Monthly Archives: May 2013

Like most parents of teens, you've probably worked hard to help your adolescent develop a good reputation “in the real world.” You've likely talked to him about the importance of being polite and respectful to adults, how to choose good friends, and of course the all-too-important but often neglected hygiene issue. Unfortunately, even if you've been successful at all of the above, it’s still possible that your teen can develop a bad reputation online, unless of course, you’re proactive about the issue. Read more

With kids as young as six stumbling onto porn sites and teenage victims of cyberbullying committing suicide, the question of using parental controls to monitor online activity is simply a matter of when, not if. Even so, setting up these controls on your kids’ devices can feel a bit like spying, and some children may perceive this honest attempt to keep them safe on the Web as a breach of trust. We often hear from parents who know that the time has come to set some boundaries for their children’s online behaviors but don’t know how to approach their kids with the idea. Here’s our advice: Read more

If you've ever worried over what kinds of video games your kiddos are playing, then unfortunately, you've got one more reason to fret. It Girl seems harmless enough on the surface. It's not one of those violent games where blood and gore abound. It's not a first-person shooter game, and it even features cartoon-like characters. So, what's the big deal? Read more

With the release of a survey published in USA Today, there's been a lot of talk about kids and their nefarious use of the Internet. The most alarming piece of information being passed around is that kids as young as 6 are surfing for pornography online. While it's certainly good to be aware of what our kids are doing online, it's equally important that we point the finger of blame in the right direction. Read more

Parents have worried over their children getting their hands on pornography for decades, but the widespread availability of explicit content online has heightened these fears over the last several years, and for good reason! The New York Times reports that children have their first encounter with online pornography as early as the age of six, often as a result of accidentally clicking inappropriate links. Read more

We’ve written about some of the dangers associated with Instagram before, but today as we sign the petition to make default settings private and geo-tagging disabled for young users ages 13-17, we wanted to take the opportunity to make our stance on this app and its features very clear. First of all, we are not and never were anti-Instagram. In fact, there are very few websites, online games, or mobile apps that we are against. As we’ve mentioned time and time again in various posts, we think technology is an awesome thing for kids and teens, and we know that parents are savvy enough to choose which digital media to allow their kids access to. Read more

Typically, when we think of the dangers of YouTube, online porn and violence are atop our list of concerns. Something as seemingly harmless as cinnamon would probably never even make the list, right? Not so fast. Apparently, the latest teen stunt on YouTube is called the Cinnamon Challenge. To take the challenge, teens are encouraged to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon and keep it down for a full minute without drinking anything. Read more

Most parents are naïve about what their kids are really doing online, at least according to a new survey conducted by Netmums. The survey included more than 1100 parents, plus 825 kids ages 7 to 16. Here are some of the highlights from the study: Read more