Raising Responsible Digital Citizens: Everyone’s Call to Action

This week in Washington, D.C. hundreds of people are gathering at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium to attend the Family Online Safety Institute’s annual conference on Internet Freedom, Safety & Citizenship. A Global Call to Action. FOSI describes the conference as an international gathering of “policymakers, Internet Industry leaders, educators, legislators, law enforcement, Internet safety [...]

SafetyWeb Twitter Party Transcript with 5MinutesforMom and Annie Fox #SafetyWeb

Here the full transcript of our @SafetyWeb Twitter Party hosted by Annie Fox and 5MinutesforMom last week! safetyweb: Hello everyone! Glad you’re here with us. safetyweb: We have SafetyWeb Certificates to give away. Each for a 6-month SafetyWeb subscription good for up to 2 children. Annie_Fox: Welcome everyone to our first twitter party. Tonite’s focus: [...]

Which App is the Mole?

If you’re one of the estimated 73.3 million people in the United States that owns a smartphone, then you’ve probably downloaded a few apps onto your device. Maybe you’ve accessed The Weather Channel to check the local forecast, or played one of your customized music stations on Pandora. What about a little Angry Birds action? [...]

For Parents: Did You Know That Your Child Has A Digital Dossier?

Recently, we came across a very powerful, four and a half minute video about digital dossiers, produced by the Digital Natives group at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The 2008 video, created by Kanupriya Tewari, takes a unique look at our online personas and traces our digital footprints from pre-birth to [...]

Conquering Cyberbullying

All parents know there are hidden dangers lurking out there that could harm children. It’s a fact of life. Over the last decade or so, parents have watched as cyberbullying has become one of the largest online issues facing our children. Unfortunately, just as the internet isn’t going anywhere, neither are cyberbullies. According to the [...]

Guide to Keeping Children Safe on Facebook Video Chat

Recently, Facebook announced a partnership with Skype, a popular online video chat service, that allows Facebook users to chat face-to-face, using their webcam and microphone, with their Facebook friends. The risks and benefits of video chat in the hands of children depends on the intention behind the connection being made, and whether the activity is [...]

10 Mistakes Teens Make on Facebook (and What to Do About It)

If you have a teen, you can pretty much bet that he or she is active on Facebook. And while it might seem like a harmless way for teens to connect with friends, they may be putting themselves in danger if they’re not careful. Here are some mistakes to look for on your teen’s Facebook [...]

Cyberstalking: Spyware Allows Stalkers to Tap Into Cell Phones

You probably think that your cell phone calls are always private and secure, but you’re wrong. A quick Google search will lead you to hundreds of different types of stealth technology services available to anyone for spying purposes. These surveillance products are extremely easy to install and allow cyberstalkers to tap into any target mobile [...]

Safety Tips for Online Holiday Shopping

With just over two months left until Christmas, many people are already thinking about holiday shopping. In 2010, more than $36 billion dollars was spent in online shopping over the holiday season and this year, it’s expected billions will be spent again in online shopping. However, before parents log online and start spreading the holiday [...]

Warning Signs You Should Know To Keep Your Child Safe Online

Keeping up with what our children are doing online and with their cell phone activity is vital these days. Parents must always be looking for warning signs and red flags in protecting kids and keeping them safe in cyberspace. Safety experts say parents need to watch for issues like cyber bullying and harassment such as social [...]

Privacy: 8 New Year’s Resolutions for Protecting Your Privacy Online

Happy New Year! With 2011 off to a great start, we thought now would be the perfect time for a refresher course about basic online privacy protection. In fact, this would serve as a wonderful opportunity for parents to sit down with their children to review how we can all stay safe online. To jumpstart [...]

Cyberbullying: A Pocket Guide for Parents of Bullied Kids

Six high school football players from Marble Falls, Texas were arrested last month after allegedly threatening another football player from a rival school district via cell phone. The harassment came in the form of text messages which police say contained homophobic slurs and were “vulgar and obscene” in nature. To their credit, Marble Falls High [...]

Study: Social Network Privacy Concerns by Parents and Teens

Privacy organization Truste recently published results of a study they conducted on the privacy habits of parents and their teens on social networks called “The Kids are Alright” [Improvement Needed]. The study reports a mix of good news as well as worrisome news for parents with kids using social sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter [...]

Social Networks: Should Teachers “Friend” Students Online?

It’s all over the news lately. Several school districts around the country are deciding whether to instill social networking policies, as teachers and students connect online on sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. After three teachers in New York City were fired for allegedly flirting with students online, the New York Post nicknamed the recent [...]

