It isn't often that a social media startup has the stated "ambition to become a major social platform and a leader in safety [emphasis mine]." But that's what the team behind Yellow, a fast-growing, Paris-based videochat app that just launched in the U.S., says, and I believe them. Details about safety measures in a minute, but first: Intention alone is huge in an industry where startups and … [Read more...] about Yellow app: Signs of smarter digital safety
videochat
FB & Google+ videochat + kids: Should we worry?
Based on old fears around online chat and Webcams, should all the news about videochat in Facebook and the new very social Google+ concern parents (when the latter goes public)? Not really. Not the sort of engaged parents who tend to be concerned, and definitely not those who approach these things from the kid out instead of from the technology or the headlines in (see this). In other words, it … [Read more...] about FB & Google+ videochat + kids: Should we worry?
Video sex chat on phones
Porn operators have long been early adopters of new technology. Now it's video on smartphones. What's newly concerning about it is that video phone-based porn is getting more personal, more one-to-one, more like Webcam conversations. "Video sex chat," as it's described in this Washington Post piece, stands to make the adult content industry "big money," according to the article and is already … [Read more...] about Video sex chat on phones
Videochatting kids spied on via their Webcams
If the Jessi Slaughter story wasn't enough to convince parents that kids' bedrooms are not great places for Webcams, maybe this news out of Germany will help. A man in the Rhineland area "has been arrested for spying on more than 150 girls in their bedrooms by hacking into their computers and using their webcams to watch them," TheLocal.de reports. A computer security expert who gives talks about … [Read more...] about Videochatting kids spied on via their Webcams