I'm tooting our ConnectSafely horn, here, but we had a launch of our own this week: that of our Google+ guide for parents. You can download the PDF at PlusParents.org, or read it chunk by chunk at the Google Safety Center. In it, my co-author and ConnectSafely co-director Larry Magid and I offer you a little context on where this service fits into both the rest of Google and teen social networking … [Read more...] about Check out our ‘Parents’ Guide to Google+’!
social networking
Google+ for teens launched
Google has just made its Google+ social networking service teen-friendly. What that means is, all the features that some 90 million Google+ users have now – Circles, Hangouts (group videochat), photo-sharing, games, etc. – are available to people under 18 but now with added protections in place. For example, the San Jose Mercury News reports, "Google+ will ask [teens] to confirm a public post … [Read more...] about Google+ for teens launched
Snapshot of a changing (global) social networking scene
It's good that ReadWriteWeb's bookmarking "Where in the World People Do Not Use Facebook," because social-networking practices are certainly in motion around the world. Another headline, in the Washington Post, reads: "Facebook increases dominance in non-English-speaking countries." So let's start with the interesting cultural notes in the ReadWriteWeb piece, near the top of which are a couple of … [Read more...] about Snapshot of a changing (global) social networking scene
What Facebook’s ‘Subscribe’ signifies
In social media, the only constant is change. Remember those commentaries about how social networking was "trivializing" friendship by throwing all levels of acquaintanceship under the big digital umbrella labeled "friends"? Well, I always felt the commentators were taking what they saw in social sites a bit too literally and failing to understand how much "real life" socializing rules its online … [Read more...] about What Facebook’s ‘Subscribe’ signifies
Catching up with our kids in social sites: Study
The number of people using social network sites "has nearly doubled since 2008" to 59% of US Net users (47% of US adults in general) and the population of social sites has gotten older, the Pew Internet Project found. "The average age of adult-SNS [social network site] users has shifted from 33 in 2008 to 38 in 2010. Over half of all adult SNS users are now over the age of 35." As for which sites, … [Read more...] about Catching up with our kids in social sites: Study