Mobile Devices

In an Huffington Post article, Suren Ramasubbu, CEO of Mobicip.com interviews an high school student Travis Allen. Here is an excerpt: 

 At Mobicip.com, we work with schools deploying iPod Touch-based 1:1 learning programs for their students. That is how I heard about a high-school student campaigning for the use of technology in education. I believe his voice should be heard, and this interview is my contribution towards that end.

For the benefit of people who are not aware, what is iSchool Initiative?

iSchool Initiative is a student-led non-profit organization dedicated to bringing technology to the classroom. We have three objectives - raising awareness for the technological needs of the classroom, providing collaborative research on the use of technology in the classroom, and guiding schools in the implementation of this technology.

Can you describe that "aha" moment when you came up with this concept?

After receiving an iPhone for Christmas in 2008 I began exploring the use of applications, and particularly how I could use them to help with my school work. I was amazed at all the many wonderful things I was discovering. One day, I was using my iPhone in class when something hit me. What if everyone in my class had one of these? What possibilities would there be then? In my excitement and desire to share my discovery with everyone, I made a YouTube video to share what I had found. I called it the iSchool Initiative. From that point on, I expanded the concept, did my research, and found out that this idea was catching on. Thus the iSchool Initiative was formed.

You can read the full article at  http://huff.to/ao4OTa

This from an article on Chic Mom Magazine:

Today's children have sophisticated desires for high tech "toys" such as mobile phones, iPods and netbooks. These mobile devices offer the convenience of full Internet browsing capabilities from anywhere, but they also open the door to a number of dangers. Unsuspecting children may be exposed to inappropriate content, cyber bullying and online predators. With mobile technologies changing as quickly as the minds of children, parents can hardly keep up with what the devices do, let alone know how to protect their children using them.

Luckily, there are parental control solutions available to help parents safeguard all of their children's devices to provide a secure, enjoyable online experience. One solution developed by Mobicip, a provider of Internet child safety products for mobile devices, allows parents to regulate and track their child's Internet usage of any of their mobile devices from the convenience of a single Internet site.

With the company's Mobicip.com Premium service, parents simply download the application onto each device and create an online account to customize the parental controls. Parents can choose from pre-defined age appropriate content filtering levels, build their own list of allowed/disallowed Websites and track their child's Internet surfing history.

Leveraging four stages of content filtering technology, the service blocks inappropriate content and tagged photos even on allowed Websites, putting parents at ease when their children are browsing. Because Mobicip.com is an Internet-based service, changes and updates are effective immediately with no need for parents to download software updates.

With parental controls in place, parents can rest assured that their children are protected when surfing the Internet, no matter where they are or what device they're using.

There are hundreds of websites that provide information on online safety for teens and kids. However, not all young people are educated on online safety tips and how to keep them safe on the internet.

Almost a quarter of seven- to 16-year-olds say no one has talked to them about online safety according to research by communications watchdog Ofcom.

The watchdog interviewed 747 children and young people and found 54 per cent wanted more advice on online privacy, while a fifth wanted information on how to deal with cyberbullying and 28 per cent wanted information on how to keep passwords and other security information safe.

The research also found that children are increasingly accessing the internet via mobile phones. For iPhone and iPOD Touch users, Mobicip is the most popular content filtering and parental control solution available on the iPhone App Store. Parents can provide a safe browser on their kids iphone as an alternative to Safari and also setup a web monitoring system where the filter settings can be customized.