How parents can help their kids deal with online world
By Mark Boslet; Mercury News
Popular social-networking sites Facebook and MySpace have made news recently for all the wrong reasons: Authorities allege sex offenders lurk on these Web destinations looking for young users.
Click here to read the full story
Monday, August 6, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
A third of US teens have been bullied online
Nearly a third of US teenagers have been bullied online, according to research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The research firm found making private information public is the most common type of cyber-bullying.
Some 13% said someone had spread a rumour about them online while the same number claimed they had been sent a threatening or aggressive email, IM, or text message. Also, 6% of respondents said that someone had posted an embarrassing picture of them online without their consent.
Research revealed that girls are more likely to be bullied online than boys - 38% of girls claimed to have been bullied compared to 26% of boys. Older girls are more likely to report being bullied than any other age and gender group, with 41% of online girls aged 14-17-years-old reporting such experiences.
The research coincides with a BBC Panorama investigation, due for broadcast in August into online bullying. Some ad networks were caught up in this investigation after brands such as Ebay and easyCar appeared alongside videos of street fights on US-based site PSFights.com (Source: www.nma.co.uk).
Monday, June 25, 2007
Article today ay the Guardian (UK)
Teenage networking websites face anti-paedophile investigation
· Children posting indecent photographs on internet
· Fears that material will be exploited by abusers
Paul Lewis
Monday July 3, 2006
The Guardian
Networking websites that have attracted millions of young users are to come under scrutiny from anti-paedophile investigators amid growing concerns that children are unwittingly providing material for potential abusers. The government-backed watchdog the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre will say today it has begun an inquiry into the sites after concern from teachers and parents.
They have become alarmed at how children are using the sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and now bebo to display personal details and, in some cases, intimate photographs of themselves. It is estimated that 61% of UK children aged 13 to 17 have a personal profile on a networking site, which enable a user to create their own homepage, exhibit photographs and socialise online.
Of the 8 million children in the UK with access to the internet, one in 12 says they have gone on to meet someone whom they initially encountered online. Police say more than 50,000 sexual predators are thought to be online at any one time.
The latest site to come under scrutiny - bebo.com - organises networks around school or college communities, and has attracted 25 million members since its launch 18 months ago. A minority of children, some as young as 13, have begun showing pictures of themselves in sexual poses, semi-naked or wearing lingerie. One headteacher has called in police after discovering more than 700 of her students had signed up with bebo, and that some were displaying images she considered to be indecent. Linda Wybar, headteacher of Tunbridge Wells girls' grammar, also banned the site from her school and wrote to every parent about her concerns.
"Most girls who have registered have included a potentially dangerous amount of personal detail, including full names, forms, names of friends and, perhaps most worryingly, a photograph. Some of these photographs could only be described as soft pornography, when viewed by the wrong people," she wrote in a letter. "We feel this lays the girls open to potential paedophiles."
The Guardian accessed the "schools" section of bebo in less than a minute, and found several indecent images of children under 16. Some girls who have posted their details have also devised a system of adding links to the registered usernames of men who have approached them.
In a statement, the company said: "Bebo has taken the issues of privacy and safety very seriously since its inception and was one of the first social networking sites to partner with organisations like wiredsafety.org to create safety tips on issues such as cyberbullying and online safety. We prominently post links to these safety tips for parents and Beboers on our homepage and all profiles have a 'report abuse' link where members can report other members for inappropriate content or behaviour."
Two weeks ago a 21-year-old media student from Surrey became the first person to be convicted of child grooming offences after one of his victims reported his online advances to an internet policing unit, the Virtual Global Taskforce.
Lee Costi was arrested after arranging to meet a 14-year-old at a railway station for sex. By the time police intervened he had already enticed and had sex with two other girls, aged 13 and 14. He had met his victims in the chatroom of the website teenspot.com.
The Internet Watch Foundation, a self-regulatory body founded by the industry to encourage individuals to report illegal activity, confirmed that the watchdog has also received complaints about the sites.
"The issue tends to arise when children post an indecent image of themselves, unaware of the types of people who can look at them," said a spokeswoman.
Ahead of today's announcement by the Ceop, which was set up by the government two months ago, the head of the agency, Jim Gamble, told the Guardian: "We've got a specific interest in social networking sites simply because it is 'the' new phenomenon, it is how young people are coming together and capitalising on a range of different technologies. Basically, they're inviting friends to be members of private groups or inviting others to view public materials.
"In many ways that's a good thing for children, a great opportunity. In other ways it represents everything you see on the school playground - the only difference is that in this playground, there are no teachers or police or moderators to keep an eye on what's going on."
This is an edited extract of an internet chat on a social networking website that raised concerns at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
ST*R boy I'm horny J how u feelin?
Angelgurl (embarrassed) lets talk bout somfink else
ST*R boy cm on angel ... bet u is an angel. Turn on ur cam
Angelgurl k. but u turn it on 1st. I am an angel really!
ST*R boy cm on, b fun ... yeah. That's it, that's nice. U pretty.
Angelgurl fanks J
ST*R boy I wanna c more ... take that top off??
Angelgurl u rude
ST*R boy whats ur mobile? I'll send u a pic..
Angelgurl I can't give u that; my mum wud kill me.
ST*R boy wot kind of m8 doesn't give digits?? I can't take u out if u don't give me ur numbers.
Angelgurl my mum would be mad
ST*R boy ur mum's neva gonna knw. What happens between us stays between us right?
Angelgurl yea
ST*R boy cum on angel... show sum skin
Angelgurl ur 2 intense - turn on ur cam so I can c who u r.
ST*R boy it's broken - but I'll send u a pic if u give me ur mobile? How will u recognise me otherwise wen I come 2 urs??
Angelgurl u don't knw where I am
ST*R boy yeah I do angel. I know exactly who u r & where u r. I'm gona drive up 2 u now..
Angelgurl How can u drive - u 16??
ST*R boy Got my provisional
Angelgurl u lyin?? U 2 old 4 me?
ST*R boy nah angel. I'm perfect 4 u..
Angelgurl I'm going now. Ur weird.
ST*R boy I'll find u again angel - I wana chat more.
Angelgurl signs off
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Article today at the Wall Street Journal
I came across this morning a very enlightening article at the Wall Street Journal that talks about how parents can monitor kids in their own computers. I think all parents and educators should read it.
(You also have a video that explains the parental tools in detail)
Click here for reading the article/ watching the video:
Monitor Your Kids
(You also have a video that explains the parental tools in detail)
Click here for reading the article/ watching the video:
Monitor Your Kids
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