The title might turn you off, but don't be offended. Spying on your kids is not always a negative and can be thought of as something that needs to be done to ensure their health and well-being. Spy the proper way by following the steps outlined below.
It is simply not acceptible to have to put up with a Facebook cyberbully. When someone is behaving in this manner they are causing problems that no one should have to deal with when they are just trying to enjoy their social media experience. As such, it is important to know the proper steps to take to deal with a bully should the need ever arise.
The first thing to do is to add all of the privacy settings that you can to try to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. It will also help to cease any harassment that you are currently experiencing. This wikihow article explains how to go about doing this:
We are pleased to share with you our very first guest blog post for Military Appreciation Month! This post on helping young children through deployment is by Kathryn from Singing Through the Rain. Check her blog out!
Helping Young Children Through Deployment
I’ve had a lot of people ask me how I helped my son, Adam through my husband’s first deployment. As I thought about it, I realized my answer is going to change as he grows older and as we go through more deployments. And that’s ok! Because my son was pretty young when my husband left for his first deployment, my answers may vary from someone who has a 5 year old or an 8 year old.
My son was 16 months old when my husband left. He also has specials needs so it was hard for me to tell how much it really bothered him or how much he noticed that his daddy was gone. I am sure he noticed, but for me I didn’t see much of a change after he left. I think 16 months is still kind of young to really understand what’s going on, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything to help him remember his daddy. There were still a lot of things I did to keep Adam involved in the deployment process and to help him keep in touch with daddy while he was away.
uKnow.com is pleased to announce that December is Military Appreciation Month. Throughout the month of December, we will be featuring military mommy bloggers on our blog site discussing things like helping young children through deployment and moving. uKnowKids is also releasing a free eBook and SlideShare to the public about essential online tools and digital services that every military family needs.
I myself do not yet have kids, but I am certainly always learning from my parents, younger siblings, friends, coworkers and everyone around me about the difficulties and stresses that can come from it. I'm a person that grew up in the "digital age," and I know that for the younger population, it's just as natural as talking or using a phone. The issue seems to be that when you can talk anywhere at any time to anyone, it becomes almost impossible to keep your thumb on what exactly your kids are talking about.
This article was originally posted on November 23, 2012 by Serena Gordon of HealthDay Reporter
When kids have academic problems, report cards make that clear to parents. And if a kid skins a knee or breaks a bone, parents know what to do.
But detecting that a child is being bullied, and then knowing how to react, may not be so clear-cut.
Kids often are reluctant to tell their parents they're being bullied or cyberbullied, making it difficult to know that they're having trouble with other kids at school or online.
Remember when we wrote about a new trend called swatting a few months back? Well it hasn't seemed to have slowed down at all.
If you remember, swatting is where pranksters call police to falsely report that a major crime is underway at some celebrity's home. Attempted kidnappings and shootings have been some of the most common crimes falsely reported. This weekend, "X-Factor" judge Simon Cowell was the latest celebrity to fall victim to this form of bullying. Other swatting victims include actor Ashton Kutcher and singers Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. Because these people are well-known celebrities, there is usually a full tactical police response, which takes money and resources away from people who might actually need it.
Windows PCs and Macs have pretty good parental monitoring features, but they are just the first steps...
If your children are spending too much time on the home computer screen, your can gain some control of their computer usage by using Windows’ and Mac parental monitoring features. Those features provide a good first step, but aren’t the entire solution. Many parents are aware of threats to their children online (cyberbullying, sexting, online predators to name a few) but few know the different ways they can help keep them safe.
Windows 8:
This original article was posted by Pat Etheridge , Special to CNN.com:
Many teens learn the hard way that once they hit "send," there is no such thing as an "erase" button.
Editor's note: Former CNN correspondent Pat Etheridge is a journalist specializing in children's health and family issues. She previously hosted CNN's "Parenting Today."
(CNN) -- They're called "Generation M2": highly tech-savvy children ages 8 to 18, whose lives are immersed in electronic media.
Now, the nation's top pediatric organization is mobilizing efforts around their well-being.
Parents looking to protect their kids online know that there are no easy solutions. uKnowKids has worked closely with parents, educators and professionals to design a product that can be a helpful tool for parents as they put together their larger strategy for keeping kids safe. One of the most valuable parts of any stategy on how to keep kids safe with social media has to include that age-old tool of parents everywhere: The conversation.
So how do you bring up conversations about your child's online life?
