Concerned Parents Online

Friday, June 23, 2006

Parents-Safety Tips for Teens

The link indicated above, taken from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offered the following tips for teens online:

Internet-Related Safety Tips for Teens

1. Don’t give out personal information about yourself, your family situation, your school, your telephone number, or your address.

2. If you become aware of the sharing, use, or viewing of child pornography online, immediately report this to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.

3. When in chatrooms remember that not everyone may be who they say they are. For example a person who says "she" is a 14-year-old girl from New York may really be a 42-year-old man from California.1

4. If someone harasses you online, says anything inappropriate, or does anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, contact your Internet service provider.

5. Know that there are rules many Internet Service Providers (ISP) have about online behavior. If you disobey an ISP's rules, your ISP may penalize you by disabling your account, and sometimes every account in a household, either temporarily or permanently.

6. Consider volunteering at your local library, school, or Boys & Girls Club to help younger children online. Many schools and nonprofit organizations are in need of people to help set up their computers and Internet capabilities.

7. A friend you meet online may not be the best person to talk to if you are having problems at home, with your friends, or at school - remember the teenage "girl" from New York in Tip number three? If you can't find an adult in your school, church, club, or neighborhood to talk to, Covenant House is a good place to call at 1-800-999-9999. The people there provide counseling to kids, refer them to local shelters, help them with law enforcement, and can serve as mediators by calling their parents.

8. If you are thinking about running away, a friend from online (remember the 14-year-old girl) may not be the best person to talk to. If there is no adult in your community you can find to talk to, call the National Runaway Switchboard at 1-800-621-4000. Although some of your online friends may seem to really listen to you, the Switchboard will be able to give you honest, useful answers to some of your questions about what to do when you are depressed, abused, or thinking about running away.2

Parents-Safety Tips for Kids

The site indicated above- a link from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, offers the following tips for kids online:

Internet Safety Tips for Kids

I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parents' work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parents' permission.

I will tell my parents right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable.

I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my mother or father along.

I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my parents.

I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do I will tell my parents right away so that they can contact the online service.

I will talk with my parents so that we can set up rules for going online. We will decide upon the time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online, and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break these rules without their permission.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

MySpace plans new curbs - Security - MSNBC.com

Dear Previous Poster-

Ask and you shall receive!! According to this latest, linked article MySpace is beefing up its member security services. As such, they will soon be offering the profile privacy option to all users, not just those 15 and under! Just as you had suggested.

Additionally, they will now prevent anyone 18+ from connecting with users that are 14 or 15 unless the requester can provide the youngster's full name or email address.

So is this the end of online predators?? Not quite. First of all, there is no way of knowing how old someone actually is, so what is to prevent a middle-aged sex offender from registering as a 17-year-old? Also, if there's a creep in your neighborhood or school system, chances are s/he may know the full name of your child. Definitely not the end of MySpace danger, but hopefully a step in the right direction.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

MySpace sued over alleged assault - Crime & Punishment - MSNBC.com

A 14-year-old girl that was raped by a man she met on MySpace is suing the networking giant for $30 million. Her family and lawyer both assert that the site does not do enough to protect its youngest members. The accused lied in his profile, suggesting he was a member of the local football high school team.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Indiantelevision.com's Digital Edge: MySpace.com gets 50 mn US visitors in May: comScore Media Metrix

MUMBAI: comScore Media Metrix, which provides insight into American consumer behaviour and attitudes has released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories.

The social networking phenomenon continued its stratospheric ascent, as MySpace.com reached new heights with 50 million visitors in May.

Wow. Enough said.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Logged on the computer this morning to find the following in my inbox:

As a teenage myspacer aware of its dangers, i think the privacy filter is a great idea!

however, after my dad saw my site and asked me to delete it, i tried to use this filter instead...

unfortunately, myspace doesnt allow kids OVER the age of 15 to use this. I was just using myspace to chat with my friends.. and myspace wouldnt let me limit it to that.

they should offer the filter as an option to all members, not just younger kids.

Dear Poster-

Thanks for checking in! Totally agreed that this privacy filter/option should be available to all users- MySpace owners get all sorts of PR for their claims that they are working to make MySpace safer, yet you can't push a button to keep the creeps out?? I don't get it.

Anyway, I re-read that wiki-how article about staying safe on MySpace and they had a suggestion. Talk to your dad and let him know you have a way to make your profile private. Then, when you re-register for MySpace, say you were born in 1991 or 1992. Reason being: if you are 14 or 15, as you noted, MySpace makes you private. Anything above that and you're out of luck.

Sure, your friends may get a chuckle that you're saying you're a few years younger than you are; however, at least you won't have middle-aged weirdos printing out your profile pix!!

Be safe and have fun chatting with your real friends- that's what these sites should be intended for.

