After years of making New Year’s resolutions, I find that those that I manage to keep are the ones that are manageable and involve moderate amounts of change that contribute more towards a lifestyle shift than a complete overhaul. Earlier this week I was asked by The Today Show to share strategies for parents who…
Online Safety
Master Lock Vault: Secure Passwords & Important Documents for Free (w. giveaway)
We know that our passwords should be unique for every service we use. We know that they should contain a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols while also being 8 characters or more. We also know that we shouldn’t store our passwords as a Word document on our computer. Ugh! So much…
.gov Now Used for Cybercrime
We’ve been conditioned to trust URLs that end in .gov but the latest cyberthreat reminds us that links aren’t always what they seem. Earlier today Slashdot reported that scammers are now using 1.USA.gov to trick users into clicking on links that redirect them to faulty sites. Originally intended to be a positive collaboration between USA.gov…
Your Teen’s First Cell Phone: 5 Things to Discuss
When your tween or teen is ready for their first cell phone, how can you make sure that they are knowledgeable about the risks and rewards that come with having a mobile device? Earlier this month I was invited to speak to a middle school Girl Scout troop about cell phones and our conversation was…
ImageVision Technology Protects Kids Online by Monitoring Digital Content
Today’s Tech Savvy Guest is Steven W. White, President and CEO of ImageVision, and the creator of a visual recognition and image and video filtering technology that scans images at the rate of 720,000 per hour to detect and filter lewd content in images, text, and video. Steven is here to share technology that helps parents…
7 Tech Savvy Safety Tips for a Worry Free Vacation
Wanderlust and a desire to turn our kids into global citizens has me planning getaways to far off places in my head. Gorgeous travel photos from glossy tour company brochures and magazines don’t show the seedier of side of what can happen when travel at home or abroad. A worry-free vacation can turn into a…
Join Me and John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted for Internet Safety Discussion Thursday 6/28
Tomorrow I have the pleasure of sitting beside John Walsh, esteemed host of America’s Most Wanted, as we discuss the important topic of keeping your family safe in the digital age. Cox Communications and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children recently issued its annual Tween Internet Survey. Parents, teens, and tweens ages 10…
What’s Your Story? Youth Generated Video Contest Promotes Responsible Internet Use
One of the best ways to know if kids of any age truly understand something is to get them to explain it in their own words. This is part of the concept behind Trend Micro’s What’s Your Story video contest, a user-generated video contest designed to empower youth to be leaders in educating others about…
FOSI Announces A Platform for Good: Educate About Digital Citizenship and Responsible Technology Use
Earlier this week the Family Online Safety Institute(FOSI), a nonprofit devoted to online safety, announced an initiative to empower parents, teachers, teens and kids to connect and share knowledge and experience around online safety topics. Called A Platform for Good, this venture brings together Facebook, Google, AT&T, National Cable & Telecommunications Association, Sprint, Verizon, and…
A Parent’s Role in Teaching Online Safety
One of the common threads heard throughout last week’s Family Online Safety Institute’s Annual Conference was about whose role it is to teach online safety. It was a topic that was mentioned in keynotes, general sessions, on our panel, and posed to me via Twitter. Whose responsibility is it to teach online safety? …
