Social media can be a scary thing for parents.  More and more people are joining Facebook and Twitter every day; and many of those people who join these social networks are children and teenagers.  Social media has taken the place of the "playground", in that predators no longer need to physically hang out with children to obtain access to them.  

In Missouri, one school is taking the steps to inform parents about how to keep their kids safe with social media.  Detective Ed Bailey of the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force recently attended parent/teacher conferences at Carl Junction High School to talk to parents about the importance of online safety for their children.  Detective Bailey stated that the key is to get kids to understand how much of their personal information needs to be safeguarded at all costs.  And since many kids generally operate in an "it will never happen to me" frame of mind, getting the message across is difficult.

In a world that is now run almost exclusively by computers,  cyberbullying has become a very real threat in the lives of our children and teenagers.  In fact, statistics show that among a population of 13 to 17 year olds, more than 43% have experienced some form of cyberbullying within the last year alone.  That statistic is staggering.  Cyberbullying takes on many forms, and each one is harmful to a child, causing anxiety, depression and sometimes even suicide.

Gossip

Gossip takes on a new definition when it's done online.  When we were kids, gossiping was mostly harmless.  And even though it spread quickly when one of your friends had a juicy tale to tell you, it's nowhere near how quickly gossip spreads online.  In just a few clicks of the mouse, information gets transferred from one person to another, causing an incredible amount of harm.  Through the use of social networks, any information is easily announced to world via a Facebook wall post.  Internet gossip can devastate a child.  

Here is a festive guest post from our friend Raven over at Ms. MommyHH6 for our Military Appreciation Month. Read on for fun ideas for children and then go visit her blog!

Magical Ideas to Make this Christmas Special (at the last minute)

It’s Christmas time!!!   My entire family is “tech” lovers and there are so many great ideas for gifts this year.  There are also some great ideas to keep the magic of Santa alive for younger children!

With Snapchat making the headlines a lot the past few weeks, uKnowKids thought it would be very helpful to decode this app for you and show you exactly why using this app as a means to send nude or semi-nude pictures is a bad, bad idea.  And why sharing intimate photos in general is never a good idea.

Snapchat is a unique app that lets users take and then send pictures to a contact with a self-destructing timer on them.  When the timer runs out (1-10 seconds max), the picture is gone forever.  Many tweens and teens think this feature provides security and are using this app as a means to send intimate pictures---
but this is a very, very bad idea.  Download our infographic now to find out why. 

Parents know that there are certain things we have to teach our children to handle responsibly before we set them free.  Most children progress from tricycle to training wheels to big kid bike under parental supervision.  It’s only after they’ve learned to ride safely, wear a helmet, and obey the rules of the road that we set them free to ride around the neighborhood.  Getting that first driver’s license is an important rite of passage for most teens, but few parents would hand over the car keys to a brand new driver and allow him or her to hit Route 66 for a cross-country road trip.  New freedoms are first exercised within boundaries.  Cars and bicycles are one thing, but what about teaching your child to navigate social media?  Do you have Facebook training wheels?

Let’s just assume for the moment that your child is at least 13 and not one of the 7.5 million Facebook users under the age of 13.  There are good reasons for your child to use Facebook and other forms of social media.  Here’s the big one:  in today’s world, this is how adults communicate.  We teach our children how to answer the phone, eat with good table manners, and speak to adults politely.  We need to teach them how to appropriately navigate social media as well.  Facebook’s user controls don’t always make that easy, however.  One out of five adult users don’t utilize Facebook’s privacy settings.  Does your child?  If you child was one of the one million minors who experienced abuse, threats, or harassment last year, would he or she know how to handle it?  Would you know that it had happened? 

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.

You may not have thought about it a lot, but the company that covers your homeowners insurance is very concerned about cyberbullying and liability issues that could arise with a lawsuit. As the world moves quickly toward establishing dual identities in both the “real world” and online communities such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube or gaming systems like Xbox 360, new legal liability issues are escalating.

Cyberbullying incidents are reported to be quickly on the rise, and the insurance industry is scrambling to determine risk for an issue that did not exist ten years ago. While personal injury riders do exist as a part of standard homeowners or umbrella coverage, cyberbullying is still considered to be a “gray area” of coverage by most companies while the courts have already begun to sort the issue out.

Hurtful names. Repeated harassment. Extreme embarrassment. As adults, we’ve learned to recognize the signs of bullying, but when it comes to cyberbullying, parents need to be extra vigilant. The widespread availability of the web and mobile phones have created a rich environment for cyberbullying (defined as using of digital media to repeatedly harass another person). Often it happens without any knowledge of school staff and/or parents.

