There was an interesting article published on LA Times that discusses about cyberbullying in and outside schools.
Here is a link to the full article: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cyberbully2-2010jan02,0,1194810.story
Facebook has issued a press release on creating its online safety board.
Below is the article published in ABC News:
Social networking site Facebook on Monday said it is creating a global safety advisory board to protect its users against online predators such as sex offenders.
The board will comprise representatives from five Internet safety groups: Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute.
Facebook said the formation of the board formalizes relationships it has had with the groups. It also may expand the board to include more international representatives.
In early 2008, Facebook signed an agreement with attorneys general in 49 states to help protect children against online predators.
Last week, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said more than 3,500 offenders registered in New York have been kicked off Facebook and MySpace in recent months.
Over the last two years, 25 states have passed new laws requiring sex crime convicts to register their e-mail addresses and their dwellings.
Several recent studies and surveys have shown that about 40% of social networkers are cyberbullied in some way. To keep the youngsters safe online, the Child Exploitation & Online Protection(Ceop) center recommended social networking sites to add a “Ceop report” button. The button enables users to report online abuse, bullying and illegal activity as well as offering advice about hacking and viruses. Bebo, a social-networking site provides this panic button.
Jim Gamble, head of the Ceop Centre in UK, said Facebook and MySpace could do more to keep youngsters safe. He said he was disappointed the two internet giants have not adopted a panic button for children who fear they are at risk. Mr Gamble said some sites claimed technical issues block the button, while others suggest companies do not want to lose a potentially-lucrative advertising space.
Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, also said: “I can see no reason why other sites would not consider adopting the same approach and would encourage them to embed the Ceop Report button for the benefit of all users.”
A Facebook spokesman, on the other hand, explained: “The safety of Facebook users is the top priority for the company, which is why we have invested in the most robust reporting system to support our 300 million users.We also work closely with police forces in the UK and around the world to create a safe environment. Our teams are manned by trained staff in two continents giving 24-hour support in 70 languages.We look forward to hearing about the experience of Bebo using the Ceop button and will take account of their experience in any future evaluation of our reporting systems.”
According to a recent survey by mobile advertising network Greystripe, mothers with iPhones regularly let their children use their phones, download games specifically for their children and often use their phones at grocery stores to compare prices and check their grocery lists. The result is based on 1294 respondents to their survey and offers detailed behavioral characteristics of moms in their iPhone ad network.
Not too long ago, mothers were still considered to be a hard group to reach through mobile applications because they tend to be late adopters. The iPhone’s mainstream success has changed this, however, and iPhone moms have now become a desirable target demographic for marketers.
The report shows several interesting patterns. For example, over 59% of iPhone moms surveyed say they let their children use their iPhone. And 41% of moms who own iPhones download apps specifically for their children to use. Twenty percent also download educational content for their kids.Close to 60% of iPhone moms depend on their phone to locate the nearest store around them while 41.94% of moms use the iPhone to keep track of shopping lists.
Moms are looking to the iPhone as both a valuable organizational tool and an entertainment portal, making the iPhone a valuable advertising platform. While Greystripe says that this demographic have tended to be late adopters, I’m not so sure if this is true considering the rapid growth of “Mommy bloggers” over the past few years. There’s a blog that’s devoted to iPhone Moms and offers recommendations for kid and baby-friendly iPhone apps for moms to download. This blog recommends Mobicip as one of the first applications that needs to be installed before handing over the phone to a kid.
Google has long allowed parents a SafeSearch filtering setting that keeps kids from using the search engine to find inappropriate sites like those with explicit sexual images or text.
Without additional content filtering solution, the problem was that kids could easily change those settings.
Starting Wednesday, however, the company is allowing parents to lock those settings to make it harder (though not impossible) for kids to bypass the settings.
To change the settings, the parent will have to log into his or her Google account and enter a password. Once the settings have been changed, the Google search engine will change in appearance to indicate that it’s locked. The new page will have large balls in the upper right corner so that parents can see from across the room that their kids are on the safe search page.
