Monday, July 23, 2007

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Features -- Is your child a cyberbully?

Cyberbullying is affecting 85-97% of the thousands of teens and preteens I have polled in real life. They never tell their parents. They fear that their parents will over-react, or make things worse, or take the Internet away. The best thing you can do it talk with them and let them know that you will not over-react, make things worse or take the Internet away. Not sure what to do and when to do it, check out stopcyberbullying.org for the checklist.SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Features -- Is your child a cyberbully?

Friday, July 20, 2007

Runescape...an interactive gaming site that puts Internet safety first.

Runescape is an interactive game site, where users thirteen and older can play games using knights and medievil weapons in an online world. The site employs many trained staff in helping keep their users safer and enforce their strict rules online. Their users are taught not to share personal information, meet strangers offline and to treat others with respect. Unlike some of the newer gaming sites, their users cannot build profiles or upload and share images.

If they find that any of their users have violated their safety rules and terms of service, that user may find themselves permanently banned, or their account frozen for extended periods of time.

While Runescape has instituted safe gaming practices, parents and others should note that any interactive technology is only as safe as the user's willingness to follow the rules and not engage in dangerous behavior.

Parents are an essential part of the safety puzzle. Ultimately, no matter how hard a site tries to keep their users safe, the buck stops at home - with the parents.

Parry