Digital Parenting: The Dark Side of Instagram

The photo-sharing social media site, Instagram, has been treading more on the innocent side since its launch and rise in popularity. Recently though, a new disturbing trend has risen on Instagram that should have all parents concerned.

Instagram and Teen Body Image

More and more young girls are making their profiles and pictures public and posting a picture for others to assess their attractiveness. Many of these young girls are in provocative poses and are dressed in revealing clothing. The young girls post their pictures using hash tags such as #amipretty or #beautycontest, looking for the most positive comments to boost their self-esteem.

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Protect Your Teens From These 3 Digital Dangers

All good parents have a parental instinct to protect their children. This instinct no longer extends only to the real world, but to the online world as well. Mobile and Internet child safety has become as important if not more important than typical safety measures. Here are a few common Internet safety dangers that parents and teens should approach with caution.

1. Chat Rooms 

One of the areas where children can be targeted is on chat rooms. The ability to remain anonymous makes these rooms a prime area to attack for predators. This is not to say that everyone who uses a chat room is a predatory, but it does mean that this is one area where they are often attracted.

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Facebook Targets Kids Under the Age of 13: Facebook For Kids?

Facebook for kidsIs Facebook creating a melting pot for online predators and cyberbullying by allowing kids under the age of 13 to join? Or can parents use the opportunity to educate, engage and protect their kids through monitored use?

You may have noticed that Facebook has been in the news quite a bit recently. There was the largest IPO in US history, there was a Mark Zuckerberg wedding, a lot of noise surrounding the IPO and insider information, falling stock prices, a new Facebook Photo app, and now most recently: leaked speculation that Facebook is exploring the possibility of opening its doors to children under the age of 13... with parental supervision that is. So what exactly does that mean for parents?

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Facebook for Kids is Your Child's Internet

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg may not have invented social networking, but he certainly dominates it. Facebook is by far the most popular social network for adults, teens, and tweens. In fact, it's such an integral part of the Internet that a lot of kids simply don't know how they would live without it.

Five or ten years ago, a lot of kids used to spend time “surfing the Internet,” looking for sites to occupy their time and attention. Now it's much more common for kids to log onto Facebook and spend hours surfing the site, exploring their friend's walls for hours on end.

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Facebook For Kids: Lowering the Minimum Age For Facebook

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg told the public at an education summit in California last month that he wants to get rid of the requirement that Facebook users have to be at least 13 years of age. He says that Facebook for kids is an avenue for education that should not be denied children under 13.

Current legislation (the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Act, or COPPA) forbids sites like Facebook that collect information on its users to allow children under 13 to sign on. Of the COPPA legislation, Zuckerburg says, “That will be a fight we take on at some point.”

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Intro to Webkinz

kids playing WebkinzSurely you’ve seen those cuddly little stuffed animals called Webkinz. Maybe your child just received their very first Webkinz as a gift, or announced that he wants to collect them like so-and-so at school, or is already playing Webkinz but you aren’t sure that it’s totally safe. Here’s a fast Webkinz tutorial for parents.

What is Webkinz?

Webkinz is part online gaming site, part social network for kids ages 6 to 13. (Though usually, the fuzzy pets and cute graphics appeal more to girls and younger boys.) Each Webkinz pet, which retails for about $10.99, comes with an online code that allows your child to “adopt” the pet online and take care of it in the virtual Webkinz world for one year. In order to continue past the one-year mark, you’ll need to buy a new Webkinz.

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We are pleased to announce that Bark will be taking over where we leave off. The uKnowKids mission to protect digital kids will live on with Bark. Our team will be working closely with Bark’s team in the future, so that we can continue making the digital world a safer, better place for kids and their families. While we are disappointed we could not complete this mission independently, we are also pleased to hand the uKnowKids baton to Bark.
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