ScreenRetriever’s Online Safety Blog
When Children and Teens Go Online, Parents Need to Be Aware…
ISIS Recruitment Online Strangers Violent Video Games… Parents Need to Be Aware of Who Their Children and Teens are Engaging With Online and What Their Children and Teens are Doing and Seeing Online! ISIS, the radical Muslim terrorist group also known as the Islamic State, is recruiting vulnerable youth worldwide using social media. “By May 2015, hundreds of U.S. citizens had joined the fight on the side of the extremists.” Teens ranging in age from 13 to their early 20s are being deceived into leaving their homes in the U.S. and Western Europe to travel to the Iraq and Syria for indoctrination...
read moreDoes Encouraging Someone to Commit Suicide Cross the Line of Free Speech?
A girl allegedly repeatedly encouraged her boyfriend to kill himself via text messages. He died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. Now two years later the girlfriend is in court after being charged with manslaughter. Is a person that encourages someone to kill themselves protected under the constitution’s first amendment right of free speech? During the trial, Justice Robert Cory asked the big question, “When did this cross the line — when did these words cross the line?” Kids’ encouraging other kids to kill themselves is happening everyday via cyberbullying on social networking sites....
read moreScreenRetriever Recognized…
Thanks to SecuritySearch.co of New Zealand for recognizing ScreenRetriever as an online safety tool for parents. They are so right when they say that parenting online is not spying. Many parents still believe that the online world and offline world are two separate entities. But it’s important for parents to understand that the online world and offline world are one and the same for kid’s today. Parenting offline is now only half of the equation for parents today. To be a parent in today’s digitally dominated world, parents must we aware of what their children are doing online, and how...
read moreIt’s a Sad Day When Parents Need To Purchase Cyberbullying Insurance!
It’s a Sad Day When Parents Need to Purchase Cyberbullying Insurance! Oh how the world has changed in fifteen years since the cyber world, social media and apps became dominant players. Now there is cyberbullying insurance available in the U.K. Chubb Insurance is offering their policy holders who buy their personal insurance additional cyberbullying coverage which can be use to pay for counseling and victims’ lost income if they are off work for a week or more. It may even cover relocation expenses if the victim has to move. Sadly, cyberbullying has become all too common place and a big...
read moreNumber of Friends on Facebook Linked to Increased Stress Hormone in Kids
Number of Friends on Facebook Linked to Increased Stress Hormone in Kids A new study finds that more than 300 friends on Facebook increase cortisol levels in kids. Cortisol is the stress hormone. Cortisol plays many roles in the body. It helps the body with regard to metabolism including the use of glucose and fat for energy. It also helps the body manage stress. Cortisol levels can be altered by many conditions, such as emotional or physical stress, injury, activity and infection. Did you ever think that the number of friends your child has on Facebook may have an impact on cortisol levels and...
read moreBedroom Jihad and ISIS Recruiting
Bedroom Jihad and ISIS Recruiting Paris! The Boston Marathon bombings! Russian airliner! Beheading of James Foley and others! First and foremost, our hearts go out to the people of Paris. This massacre has disturbed us all greatly. I can’t stop thinking about it and the tremendous sadness the people of Paris must be feeling! Politicians are saying that ISIS is coming here. I say it’s here. I live in the Boston area and saw detail after detail of the Boston Marathon murders, knowing people who ran that race. Thank God, no one I knew was injured! ISIS is using the...
read moreParenting Online is not Spying!
Parenting Online is not Spying! Unless you have kids online you may not truly understand all of the risks. It’s really important that parents understand that “Parenting Online” is not Spying! It’s bad enough that the obvious online risks include: cyberbullying, sexting, online predators, meeting up with strangers they’ve only met online internet addiction, Then there are the not so obvious risks: children randomly connecting with strangers in chatrooms who often expose themselves, inappropriate websites and the url sounds harmless, i.e. dancingdeer.com is a holiday...
read moreOnline Rejection Hurts!
Online rejection hurts! The sting of rejection and shunning has risen to a whole new level using social media! Social media provides many opportunities for connecting. But it also provides many opportunities for rejection using the many social media sites and apps available today. Rejection online can be done anonymously and can go viral quickly. It can be as simple as not receiving a Facebook like on a posted pic to seeing an image of a party that you weren’t invited to. Or maybe you were in a relationship and now you see your boyfriend or girlfriend’s status is single. That can really hurt. We’ve...
read moreSchool is Back… So Are Cyber-Risks!
School is Back… So Are Cyber-Risks! School is back… It’s time to wake up and get going. Hopefully you won’t have to get out a marching band to wake up your child in the morning. Hopefully your child is getting enough sleep and is not on their device late at night so that they can get up. And also, did you know that getting only six hours of sleep can lead to the common cold. So put those devices away at night! So here we go, a typical school morning… Wake up, get dressed, change outfits several times, spend hours noticing that one pimple and then covering it up with gobs of make up, fixing the...
read morePerfect Storm for Tweens and Teens Online
Combine the perfect storm of raging hormones and devices… Combine the perfect storm of raging hormones with smartphones/tablets/computers and what do you get? Tweens/Teens doing dumb things online. Kids will always do dumb things online and offline. Why? Because they are not miniature adults as many like to believe. They are adolescents with underdeveloped brains. The undeveloped part of the brain that helps them make good decisions, have good judgment and control impulsive behavior is not fully developed until an adult reaches the age of 24. Having friends/peers in the mix increases...
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