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.

Parental monitoring is difficult to begin with. It's no longer just about the family computer, but about knowing what your teen is up to on the laptop, iPod, Xbox live, and smart phone. And to make it even more difficult, your teen is probably actively trying to hide their Internet activity from you.

7 out of 10 teens report hiding their online activity from their parents, whether by minimizing browser windows when you enter the room or using a device they know you don't or can't monitor as closely.

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.

In a world where cyberbullying is commonplace behavior and online rudeness is par for the course, here are 3 simple arguments for your teen to avoid being negative online and be more positive in his posts and texts.

1. Negativity Makes You A Target

Twitter is gaining popularity among teens, and it's different from other social networks in a lot of significant ways. If Facebook is like an after-school hangout, then Twitter is like scanning all of their favorite newspapers and magazines – as well as picking up  the latest school gossip. Here are 9 things parents should know about teenage Twitter use.

1. There is no minimum age to sign up for Twitter.

Internet, how I love thee: let me count the ways. I use it all the time, and my kids do, too. I don't even own a hard copy phone book or map anymore. My kids use it for their homework, entertainment, and I like that they can find how-to videos on just about anything. But about those videos...

The downside of video sharing sites (most notably, YouTube) and sometimes the Internet in general, is that they give kids ideas about not-so-smart stunts that they may end up trying on their own. 

They're usually called “challenges.”

Out of every one hundred tweens and teens, how many do you think are cyberbullied? Twenty? Forty? Sixty? Actually, new research suggests that the actual figure may be much lower than we think. 

A new presentation of the results of two studies to the American Psychological Association this week shows that only 15% of kids were actually cyberbullied. The two studies surveyed a total of 5,000 teens.

Most of you reading this will think this is an impossibly low figure. We hear about cyberbullying every single day. It is all over our schools and in the news. How can a 15% figure be realistic at all?

Tweet Tweet! It’s that time again…Twitter party time! We are happy to announce that our next party is this Thursday August 23 at 3PM EST.  The entire hour is going to be dedicated to cyberbullying due to the number of Olympic athletes that were bullied in London. Our hosts @timwoda and @stevewoda will be offering helpful tips to parents to ensure child safety this year and are available to answer questions.

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.

Anybody can be the victim of a cyberbullying. Even an Olympic athlete.

Eighteen-year-old Zoe Smith's Olympic event hasn't occurred yet, but a handful of cyberbullying comments on Twitter put her in the spotlight recently. 

A Twitter user going by the name of Infidel1978 sent cyberbullying messages to the teen Olympic weightlifter and some of her teammates after they were featured in a BBC documentary called “Girl Power: Going for the Gold.”

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!

Over the years, I have seen many YouTube videos and unfortunately, the one that is permanently cemented in my mind is “Racist White Teen Girls.”  This video is one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen.  The girls who speak in it are young, impulsive and troubled.

Founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has become an increasingly popular social networking site.  It is used in almost every country and is currently available in 20 languages.  If used properly, it is a great networking tool that can be quite helpful.  Twitter allows celebrities and “regular” people to interact with one another, businesses to make announcements to the public, and friends to chat with one another. I would like to emphasize the word “properly” because many people don’t.  Sadly, it has become another conduit for teens to bully each other. 

Due to the emotional and impulsive nature of teenagers today, many fail to understand that when they publish something on twitter it’s out there and can’t be taken back. I know you might be thinking how much damage can 140 characters really do? The answer is a lot of damage! Teen suicide is becoming a major issue because of cyberbullying.

Bullying someone in person is soooo 20th century. Cyberbullying is the new way for tweens and teens to bully, and it differs from traditional schoolyard bullying in significant ways.

Most of us know about schoolyard bullying, and have probably seen it for ourselves at some point during our journey through adolescence. Someone might have spread a dirty rumor about a classmate in the hallways at school or scrawled “For a good time call Kathy” on the inside of a bathroom stall with a Sharpie.

But cyberbullying is very different from the kind of bullying we know, for three reasons: 

1. 24/7 access. The Internet never sleeps. Cyberbullied kids live in a plugged-in world where they feel trapped and desperate because they can't escape from harassing emails, text messages, or Wall posts. They are always aware of them.

Social networking is on the rise, and so is parental monitoring. The good news is that most parents actively enforce rules regarding Internet safety and engage in various types of monitoring to ensure their child's safety on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

The bad news is that many kids try to get around parental monitoring by creating a “dummy” profile, and many parents are none the wiser about it.

Many tweens and teens love FourSquare, a free application available for GPS-enabled smartphones.

Here are 4 vital things you need to know about FourSquare to keep your kids safe when they're using the location-based social networking app.

1. It's not just a game:

On FourSquare, your child earns points for “checking in” at certain locations and earns badges (checkins at 20 different pizza places, for example.) If she frequently checks in at the same place, she could become “mayor” of that location.

But even though it sort of feels like a game, FourSquare is actually a social network where people can

Popular with teens and tweens, Tumblr is a microblogging site that provides a platform for blogging that is super simple and user-friendly. An important kids safety question: does your teen have a Tumbleblog? If so, there are 6 important things about the site you should know. 

1. Tumbleblogs are public blogs, and there is no way to change the setting. But there is a loophole: your child can set up a second Tumbleblog that can be password-protected, and neglect the the primary one which is public by default.

2. The “block” feature has limitations. If your child is being harassed or just doesn't like a certain Tumblr user, they can block that person from communicating with them via Tumblr – but they can't block them from seeing their blog. Keep that in mind.