1. Treat social networks as a natural part of your child's life. For today's generation of kids, there is little difference between online and offline. Relationships with friends and classmates flow seamlessly between chats in the lunchroom and chats online. So while you think you're discussing facebook safety for teens, your child will think you're just discussing life
Everyone parent wants to be the "cool" parent. You don't want to be one of those parents who won't let their child have a Facebook account because it could be too dangerous. And when you mentioned to your child that he could have a Facebook account, you thought his face might break because he was so thrilled. And he couldn't get to his computer fast enough to get signed up. Before the night was over, the amount of friends he had was climbing. At last count, he had over three hundred, which is more than you have on your Facebook page. You've had yours for three years.
It was not that long ago when a cell phone for a school aged child was out of the question. Not only because of cost but also because there did not seem to be a good reason why a kid needed a cell phone in the first place. Well, times have changed, as they always do.
Today there are some good reasons to consider cell phones for kids:
Keeping the lines of communication open.
Access to 911 in case of emergency.
After the frightening night-time incident (see Cyberbullying - A Mother's Story, Part 1,) Bud became understandably paranoid. He would no longer leave the house unless we drove him to his destination, even if it was just around the corner. He and his friends used to walk all over town and now he was getting so little sunshine that he was eventually diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency.
During the week that followed, one of Bud's friends texted him and told him to check out G's Facebook wall. G had a public and completely open Facebook page--anyone could see it whether or not they were his friend. Bud called me over to see what G had posted. Right there on G's wall was an invitation - " bud morris, come over to my house... I have a bottle of bud and a freshly dug grave in my backyard for you..." "I want to grow my hair long so I can strangle bud with it."
Facebook has taken off in popularity so fast that many parents are left trying to keep up with this craze. Many parents have reported that their kids understand more about the Internet then they do, and this has meant that many parents are having difficultly controlling their kid's online behavior.
The behavior of kids online can also be difficult to rule over because of the fact that the Internet is becomming more and more accessible. Even if the parent chooses to put up certain parental blocks on their computers at home, there is no guarantee that this will keep the child from doing whatever they please on a friend's computer or on a public computer, perhaps even one at their school.
Did you miss Bullying Prevention Awareness Month? If you are a busy parent, it may have been easy to miss all the work that was being done to raise awareness about bullying. After all, you want to spend your extra time connecting with your kids, which doesn't always leave room for everything else.
But the need for anti bullying awareness goes beyond a single month, especially when it comes to cyberbullying, which can take place at home and throughout the year, even when children are supposed to be taking a break from school.
Since cell phones are pretty much in our every day life, of course children will want their own phone to send and receive message to their friends. There is no problem with this if you feel your child is responsible but you’re worried, you can still have the authority to monitor their text messages. Text message monitoring does not make you the bad guy, its actually a helpful cause especially if you think your child is being bullied over texts or sending inappropriate things. Keep these tips in mind if you’re looking to monitor their messages.
Talk With Your Child
As parents, we all want to think the best of our children. However, sometimes they don’t live up to our expectations. Even a child with the best of intentions can find themselves involved in the darker side of social networking. The good news is that parents can take some simple and free steps to begin effective parental monitoring.
Talk about your expectations
Kids can’t follow a rule if it doesn’t exist. Clear expectations must be set or your child is likely to make mistakes. The resource link on the uKnowKids homepage has free safety tips and an Internet & Mobile Safety Pledge for Kids.
Good news uKnowKids fans! We have partnered with SocialToaster to create an Ambassador program for people like you who really love our company, mission, and educational content!
SocialToaster is an online sharing tool that will give fans like you super powers -- the ability to share the content that you already love and earn rewards for doing so! The more content you share and the more traffic you generate on your social networks, the more points you will gain. And as an added fun factor, you are competing against other uKnowKids lovers. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone!
The trend to send sexually explicit text messages and photos (also known as sexting) is something that is seen as harmless by many upon first consideration. In fact, many who read this may have engaged in this type of activity themselves at some point. However, there are some things that those who engage in sexting, are considering doing so, or are the parents of someone who falls into the first two categories should consider.
When Dr. J and I talk about our core values Service, Safety, or Sustainability on air or off air; we are looking for the authorities and true experts on these subjects so we can help others. That is when I discovered Dr. Logan, an expert on cyberbullying, and invited her on www.TheSocialNetworkShow.com where she talks about this serious topic and how to help kids.
You can listen to Dr. Logan by visiting the archives on our website listed above.
