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Online Safety in the Home

I read a disheartening statistic today. A recent study showed that children are only three clicks away from viewing adult content on youtube. Since we don’t have cable in our home, we often turn to youtube to watch some of my son’s favorite shows together. He knows how to navigate the site well enough to get to the shows he wants, but now I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. The study showed that while watching Dora children were only four clicks away from a music video featuring swearing and nudity. While watching Sesame Street they were a mere … Continue reading →

Teens and Youtube Use

I have to admit to liking You Tube and also enjoying it with my kids. Just recently, I emailed my daughter of a Rap song skit done by Taylor Swift that I thought was hilarious. We are also using a homeschool math program that is homeschool based called Khan Academy. So you can see that I have nothing about YouTube as a whole. Still, there are some things about YouTube that I find troubling. When my kids get together with their cousins, they tend to lay on the floor in front of the coupon and view You Tube videos. This … Continue reading →

Children and Internet Safety

Even an outstanding single parent is going to have times when the children use movies, CDs, DVDs, or even the internet to pass time. For instance, in a single parent home, keeping the kids involved with positive activity at all times is challenging. You might find that while cooking dinner, the kids turn to the computer for doing homework, which is fine. However, without the eyes of four parents to monitor the kids, they can get into places they do not belong. The internet is both good and bad. Again, it provides an open avenue to the world, teaching our … Continue reading →

Teaching Teenagers About The Danger Of Internet Predators

It is summer and the average teenager is online 5.5 hours a day, with about 77 million on-line each day. Most are visiting one of the 40,000 chat rooms where according to a 2002 FBI report there is a 100% chance they will encounter a pedophile at some time. What is the danger with chat rooms? The Safe Surfin Foundation says that the danger is that “75% of children and teens report sharing personal information about them and their families to complete strangers in chat rooms.” Child predators use the tidbits of information that they glean from on-line chat rooms … Continue reading →

Internet Safety – Child Predators Investigation

There have been numerous newspaper articles and television reports lately about Internet child predators. It seems like we can’t go a day without hearing of another incident of children being solicited by adults for inappropriate activities. A few weeks ago on NBC, Dateline ran the third edition of their popular story, To Catch a Predator, which chronicles adult men browsing the Internet looking for underage children. If haven’t had the chance to see one of the Dateline specials, I want to bring your attention to what they have found from their investigations so you know what situations your children may … Continue reading →

Internet Safety – The good, the bad, and the ugly

What are your children looking at, listening to, and reading while on the Internet? The Internet has become a source of almost endless information and resources. There are great uses for the Internet. For example, comparing electronic equipment online before buying is something that I almost always do. Also, students can use online encyclopedias for writing research reports. It’s hard to think of a time when we didn’t have such quick and easy access to almost endless types of information. Just think of the great information you are receiving on www.families.com because of the Internet! Of course, there are opposites … Continue reading →

What Parents Can Learn from the Gorilla Incident

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It happened at the Cincinnati Zoo. A 3-year-old boy somehow fell into the gorilla exhibit’s enclosure. A 17-year-old male gorilla, named Harambe, encountered the boy. Someone from the Zoo made the decision to shoot and kill the gorilla in order to save the preschooler. What can parents learn from the Gorilla Incident? Parent Shaming Doesn’t Fix Things It didn’t take long for parents around the world to take to social media to comment about the Gorilla Incident. While some expressed sympathy for the Zoo, the majority chose to attack the mother of the 3-year-old boy and question her parenting ability. … Continue reading →

Your Tween May be Posting Personal Information on Instagram

Instagram is a popular social media website that is primarily about photos. People post selfies, photos of what they had for dinner, vacation photos, and whatever else they want to share online. What many parents don’t realize is that teens and tweens are sharing a lot more than photos on Instagram! The terms of service at Instagram state: “You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service”. It is possible for a teenager to simply make their own Instagram account without asking their parent for permission to do so first. Some parents will make an Instagram account … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Kids Safe Online

We live in a world of technology. We are constantly bombarded with the latest and greatest of everything. They even make cell phones for toddlers to call mom and dad now. With the constant growth in technology it is important to educate your children about staying safe online. Children who are educated about internet safety are much more likely to take precautions to stay safe than those who aren’t. The dangers of the online world are rampant. There are predators lurking around every corner, waiting for them to make a mistake. Talk to your children about the importance of staying … Continue reading →

Keeping Kids Safe Online

When you are a single parent your child may spend more time unsupervised than you would like, it’s important to teach them basic safety. One of the big areas that you need to be concerned with is the internet. While there are many good things online, education things, there are other things that can be harmful if your child ventures in unsupervised. Everyone has heard stories of online predators and bullies, so how do we protect our kids? I think the most important thing you can do it talk with your children. Before they go online the first time it … Continue reading →