Disney Commonsense

The Disney Channel recently has issued a public service announcement from it’s current lineup of stars about being smart online. When you surf online, there are rules of the road and knowing those rules will help you navigate at a heightened awareness. Four short videos entitled: “Stand Up”, “When I Was Bullyied”, “Think Before You Send” and “Rules of the Road” help you get on the path to online safety.

http://www.Disney.com/commonsense

Is Your Facebook Tagging Privacy Set Up?

When people are tagging you in Facebook photos, are approving your tags? Did you know you can change the default setting in Facebook so you can gate when you get tagged? Below is a link to Facebook help on how to turn on Timeline review.

What is a tag? A tag is when another Facebook user sees you in a photo and adds your name associated to that photo. Have you been tagged?

How to turn on Facebook Timeline Review
http://facebook.com/help/305616252858012

We Know What You’re Doing

Who wants to get fired? Who’s hung over? Who’s taking drugs? Who’s got a new phone number? Callum Haywood created an experiment to pull down public Facebook statuses, Foursquare location updates, Facebook checkins and contact information changes. He is calling his social experiment “We Know What You’re Doing”.

If you think your status exclaiming what you did last night is private, think again! This website pulls down your status updates and shows them to the world. The rule of thumb is that anything you post to the Internet will be there forever.

http://www.weknowwhatyouredoing.com/

Teen Driver Tips: 8 Step Guide for Parents

Practice is the key being the best in anything. I found an 8-step guide to help parents succeed as a driving coach. It’s an easy-to-follow guide geared for parents to help train teens to be safe, focused drivers.

Texting and driving is statically a huge threat on the roads and teens are a rising part of culprits. This guide will help address how to gear your teen with safe driving habits.

Download 8 Step Guide (PDF)

Choose My Plate

Are you looking for an interactive way to eat healthier? Have you been wondering where do I start down the path of a balanced diet? If so, you need to discover Choose My Plate. The new site was rolled out to inspire a healthy conscious by the United States Department of Agriculture and promoted with first lady Michelle Obama .

For example, here a tip of the day. The website says, “One way to make half your grains whole is to read the ingredient labels on food packages and choose foods with “whole” in the grain or flour name of the first 3 ingredients.” Whether you are a teacher or a parent, this website has some great tips! Start eating better today.

Choose My Plate features:

• Fruits & Veggies Video Contest
• Healthy Eating on a Budget
• Game: Blast Off My Planet
• SuperTracker
• 10 Tips Nutrition Education Series
• Sample Menus and Recipes
• Dietary Guidelines
• Partnering Program

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

Internet Safety Day 2012

Safer Internet Day is celebrated on the second day of the second week of the second month of the year. Safer Internet Day (SID) takes place today on Tuesday 7 February 2012 and is centered around the theme Connecting generations and educating each other.

You can order a SID kit for your school by going to saferinternet.org. It will contain information about SID, promotional materials, suggested learning and awareness activities as well as eSafety resources.

Be safe online!

http://www.saferinternet.org/web/guest/safer-internet-day

Parents Poll: Your Kids Internet Usage

How involved are you with your children’s online viewing habits? Are you engaged when it comes to their Internet activity? Are you checking their smart phones routinely? Are you monitoring what sites they are surfing? Are you intimated and don’t know where to start? Do you not feel you need to review their usage? How can you turn over a new leaf in 2012?

That's Not Cool

Your mobile, IM and social accounts are a part of you? Where do you draw your digital line? Do you need some pointers on how to deal with textual harassment, pic pressure, constant messaging or communicating clearly in today's digital world?

On this site, you'll have access to extensive campaign research, interactive videos, support information, helpful tips on engaging your kids in your local community, and more! If you are having an issue with someone close to you using tech in a harsh way, then check out these tips.

The site says, “That's Not Cool is a national public education campaign that uses digital examples of controlling, pressuring, and threatening behavior to raise awareness about and prevent teen dating abuse. That's Not Cool is sponsored and co-created by Futures Without Violence (formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund), the Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, and the Advertising Council.”

http://www.thatsnotcool.com/

Internet Safety Tips

The Central Intelligence Agency has developed a friendly kid oriented section with some handy tips for safe web usage. I think most of these tips seem to be common sense, but the key is how you weave them into your daily activities.

• Create hard-to-guess passwords
• Update anti-virus software regularly
• Never open any attachments from senders you don’t know
• Alert you when something bad happens
• Surf the Internet with your children and talk to them about it
• Discuss with them the information the sites collect about them

https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/parents-teachers/internet-safety.html

Net Nanny: Making the web safe

It’s only a matter of time. If your kids have not found their way to some questionable content online yet, they will…  Even when it is not sought directly, many times children and other novice web surfers will click on seemingly harmless links, only to end up downloading spyware, viruses, or just plain ol’ smut.

Tired of playing Internet traffic cop at home, I went looking for help—something in addition to common-sense best practices. I found www.netnanny.com. This subscription-based service is an amazing addition to the parenting tool arsenal.

Here are just a few of its key features:

• User-specific Profiles – I can customize permissions for each user in the family, allowing more or less control as needed.
• Internet Filtering – There are over 30 categories to filter with multiple settings for each.
• Social Network Activity Monitoring – Net Nanny will notify you when there is new activity on social networking accounts or when a new account is established.  Further, you can actually access that account to see their friends, photos, chats, etc.
• Remote Monitoring – Log into the reporting module from anywhere.
• Web Search Tracking – You may be surprised what your kids are searching!

Watch their 2 minute video for even more information: