ScreenRetriever’s Online Safety Blog
A Grandfather’s Story – His Granddaughter’s Close Encounter Online
What can happen when a 12 year old is online without any parental supervision? Today a grandfather of a 12 year old tween told me his story. While his granddaughter was visiting he discovered that she was chatting with a 19 year old man that had friended her on Facebook. This girl had plans to meet up with this “friend.” This grandfather said that his daughter and husband didn’t pay attention to what their kids do online. He was incensed by this situation and said he wanted to “pummel” the 19 year old who was taking advantage of his sweet, naive granddaughter. He was able...
read moreA Child’s Natural Curiosity May Lead to Trouble Online
A child’s curiosity is a wonderful thing… A person’s mind develops the most their formative years and has a tremendous influence on the rest of their life. Right from infancy, curiosity plays a big role in a person’s life. It is curiosity which leads people towards sources of knowledge. When a child is young, he or she learns primarily from their parents. As they enter school, their circle of knowledge grows to their teachers, peers and life experiences. In today’s digitally dominated world the internet is a leading source of information for children, tweens, teens and adults...
read moreJudgment – The Teenage Brain Impacts Online Safety
Thanks to Amy Williams for this Guest Blog Post! How Does the Teenage Brain Impact Online Safety? When a baby is learning to walk and toddles too close to the stairs, we thank our lucky stars once we catch her in time. Our child having done this is no mystery; her brain isn’t developed yet, meaning she is unable to perceive the danger of the stairs. We protect our babies by installing safety gates because of this. When an 8-year-old rides his bike over a makeshift ramp and tumbles to the ground, we thank heavens he didn’t hurt himself too badly. We know this whole incident occurred because the...
read morePrinting Press to Apps. Oh How The World Has Changed!
Printing Press to Apps The advent of the printing press was a major mass communication revolution which permanently altered the structure of society as ideas and information began to transcend borders. With the advent of the internet, social networking and apps and the multiple devices available today to access the internet we have another revolution taking place that is also transcending borders. This includes the borders of our homes, schools, libraries, cars, …small towns, big cities, countries across the globe, wherever a person happens to be located. The ease with which information is at our...
read moreWhat Kind of Parent Are You…. Online?
What Kind of Parent Are You… Online? Every child is different. Kids don’t fit in a box any more than parents fit in a box. Any parent knows that parenting styles are not exact and that there are blurred lines between parenting styles. It’s still important to think about what kind of parenting style you ascribe to. Are you the same kind of parent online that you are offline? Are you teaching online safety and behavior skills just like you teach offline safety and behavior skills? There are Different Parenting Styles… 1. Authoritarian 2.Authoritative 3. Permissive...
read moreApps, Tweens and Teens: A Risky Combo
It may be hard to keep up with new apps that kids are using as new apps are growing at what feels like Star Trek warp speed. But it’s not hard to ask and answer the right questions and talk to your tween or teen about apps and online safety. Most parents are very familiar with the apps Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. What are some of the other most popular apps for teens? What should parents think about when it comes to apps and online safety and what should they be talking to their kids about? What Type of App is it? Parents and kids need to think about the type of app it is. Is it a...
read moreThe Online World, “…a digital playground and no one is on recess duty.”
Today I saw this quote on Twitter by Kevin Honeycutt: Kids online today reminds me of Lord of the Flies, a book written in 1954 by William Golding that delves into the dark side of human nature. This classic is about a group of British boys alone on a deserted island who attempt to govern themselves with disastrous results. The online world for kids has largely become a club house for kids parents not wanted complete with their own code language. We need to change that. Kids need parents online as much as they do offline. Why Parents Need to be Involved in their Children’s Online...
read moreYour Child is Online, Now What?
Your child is online. You may worry about: What they’re doing. How they’re behaving. The sites they’re visiting. The apps they’re using. The content they’re being exposed to. Who they’re engaging with. How much time they’re spending on their device. That’s a lot to worry about! You care about your child and want to be an involved parent and you know that includes being an online parent in today’s digitally dominated world. While you may be doing a fantastic job in all other aspects of parenting, if you don’t understand today’s technology, you cannot...
read moreAre You A Facebook Lab Rat?
The Facebook Experiment Have you ever thought of yourself as a lab rat? I hadn’t either until I learned about Facebook’s emotional manipulation study. The study manipulated the content of the newsfeeds of 700,000 of their (trusting) users. Facebook looked at the impact that positive or negative posts would have. Facebook made an amazing discovery OMG !!, LOL, when people see positive posts it makes them happy and when they see negative posts it makes them sad. Wow, Einsteins at work on their lab rats, namely all of us little peons. This has been dubbed the Facebook...
read moreOnline Safety For Kids; Are We Doing Enough?
The state of online safety for children seems to be heading in the wrong direction. Exposure to online risks is increasing for kids today; not decreasing says a leading research group. More kids are being cyberbullied, seeing hate messages, sexual images, meeting up with someone they met online and visiting pro-anorexia sites. Online Safety for Kids; Are We Doing Enough? The numbers should be getting better not worse. Children are clearly being put in harms way and we need to pay serious attention to that and make every effort to turn these numbers around. Technology has so many wonderful...
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