5 tips for keeping your kids safe online

A reading reco for you today.

* Keep your children safe online

“No parent wants their child to fall prey to the dangers online, but it’s hard to know exactly how to protect young ones today. From malware to video game addiction, it can seem like the Internet is a vast sea of dangers.

We’ve mapped out the most important online threats for kids today, as well as laid out our top five tips on how to help your little one safely navigate the web. Address the issue of online safety now and help your child develop the digital smarts they need to stay out of harm’s way.” Read more..

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Today’s quote: “Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.” ~ Henri Nouwen

Copyright 2007-2015 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All weq really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Keeping Your Child Safe Online

Folks, rogue antivirus infections have me doing non-stop repairs, as the hackers are “poisoning” more websites (please see [and refer friends and family to] Your Computer Is Lying To You… The Epidemic Of Rogues).

I only have time to suggest two quick recommendations, which contain much good information for parents. (.. Maybe, must know information..)

Neil J. Rubenking’s:

• Keep Your Child Safe Online

“From online bullies to perverts to the lure of time-wasters like YouTube, there are far too many ways unsupervised kids of any age can get into trouble on the Internet. We look at a baker’s dozen ways to keep your kids out of trouble online—whether they’re toddlers or teens or thirty-something return-to-the-nesters.”

• Child Safe Browsers

“How do you keep you kids on child-safe sites when you can’t watch over their shoulders as they surf? With a child-safe browser.“

Today’s free download: Download Over 5000 National Geographic Wallpapers with One Click

Today’s quote: “My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants.” ~ J. Brotherton

Bonus:
• A reader wrote in and told me that Smashing Magazine was offering a free eBook, as a way of celebrating their 5th anniversary. The book contains their “Best Of” the past 5 years. For more, and to get your book, click here. And thank you, Dear Reader (you know who you are).

• Watch Out, Pandora – iHeartRadio Launches Upgraded Service

“Office cube-dwellers rejoice: there is now a much better alternative to Pandora that not only offers more music, but unlimited listening. With the upgraded version of Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio service — still in beta — music listeners can enjoy unlimited music with no ads until the end of the year. Even better is an upcoming iHeartRadio app, which will launch next week for the iPhone and soon for Android.“

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Some Tips For Parents

Today I have some Tech Advice for Parents to share..

Parents, in this “digital age”, are faced with questions and challenges new to us humans. Tech, and the World-wide Web have changed the landscape. I have assembled a quick listing that I hope parents will find helpful.

Cyberbullying – A Negative Result of Technology

“I know I am from a generation of past; however, I have been fortunate enough to keep up to speed with technology and all the good and bad that is associated with it.

Today, I happened across a website that is dedicated to providing up-to-date information about the nature, extent, causes, and consequences of cyberbullying among adolescents.”

Practical Advice for Parents: Computer Use

“A home computer can be a great tool for helping your child learn many skills. However, computer use by young children is very controversial, and even older children and teens will need your guidance in using this powerful tool in appropriate ways. You can help your family make better use of your home computer by doing the following:“

Norton’s Free Safety Tool For Parents

“Easy-to-read activity reports give you the inside scoop on what your kids do online. In just minutes, you can find out what sites your kids visit, what they search for, who they chat with*, and what social networking sites they spend time at. You’ll get to know your kids better and gain a deeper understanding of their online interests, so you can protect and guide them.”

Parents, Is Your Child Asking For A Cell Phone?

“If you are a parent concerned about what your child is doing with their mobile phone– whether or not they’re talking to strangers, for example– you may want to keep reading. This topic was spawned by a question from such a parent.”

A Rant on Cyber-Bullying or ‘They’re 11. You, the Parent, Take Responsibility!’

This is partially a rant and partially a list of resources to help protect your children safe online. I was “inspired” to write this post for two reasons, I was already accumulating the list of resources for keeping kids safe online and secondly, Good Morning America had an interview with a family that was victimized by cyber bullying where they got it all wrong. Here’s my two cents as a guy who isn’t as far out of the American public school system and isn’t too old to be baffled by the technology that kids (I hate the word ‘tweens’ and won’t be using it in this article.) are using.

Safety, Kids, and the Internet

“When considering how I wanted to approach this important topic, I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. I began to think that the best policy was to put up an Internet Age Limit — no one under 18 allowed.”

StaySafeOnline.org | In the home

“Is your home network secure and your family protected online? Most households now run networks of devices linked to the Internet, including computers, laptops, gaming devices, TV’s or set top boxes, and cell phones that access wireless networks. To protect your home network and your family while they’re online you need to have the right tools in place and confidence that family members can surf safely and securely. Make sure you know the basics of securing your home network and your family’s privacy.”

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October is National Cybersecrity Month, and the theme is STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Protect yourself and help keep the web a safer place for everyone.

[Note: If you would like to send this article to some parents you know, Copy this https://techpaul.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/some-tips-for-parents/ and Paste it into an email.]

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Norton’s Free Safety Tool For Parents

Think you know what your kids are doing online?

