac OS version is scheduled to be released soon. The ID Kit is just under $30, with quantity discounts for purchases of two or more, and the program feels strongly enough about it that they've partnered with sponsors to make sure it can get into the hands of people who can't afford it.

No Escape from Bullies in Internet Era

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:55:00 GMT

My fist brush with a bully came in third grade, when I begged off a 3 p.m. fight with a decidedly honest, yet painfully embarrassing, admission. "I can't," I said, "My mom's picking me up." I shrugged my shoulders, apologizing for letting my mom come between a bully and his beating.

It's getting so much more difficult for kids to escape their bullies, as this story points out. Thanks to MySpace and other online harassing sites, kids are getting all sorts of grief that used to be confined to the schoolyard.

This story's young girl had to move to several different schools to escape the bullying -- and yet it continued anyway, showing there are no borders when it comes to the Internet ... and how mean kids can be. The mom in this picture is doing a stellar job, if you ask me. She pulled her kid from the schools and decided to home-school her, while also preparing to shut down her access to MySpace. What she doesn't know, I suppose, won't taunt her.

Famster Launches Kid-Safe IM Client

Patti — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 00:05:00 GMT

Famster, a social network designed for families, has announced the launch of their new IM component. Fully web-based (no downloads required), Famster IM includes features like controlled user name creation, two-way buddy list approval, and other ways to monitor your child's usage.

Famster itself is a Flash-based social networking site that purports to be a safe, family-friendly alternative to sites like Myspace, and Famster IM could be the solution for parents worried about how to balance internet safety with freedom to explore.

A Wii Bit Risqué: Filtering Adult Content on Your Game Console

Patti — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:22:00 GMT

Parents who are savvy enough to be reading this are probably savvy enough to know how to supervise their children on the Internet. And by extension, y'all are probably savvy enough to know what I'm about to tell you, but just in case, here goes: your kids can use the Nintendo Wii to access porn. Go check for yourself, I'll wait right here.

The subject caused a bit of a kerfluffle over at The Porn Talk, a site that explores how to discuss adult content with children. WiiFanBoy does a really nice job of breaking down the subject: the Wii is designed for everyone, therefore it's capable of accessing content for everyone. But fear not: it's easy for even the most technically inept parent to set the Wii's filters to ensure a safe playing experience for children.

Got Porn? If You're a Rural Boy You Do!

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:58:00 GMT

Children using the Internet to access porn (and also their "friends" who are 40 year old pedophiles) definitely falls under the category "WTF? Where are the Parents?" Admittedly, I haven't encountered this particular problem yet (other than with ex-boyfriends) as my kids only get close enough to my computer to occasionally push the "Tab" key.

So the recent study that shows 1 in 3 rural boys are heavy-users of porn shouldn't come as any surprise, especially if you've kept up with the deluge of recent MySpace/Internet abuse stories. But these findings are particularly disturbing because the Internet is only part of the problem. Apparently, kids are also finding stashes of porn magazines and DVDs and viewing them without their parents' knowledge.

The rural boys in the study also reported much less frequent conversations with their parents about sex. This seems like a disastrous combination. With no real information about sex, they are learning about it by watching porn. And everyone knows it doesn't go down like that in real life. But the real issue here is parental involvement: Parents need to educate their kids about sex so that they won't be prey to the misinformation that is increasingly only one inattentive parent and one mouse-click away.

Bill Gates Limits His Kids' Computer Usage

Patti — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 13:27:00 GMT

Microsoft king Bill Gates is just another dad when it comes to monitoring the time his 10-year-old daughter Phoebe and 13-year-old son Rory spend in front of the screen. Once the kids discovered the joys of the Internet and gaming, Bill and his wife Melinda laid the smackdown: a limit of 45 minutes total daily screen time on the Xbox or computer, extended to an hour on weekends, plus whatever time they need for homework. And he's got the much-vaunted parental controls on his company's new Vista operating system cranked up to full power.

Gates says he told his son he can control his own screens when he moves out. Ha! The rich really are just like you and me!

(via The Inquirer.net)

Today's MySpace-Loving Teens: Perhaps Not So Dumb?

JasonAvant — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:32:00 GMT

Ah, MySpace. The bane of many parents’ existence. The site’s gotten an arguably deserved bad rap, thanks to its penchant for attracting all sorts of unsavory characters. But like it or not, “social networking” sites like MySpace and Facebook are here to stay, and have even spawned similar sites such as LinkedIn for professional adults who are looking to build their own business-related networks.

Personally, I can’t help but wonder if we’re worrying a bit too much about the teenage love for MySpace. Cooper Munroe talked to three teenagers, all girls in high school, about the role that the Internet and social networking sites play in their lives. All three come across as smart and appreciative of their parents’ concern. They provide some interesting takes on some of the positive aspects of such sites (“The cool thing about the Internet is that anyone you meet online will have few preconceived notions about you.”). They’re smart about the stuff they post to such sites. And they seem to recognize that virtual friends are no substitute for those found in “the real world”. Sounds like their parents are doing a good job.

Teenager Charged With Sexual Abuse - of Herself

Patti — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 23:31:00 GMT

According to this wire story reported in USA Today, a 15-year-old Pennsylvania girl has been charged with sexual abuse of children as well as possession and dissemination of child pornography after being caught posting nude pictures on the internet which she had taken of herself. Dozens of photos she had taken of herself in various stages of undress and performing various sexual acts were found on her hard drive, and police allege she sent them to people she met in chat rooms. It was not reported how police learned about the girl's activities, and her name has not been released.

Does it need to be said again? Parents: pay attention to your children's online activities.

via reddit.com

Canadian Kids Unsafe Online, Declares Report

Karen Murphy — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 18:32:00 GMT

I love Canada. I've been there three times, and was always impressed in one way or another. And somehow I've assumed that, because it's not Wal-Mart America, people in Canada are smarter than Americans.

Apparently, though, Canadian kids who go online are just as clueless and inappropriately trusting as American kids. In fact, in a new study conducted by Microsoft Canada and Ipsos Reid, a full 25% of 10-14 year olds think it's perfectly okay to meet in person someone they've only known online. (Pedophiles, take note.) And 70% think that whatever they send via Teh Internets is private (the Patriot Act has awfully long arms but someone needs to tell these kids about it).

Fortunately, this being in Canada, people are doing something about this situation, and beginning next month Microsoft Canada is beginning a program for kids and their parents to educate them about the realities of the internet. (Not that it'll actually do much or reach many people, but at least this way Microsoft can claim due diligence). For now, though, it's suggested that parents try to keep tabs on their kids when they are using computers, not an easy task when 85% of kids have access to the internet outside the home. Still, it's a good reminder that part of being a wise parent is staying in your kid's face, whether he likes it or not.