Safety for Children

Do your younger children already like using the internet? Does it worry you about what kind of content they may be seeing and their online safety? There is a new tool out there called the PG Key which enables you to easily keep track of what your children are viewing and playing with on the internet.

"The internet will never be this perfect place that’s going to be a safe place for kids to play," said PG Key co-founder Brian Lawson.

"If I pull the key, the operation is suspended," he said as he removed the USB device and the screen froze.

"It allows the parent to treat the computer as a privilege," he said.  The device can limit the amount of time your child is on the computer, record video of what they had on the screen, and will send you a text when they type certain names or words that you select.

Keeping your children safe in our ever growing global environment is becoming tougher and tougher for parents, especially with children having access to the internet. There is a new service out there called Instant Amber that allows you to store all of your child’s vital information online in case they go missing. Newsguide.us outlines the unique service for parents who want to store their child’s info in a format they’ll always have access to.

InstantAmber is a web-based gathering, storage, and delivery service that enables law enforcement to retrieve critical data and photos in the event of a missing child emergency. InstantAmber.com was the first online data storage product that was designed to transfer vital information to law enforcement in the case of a situation requiring a nationwide Amber Alert. InstantAmber was created, with help from law enforcement, to make sure that all necessary information will be captured, which ensures that a missing child’s information is available to law enforcement within minutes, instead of hours. InstantAmber.com also includes useful parenting resources and tools that will help ensure that a child doesn’t become another statistic.

InstantAmber.com has more information on the service.

New York state’s attorney general Andrew Cuomo is fighting to have all child pornography and other questionable material blocked from the internet. With the help of several of the country’s largest internet service providers, he’s off to a good start.

"I feel parents should be with their children or at least in the same room with their children while they’re on the Internet and they should know what sites they’re going to," said Sue Berti of Cicero.

And if they can’t be with their children 24/7, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants to help. The father of two is on a mission to get every Internet provider in the state to block child pornography.

A total 15 Internet providers in Central New York and the Southern Tier have agreed to block child pornography sites. Our Nneka Nwosu reports on the state’s efforts to make the Internet a safe place for children.
   
Cuomo said, "It’s one of those issues that everybody says it’s terrible and we’ve got to do something about it. And years and years go by and we don’t do enough."

In the last year and a half, 15 Internet providers in Central New York have agreed to block underage porn sites. But that’s not enough. Cuomo says his office and these parents and teachers must also educate children about Internet safety.

As more and more teens are using social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, parents are scrambling to keep up with them and make sure they are making safe choices online. While some may not understand the system, others are signing up for their own profiles so that they can keep tabs on their children, even going so far as to use the services to communicate with them.

In general, teenagers are closer to their parents today than in previous generations, says Nancy Robinson, consumer strategist for Iconoculture, a cultural trends research firm in Minneapolis. Kids today often prefer hanging out with their parents to being holed up in their room, she says.

That can easily extend to social networking sites, which – after texting – are the No. 2 way that teens communicate technologically, according to Don Tapscott, author of "Growing Up Digital" (1997) and the upcoming "Grown Up Digital" (both from McGraw-Hill Professional).

Does this always work to the parents advantage though?

Some experts warn that parents who "friend" their kids without being invited to can send the teens a message that they don’t trust them. Michael Solomon, a professor of marketing at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, says teens who post suggestive photos or inappropriate messages will block their parents from accessing the information anyway.

"It can backfire," says Solomon. "It can embarrass the kids and their friends and create resentment."

Do you follow your child’s activity on social networking sites?

On August 11 Sesame Street will launch an extensive website redesign that will include hundreds of games, almost 3,000 classic videos, and an application called “PlaySAFE” which keeps children from wondering away to other websites on their own.

For the first time ever, sesamestreet.org will have live action residents — Muppets will greet kids upon arrival at the home page and guide them throughout their visit to the site. A first for any children’s website, the live action component helps to guide users by indicating what tabs are live and where kids can point and click — whether it’s for games, videos, playlists, Muppets or "My Street," a feature that allows parents and children to personalize their experience by saving their favorite videos and games for frequent access.

