10 Things Parents Need to Know About Xbox LIVE and Kids Safety

May 10, 2012

Xbox LIVE is the online sevice for the Xbox 360. With a paid gold membership and a set of headphones, your child can play online with a community of 40 million other users worldwide.

This can be seriously awesome for the gaming enthusiast in your house, but there are 10 important things parents should know about Xbox LIVE and keeping kids safe before setting it up for their child.

1. It’s more than just a gaming site. Xbox LIVE users can also chat with each other, send and receive friend requests, and share their profile and gaming stats.
2. Gamertags need to be chosen wisely. Never let your child use part of their name, hometown, or other identifying information in their gamertag.
3. Profiles follow the child, not the console. A child can still access all his Xbox LIVE information from a friend’s house.
4. Kids can play games with strangers. Xbox LIVE has a “matchmaking” feature to help your child connect with gamers who have certain gamerscores or live in a certain location.
5. People can privately chat with each other. Up to 8 people can play and talk all at once, but two of them can pair off and talk privately if they want to.
6. You can make your permission mandatory. Through console controls, you can require your permission for your child to send and receive friend requests, accept game or chat invites, or buy Xbox merchandise.
7. You can block who your child hears. You can choose “everyone,” “friends,” or “no one.”
8. Parents are required to help their children set up an account. If your under-18 child has an account and you didn’t help set it up, he or she is registered as an adult.
9. Default settings vary by age. Child and teen accounts are mostly “friends only” by default and some features are blocked, but adult profiles are public and have full access to all features.
10. Deactivating Xbox LIVE doesn’t cancel the child’s account. On the Xbox console there is a setting to disallow Xbox LIVE access from that console – but your child can still access it on others unless you cancel his account.

Remember that the Xbox LIVE is more than just a video game, it’s a social gaming universe. Always use the same Internet safety cautions as you would on any other social networking site, and if at all possible, sign up yourself and spend time playing with your child, too.

-Jenny Evans is a mother of four and a blogger specializing in parenting, childhood, and family issues.

 

Tuscarawas County Library-NP to offer cyberbullying program – New Philadelphia, OH – The Times-Reporter

May 8, 2012

NEW PHILADELPHIA —

The Tuscarawas County Public Library-New Philadelphia will offer cyberbullying prevention programs for youth and parents on Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12.

Michelle House from Girl Scout Troop 60227 will lead a presentation about cyberbullying dangers and solutions for kids in grades four through 12 at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 12. The following day, House will give a presentation for parents and adults about preventing cyberbullying at 10 a.m.

Both programs are free and open to the public.

To register or for more information, call 330-364-4474.

via Tuscarawas County Library-NP to offer cyberbullying program – New Philadelphia, OH – The Times-Reporter.

Creating A Fake Facebook Account To Spy On High School Students – via Forbes.com

Apparently, parents aren’t the only ones addicted to spying on their kids. Clayton High School principal Louise Losos came up with what she thought was a clever idea for keeping an eye on the students at her Missouri school. She allegedly created a Facebook account for a “Suzy Harriston” with a generic profile photo of a group of penguins. “Suzy” friended about 300 people before someone outed her:

“No one seemed to question who Harriston was. That is, until the night of April 5, when a 2011 grad and former Clayton quarterback posted a public accusation.“Whoever is friends with Suzy Harriston on Facebook needs to drop them. It is the Clayton Principal,” wrote Chase Haslett. And then, Suzy Harriston disappeared, say those who saw the profile.” via Clayton High’s principal resigns amid Facebook mystery.

When Haslett was asked how he knew, he said he “can’t say who told me.” If the principal had told teachers about her Facebook spy account, it seems possible one of them might have mentioned it to the alum.

It wasn’t a great idea. Lolos ultimately resigned, with the school district saying there had been a “dispute concerning the appropriate use of social media.” Indeed. On the positive side, the kids at Clayton were schooled in the art of legitimate paranoia. They’ll likely be more careful in the future about accepting friend requests from strangers.

For schools that are tasked with both keeping students safe and preparing them to succeed in their future endeavors, I can see the rationale behind social media monitoring. But it should be above board, and limited to looking at what’s publicly available per students’ privacy settings. I’d like to think that’s obvious, but apparently some school administrators need this lesson spelled out.

New York City did just that last month, issuing its first ever social media guidelines for teachers. Teachers are encouraged to create separate social networking accounts for personal and professional use. Arguably, Lolos did follow through with that one…. They’re also required to get “their supervisor’s approval before setting up a professional social media presence,” and to “include language identifying the sites as professional social media.” In other words, no secret spying accounts.

via From The Bad Idea File: Creating A Fake Facebook Account To Spy On High School Students – Forbes.

Every Network is a Social Network: Keep Your Kids Safe

May 4, 2012

Although Facebook and MySpace might be the sites that first come to mind when I say “social network,” it’s really more than just that. Lots of big, popular places that your tween or teens visits frequently are actually social networks, and the same kids safety rules and precautions need to apply.

Social networking is any web-based platform that allows users to connect or interact with each other in some way. Understanding that, look beyond just Facebook and think about what other sites fall under that definition.

If you think it fits a lot of sites, you’re right. Most users like to have the ability to interact with each other when they’re online – hence the option to leave a comment below online news stories, for example – and many sites now offer social networking in one form or another, even if that’s not their primary service.

So what does that mean? Social networks can be anything, from YouTube to Xbox live to Club Penguin. If you want to search across the most popular social networks to see if your child may have a profile there, check out uKnowSearch here and sign up for uknowkids today to find out where your child has a social network.

Do people need to register to use the site?If you aren’t sure whether the sites your child frequents are social networks or not, take a look at the site’s main page and ask yourself:

• Do users have a profile on the site?
• Can people use the site to interact with each other somehow?

Words like “community,” “group,” “friends,” or “web” are all signals of a social network, even if a site doesn’t label itself that way.

If your child is online, chances are that he or she is using at least one site with social networking capabilities. Make sure kids understand the importance of protecting their personal information, using discretion in their posts, and steering clear of strangers online for their own safety.

- Jenny Evans is a mother of four and a mommy blogger specializing in parenting, childhood, and family issues.

Facebook for kids… not cool anymore?

Hey, parents. Just when you were getting used to this whole Facebook thing – you probably set up a profile, friended your kids, and are loving that you can communicate with all your friends near and far – it turns out that Facebook is becoming… uncool.

Facebook started as the underdog, begun by a Harvard sophomore as a way for trendy college students to talk to each other. Facebook was cool, it was a new discovery. People implicitly trusted the fledgling social network. Facebook for kids was the cool new “it” thing.

Compare that to the backlash when Facebook bought Instagram earlier this month. People all over the Internet complained that Facebook is “ruining” the cool new photo sharing mobile app. Why the change?

Facebook grew and grew. Today, it’s worth more than $100 billion, and some of its cool-ness is starting to wear off, at least in our kids’ eyes.

So what does this mean to you, and why are you reading about it on this blog?

Now that their teachers, parents, and grandparents are just as likely to be on Facebook as their friends, your kids may be looking for another social network that isn’t so saturated with adults.

With over 835 million registered users, Facebook will be around for a good long while. So you don’t have to worry about losing your ability to connect with your friends and your favorite Facebook apps. But it may mean that you’ve got a new social network to figure out once your child finds the next up-and-coming cool new thing.

And just when you started loving Facebook.

- Jenny Evans is a mother of four and a blogger specializing in parenting, childhood, and family issues.