Yesterday I saw a very interesting story on CNN about the “Tween Angels” network, started by the owner of Wired Safety.
She started the program to help tweens (and the sister group “teen angels”) and parents deal with safety issues online. Issues ranging from fraud, cyberbullying and cyberstalking.
I was especially taken by the young children in this video:
Tweens Push Online Safety
The topic of conversation among friends has increasingly turned to what our kids are doing online - probably because some think of me as “the geek in town” or they know I have a technology blog to help educate parents. One research study and one television report came out yesterday that might make you as a parent think about this subject even more.
One of my favorite research companies, the Pew Internet and American Life Project, has done some very interesting studies on technology and the family. Yesterday they released a report “Parents and Teen Internet Use” that contained some interesting information you might want to know:
As a parent, we’re careful to balance giving our children the freedom to explore while being sure to protect them from what we consider inappropriate content, discussions or posting online.
But I never really stopped to think about what they do online and how it could impact me as a parent. I sometimes wonder if parents know what their children post on their Facebook pages when I come across some rather racy pictures or language that probably would shock many parents. Then I came across this story, The Parent Trap, from a television station in Milwaukee, WI.
It seems that 16 year old Shannon posts frequently on her social networking site. But today’s teenagers don’t have the same sense of privacy as their elders (that’s you and me folks!). It seems Shannon not only discusses her nagging mom, but also the fact her dad does drugs and her parents are lazy alcoholics. And now dad is in trouble with his boss.
“It’s important to know what they’re doing and to be able to help them if they get into trouble. And to keep them safe and, apparent, now we have to have them keep us safe as well.” Good advice from Shannon’s mom to all of us.
A report was released today by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (a favorite research firm of mine) called “Teens and online stranger contact report” that I encourage you to read (a PDF download is available at the site). It outlines experiences teens have online with strangers. Only 7% of those asked said they had contact with a stranger that made them feel scared or uncomfortable. That probably 7% more than you and I as parents would like.
This has led to more school districts running events on how to protect your children online. I’ll be participating on a panel at the high school in our town next month on social networking. I’ll outline what to look for, how to teach your children what is right and wrong behavior online, and even how to participate and encourage your children in using various online social networking tools.
In discussing this with parents in our town, I learned that parents in general are very nieve to what their children do online. Most have never used Facebook or MySpace, few IM or text message (unless it is from their child, and then it’s usually responded to by a phone call from the parent since T9 text messaging is foreign to many adults). So that prompted me to propose a workshop for all of the elementary schools in our town to bring parents up to speed. From the response I got that night I proposed it to the PTA board, I think we’ll be doing this soon.
My point is this - you can’t protect or teach your children about appropriate online behavior unless you’ve participated yourself. Ask what social networking site your child uses - for the younger ones it’s probably Webkinz or Club Penguin. For the older ones it’s probably MySpace or more likely Facebook. Get yourself an account. Learn what they can do. Connect with your child online. Be involved in their online world.
The more you know, the better your children will be. Happy surfing!
This week marked the first guilty verdict won by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against illegal downloading. A Minnesota woman was accused of sharing songs through a popular file-sharing network and was found guilty and fined $220,000.
The reason I bring this up to parents of grade schoolers is that while companies like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon have made it easy and relatively cheap to buy and download digital music online, many children feel it is their right to download and share for free music with their friends (and the rest of the world). What they don’t understand (but you need to) is that it is relatively easy for the RIAA to track down illegal music sharing online.
How do they do this? Each computer is assigned a unique number - called an IP address - when it goes online. The major internet service providers have been more than willing to share that information with the government and organizations like the RIAA when potentially illegal activity is suspected. The woman found guilty this week was sharing music from her home computer and even used her email address as her user ID on the file sharing network.
Two things I’ll suggest to you to help avoid this from happening to you and your family:
When you think of securing your computer, most people think of email viruses, annoying pop-up ads and inappropriate material on the web. But for many people in Haddonfield, wireless networks in the home have become a significant convenience. But are they secure?
Surprisingly, drive down many streets in Haddonfield with a laptop computer and you’ll find dozens of open wireless networks every few blocks. This means that anyone with a wireless computer can use your network to access the Internet or worse, possibly break into your computers in your home from the street.
If you have a wireless network setup in your home, there are a variety of things you can do to secure it. For many, it’s advisable to consult your device’s user’s manual.
(1) be sure to change the password used to change the administrative settings on your wireless network.
(2) change the SSID – the name that is used to identify your network. For example, if you have a Linksys device, its default is “linksys” so change it to something only you know (and don’t make it your home address).
(3) change the setting on your network to stop broadcasting your SSID. This way, someone trying to break into your wireless network won’t know that it even exists.
(4) encrypt the network (this is where it gets a little tricky). Each device works a little differently. There are ways to require computers trying to connect to the network to provide a passkey and there are ways to only allow certain computers to connect. Again, consult your user’s manual for instructions.
For an excellent guide to security a family computer and network, click here to download “How to Protect Your Family’s PC”.
Just about everyone has at least one computer in the house, there’s a 90% chance it’s a Windows machine, there is nearly a 100% chance if you make over $75,000 that you have broadband access and many folks have setup a wireless access too in their house. And while this all sounds good, it’s a recipe for disaster if you are not fully protecting yourself from viruses, spam and other malicious computer attacks.
A reporter last year from the BBC sought the assistance of a computer expert to determine how fast a computer could become infected if not protected. They took a brand new computer out of a box, plugged it into the Internet and waited to see what happened. It didn’t take long at all for the first malicious attack to happen. Would you believe 18 seconds??
So, what should you do to protect yourself? First, if you are running Windows XP, make sure you have it updated to Service Pack 2 and have your computer set to install new updates automatically. This is all managed from the Security Center located from the Start Menu, under All Programs, Accessories, System Info. Make sure you have the Firewall turned on also.
Second, you also need to install at least two important programs. One is an anti-virus program and one is an anti-spyware program. Microsoft has a program currently called Windows Defender Beta 2 that is free - see the link at the bottom of the article. To protect your computer from viruses, my favorite application is AVG from GriSoft. It’s less than $40 and updates automatically when needed - link is also at the bottom of the article. There are many other applications available that claim to do both, but I’ve had great success with these two in combination.
Fourth, you’ll want to install some type of anti-spam software. There are a bunch available and frankly none of them are great. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, I recommend checking out Qurb (see link below) - they have a trial version available and if you like it, it’s less than $30.
Finally, if you are using a wireless network in your home, make sure you have turned off the SID (which will not show your network to others) and turn on the encryption settings. Each wireless router is different, so make sure you read the instructions that came with it. If you’re unsure, contact their customer support as this is an important thing to do to protect your computers in your home.
A note to Apple Mac users: Just because there hasn’t been a real virus attack on Mac OSX, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t protect yourself. Keep the system up-to-date by using the “Software Update” in the Apple menu and follow steps four and five above.
Microsoft Windows Defender Beta 2
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/support/howto/download.mspx
GriSoft AVG Anti-Virus
http://grisoft.com/doc/Single/lng/us/tpl/tpl01?prd=sng.1.0.0
Qurb
http://www.qurb.com/