Blog entry August 2009

From predators and cyberbullies to any and all kinds of other inappropriate content, the dangers present on the Internet today are numerous.  How do you keep your kids safe online?  Furthermore, with the number of Internet-capable mobile devices, how do you monitor your kids' online activities when you can't be present?

To help parents combat these issues Mobicip.com is sponsoring a contest for mom bloggers and parents in general to find the best advice on how to fight this growing Internet safety and mobile Internet safety problem. The winner gets a new iPod Touch and four other winners get a free subscription to Mobicip.com Premium Internet Filtering service to protect their kids’ iPhone, iPod Touch or Netbooks.

To participate, please describe a technique you have used or seen used to keep kids safe while they are surfing on the Internet in between 25-50 words and post it to your blog or Facebook page, and then post a link in the comments section of the Mobicip.com official contest page [[http://content.mobicip.com/content/Internet-Safety-Parents-Advice-Contest]].  Note that advice that references specific product or brand names is not eligible for the prize.

A panel of parents will select the top 15 entries based on originality and practicality.  These will be posted on the contest site and be open to voting by the general public. After one week of voting, the top vote getter will win the iPod Touch and the next four top vote getters will get free Mobicip.com Premium service for 1 year.

To follow along with the advice from other parents, subscribe to the Mobicip.com blog or our Facebook or Twitter pages.  

Please note:  Advice submissions become property of Mobicip and may be used on the Mobicip site or in follow-on press releases, but your name will not be used without your permission.  In the event we have two submissions of the same advice, we will choose the first entry – so be fast!

If you have any questions, please contact contest@mobicip.com.

Jennifer Martinez at GigaOm comments on a study conducted by MTV's Nickelodeon. You can find the original article here, but here is an excerpt. We feel good that we are solving an important problem that parents worry about!

While most kids are using their parents’ iPhones or iPod touches at home, parents are also forking them over while they’re waiting for appointments or sitting in the car. More often than not, kids are using them to play games — a usage for which parents, the study found, are “willing or eager” to pay for. We wonder whether this will cut into the market share of handheld video game devices, such as Nintendo’s DS or Sony’s PSP. More importantly, what’s the appropriate age at which to buy your kids an iPhone or iPod touch of their own? Parents, please weigh in with your thoughts.

Some other interesting facts from the study:

• A whopping 98 percent of parents find the iPod touch kid-friendly, while 84 percent said the same for the iPhone.

• Most parents supervise their kids’ use of the iPod touch and iPhone.

• Parents’ biggest concern with their kids using the iPhone or iPod touch is they may view “inappropriate or unsafe content.”

 Parents, Mobicip has a clean and reliable solution that you should definitely try out.

In response to popular demand from parents, we are happy to announce the rollout of YouTube filtering for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is available right now for Mobicip.com Premium users, and will be available at High School level for others in a couple of days.

UPDATE: We found that this feature doesn't really allow filtered access to YouTube. It turns out that the only mechanism to play YouTube videos is through the YouTube application itself. So if the YouTube app is disabled (following the instructions below), and Mobicip provides filtered access to YouTube.com, none of the videos will be playable. We are working on finding a workaround for this, in case Apple doesn't support Flash soon. Please bear with us as we find a solution that works. Thanks for your patience.

Simply disable the default YouTube application using the Restrictions feature, setup Mobicip Safe Browser as the default method to access YouTube, and unblock the YouTube category (Premium users only).

Disable YouTube on iPhone or iPod Touch

• From the home screen, select Settings > General.

• Select Restrictions

• Enter a 4-digit passcode. Make sure you remember this passcode, in case you need to change these settings later on.

• You will see the restrictions screen. Set Safari, YouTube, and Installing Apps to OFF on this screen.

Setup Mobicip Safe Browser

Mobicip™ offers a best-selling alternate browser for Safari that enables parental controls on your child's iPhone or iPod Touch. It is simple to setup and works anytime anywhere! The Mobicip Safe Browser is protected by a mobicip.com account setup by the parent. 

• From the home screen on the device, touch the App Store icon.

• Touch the search tab, and search for "mobicip"

• Select the Mobicip Safe Browser from the search results.

• Touch the price button, it will turn into BUY NOW. Touch this button and enter your iTunes username and password.

NOTE: Please make sure you purchase the app from the iTunes account that will be synced with the device. Your child may have a separate iTunes account to which the device is synced. Please purchase through that account instead of yours. If you have already purchased the app from your account, call iTunes Customer Support and they can cancel and refund the purchase.

• One purchased, the app will be installed on your screen.

• When installation is done, touch the Mobicip icon to launch the app.

• If you don't have a Mobicip.com account already, touch the Create New Account button.

• Once the account is created, login into the app. You should see the browser open up like this.

Allow YouTube Category using Mobicip.com Premium

If you haven't already, visit www.mobicip.com from your PC to upgrade to the Mobicip.com Premium web application. Mobicip.com Premium is a web-based parental control application that can be accessed from any browser. The Premium application allows you to setup custom Internet filtering settings and policy, and monitor Internet usage on the iPhone and iPod Touch that uses Mobicip as the primary browser.

To allow the YouTube category, select Settings > Categories > Entertainment. Uncheck YouTube and save the settings.

Your child can now access YouTube only through Mobicip Safe Browser, and YouTube in general will be accessible, but inappropriate content alone will be blocked. We would love to hear your feedback on this feature. Please post your thoughts and comments on the forum or contact us.

Social networking, one of the most recent internet phenomena to meet people has broken barriers of age, culture, and language. It has become a huge success as it has allowed people to share their views about any subject that they care about. With the click of a button, anyone can find someone else with similar interests and make friends, even someone from across the globe. 

So, it comes as no surprise that social networking websites have become quite popular among teenagers. The attractive looking web pages make it easy for the kids to own an account and write about themselves. The websites also allow them to keep track of their friends and even get updates on what they are up to.

But, when using these sites, teenagers don’t realize that once they share information online, it becomes public and accessible to anyone in the world. So, it is very important that they know the risks involved in revealing personal information.

• First, they should not lie about their age as most of the social networking sites require age limits to get a membership. This clearly means the website is not intended for their age group.
• If they share any personal information like their home or school address or their phone numbers online, it will create an opportunity for a child-predator to seek them out.
• They should not post any pictures of themselves that they don’t want the public to see or those that might embarrass them.

Finally, parents should ensure that they talk to their children about the safe use of internet. They should make kids understand that their parents are their closest confidante and should seek their help if they come across any suspicious online activity involving themselves or a newly-met online buddy.