Parent Tips
December 5th, 2019
Private companies are tracking your every online move and using that data to rate your behavior as a consumer. It’s valuable information, and it’s now available for you to see. As explained in this recent piece in the New York Times, you can request your file—the records that determine your secret consumer score—and find out just what these companies know about you. Fair warning: They know a lot. And if you want to try to shake…... 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.
... Continue reading >
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
... 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 >
July 27th, 2019
Your kids know what TikTok is, and so do roughly 500 million monthly users. You should, too.
TikTok is a social media app used to make and easily share short videos. It’s like Vine, if you recall that early-days video app, but much more popular. It’s fun, engaging, and easy to use, and therein lies the problem: millions of quick, zany videos at your fingertips, waiting to eat up hours of your day and…... Continue reading >
April 9th, 2019
And that’s not a good thing.
If your children own or are allowed to use a smartphone, chances are good that they have installed the Snapchat app to communicate with their friends. Indeed, Snapchat is among the top five social media apps used by children, according to a report from ABC. Often, it’s merely a fun diversion. But sometimes, there are risks.
... Continue reading >
March 18th, 2019
Lexie Kite, PhD, explains in detail the pitfalls of letting girls on Instagram. While this article on BeautyRedefined.org focuses on middle school and high school aged girls, it also demonstrates how it can be bad for boys as well. The inherent message in Instagram is that your value resides in your appearance. For developing brains who are creating their identities, this…... Continue reading >
March 26th, 2019
Bullying is no longer a face-to-face occurrence. In 2017, more than 14.9 percent of high school students experienced some form of cyberbullying. And that number will only increase.
With smartphones and computers accessible at all times, it’s easy for children to fall victim to bullying both at school and at home.
And what’s worse is parents and teachers often don’t know it’s happening. Protecting your children is always a top…... Continue reading >