SafeKids.com

Guest post by Justin W. Patchin

Justin Patchin

Without a doubt, parents have a duty to do their part to ensure that their kids do not bully others.  They need to regularly remind their kids about the importance of treating others the way they would want to be treated.  They should talk about how some things we might do or say to someone that seem funny at the time are actually pretty hurtful.  When it comes to preventing cyberbullying, parents need to regularly check in on the online behaviors of their kids.  Problematic behaviors need to be addressed with reasonable and appropriate discipline.  In general, parents need to instill in their children an ethic that includes respecting others and always acting and interacting with integrity, whether online or off.  And they can do that in a caring and authoritative manner that encourages emotional connectedness yet demands respect and accountability. Indeed, research has shown a positive parent-child relationship makes it less likely that youth will engage in bullying behaviors as they do not want to risk damaging the valued bond.

But if parents fail to take these steps and their child bullies others, should the parents be held criminally responsible?

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Google on Saturday said that it’s building a “cross industry database” of encrypted “fingerprints” of child sexual abuse images to “enable companies, law enforcement and charities to better collaborate on detecting and removing these images, and to take action against the criminals.” The database will be shared with other companies and will include references to images identified by law enforcement and non-profits such as the Internet Watch Foundation and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Based on my more than 15 years as a NCMEC board member*, I am quite sure that the actual images will not be viewable to individuals other than those who work for law enforcement, NCMEC and other agencies authorized and required to view such images as part of an investigation.

Organization receiving a large donation from Google to fight child porn

The search giant said that it’s committing $5 million towards the fight against child porn which includes creating a $2 million Child Protection Technology Fund to encourage the development of additional tools to fight child porn along with contributions to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the United States and the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK. NCMEC will receive $1 million for use in the United States.

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New report from Center on Media and Human Development at Northwestern University

A survey of 2,300 parents of children between birth and eight years of age found that “Parents do not report having many family conflicts or concerns about their children’s media use with 78% disagreeing with the statement, “negotiating media use causes conflicts in our home.”  Twenty percent agree with that statement.

The study also found that parents “do not report significant conflicts with their spouses over their children’s media use.”  More than eight in ten (83%) married parents say they usually agree with each other about tech use, while 16% do not.

Negotiating media doesn’t cause conflict in most homes.

These findings are from a report from the Center on Media and Human Development at Northwestern University, titled Parenting in the Digital Age: A National Survey by Ellen Wartella, Vicky Rideout, Alexis Lauricella and Sabrina Connell.

Most parents not concerned

While 56% of parents say they are not concerned about their children’s use of media, only about a third say they are very: (13%) or somewhat (17%) concerned. Continue reading →

This post first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News

By Larry Magid

My kids, now in there 20s, grew up in the VCR era. Back then, we would record “Sesame Street,” “Raffi” and other shows that they would watch over and over again whenever we let them watch TV. Unlike previous generations of parents, we weren’t chained to a broadcast schedule. We also bought videos and I recall watching the movie, “Follow That Bird” with them so often that I still remember some of the lines.

We had to remember to record our kids’ shows, and the selection was limited. Now parents of young children merely have to login to one of many steaming services or websites for 24/7 access to an incredible array of children’s movies and TV shows.

And kids don’t even have to be home to watch. In addition to being able to stream content to a TV using a Roku, Apple TV, game console or other media player, parents can sit their kids in front of laptops, tablets and even smartphones to watch from virtually anywhere, as long as there’s an Internet connection. For content that’s been downloaded, you don’t even need an Internet connection.

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There are a lot of good reasons to have strong and secure passwords. Not only does it protect you, but it protects the rest of us as well. Enabling intruders to break into your accounts puts undo stress on networks that affect everyone.

It doesn’t have to be difficult to have strong passwords that are easy for you to remember but hard to others (or machines) to guess.  Here are some basic tips:

20 year old safety guide completely re-written

by Larry Magid

I’m excited to announce the 20th anniversary edition of Child Safety on the Information Highway.  I know, the title is really dated but the content is all new. When I wrote the booklet, people really did use the term “information highway.”

Written in 1993, the booklet was published in early 1994 by National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).  The organization distributed millions of copies and it soon became the basis for much of Internet safety advice during the 1990s. The FBI and other agencies and organizations around the world excerpted the document and it was reposted on countless websites including my own site, SafeKids.com. Over the years I’ve revised the booklet a bit until NCMEC retired it in 2005. But until now it was woefully out of date.

When reviewing traffic statistics for SafeKids.com I realized that it’s still one of the site’s most popular pages so, since people are still clicking on it, I decided it was time for a re-write.

The guide had good advice for the early to mid-90′s, but the Net has changed dramatically since the booklet was first written. Advice such as “keep the computer in a family room rather than the child’s bedroom” seems almost quaint in the age of mobile devices (though it’s still a good idea to recharge your devices away from the bedroom at night). The guide also suggested that kids should avoid posting pictures or disclosing the name of their school but — in today’s social media world — that advice, too, is a bit unrealistic.

The other thing that’s changed is that we now have 20 years more experience and a lot of great research from organizations like the Crimes Against Children Research Center, the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the Center for Innovative Public Health Research Center and the Cyberbullying Research Center.  With this research, we now have a much better understanding of risks as well as how young people use the Internet and how most young people are more savvy than many adults give them credit for. Thanks to the research advisory board of the Internet Safety Technical Force, for example, we now know that “The psychosocial makeup of and family dynamics surrounding particular minors are better predictors of risk than the use  of specific media or technologies.” The Crimes Against Children Research Center taught us that “publicity about online ‘predators’ who prey on naive children using trickery and violence is largely inaccurate,” and there has been a great deal of research to show that cyberbullying — while a serious problem — is far from an epidemic. And recent studies have shown that the panic over “sexting” is way overblown.

Still, parents are rightfully concerned about the well-being of their children as they use connected computers, phones, tablets, game consoles and even Wi-Fi enabled media players like the iPod Touch.  And while the net may not be as dangerous as some people thought back in 1993, there are still things we need to think about to help kids protect not just their safety but their privacy and their peace of mind.

The new guide has links to tips and advice from ConnectSafely.org, the non-profit organization that I co-direct along with Anne Collier.

Like the first edition, the guide covers issues parents worry about including:

• Harassment and bullying
• Posting material that could harm your reputation
• Security risks
• Privacy
• Legal and financial risks
• Exposure to inappropriate material
• Online predators and physical molestation

And the guidelines for parents section includes such points as:

• Have a conversation (not a lecture) with your children about how they are using connected technology. Ask them what services and apps they use and get them to show you how they use them.
• Don’t overreact. If you become concerned or if something goes wrong, work with your children to solve the problem and don’t punish them or take away their access for coming to you with a problem.
• Get to know any services or apps your child uses. If you don’t know how to use the service, get your child to show you. Have your child show you what he or she does online and become familiar the services.
• Be aware of the information that sites and apps collect. It could include your child’s location (especially mobile apps) or list of friends and contacts. Some apps let you limit what they collect so pay close attention to the “permissions” they request when you install them.

The new edition is a bit long (4,000 words) but so was the original (here’s the 1998 edition). And now I no longer have to apologize for it being out-of-date.

Dave Taylor (Source: AskDaveTaylor.com)

Guest post

by Dave Taylor

It’s something that I hear from teens all the time, the refrain that “it’s cool, I can just delete it if it’s a problem” when we’re talking about online safety, privacy and the risk associated with everything that’s posted online. They assure me that those pictures on Facebook, the awkward photo from the party last Saturday night, the angry Tweet, none of them are permanent so it’s no big deal.

Unfortunately, they’re wrong. Continue reading →