Internet safety for kids is becoming more and more important and the technology gets better and our kids get older. Â One important thing I’ve discovered lately is that since most parents didn’t grow up in the interent world, they’re a bit out of touch with how quickly kids learn and figure things out online. Â The problem is that parent’s aren’t always equipped with the right tools or knowledge to help their kids figure it out. Â That’s where I hope to help.
Yesterday, I gave another talk to a fantastic group of young women and their moms about interent safety.  I think it’s safe to say that we covered some items that many of them hadn’t known or thought of before.  That’s my goal.  Even if only one person learns something new, then it was a success.  Yesterday was definitely a success.  A couple of the eye-openers yesterday were Social Mapping and how to manage location-based services and Chat Rooms.  After talking about this, I looked at the parents in the back of the room and almost all of them had just taken out their iPhones and were checking their Location settings.
After discussing location services, most people decide that it’s important for them to leave it on, but that they need to be careful when they send out photos to make sure that any location data on the photo doesn’t lead back to their homes or some other identifying place.  For instance, see where I took photos on my recent trip to the Denver zoo via my phone’s GPS to the right.
Let me know how I can help. Â I have several talks on this topic for kids, parents and both kids and parents. Â You can find out more here. And you can contact me here.
“Facebooking” and “YouTubing” are no longer just a “cute” thing kids do for fun to pass the time. Not understanding the risks associated with the many social media outlets poses a huge potential problem to the safety and well-being of our children.
To keep them safe, online activity is something that needs to be monitored closely. To fully understand the potential dangers, we, as parents/teachers/child advocates need to educate ourselves and then stay aware of what our children are doing online.
Read more: Tips for parents to combat cyberbullying – The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/outwest/ci_20509504/tips-parents-combat-cyberbullying#ixzz1tdXPYrCi
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