KeepKidsCyberSafe Blog

Is your teen abusing their cell phone texting habits?

Wed, 06 May 2009 09:46:58 -0500

Wireless, DSL Internet, Digital TV Services, and Phone | AT&T When is the last time you checked your teens texting habits? Do you even know where to start to do such a thing? Great news, there is. More of the cellular companies are exposing the data and control you need to help you manage your teens texting habits. I have AT&T. On my monthly statement online, there is a detailed section on txt received and sent for my teens cellphone. I pulled this into excel and reviewed it. After normalizing the data for the times, I found that she was using the texting during school hours, sleep time and study time about 41% of the total texting she used in one month. That was over 1500 messages!!!! I took action and discussed the problem with her. I gave her a day to comply. I rechecked the site the next day, and low and behold she was texting during school hours once again. Next step was to call ATT. I had them turn off her text and data for the month. It is possible for you to get control over your teens texting habits. You need to set the rules and then check up after you have put them in place.

PC Tattletale

Wed, 06 May 2009 09:38:44 -0500

PC Tattletale Internet Monitoring Software & Parental Control Software Ever wonder how you will track your kids movements on myspace, facebook or any of the online instant messengers that don't provide a way for you to save a log file on the local computer? Have you ever wanted to know what pictures they are looking at? Have you wondered what their passwords are for websites or social networks? Well, there is a way. One way that I have found is PC Tattletale. PC Tattletale was easy to purchase, install and activate. And the best thing about it was that it runs in stealth mode. It was easy to configure (most options were default for me). Online bad strike, the download links did not work intitially. I found a demo link that did, I downloaded it and put in my key, and I was off to the races. I found, purchased, installed and configured this software in less than 20 minutes. Great experience. I will post back when I have gathered some data from it's running.

CyLab internet security game by Carnegie Mellon

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 14:29:08 -0500

Game's goal to keep kids' surfing safe - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review The folks at Carnegue Mellon University Engineering have designed a game to help kids learn about the dangers of the web through the playing of an online game.

Net Nanny Wins Award for Best Internet Filter Software by TopTenREVIEWS

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 20:20:13 -0500

Press Room :: Net Nanny Parental Controls For the third year in the row, Net Nanny has received the Gold Award from TopTenREVIEWS. Try it out... free trial

Money Magazine weighs in: Keep you kids safe

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 20:18:03 -0500

The Complete Layman's Guide to Cyber Safety: Keep kids safe - Dec. 7, 2006 Money magazine senior editor Pat Regnier compares the internet to TV. Pat proclaims that the same consideration and discipline a parent needs to impart on TV time should be also given to the time a child spends on the internet. Pat believes that talking to kids about how to value privacy and obey the rules set by the family are important. We here at KKCS think the idea of treating the web like a TV is very much a good thing for parents and their children. Of course web filters are also suggestion from the likes of CyberPatrol, Cybersitter and Safe eyes. We also like Net Nanny.

KidsClick!

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 10:48:20 -0500

KidsClick! Web Search is a search engine setup for kids by librarians. It was started by a group of librarians out of Ramapo Catskill Library System (for those of you familiar with upstate NY).

Ask Jeeves for Kids

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 10:47:40 -0500

Ask for Kids Search engines are often the source for information that you may or may not want your kids exposed to. For instance, try searching on some of your favorite terms in the "images" section of the google.com search and see what interesting photos appear. Ask Jeeves has come up with a solution for this, they have created a search engine which is scrubbed down and specifically geared for children. This kind of cyber governance is something we like to see here at KKCS.

Kindervision - where to start with your childs personal safety when you are unsure

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:13:31 -0500

KinderVision - The National Child Safety Education Program - 2006-2007 Ever wonder how to approach your children about personal safety? This site offers videos, information and questions that parents can use to educate their children about potential dangers from predators and bullies

CatTRAX - keep your kids safe from neighborhoods where predators live

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:07:47 -0500

CatTRAX™ - Cattrax™ for Families What a great and unique service. Buy a phone and register it with this service. Give the phone to your kids. That's it. Now, when you want to know where they are, just call up and ask. You can track them with the help of the on-board GPS transceiver. This can not only tell you location, it is integrated with the national registry for predators. This means, if you child strays into a neighborhood where a registered sex offender lives, you can be alerted. In addition to this, once your child begins to drive a car, you can be alerted when they are speeding. Could help reduce the possibility of an accident.

Top 60 list of social networking sites

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:56:26 -0500

List of social networking websites - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. I would run out of storage space on my website if I kept track and commented on each of the social networking sites that are out there. Instead, I found a site on wikipedia that has a good listing of the top 60 that are out there. You may ask, "how do they know how many people are on their site?" That's easy, these numbers are published by the sites themselves to attract potential advertisers. One of the main reasons why these sites have become so popular is 2 fold. First, website are a loss to a business owner without traffic. To get traffic you need an audience. Make a site, put a social networking twist on it so that kids and teens can talk to people without you, the parent, knowing about it and bingo, traffice. Second, to make money off advertising you need to get traffic from search engines. To get this, you need unique content. How do you do that, easy, since the kids are adding comments and blogging, your site rises to the top of the google charts and advertisers are beating down your door.

Faceparty - put a face with a profile

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:49:44 -0500

Faceparty > the Biggest Party on Earth™. Why bother with creating a profile on myspace, just take a picture of yourself and enter a few comments and bam - you are part of the web forever. For a sample of what people are posting - have a look at this http://www.faceparty.com/groups/group.aspx?group=8546. Not someone you would want your children talking to in the street or on the web. There are so many of these social networks out there, and there are an unknown number of them being launched all the time.

XANGA.com - blog it up

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:43:26 -0500

Xanga is a site that allows anyone to create a blog about anything. This is a social network which exists simply to make money on advertising at the expense of unfiltered content. Another site you should consider blocking for kids access.

My-diary - the online diary

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:40:02 -0500

The Online Diary - Join today, it's free! - here is a site that parents should know about. Kids and Teens can store there personal and private information online. Can you imagine who might be looking at this information? All it takes is an email address to create it. The site is located at http://www.my-diary.org/ and samples are at http://www.my-diary.org/surf/ This is definitely a site you should consider blocking your kids from getting to.

LegalZoom helps parents with Wills without needing to retain a lawyer

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:48:15 -0500

LegalZoom: Online Legal Document Services: LLC,Divorce,Wills,Incorporation & More Have you ever needed legal assistance for your family and did not want to pay a lawyer for filling out paperwork you think any ordinary person should be able to do? Well, here is your chance. Legalzoom.com allows a normal person to use legal services online without the hassle of meeting or retaining a lawyer. Wills, power of attorney, trusts, patents, incorporation, name changes and many more are all offered by this service. I personally have used them to help do many things. Simply fill out a few entries on a few forms, submit along with filing fees and get your results in the mail. They even courtesy call and email while the process of filing paperwork occurs. What more could you ask for.

10 Steps to Safe Surfing With Your Kids

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:28:14 -0500

10 Steps to Safe Surfing With Your Kids This article provides a common approach to addressing safe surfing concerns. Resources are listed that are very helpful. The sites listed like http://www.safekids.com and http://www.fbi.gov gives the parent a better understanding of the problem. Education of slang and acronyms used as well as sites visited is important. Some things that look innocent may actually be risky and vice-a-versa. Remember that there are groups and entire organizations out there looking to entice children to enter their sites and services. The article continues to talk about what children should do if they get into trouble online or into a situation where they are unsure about responding to someone or looking at something they know is not right to look at. Alternative safe surfing sites are alse given.