Monday, February 21, 2011

Teens Share 'Cutting' and Other Self-Harm Videos on YouTube - TIME Healthland

Teens Share 'Cutting' and Other Self-Harm Videos on YouTube - TIME Healthland

Teens share self-injury, cutting videos on YouTube - USATODAY.com

Teens share self-injury, cutting videos on YouTube - USATODAY.comwe focus attention on sexual predators and cyberbullying online, but rarely touch on other risks, such as cutting, self-harm and suicide promotion sites. Often passing constitutional scrutiny, we have to rely on the service proviers and terms of service violations to shut them down. WiredSafety will be seeking help form the bigger providers to promote help sites first, when riskier activities are being sought online.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Online ID theft ruins N.J. teen's life, reputation - NorthJersey.com

Online ID theft ruins N.J. teen's life, reputation - NorthJersey.comI have special concerns about schemes like this putting a child's physical safety at risk. Trending in rbam and more economically-deprived communities.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

The Social Gaming Network for Kids | giantHello - giant Games. giant Friends. ginormous Fun.™

The Social Gaming Network for Kids | giantHello - giant Games. giant Friends. ginormous Fun.™ This is a preteen Facebook-like social network. Safer, and designed for preteens.

The First Lady, Facebook and Preteens

Parry Aftab, Executive Director and founder of WiredSafety (the world’s first cybersafety group) and member of Facebook’s International Safety Advisory Board:

My phone has been ringing off the hook with people asking for my opinion about the First Lady’s Today Show interview this morning, when she said her kids were not on Facebook and she was not a fan of young children using Facebook. I suspect that much of the media will miss the boat here. I am not a fan of young children using Facebook either. Neither is Facebook.

I commend the First Lady for understanding that Facebook is not for preteens. It does not permit users under the age of thirteen to register for the site, for the other parents who didn’t take as much time to read and understand Facebook’s terms of service. As the founder and Executive Director of WiredSafety, the oldest cybersafety and help group online, I wish that parents understood that and had the talk with their kids about Facebook and other online properties that are restricted to users 13 and over.

For more than ten years, the US Federal law, The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, has been in place to protect US children’s privacy and safety online. It prohibits commercial websites (without parents’ prior approval) from knowingly permitting preteens from sharing personally identifiable information online, and prohibits them from collecting personally identifiable information from preteens online. Facebook has been in compliance with this law since its inception. And I am happy that the First Lady understands about that law and the importance of parents overseeing their children’s Internet use.

For those of us without the US Secret Service to help protect our kids online, this is an important reminder that preteens are not allowed to use Facebook.

Unfortunately, preteens are rarely happy being just preteens. They want the clothing that their older siblings wear. They try and use makeup before they should. And look for technology and devices that older teens are using. They also sometimes lie about how old they are to get a Facebook profile before they should.

Have the talk! Discuss lying. Talk to them about how their lying about their age means adults have no idea that they are dealing with a preteen. Help them understand that some things are not meant for them yet.

Find other social networks designed for preteens. If more parents took as much care and interest in their children’s Internet use, fewer underage children would lie about their age to try and bypass Facebook’s age restrictions.

When your teen is 13 and wants their first Facebook profile, help them set it up. Make it a special occasion. Use privacy settings and remind them that you will be checking. Make sure you control their “friending”, especially in the beginning. If they are willing to “friend” you, it’s a great way to stay involved in their cyberlives. Bottomline, the more parents, such as the First Lady, care about their kids cyber-activities, the better all children will be.

So, take a tip form the First Lady – young kids should not be on Facebook. They are not old enough. She says so. I say so. And Facebook says so.

Michelle Obama’s Facebook Warning: How Young Is Too Young? - TIME NewsFeed

Michelle Obama’s Facebook Warning: How Young Is Too Young? - TIME NewsFeed Parry Aftab was thrilled to learn that the First Lady understood that Facebook is not for preteens. Its terms of service expressly restrict users to those 13 and over. Parry wishes that more parents understood this and talked to them about lying about their age if they try and set up an account before they are old enough. "If more parents understood that Facebook is for users 13 and older and helped enforce that rule, children would be safer. It wasn't designed for preteen users." Further, if children lie about their age, people they wncounter have no idea they are communicating with a child.
While the US Secret Service does a great job protecting the First Children online and offline, most parents have ot do it themselves. Take a tip from the First Lady. Keep your preteens off Facebook until they are old enough to use it honestly. Then play an active role in their lives, not just on Facebook, but on their cellphones and email, IM and YouTube. Friend them. Learn their passwords. Make sure they are using the new privacy controls and only sharing what they should.
Parenting, online and offline, begins at home - whether your home is the WhiteHouse or that dutch colonial on the corner.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Lautenberg Hosts Anti-Cyber Bullying Forum at MSU - Caldwells, NJ Patch

Lautenberg Hosts Anti-Cyber Bullying Forum at MSU - Caldwells, NJ Patch NJ came out in droves last night, with a standing room only crowd of teachers, students, parents, law enforcement, guidance counselors and other who care deeply about bullying and cyberbullying. It made me proud to see such a turn-out. Thanks to Senator Lautenberg for making this happen and Kevin Jennings for his leadership on this issue.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

ECOT: E-school ad touts lack of bullying | The Columbus Dispatch

ECOT: E-school ad touts lack of bullying The Columbus Dispatch no one can claim to be bully-proof. it's not something a school can do, online or offline. It is only something students can do, by saying "n".