Thinking about being a holiday hero by getting your teen or tween a smartphone? Most teens want one, but a smartphone can be a big risk–opening them up to pornography, sexting, cyberbullying, and online predators. Before buying that Black Friday deal, consider if your child is ready and how the main competitors stack up on safety. Reality Check: Does Your Child Need a Phone?
… Read More Read more Nearly every school-issued device comes with a library app, which seems like a safe and reasonable choice for educational devices. But one parent alerted us that her kids had EASY access to erotic lit on iPads and Chromebooks issued to kids ages 5-11! We checked it out ourselves and found it on every device we checked.Erotic lit on school-issued devices
One of our parent readers made this discovery and tipped us off to the problem.… Read More Read more Do your kids have a Chromebook or a Google account for school or personal use? If so, they also have access to Google Drive. And that means your kids may have a direct and unfiltered path for predators to send them sexually explicit material. Unfortunately, there is no immediate fix in sight.First, what is Google Drive?
Google Drive is an online file storage service created by Google.… Read More Read more Instagram is making an effort to create a safer space for its users–especially for youth! Earlier this summer we warned you about how Instagram is a popular tool for child predators and sex traffickers. We’ve also shared with you the dark side of Instagram–Instaporn. Our friends at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation have been working hard on these issues through their #wakeupinstagram campaign. … Read More Read more Massively Multiplayer Online games (or MMOs) are video games that get their excitement from online interaction between players (like Fortnite and World of Warcraft). If your teen wants to play an MMO, you might worry that they’ll become a video game zombie. Or worse, be exposed to pornography and predators in the free-for-all of online interaction. Is there a way for you to protect your child while still allowing them to play the way many teens play today?… Read More Read more