"The new website is really the future of the Workshop," adds Gary E. Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop. "While parents and caregivers know they can depend on the television show to educate and entertain their preschoolers, the site will provide one central destination for everything Sesame from videos, games to educational content, providing fans of all ages basically a trusted ‘Sesame Channel’."

In the PlaySAFE mode of the website, “children can interact with Sesame Street games and playlists but cannot navigate away from sesamestreet.org.” A great way for parents to feel secure when their small children are playing online.

It was announced last week by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association that 18 of the largest telecom companies will now block access to any websites that are known to host or distribute child pornography. The companies that have agreed to the block cover 87% of subscribers in America, or 112 million homes.

“Building on our strong commitment to online safety, the cable industry wants to help combat child pornography and exploitation,” Kyle McSlarrow (pictured), president and CEO of the NCTA, said in a statement. “By signing the NCMEC [memorandum of understanding], cable Internet service providers are reaffirming their strong commitment to online safety and Internet literacy for all American families.”

The cable operators that have agreed to execute the memorandum of understanding within 30 days include: Comcast Corporation; Cox Communications; Charter Communications; Cablevision Systems Corporation; Bright House Networks; Suddenlink Communications; Mediacom Communications; Insight Communications; Bresnan Communications; Midcontinent Communications; Broadstripe; GCI; Harron Communications; US Cable Corporation; BendBroadband; Eagle Communications; and Sjoberg’s, Inc.  Time Warner Cable has already signed the MOU.

One gigantic step in keeping children everywhere safe from exploitation.

Three major telecommunications companies  announced this week that they will block access to web bulletin boards and other websites that display child pornography. Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable, who serve 16 million customers nationwide, have partnered with New York state attorney general Andrew Cuomo in an agreement to block access to the sites.

“You can’t help but look at this material and not be disturbed,” said Mr. Cuomo, who promised to take up the issue during his 2006 campaign. “These are 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds, assault victims, there are animals in the pictures,” he added. “To say ‘graphic’ and ‘egregious’ doesn’t capture it. The I.S.P.s’ point had been, ‘We’re not responsible, these are individuals communicating with individuals, we’re not responsible,’ ” he said, referring to Internet service providers. “Our point was that at some point, you do bear responsibility.”

The new system operates by requiring ISPs to perform checks against the registry of explicit cites which is maintained by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Another fantastic step to help keep children safe in the online arena.

With almost every household in America having access to the internet, as well as every school, more and more children are being exposed to things online, and at a younger age every day. Microsoft has compiled a age based list of guidelines for their parental controls in Windows Vista, as well as online safety tips for each age group.

If your children use the Internet at home, you already know how important it is to help protect them from inappropriate content and contact. Family Safety from Windows Live OneCare and the parental controls included in Windows Vista can help you create a safer online environment for your children. The American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) helped Microsoft develop age-based guidance for Internet use that’s included in both of these products.

Remember to keep an open dialog with your children about being safe on the internet and be a constant reminder that being cautious on the internet is of utmost importance.

Like many other parents, you are probably concerned with your child having access to the internet. As children become more and more web savvy, it is hard to patrol what sites they visit and what exactly they see. Now there is a new web browser for kids from Hekko that you can install yourself (sadly PC only) and restrict your kids to just sites they should be browsing.

The world wide web might be a little too wide for most kids. The Hekko Kid Safe Web Browser allows your child to surf only the sites that you preselect. It’s safe, it’s fun, and best of all it’s free! Just download and install the program onto your computer. Follow the easy, step-by-step instructions and then begin to select the websites that you want your child to visit. Educational sites, game sites, nature, cartoons. It’s unlimited what you can provide for your child.

Keeping your child safe in the online environment just got a bit easier.

Need a quick and easy way to learn about child internet safety? The folks over at WiredSafety.org have put together some cool internet videos for parents to check out regarding their children and the internet. What else does WiredSafety.org do?

WiredSafety provides help, information and education to Internet and mobile device users of all ages. We help victims of cyberabuse ranging from online fraud, cyberstalking and child safety, to hacking and malicious code attacks. We also help parents with issues, such as MySpace and cyberbullying.

There are many great, educational tools on the all volunteer site to help parents with many issues facing their kids online today such as social networking sites, cyberbullying and child pornography issues.