I am not a parent. So you don’t need to write to me and tell me cruel and totalitarian and Neanderthal I am for recommending this…

Because I already know that. I’m heartless. And mean. Grrrrrrrr. See?

As a security-aware techie, I advise parents (when asked) to talk with their children about online dangers – yes. And monitor and limit their childrens’ Internet access. I am not “knocking” the importance of communication nor education, but I do believe in “trust, but verify”.
The Internet is not Rated G. Ha!

Norton Online Family is a free service that has won recognition for excellence, and ease of use. (To see more awards, click here: Reviews & Awards.)

	“PCMag featured Norton Online Family in their roundup of Free Security Software Tools and celebrated it as one of the Best Tech Products of 2009.” -Neil Rubenking  (Click here to read Neil’s full review.)
	“Unlike many parental control products, Norton Online Family aims to create dialog between parents and kids, not assert draconian control. There’s no surreptitious spying here – it warns the child during the login process that his or her activity may be monitored.”
	“OnlineFamily.Norton.com Block sites, set a time allowance or make hours off-limits with this free service. Monitor Web searches and IMs from your computer. For an older teen who wants privacy, you can set it to alert you only if he engages in questionable activity, like checking out porn sites.”

From author:

“See your kids’ online activities at a glance –

Easy-to-read activity reports give you the inside scoop on what your kids do online. In just minutes, you can find out what sites your kids visit, what they search for, who they chat with*, and what social networking sites they spend time at. You’ll get to know your kids better and gain a deeper understanding of their online interests, so you can protect and guide them.”

The benefits of using Norton™ Online Family include

• Simple, one-time set up
  Create your Norton™ Online Family account, add and customize your family member accounts, and then easily install the Norton Safety Minder onto all the computers used in your household.
• Easy to use and access
  Check your child’s activity or modify your child’s profile and preferences anytime and anywhere using any computer.
• Always stay informed about those you care most about
  Know where your children visit, who they talk to, and what they’re doing while they’re online. Parents can also set and manage time limits, permitted sites, online chat* and social networking preferences for each family member.
• Engage and communicate with each other
  Take advantage of built-in notification and messaging, providing open discussion with your child about their online activities and better understanding about their intent with visiting specific sites or wanting to spend more time online.
• Never miss a thing
  Send alerts via email or text message to help you address urgent events. You’ll immediately know if your child has reached their time limits, visited a blocked site, or tried to add an unknown stranger as a chat buddy* wherever you are.

I would say that a few more know how than admitted it in that survey…

Did I mention this was free? The folks at Symantec get a big tip of my geek hat for this one!

* (chat monitoring) Not available in all regions and for Mac OS.

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Saturday July 17th | Inspiration

Wow. It occurred to me that 2010 is more than half over. Time is compressing on me, and the days and weeks seem so much briefer than they used to..

Summer Fun

I found this image on Julie Cantrell’s website Julie’s Journal. She is the author of children’s books, and I hope parents will visit her site.. as a way to make up for me “borrowing” this image.

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This video is a short 1 hour and 15 minutes long. It is Randy Pausch giving a “last lecture” at Carnegie Mellon.

He was a Computer Science professor and a pioneer in the field of virtual reality, but that’s not why Tech-for Everyone readers might appreciate it. This “lecture” has been seen by over a million people and is rated 5 Stars by viewers; and was turned into a book (which enjoyed more than 85 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and there are now more than 4.5 million copies in print in the U.S. alone).

Watching it might change your life.

He was 47.

Mr. Pausch was the founder of the Alice project; a free program that teaches kids how to program a computer, and they don’t even know they’re learning programming.. they think they’re writing a story.
Amazing.
You can check it out at http://www.alice.org/

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Parent of a Pre-teen Son…*

Today I am re-posting an article that I enjoyed writing – a long time ago now, and I hope you will enjoy reading today.

When I first started writing Tech–for Everyone way back on the 8th of June, 2007, I wondered how long I could go before I talked about computer gaming. I think I did fairly well at delaying the inevitable. Two things triggered this post: a client with a pre-teen boy, and my mood. I’ll look at the latter first.

This week I got into a foul mood. I became short-tempered, irritated, antsy. I was definitely ‘out of sorts’. I was not a Happy Camper. Part of this was due to the fact that I had several back-to-back days of too-much-to-do/too-little-time (can anyone relate?). I felt a bit less than “in control”.

I managed to keep up with demands, and my time-spent was successful. I not only kept afloat, but I succeeded. However, this didn’t lighten my mood. Finally, by staying up a little longer than I should, I was able to take a break and play a conquest map of Age of Empires III, The Warchiefs. Amazingly, I was calm, refreshed, and happy. I was a Happy Camper again.

Why? I realized that it had been several days since I had played a game, and I had subconsciously “missed it”, like a smoker during a long flight, or a dieter walking past the bakery. And that once I got my “fix”, I was returned to a normal psychological state. This realization has caused me to wonder if I (me! myself!) wasn’t developing a gaming “addiction”. Wow.

