November 13th, 2019
Instagram is experimenting with likes—specifically, it’s testing what happens when it switches off public “like” tallies. Other tech companies, Twitter and Facebook among them, are launching similar assessments. According to Axios: “Responding to public clamor and media criticism, social media companies are trying to move away from engagement at all costs and towards a healthier experience. That means they’re also stepping into a more unpredictable future for their own bottom lines and those of businesses… Continue reading >
November 7th, 2019
The Chinese government has decided 90 minutes is the maximum amount of time per day young people should be playing video games. According to the New York Times, officials say more than that amount puts eyesight at risk and hinders academic performance.
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October 30th, 2019
There’s almost always a semi-secret way to sneak into a website’s off-limits areas, and very often, your kids know about it before you do. This goes for age-restricted content on YouTube, too.
Elsewhere on this site, we’ve covered the use of VPNs to breach firewalls and masking apps that disguise the programs a smartphone is running. Here’s another deceptive—and surprisingly simple—trick parents ought to know about: adding the letters NSFW to… Continue reading >
October 23rd, 2019
While schools across the country have implemented privacy and security restrictions to Internet access, students have discovered they can use a VPN to circumvent their school’s security measures and break through firewalls. (They’ve learned other tricks, too.)
The VPN works to create an encrypted tunnel between a device and the Internet. Once you connect through this encrypted tunnel, your online traffic becomes indecipherable. In layman’s terms, this means that when your… Continue reading >
October 16th, 2019
Kids are always one step ahead of their parents when it comes to technology, and they’ve come up with some clever ways—like the secret calculator—to disguise their online activity. For instance, they’re using apps to mask what they’re doing. Some of these apps are so effective, most parents are completely fooled by what they see when they look at their kids’ phones. A trained eye, though, might notice that something’s amiss.
Swapping apps
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October 2nd, 2019
Microsoft recently revealed a new security flaw in its Internet Explorer. Some say it’s high time to ditch the browser altogether in favor of more secure options. In a statement, the company warns, “An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user.” Mashable’s Jack Morse writes, “Sure, there’s a wonky fix available, but you have to do it manually. . . So go ahead… Continue reading >
September 25th, 2019
YouTube doesn’t have a popularity problem—just about everyone everywhere uses it. But it has had problems controlling what videos find their way to the site and who sees them. Your kids have the same access to the videos on YouTube you have. Whether those videos are appropriate for children is immaterial, and that is a problem. YouTube Kids is the company’s solution.
Elsagate
YouTube has literally millions of videos coming… Continue reading >
September 24th, 2019
Facebook has suspended a vast swath of apps from its platform, citing privacy concerns, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The tech giant has been roundly criticized for its policies relating to the collection and dissemination of personal data and was fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission for mishandling users’ information. Millions of apps developed for Facebook are under review.
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September 11th, 2019
Sometimes you don’t want anyone to know what you’re looking at on the Internet. No need to justify or defend that position; you just want to be anonymous. That’s what the private browsing, or incognito mode, on your browser is for, right?
Private is not Anonymous
Browsing in a “private” setting will block cookies, prevent any web addresses from auto-filling your address bar and keep no record of your history…. Continue reading >
August 27th, 2019
Money can’t buy you love, but it can buy you friends. Likes, comments, followers and friends are all for sale on the Internet. Want 5,000 “real Instagram likes” on a recent post? That’ll be $28, please. Need to increase your reach on Twitter by adding 10,000 followers? Then the “Premium Package” is for you. It’s $80 and, the vendor vows, “100% safe.”
Why would anyone pay to increase their friends-and-followers tally? What would be… Continue reading >