Let me know how it goes,
A

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Parents may need court to rein in MySpace teen

After reading this article about the now famous girl who ran to the West Bank to meet her MySpace boyfriend, I did what everyone else seems to be doing now: logged on to MySpace. I was happy to see that the young girl in question had her profile set to private- this is a very, very good idea for any member and should be strongly reccomended by parents. The young man did not, and in light of his recent fame/infamy has gained over 500 MySpace "friends".

One poster even went so far as to hail the couple a modern day Romeo and Juliet. Although I did not check into the profiles of those who had left messages for Abdallah, they seemed (from photographs and writing styles: "u" "luv", etc) to be young. And though I did not read the countless postings, they all seemed to be supportive. As if, for this generation this has became a contemporary love tragedy. I think in a past posting I referred to it as a parent's worst nightmare.

So where is the generational disconnect? What makes this news sensation so romantic for the youth of today and so terrifying for their parents? Is MySpace a parentally misunderstood aspect of this generation?

Again, I think the answer lies in communicating with your kids. If blogging sites are going to be part of their lives, talk to them about it. Tell them to be safe. Check on what they're doing. I, for one, never want to see my children in the headlines.

Additionally, this is in no way a critique of the families involved- my heart goes out to them in their time of distress, complicated by endless media attention.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

How to Be Safe on MySpace - WikiHow

A friend of mine loves WikiHow... Found this link through him.

Provides more tips on how to keeps kids safe online...

Monday, June 12, 2006

Students find ring tone adults can't hear - Wireless World - MSNBC.com

What will they think of next?

The inclusion of this article is definitely a tangent, but too good to pass up... Apparently kids are now taking advantage of a new cell phone ring that allows them to text in class while the teacher's at the board.

This "Mosquito" ring was originally designed for retail chains to repel teenagers (from loitering, shoplifting, etc) with its high pitched tone. It is, in fact, so high pitched that most adults are unable to hear it while virtually all children can.

With the use of this ring, text alerts can be heard by students leaving the teacher out of the loop.

Such a technological generation... I can't even imagine what's next...

Friday, June 09, 2006

Wired News | Family: Michigan girl detained in Jordan

A parent's worst nightmare... A 16-year-old girl ran away to Tel Aviv to meet up with someone she "knew" from MySpace. Luckily, she was detained in Jordan and returned to her family. Her plans had been discovered by the FBI after they searched her family's home computer.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Survey: iPods more popular than beer

Although this article doesn't necessarily pertain to the dangers of technology and the Internet, I think it pretty well illustrates its popularity!!

For 18 years, Student Monitor has surveyed college students to find out what was the most popular aspect of the college experience. For 16 of those years, the answer was consistently "beer."

In 1997, the Internet pushed the popular beverage out of the way for the number one spot, but the very next year beer was king again.

Until 2006- this March, the iPod came in as the most popular thing in the college circles. Beer did come in second, but tied with www.facebook.com- a social networking site for college students.

Seems as though modern computer technology is surpassing popularity levels of traditional college excess...

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

News 8 :: KFMB Stations, San Diego, California

This is a link I received via a Craigslist subscription I have for household goods for sale... Although it did not totally fit in that category, I found the relevance to my current project to be fairly amusing...

This article links to a news clip (and also features a summary) regarding a new software program: PC Pandora Viewer. Initially intended for couples who suspected infidelity, this program is now being used to record online activity of kids online.

The marketing director for Pandora's company referred to it as "the TiVo of the Internet" as it quite literally records activity for future parental viewing. The program also allows parents to manually block certain sites- should a child try to access the prohibited site, both the parent and the child receive an email about this transgression.

In all honesty, I'm not sure how I feel about this as I was raised in a home where privacy was respected and obedience was expected. However, we live in a changing society. This may well present a solution for parents who can not be as hands-on as they would like to be. Nonetheless, speaking with your children about these dangers and encouraging them to be smart must come first... And then perhaps this is a supplement or an alternative...

Teen charged for threat on MySpace - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com

Not just a joke- a teen outside of Chicago is facing felony charges for something he posted on MySpace... The article references the importance of holding teens accountable for their actions online...

Monday, June 05, 2006

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- How much space to give MySpace users?

This article discusses the complexity of the MySpace problem- particularly examining the role of school and school officials in the monitoring of MySpace and other social networking sites. Some schools have made news by their reactions to postings students made outside of school grounds/hours- examples in this article include phone calls to parents regarding pictures of middle school girls posing suggestively in their underwear and coaches benching their students after finding evidence of drugs or drinking online. Should schools be using these sites to monitor the behavior of their students? If they act in response to an inappropriate posting, are they infringing on the students' first amendment rights?

Actions taken by school vary from district to district and different people will have different reactions to this type of school involvement. However, even with these variable factors there is a clear answer- parents must be involved in their kids lives and know what they're doing online. If you're not looking at their page or talking to them about it, you can be sure that someone else is.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Las Vegas Review-Journal The Online Guy column

MySpace won "The Breakout of the Year" Webby at the 10th Annual Webby Awards...

I didn't even know such a thing existed!!

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