The Consumer Reports headline reads, "That Facebook friend might be 10 years old, and other troubling news," but – interestingly – fewer and fewer parents find it troubling. Most of today's headlines about under-13 social networkers are about the Consumer Reports survey, which found that 20 million, or about 13% of Facebook's 150 million active US users are under 18 and 7.5 million, or about 5%, … [Read more...] about Under-age on Facebook: New study
online safety
‘Delete Day’: Students putting messages that matter online
Today (5/6/11) is "Delete Day" at the Mary Louis Academy in Jamaica Estates, N.Y., a day the students themselves decided last fall to organize. And that is what's meaningful about this "online safety" initiative: It's their own. It started last October, when – as part of this Catholic girls school's public-service education program – sophomores, juniors, and seniors participated in a "Take Action, … [Read more...] about ‘Delete Day’: Students putting messages that matter online
A parent/author/tech pundit’s view on how to teach kids privacy
By blocking social media in schools and monitoring our kids at home, we've been falling down on the job – our job of educating them about how to protect their own privacy in an increasingly networked world. Blocking and monitoring has taught them to develop workarounds, not good privacy practices. "We want our kids to fight isolation with networks," said father and pundit Cory Doctorow in this … [Read more...] about A parent/author/tech pundit’s view on how to teach kids privacy
Education as art form: Winners of the ‘What’s Your Story?’ contest
The grand-prize-winning video – produced by Mark Eshleman and performed by Tyler Joseph – is a visual poem about a real-life choice we all continually need to make online. On a spare set with a black line of electrical tape laid down the center of the concrete floor, and with a taped plus sign on one side of the line and a minus sign on the other, Tyler performs his poem, which reads in … [Read more...] about Education as art form: Winners of the ‘What’s Your Story?’ contest
iPhone story & how kids’ ‘champions’ in Congress pay attention
This week's big iPhone tracking story offers a great example of how lawmakers don't seek out and react to the best information on kid safety available – and, of course, why parents need to take politicians' pronouncements on the subject with a grain of salt. Too often they are protecting their own interests more than they're protecting children. This week Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass) published a … [Read more...] about iPhone story & how kids’ ‘champions’ in Congress pay attention