The settings, which places a cookie on the machine, must be configured for each browser the child uses. If you set them only for Internet Explorer, for example, they won’t restrict access from Firefox, Chrome, or other browsers. Also, according to a Google representative, the child can get around the settings by using the private browsing feature that is now built into the latest versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. So, while this will keep kids from accidentally using Google for inappropriate searches, it will not deter tech-savvy kids who are determined to bypass the filters.
Moreover, with the popularity of mobile devices, children have access to the internet anywhere they go. Parents cannot always monitor their kid’s online experience. While using these devices both inside and outside their homes including public WiFi spots, content filter services like Mobicip keep the children shielded from inappropriate internet content. But this requires responsible parents to understand the benefits of using such filtering services and how it helps them to ensure a safe online experience for their kids.
With all filters and controls, it’s important for parents think about how you use them to help teach your child to exercise self-control and critical thinking so that, eventually, they can safely use the Web without filters or adult supervision.
Mobicip Safe Browser for iPhone and iPod Touch is listed among the top paid applications in Apple iTunes Store. We value our customers’ feedback and we work hard to continuously improve their experience with Mobicip.Mobicip’s latest version is attracting rave reviews from our customers.
Here are some excerpts from the Mobicip reviews on iTunes:
“I can’t recommend this enough to my friends. The app itself is great and they keep rolling out better updates all the time. Remote monitoring is an extra option you purchase from their website, and it is totally worth it. “
” Very well done browser that works exactly like Safari. It gives my kids what they want- access to web- and enough controls for me to monitor what is going on. I personally feel Apple should have built this in to the product. When I called Apple iTunes customer support about this, they repointed me to Mobicip. Thanks for the excellent product.”
“The best I’ve seen so far for the iPhone! Mobicip in my book is a definite “buy”!”
“Great speed and fantastic interface”
“This app is almost like Safari with builtin web filter. My teen used this to make me buy the itouch. I was not so sure, now he’s happy and so am I. “
Mobicip patrons, Thank you for your support and encouraging words. We will continue to make your experience better everyday.
Mobicip announced that a new version of Mobicip Safe Browser is being reviewed by Apple. Here is what Mobicip says:
“Several users are trying out the new version as part of a limited private beta and giving excellent feedback. Some of them even posted reviews on iTunes.
We have tried really hard to address the critical issues and respond to top requests from our users.
At this time, we are expanding the beta program to all interested Mobicip users. If you can’t wait to get your hands on the next version that includes a lot of the great features that you have been asking for, don’t mind a little bit of hassle in setting it up, and would be happy to pass on your feedback to us, please let us know. Please include the device UDID in your request (instructions below).
- To find your iPod Touch’s UDID, just plug it into your computer and wait until iTunes recognizes it.
- Select your iPod Touch from the Devices list in iTunes.
- Click the “Summary” tab.
- To see your UDID, click on the word “serial number” beside the picture of the iPod Touch.
- You should see the word “identifer” and an alphanumeric string – this is your UDID.
- To copy it, just press command + C on your Mac’s keyboard (or control + C in Windows).
Paste the UDID in your email.”
Article from 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.
Blurb from an article written by Mobicip CEO , Suren Ramasubbu, for Huffington Post:
Internet filtering and parental control products may not be preferred by every parent. Many parents choose to simply discuss appropriate usage with their children; many others use Internet filtering products as training wheels until they feel confident. While the decision makers who purchase and setup the software are parents or school administrators, the actual end users whose browsing behavior is being monitored are children — a highly targeted demographic for marketers and companies that want to sell products to them.
At Mobicip.com, a parental control and Internet filtering service for the iPhone and iPod Touch, we have stayed away from using data on our user behavior for any purpose, mainly due to the arguably ethical and potential PR issues associated with it. This is not a new controversy.
To read the entire article, visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suren-ramasubbu/internet-filtering-softwa_b_287927.html
Good news for folks that have an older iPod Touch. Apple has lowered the price to upgrade iPod Touch software to the latest version.
Prior to this price drop, upgrades were priced at $9.99. iPhone OS 3.1 upgrade is available for $4.95. This price drop coincided with the overall price drop for all iPods announced at the Apple Rock and Roll event on Wednesday.
While Mobicip continues to support older OS versions, we highly recommend that parents upgrade the OS since it includes advanced parental control features that were not available in the 2.x and earlier versions.
