Tweens are no longer little kids, but they’re also not yet teens. Like all their peers, younger and older, 9-to-12-year-olds love to explore and mess around with media, especially video. They want to be safe so they don’t have to worry, which means they really don’t mind a little help from parental types, but they also don’t want to be contained in an app for “little kids.” YouTube Kids, which … [Read more...] about Finally! A YouTube (flexibly) designed for kids 9-12
parental controls
Facebook’s Messenger Kids: Important new digital-parenting tool
Facebook’s launch of Messenger Kids is a game-changer – but not just in the way you might think. Sure it’s the world’s largest social media service’s first product for people under 13. That’s certainly big news, and what will capture most of the headlines this week. But it’s actually a combination of that and something less noticeable and more meaningful that’s really game-changing about Messenger … [Read more...] about Facebook’s Messenger Kids: Important new digital-parenting tool
Finally, kids can have their own Google accounts (with parents’ help)
Google made a bit of history today, opening up its universe of apps and services to users under 13 as their parents design it. Family Link, the name of the new parental control toolset, describes it well: Parents download the tools to their own and the kids' devices, then link them up for a whole family's real-time digital device management. Family Link "marks one of the first attempts by a … [Read more...] about Finally, kids can have their own Google accounts (with parents’ help)
Less parental control, more support of kids’ self-regulation: Study
It isn't the first time research has found that "parental control" is not the best way to keep children safe online and on phones. "Rather than restricting or monitoring internet use, parents should let their children discover the net, both good and bad, themselves," the BBC cites a new survey as saying. It's encouraging to see news stories like this; they've been rare over the past decade+, so … [Read more...] about Less parental control, more support of kids’ self-regulation: Study
Apple’s newest smartphone ‘parental control’
Apple unveiled a whole slew of features coming in the next iterations of its operating systems for the iPhone (iOS 8) and Macs (OS X Yosemite), coming to a device near you in the fall. Among them was an iOS 8 feature called "Family Sharing," a little bundle of convenience and control. The feature will "let up to six users share any apps or media content they buy using the same credit card. … [Read more...] about Apple’s newest smartphone ‘parental control’