Be a Safe Santa Online

Today’s guest blogger is Hemanshu ‘Hemu’ Nigam, an advisor on SafetyWeb’s Product Advisory Council and the host of SafetyWeb’s Blog Talk Radio Show. Hemu is the founder of SSP Blue and an expert in online safety and security who has led security efforts at Microsoft and News Corporation and was the former Chief Security Officer [...]

Cyberstalking: Warning Signs Your Child is Being Cyberstalked

Cyberstalking is sometimes misconstrued as a minor problem because the harassment does not occur face-to-face, but don’t be fooled by the disguise.  Cyberstalking (harassment or unwanted communication via technology) can lead to in-person stalking, sexting, and cyberbullying, and should be taken very seriously. To stop cyberstalking, we must first understand the warning signs and recognize [...]

Cyberbullying: Starting the Conversation About Cyberbullying

October 1st marks Cyberbullying Prevention Month and in the wake of so many recent “bullycides,” we thought now might be a good time to delve a bit deeper into the frightening and very real world of cyberbullying. As you already know, there have been numerous cases of severe bullying (both online and off) popping up [...]

Online Reputation Management Tips for Parents of the College-Bound

Like so many things in life, getting into college has become a lot more complicated in recent years. Today it’s about more than just grades and school activities. Now you have to take your child’s online reputation into consideration. With kids spending more and more time on the internet, what they say and show on [...]

How to Be Friends with Your Teen on Facebook: Tips to Avoid “Unfriending”

Today we welcome a guest blog post from Vanessa Van Petten, youthologist and teen author of the parenting book “You’re Grounded!”. Vanessa manages RadicalParenting.com, a parenting blog written by 119 teen writers, ages 12-20 to help parents and adults get an honest and open view into the world and mind of youth. Van Petten’s work [...]

Facebook’s new facial recognition feature: What parents need to know

Tag, you’re it! Facebook’s photo sharing is getting a facelift. If you’ve ever uploaded a photo to your Facebook page, you’re surely familiar with “tagging” someone – notifying a friend that she’s in a pic you posted. And our kids do it all the time – using digital cameras, camcorders and cell phones — to [...]

SafetyWeb Parents Poll: How many Facebook friends does your teen have?

Your family’s contact info on Facebook — Don’t ‘allow’

By Staci Perkins The next time you see the “allow” or “don’t allow” permission box after clicking on a Facebook app, pay very close attention to what you may be allowing. Application developers want your contact info – and they can now get it right from your profile page if you aren’t careful where you [...]

Ten Tips for Kids Cell Phone Safety

Can you hear me now? According to research, 22 percent of young children own a cell phone (ages 6-9), 60 percent of tweens (ages 10-14), and 84 percent of teens. Now that it’s back-to-school time, many parents make the decision to arm their kids with cell phones. Parents generally say they do so for safety [...]

Highlights from the Family Online Safety Institute Conference 2010

This week SafetyWeb is participating in the Family Online Safety Institute’s 4th Annual FOSI Conference, and we’re happy to be here along with several members of our Product Advisory Council including Hemu Nigam of SSP Blue, Anne Collier and Larry Magid of ConnectSafely.org, and Marsali Hancock of iKeepSafe.org. FOSI highlights include a great video of [...]

Texting: Can you decipher these text messages?

According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 64% of parents check their children’s cell phones for inappropriate content.  Kids have caught on, and they’ve started to communicate in code.  Here are just a few examples of text messages that, if discovered on a child’s phone, should concern parents. N2 2CB. WBU? Translation: [...]

Cyberbullying: Facebook Partners with GLAAD to End Anti-Gay Cyberbullying

Facebook has joined forces with The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in an effort to stop anti-gay cyberbullying. The announcement comes after several “bullycide” (suicide as a result of bullying) cases made national news, including the shocking Rutgers case in which freshman Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge [...]

Texting: Students Spend Class Time Texting

According to a recent study by the creators of an app called textPlus, 43% of teenagers use their cell phones to text during class.  Many kids hide their cell phones under their desks, in pockets, or in their backpacks to avoid getting caught by teachers or school administrators, and use texting for things like gossiping [...]

Knowing When The Rules Have Been Broken

It’s not just parents who are taking a role in protecting kids’ privacy online, the government has its hands in it as well. Back in 2000, the Federal Trade Commission put into effect the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The COPPA rule aims to protect the privacy of children by making sure websites (and [...]

Cyberbullying: Parents and Schools Must Respond to Cyberbullying

An article in today’s The Washington Post defines cyberbullying as a result of “lack of maturity, lack of supervision, and technology.”  Here is where the problem frequently lies: Teens often avoid reporting cyberbullying to their parents for fear of their computer privileges being taken away.  As a result, parents simply don’t hear about these potentially [...]