The Mobile Parent Blog

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.”

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.

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.

National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children published a Parent’s guide to Internet Safety prepared from actual investigations involving child victims, as well as investigations where law enforcement officers posed as children.

Below listed are some of the signs that your child might be at risk online.

1. Your child spends large amounts of time on-line, especially at night.

2. You find pornography on your child’s computer.

3.Your child receives phone calls from men you don’t know or is making calls, sometimes long distance, to numbers you don’t recognize.

4.Your child receives mail, gifts, or packages from someone you don’t know.

5.Your child turns the computer monitor off or quickly changes the screen on the monitor when you come into the room.

6.Your child becomes withdrawn from the family.

7.Your child is using an on-line account belonging to someone else.

You can read the entire guide in http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm.

According to a news report from Symantec, these are the top 10 serach terms among kids for the period from February through July:

1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Sex
5. MySpace
6. Porn
7. Yahoo
8. Michael Jackson
9. Fred
10. eBay

Many parents are aware of the results these search terms may bring to their kids. Mobicip’s(www.mobicip.com) safe browser and web monitor allow parents to monitor their kids online activities and keep a tab on which websites they visit and  consistently provide a safer internet life.

When talking to several parents, I understand that YouTube is most popular even among their youngest elementary school going kids. Like the saying goes,  ”A picture is worth a thousand words”, a video is worth a million words. To envision anything, for example, a woodpecker bird, the pictures in the books and photographs are not just enough to quench the child’s curiosity.

In the era of YouTube, one could easily search for videos and kids get captivated by the videos that show the life of a woodpecker. This gives the feeling of a field trip without actually going to the zoo or a bird sanctuary.

However, Youtube field trips do require adult supervision. While YouTube has become a popular and fascinating destination for many of today’s tech-savvy parents, finding video appropriate for children is tricky business. We could easily bump into videos that are age inappropriate including pornographic and violent content.  Youtube’s policy prohibits inappropriate content but still some off-color content may show up.

Undoubtedly, watching online video clips is becoming a popular activity and it serves as a platform for children to learn new things. But extreme precautionary steps should be taken by parents to protect them from inappropriate content when online.

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.

An interesting article was published in CNET.com about using technology in the classrooms. Several workshops and sessions were held on this topic at the annual National Educational Computing Conference.

There were several sessions on how to use cell phones within the classroom. Considering that some school districts still ban students from bringing cell phones to school, it’s great to see that there are enlightened teachers who are instead trying to figure out how to actually use them in the classroom.

To read the full article, go to http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10280411-238.html

Parents concerned about online safety mostly worry about protecting their kids from online child predators. Though child predators are the most dangerous solicitors that children come across surfing the net, sometimes, sexual solicitations come from fellow teenagers and people these kids know in person – their friends. These youth want them to share their personal information including revealing pictures via the internet.

According to a recent survey released by Cox Communications (PDF File), about one in five teens have engaged in sexting, a new worrisome phenomenon of sending, receiving or forwarding sexually suggestive photos of themselves through text message or email. Most of these teenagers say that they have sent these messages to boyfriends/girlfriends because it’s asked of them or to have fun. What is interesting is almost all of them know that it is dangerous.

Conscientious parents nowadays make sure that they monitor their kids use of the internet at home, but most of them do not monitor their kids going online through cell phones. The Cox Communications Survey cites that 4 in 5 kids surveyed have parents who do not control their online time on their mobile devices. Disturbingly, almost half of these parents have not spoken to their kids about internet safety on cell phones.

As more and more risky online activities like sexting crop up on the internet, it is important for parents to speak to their kids about internet safety on cellphones. They should not only be watchful of their kids’ use of internet through computers, but they have to extend it to their childrens’ use of mobile and wireless devices also.