Although it's difficult to watch your child try to deal with bullying, they don't have to go through it alone. You can offer support and help your child through this difficult situation using a variety of strategies. 

We live in an age that is entirely different from the era most of us grew up in.  If your child is old enough for a cell phone, chances are you remember things like playing your Atari before dinner and going outside to play only to be called in hours later once the sun was going down.  As technology is advancing, so are the ways for your child to get into trouble.  And while everyone else might be doing it, sexting is something you definitely don't want your child participating in.  

I was recently invited to be a guest blogger at uknowkids.com and I am honored, inspired, and grateful. Once I recognized the genius behind uknow.com and uknowkids.com, I immediately saw the urgency, importance, and inspiration of this powerful company to help kids. Knowledge is potential power but action is power.

Bullying is a really hot-button word, guaranteed to grab you (especially if you have kids of your own) by the collar and make you pay attention. I'll admit that headlines with the word “cyberbully” almost always catch my notice. Bullying both scares parents and mystifies them. Let's clear things up a little.

Parents – myself included – are apt to shrug off cyberbullying as just another iteration of the bullying you or I might have endured as kids. We turned out all right in spite of it, didn't we? But the truth is that cyberbullying is very different from anything we knew.

When you became a parent, nobody handed you an owners' manual.  From health to education to socialization, raising chidren today is hard enough without the spectre of cyberbullying looming over your heads.  The old days of classroom taunts and playground insults have exploded into the technical age, and today's children have a lot more to worry about.

This month Marco Viscomi, a 27-year-old college student from Canada, was indicted in federal court for using a computer virus to blackmail teenage sisters into producing child pornography – of themselves.

He struck up a conversation online with the 17-year-old and talked her into sending him some risqué photos, then downloading a file from him that turned out to be a virus. Then he told her that he would ruin her laptop and send the photos to her parents if she didn't make explicit videos with her 13-year-old sister.

Your teens know how to use the Internet. They've been using it since they were old enough to talk. But do they know how to use it responsibly, without compromising their safety or just plain being rude or irritating to others? If your teens are online, which they undoubtedly are, they need to be aware of committing these 10 Internet faux pas.

Maybe you don't know what a “dumb phone” is, but your teens certainly do – and they don't want one.

One of my closest girlfriends hasn't upgraded to a smart phone yet: her trusty old flip phone serves her just fine. She does find herself several times a day, however, constantly apologizing for her lack of connectivity.

If we're in a group and someone says, “quick, grab your phone and take a picture!” or “get on Facebook to show me some pictures of your new niece,” she has to shrug and say, “Sorry, I can't. I have a dumb phone.”

All parents know that the Internet is a place that requires parental involvement and parental monitoring. There are cyberbullies, online predators, and identity thieves out there to worry about.

But the obvious dangers notwithstanding, did you know that some Internet uses and behaviors may also be linked to a teen's physical and mental health, too? Many studies suggest a correlation between certain types of online behavior and physical or mental health problems, from anxiety to obesity.

With the school year just around the corner, parents are busy getting ready. There are school clothes to buy, new backpacks to fill – but are also you taking the time to bully-proof your child?

Cyberbullying is present in any school: public or private, rural or urban, high school or elementary school. Help to avoid or lessen the impact of cyberbullying on your child with these 10 skills. 

1. Confidence. Identifying and being proud of his personal strengths will give your child a good feeling about himself that will make bullies less likely to target him.

With only two days left, make sure you RSVP for our #bk2school Twitter Party! Our host, Tim Woda, will be giving back to school tips to parents and discussing hot topics including cyberbullying, sexting, and SWAT-ting. We are also giving away cash prizes. The person who refers the most followers will receive a $100 gift card to Staples.

British Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington is swearing off Twitter during this year's London Olympics because she “doesn't need the stress” of people who post rude, insensitive, or cyberbullying comments.

In her own words, Adlington describes how “most things that I read about myself are not swimming related. They are to do with how I look, which has nothing to do with my performance in the pool.” 

She enjoys the supportive messages, but the inevitable odd comments makes the whole Twitter scene not worth it for her when she needs to focus 100% on her swimming in the Olympic games.

uKnow.com is very excited about throwing our first Twitter party!  Since children are going back to school in a month we thought it would be the perfect time to get adults to start talking about how we can ensure kids safety this year.  Our host, Internet safety and mobile expert, Tim Woda will provide tips that will help parents stay engaged and discuss current topics including sexting and cyberbullying.  In addition to coming to a fabulous virtual party, we are giving away $275 in gift cards to Staples!