For many of us, using the Internet can seem like walking through New York City without a map. Everything is new and interesting, but also a little bit intimidating, especially when you don't know how to navigate. Even more scary are all the horror stories in the media about the dangers that the children face online.
My mother says that I used to be funnier, a whole lot funnier, when it comes to what I reveal about my family online. But it’s hard to be funny when you’ve been muzzled.
There are many components within technology - and two major ones that both governments and companies struggle with is online privacy and data.
As a parent, it is important to me that the companies my kids interact with are following online privacy guidelines. This also applies to non-educational technology and data.
Angry Birds, one of the most popular game apps ever, lets you take out frustrations vicariously by flinging digital birds at pigs. But, it isn’t as innocent as may seem. In addition to wasting time, the app has been known to store personal info such as location to target specific ads at you.
And it’s not alone.
It's that time of year. Time to make resolutions. This year, resolve to protect your child (more).
Parents are concerned that their child can access pornography or other unsuitable Internet content on the home PC, laptop, smartphone, and/or tablet. This includes downloading malicious apps or using inappropriate apps.
These days it seems I’m always entering a password for something online. Back in June, LinkedIn was attacked and I’m pretty sure my password was compromised.
It seems like these days, there's an app for everything. There are even apps that allow you to send text messages without having a cell phone plan.
Are all mobile apps safe for kids to download and use? The answer is no. The good news is that there are plenty of child-friendly apps today for elementary school kids to teens. Unfortunately, the challenge is finding apps that are truly child-friendly.
As many of you know, I’m passionate about technology.
I’ve got two young kids who play on tablets, my eldest is constantly asking me for the password to my iPhone (which I won’t give out), we have Apple TV instead of cable and my hubby is a gamer. Tech is in our lives.
Many kids have an iPod Touch, iPhone, or an iPad. And as any parent knows, there are challenges in giving a child unrestricted access to such powerful devices. There is plenty of mature content on the Web and on iTunes.
Good news! Apple has provided built-in parental controls features to allow adults to set boundaries for children's usage. For example, you can do any or all of the following on the iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad:
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