by Larry Magid
The calendar has great news for kids and mixed news for parents. Summer is almost here, which means kids will be home from school. For parents this can bring on extra challenges, especially now that kids have so many electronic indoor diversions that can entertain and educate but also bring on certain risks.
There are a lot of reasons parents should limit the amount of time their kids spend online, watching TV or playing video games. These include the risks associated with interacting with strangers, the negative messages from some of the media and the negative health effects of too much screen time and not enough outdoor activity.
CBS News technology analyst Larry Magid talks to Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, about putting your kids on a “media diet.”
Let’s start with the Internet. The vast majority of U.S. homes with children now have a broadband connection, which means it’s easy for kids to go online to check and update their profiles on MySpace, Facebook and other social networks or to surf the web and exchange instant messages with friends. There is nothing wrong with any of these activities as long as they’re done in moderation and with reasonable safety guidelines. To that end, kids should be reminded to:
- Be careful what they post: Avoid posting provocative or sexually suggestive photos, avoid personal information that could allow a stranger to contact them, as well as anything that could prove embarrassing now or in the future.
- Mind their manners: Kids should be reminded to treat others online respectfully. It turns out that kids who harass others are also more likely to be victims of cyberbullying.
- Don’t talk about sex with strangers: I know this seems obvious but research at the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center has found a strong correlation between this activity and reports of victimization.
- And, of course, children should be reminded not to get together with strangers they meet online. If such a meeting is to take place, it should be in a public place and you should bring others along such as a parent or a group of friends. › Continue reading…
MySpace has removed online profiles from about 7,000 registered convicted sex offenders. A group of state Attorneys General have demanded that MySpace disclose information about those individuals and, after initially citing federal privacy laws as a reason for not disclosing that data, the company and the Attorneys General have now come to an agreement regarding the information. Hemanshu Nigam, the Chief Security Office of MySpace parent Fox Interactive explains the situation and what the company is doing to protect children in a conversation with CBS News technology Consultant Larry Magid.
Listen here
by Larry MagidIt might seem as if children and teens are unlikely victims of identity theft, but the Federal Trade Commission has estimated that about 400,000 children have their identity stolen each year. Youth are targets because, unlike many adults, they have clean credit records. Because kids aren’t applying for credit or jobs or renting an apartment until at least their mid-teens, chances are no one is checking their credit reports, so thieves can get away with exploiting kids’ IDs for years. Eventually, older teens will run into a problem when applying for a driver’s license, a bank account, credit card, student loan, or that first apartment.
Kids, like adults, are often victims of phishing scams where they are asked to enter personal information on what appears to be a legitimate Web site but is actually a site set up by criminals to harvest information. Whether they enter a contest, download an animated cursor or music, or make a purchase, kids can be enticed into the same traps as adults if they’re not taught to keep their private information private.
And just because someone is a kid, doesn’t mean that they don’t have private information. Most kids today get social security numbers at a very young age, now that the IRS asks parents to include their children’s social security number when claiming them as a dependent. There is always the possibility that a child’s Social Security number could get into the wrong hands.
Social Networking and Privacy
There is also the issue of what kids post on social networking sites, in chat rooms, and other online public forums. The relatively good news is that most kids do try to keep some information private. A recent survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that while 55% of teens have online profiles, 66% of those teens say that their profile is not visible to all Internet users. While 82% of teens disclose their first name on their profile, only 11% of teens with profiles post their first and last name, and 5% of teens with profiles disclose their full names, photos, and their town in publically viewable profiles. Though this is a minority of teens, it still represents hundreds of thousands of potential identity theft victims. › Continue reading…
by Anne Collier
NetFamilyNews
Someone claiming to be a Petaluma (Calif.) High School student “hacked into several students’ MySpace accounts at about 10 p.m. Tuesday” and posted threats that he or she would bring a gun to school today and shoot people, NBC11.com reports. The person also made references to the Virginia Tech shootings. The school, which told police that several hundred students received the threatening message, notified parents with a recorded phone message last night, but about 35% of the students were in class today. “In addition to the Petaluma Police Department’s school resource officer there were five to seven additional officers on campus,” according to the TV report, but police said they found nothing suspicious today, and classes are scheduled as usual for tomorrow and Friday. MySpace works closely with law enforcement, with a toll-free number for police requests, so the hacker’s identity could well have been worked out by the time I post this (Wed. evening).
by Larry Magid
Imagine a world where you can be tracked anywhere you go. A decade ago that would have seemed like a paranoid delusion, but thanks to GPS-enabled cell phones and other technologies, it’s more or less the way things now are.
Many of today’s cell phones are equipped with global positioning systems that are capable of pinpointing your exact position. Soon, thanks to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, all phones will be able to transmit your location. The question isn’t whether you can be found, but how that information will be used and who will have access to it.
The FCC’s Wireless 911 rules require that all U.S. cell phones be equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) or other technology so that emergency personnel can locate people who call 911 from their mobile phone. When the system is fully implemented, 911 operators will know your longitude and latitude, which is a good thing if you need help and can’t report your exact location.
But there’s nothing in the rules that say that the technology can only be used for emergency services. In fact, there are numerous commercial services that are already piggybacking on this E911 location technology. And it’s not just cell phones that can track your location. Laptop PCs, PDAs, Internet phones and other WiFi (wireless networking)-enabled devices can also be used to locate you, thanks to a company that’s mapped out the location of millions of wireless Internet adapters around the US. › Continue reading…
