There was quite a privacy backlash after Google announced Buzz in February. The day it was announced, I was one of many who raised questions about both the privacy and safety implications of the service, including the fact that it is possible to use Buzz to disclose your location from a GPS-enabled mobile device. CNET’s Molly Wood was less charitable, calling Buzz a “privacy nightmare.”

The collective groan caused Google to almost immediately apologize for it missteps and quickly tweak its privacy settings.

On Monday, the company announced plans to start reminding users to reconfirm their privacy settings.

Now the company is turning its attention to teenagers, with a new YouTube video (scroll down to watch it) to help young users better understand how to protect their privacy and use Buzz safely. Scott Rubin, Google’s head of planning, public policy and communications, said in an e-mail that the company “has been hard at work making improvements to the product and thinking about how to give users even more control over their experience on Buzz, including teenagers who may not share adult concepts of public versus nonpublic sharing.”

The video explains that, like all Google products, “you have to be at least 13 to use Buzz” and tells teens to keep five tips in mind “to help you control your experience.”

1. Keep your private information private. Posting publicly on the Web means that whatever you post is visible to all of your followers. It shows up on your public Google profile and may appear in Google search results.

2. Know who’s following you. Buzz sends a notification after someone starts following you and you can chose to block them. If you block someone Buzz doesn’t send them a message so they won’t necessarily know they’ve been blocked.

3. Control your Google profile. Before you can post on Buzz, you have to set up a public profile, but you don’t have to share anything more than your first and last name on the profile. The video reminds you that if you have a photo associated with your Gmail account, “you can chose to use this use this as your profile photo as well” but you can change or remove the photo if you don’t want it to be public. You can also elect whether you want your list of followers to show up publicly on your profile.

4. Manage posts and comments. Teens are reminded that they can edit and delete their own posts and delete any comments on your posts and you can remove comments you’ve made on other people’s posts.

5. Know how to turn it off. If you no longer want to use Buzz, you can disable it from Gmail settings. You can also hide Buzz in Gmail but still get it on your phone.

Disclosure: Google is one of several companies that provides support to ConnectSafely.org, a non-profit Internet safety organization that I help run.

Here’s the 2 minute, 12 second video:

by Larry Magid

I’ve been an Internet safety advocate since 1993 and right now I’m discouraged and angry about what’s going on in this field.

I’m angry because people who ought to know better are trying to mislead the public with false information about online risks, which is diverting attention away from real risks. And I’m not alone.

Many respected online safety organizations and leading youth-risk researchers are trying to shift the discussion away from mostly predator danger to youth behavior risk. Thanks to some politicians, it’s an uphill battle.

Online safety groups and public officials should be spending our time educating families on how to avoid real risks that affect most kids – like bullying, harassment and unwanted exposure to inappropriate material. We also need to do a better job of identifying and reaching the small minority of “at risk” kids who are putting themselves at greater risk by the way they behave online. › Continue reading…

By Hemanshu Nigam

It’s New Year’s Eve, and your teen is all decked out and ready for a big party. She’s got her iPhone, BlackBerry, or some other cell phone with a camera in her pocketbook. And she’s ready to roll. You’re glad she’s got these gadgets so you can get in touch with her. You tell her to call to check in, to let you know she got there safely, to ask for permission to stay later. She agrees. You give her a quick hug and run upstairs to get ready for your own party to celebrate the arrival of a new beginning. You even remember to put the new digital camera you got for Christmas by your purse so you don’t forget it. › Continue reading…

Reposted from San Jose Mercury News
December 8, 2008

by Larry Magid

What Lori Drew allegedly did to Megan Meier was despicable, but it doesn’t justify her conviction late last month for violating federal laws designed to keep hackers from invading computer networks.
Two years ago, Megan, a 13-year-old Missouri girl, hanged herself after her online friend “Josh Evans,” who had befriended her on MySpace, reportedly told her that he didn’t want to be friends with her and that the world would be better off without her. But Josh was in fact Drew, a 49-year-old mother of one of Megan’s former friends.

According to published reports, Megan had been mean to Drew’s daughter and Josh’s fake online relationship with Megan was a way for Drew to retaliate. › Continue reading…