Monday, May 20, 2013

Teen Cell Phone Texting


On any given day, I see so many tweens and teens cell phone texting one another. What surprises me is when I see cell phone texting happen in groups, when one teen starts texting another who is standing right next to the other, while the rest of the teens are standing by. I think this is rude behavior and does not show respect for the other friends in the group. 

Mobile parental monitoring needs to come into play to teach the tweens and teens on how to communicate with friends. This sounds funny but kids need to learn how to have digital citizenship since they are growing up in the digital age. The average age for kids to get a cell phone is 12 years old and I am sure kids young than 12 years old are getting cell phones.  Parents need to instill how to have texting etiquette with their friends as well as learning how to have a real face-to-face conversation another person.  I think the bases of one-on-one communications are getting lost with our young generation.  Tweens and teens should understand that text messaging shouldn't take the place of face-to-face interaction with their friends but be a part of it. If you want your child to bond with his/her friends encourage that they spend time together hanging out talking not just text messaging.

How many people think it is rude for kids to be texting other kids in a group situation?

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Viddy


Has your tween been talking about Viddy? Viddy is growing steadily in popularity with about 16 million users. Many people refer to Viddy as a video version of Instagram.  It is the number 2 free iOS app at the App store. 

Viddy is a beautiful way to take video and use filters to enhance, beautify and add music to your videos and share them around the world. Videos are limited to 15 seconds. Viddy is a free application you download on your smartphone, iPad or iPod Touch and then sign up through Facebook, Twitter or email. After you have configured your video you can share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Tumblr. Because these third party services are integrated into the service to give users a fuller experience, users need to provide Viddy with your login information. Viddy also states it does not want to collect any personal information from any children under the age of 13 years old. 

If parents want to block this application from your tween's smartphone, parents can use My Mobile Watchdog monitoring application that blocks applications and websites in addition to other monitoring features for cell phones.My Mobile Watchdog

Monday, May 6, 2013

Text Message Monitoring on Cell Phones


Should parents start text message monitoring on their kid’s cell phones?  How can parents keep their children safe in the digital age? When parents start asking themselves these questions, they are becoming aware of the online dangers children are faced with growing up in the digital age and how important it is to monitor kid’s cell phones. Text message monitoring is not an invasion of their privacy or a sign of mistrustfulness. If your tween was lucky enough to get a smartphone for promotion, it is critical that parents play a vital role ensuring online safety for their tween.

Parental monitoring of kids’ smartphones goes along with the responsibility of giving your tween a smartphone. Parents need to be engaged and learn about what tweens can access and do with smartphones.  Maybe it is sitting down with your tween once a week and view all the text messages and online games your tween has participated in. If this seems overwhelming, try a mobile parental control application such as My Mobile Watchdog.  The point is, if you want your kids to be involved in all the wireless technology, then as a parent you need to talk about the right way to use a cell phone combined with mobile parental controls in the digital age.  

How many parents talk to your kids about their text messages?

Catching Online Predators


How can online predators get caught? In many cases dealing with online predators, parents are the ones who call the law enforcements to report the abuse or suspicious behavior their child or child’s friend have encountered online. It is very important for parents to get involved in reporting any suspicious behavior for the sake of protecting the children. Even older teens don’t know what to do when encountered with a rude or sexually invitation from someone online. This is the start of an online predator trying to bait his prey. 

Parents need to know what to do when a child, no matter what the age of the child, is talking about an uncomfortable situation they have experienced online, as well as children need to know what to do when they encounter someone online who is making sexually or inappropriate comments to them. Many online predators will create fake social networking accounts and then spam hundreds of kids with “friend” requests. Online predators know some kids will eventually accept their “friend” request. 

An open line of communication between parents and children is one of the best defenses against the online predators. Combine open communications with a mobile parental control application such as My Mobile Watchdog  will only add to the safety of your child.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Ways to Protect Children in the Online Gaming World


With the growing popularity of online gaming on gaming consoles, cell phones, iPads, and computers, how can parents protect their children from online predators? Children are fascinated by the online games and who wouldn’t be with all the dynamic interactive images and real life looking graphics.  It is similar to being in a candy or toy store for children. So how can parents compete with these never-ending engaging entertainment devices which are becoming more and more addicting for children?

To start with, keep the online gaming consoles or computer in the family room so parents can keep an eye on what games children are playing. Also, this will make it easier to pay attention to your child's conversations with friends when they are playing online games together.  In addition, having the online gaming consoles in a family room will encourage your children to play with their friends that come over to your house instead of wanting to chat with online gamers. 

Educate yourself with the games your children like to play. Check out the parental controls on the games and adjust the settings to your comfort level. Parents can turn off the voice and chat capabilities. And if parents don’t want their children to go online with the gaming console, you can remove this feature on some game consoles. If your child likes to download games on their cell phone, these gaming applications can be blocked with parental monitoring software such as My Mobile Watchdog.

Parents need to take a look at the online games because many of them allow parents to view a list of players their children have interacted with during an online session. Also, some online games allow parents to create a list of friends that their children can communicate with and block any strangers.

A good rule for parents to remember is to encourage open conversations between your children and not to get upset with them if a stranger is trying to chat with them online. Parents need to refrain from permanently banning the online games because this is what most children fear if they tell their parents that a stranger has been chatting with them. Instead, parents need to calmly and openly discuss the inappropriate online chatting that your child has encountered and the danger that it imposes on them and the family.