Teens and Tumblr

Tumblr has been called, tumblelog and microblogging and if your teen has been talking about wanting a Tumblr account, beware it is another cyber playground for online predators. Tumblr is a social networking site where you can post, blogs, pictures, videos, music, text, quotes from the your cell phone, which is the most popular way, but you can also use your desktop.  Tumblr is really meant for the twenty-something crowd because of its sexual undertones, drugs and language accompanying the posts. Anyone under the age of 13 is prohibited to use Tumblr. This is based on U.S. federal and state legislation.

Tumblr is different from Facebook and MySpace in the idea you are posting more creative images from different media and less text. It is a blogging community on a social networking site. All blogs are public unless you specifically go in and change your settings to private where only your friends can see them. I have heard many times, strangers trying to meet up with teens on Tumblr. If your teen is mature and you decide Tumblr is acceptable for your teen, remember to have parental controls and to talk with him/her about not following any photos which endorse drug use or degrading sexual behavior. These paths can lead to some explicit materials which are not for teens.

Let us know how many parents have let your teens have a Tumblr account and your experience with Tumblr.

Parental Monitoring and Education

With children being exposed and growing up online, parents need to become a part of their child’s digital world in both teaching and parental monitoring. 

As parents join the journey of their child’s milestones, they need to incorporate into their teachings about how to safely use the internet. 

A CNN article stated that by the time American children are 2 years old, 90 percent have an online history. This of course is happening from parents posting information about their children from the time they are born or even before they born. Another statistic stated by the time children are five, more than 50 percent will be using a computer or tablet device as a regular part of their interactions. And by the time teens reach middle school, they text almost 3,500 times a month and spend more time with the media than a parent or teacher. 

So if teens today are spending more time with the media than parents or teachers, just image in ten years how much time teens will be spending on the media or yet think about 7 and 8 year olds,  how they will be absorbed into the digital age. The message here is to educate yourself as parents about the latest trends in technology and begin talking consistently with your children about how to use technology safely. 

How often do you talk with your children about the internet and their online activities?

Parental Monitoring of Smartphones

It only makes sense with the increase demand of the smartphones in the marketplace that parents take a good look at mobile parental controls to help keep kids safe. According to the results from a 2011 survey conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project, called Teens, Smartphones and Texting, the amount of texting among teens between the ages of 12 to 17 years old, increased from 50 texts a day in 2009 to 60 texts for the average teen texter. Remember this is the average teen; I know some teens send and receive anywhere between 200 and 500 texts a day.

In addition, smartphones are gaining teen users. Some 23% of all those ages 12 to17 say they have a smartphone and possession is highest among older teens: 31% of those ages 14 to17 have a smartphone, compared with just 8% of youth ages 12 to13. I am sure this 8% number will increase this year for the 12 to 13 year olds smartphone users. 

What do you think with more teens and tweens owning smartphones and the abundant amount of texting, should parents have mobile parental controls for their kids?

Schools and Parents Partnering to Stop Cyber Bullying

In Australia there is a trend for schools to share in the responsibility of what is happening after school because of cyber bullying.  From a recent report from the Australia Institute of Family Studies, it found schools and parents need to share in the responsibility of cyber bullying to educate and support kids.  The schools realize cyber bullying occurs more often after school since kids are so involved in the internet taking such an active role in social media and are exposed to collaborative online social culture which gives them access to all types information and maintaining friendships. 

When parents find out their child is being cyber bullied, they need to inform the school and ask for help. Since cyber bullying is inclined to happen 24 hours 7 days a week, it is important for parents’ involvement to help stop and prevent cyber bullying along with the partnership of the schools. 

What do you think, will parent and school partnerships help reduce or stop cyber-bullying?  

Internet at the Fingertips of Teens; Mobile Parental Controls can Help

Children, including teens, have so much at their fingertips today and one being the internet with the advancements of the smartphones. When I hear other parents say, “My kids don’t need any parental monitoring when on the internet they are just playing games,” or “It is fine to let me child have a social networking account, it helps them to find out what their friends are up to.” I often wonder, they must not be hearing about what is happening in the digital age.  In 2011, Shawn Henry, Executive Assistant Director at the FBI, estimated, that at any given time, there are 750,000 online child predators. And in January of 2012, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children placed the total number of sex offenders in the United States to be 747,408.

To me, these are very high numbers to let children go online without any parental monitoring. Knowing online predators use the social networking sites as their online playground and online predators fall across all socio-economic groups, children of all ages, including teens are just not mature enough to know how to handle tricky, manipulative online predators.  Children can gain access to the internet much easier and simpler today because of the smartphones. For the safety of your children, take a moment to talk to them and look into mobile parental controls that are for your child’s cell phone. My Mobile Watchdog  is here to help parents and children.

Facebook Inviting More Online Predators

Here we go with Facebook again. We all know, Facebook is one of the online playgrounds for online predators and cyber bullying, but regardless, Facebook is looking at whether to legally allow children under 13 to have an account.  According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is actively working on policies and controls aimed at allowing younger Facebook users. The article stated, “Mechanisms being tested include connecting children's accounts to their parents' and controls that would allow parents to decide whom their kids can "friend" and what applications they can use.”

But then, according to a Consumer Reports study published in May, there are already 5.6 million kids aged 12 and under with Facebook accounts, with 800,000 harassed or subjected to cyber bullying on the social network. And of these children the majority of parents knew they were on Facebook and did not talk with them about how to stay safe from online predators or cyber bullies nor monitored their Facebook activities.

Should Facebook change their policy to legally allow under 13 year olds to have an account so these parents do not have to lie about their children’s age?