There have been several news stories about computer gaming; ranging from the couple who suffered financial ruin by devoting their lives completely to the online game World of Warcraft (a couple of nut-jobs, if you ask me), to the medical ramifications (carpal-tunnel) of too much controller/mouse/keyboard use … especially in children.

There is a real belief in “gaming addiction”, and there’s a doctor who’s gone so far as publicly stating that as much as 40% of all WoW players are clinically addicted to it. (Read the article) Consider that there’s at least six and-a half ten million people subscribing to WoW, and you realize that that’s a LOT of people … and that’s just one game. It is my belief that these news stories will only increase in number; that as our society becomes more and more of a shut-in society, and more of our interactions take place online, topics along this line will only grow. Google “World of Warcraft+divorce” and you’ll see 747,000 765,000 results. WoW!
If your friends are telling you you’re an addict, please … don’t take it as a compliment. Take a serious look at yourself, before you lose everything.

That said, I do play computer games; and if you’re curious, I like the WW II FPS titles (Call of Duty, Medal of Honor), air combat simulators (Lock On, Il-2, Microsoft), and ‘civilization’ games. And good-old Solitaire. I play a couple of games a day, to “unwind”. I think I’m alright… I haven’t, as yet, spent real money on ‘magic armor’.

The second topic I mentioned was the lady with the pre-teen son. She keeps having “weird pop ups”, and her machine is “always so slow.” I had installed a security suite, and the full gamut of protections onto her machine, and yet she keeps having these issues. She asked me, “why does this keep happening?”

I asked her several questions and looked over her logs and histories. She told me she has a 12 year-old son, and that as soon as he gets home from school he goes straight to the computer to “do homework” … that he spends quit a bit of time on the PC. Well! I was once a 12 year-old boy, and I remember well how much time in the afternoon — freshly released from a day of scholarly confinement — I spent on homework. None. Zero. Nada. (At least, not willingly.)

Sure enough, a look at IE’s browsing history (read how to do this here) did not reveal any instances of National Geographic, The History Explorer, Encyclopedia Britannica, or “math help” (or anything else even vaguely homework-related), but revealed endless explorations of online Flash games, YouTube, and “cheat codes”.

I looked at his download history and found plenty of “demo games”, screensavers, magic swords and shields, and other “bonuses” he’d earned playing his online games. Could one of those ‘magic swords’ (or demo-games) have contained spyware??? Does spyware slow down your machine? Cause pop ups? Well … (duh) YES!

Tip of the day: Here’s the thing most folks fail to fully grasp — when you let your child run under your User Account, he’s running with full administrator privileges and can install programs unrestricted and, when you click on “download this file”, you’re bypassing your protection. (PC’s have to work this way, or you’d never get anything done) You are telling your security programs, “it’s OK. I know what I’m doing.” A 12 year-old boy, caught up in the excitement at having just “triumphed” and earning himself a +2 Sword of Sharpness, probably doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he will click “download your prize now!”
98% of the time, it’s harmless fun. How can you tell which demo game or ‘magic shield’ is safe, and which one’s contain spyware? You can’t. Sorry. Like I said, 98% of them are safe.

If you missed my series on protecting your kids from the Internet, you can learn how to remedy this — creating a Limited User Account, and cranking up IE’s security, etc. — by clicking here.

Related:
* Protecting Our Kids On The Internet: Using Parental Controls
“I recently set up parental controls for a seven and a nine year old who are very near and dear to me…“

* There’s an online addiction assessment test you can take if you have suspicions/concerns about Internet/gaming addiction.

Today’s free download: K9 Web Protection is free Internet filtering and control solution for the home. K9 puts YOU in control of the Internet so you can protect your kids.

As if being a parent isn’t hard enough…

The Internet has made your job a whole lot tougher. As soon as your child is old enough to get online, you have to safely guide him through a whole new world: the virtual one. How can you encourage your child to explore wonderful new places that stimulate creativity and learning while ensuring he or she doesn’t wander into dangerous territory?

Get FREE continuous protection against malware and inappropriate Web sites. Download K9 Web Protection now.

Orig post: 8/9/07

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Child-Safe Internet (Browsers)

Folks, my apologies to those of you who are looking for Part 3 of my performance upgrade series. A rash of rogue infections has had me performing non-stop repairs this week as the cyberciminals are “poisoning” more and more legitimate websites (please read [and refer friends and family to] Your Computer Is Lying To You… The Epidemic Of Rogues. Hey, Mr. “Cyber Czar”. You listening?).

Today I only have time to suggest a quick reading recommendation. It is a bit dated, but contains much good information for parents.

“How do you keep you kids on child-safe sites when you can’t watch over their shoulders as they surf? With a child-safe browser.“

Please read Neil J. Rubenking’s, Child Safe Browsers

*     *     *

* This just out: Keep Your Child Safe Online

“From online bullies to perverts to the lure of time-wasters like YouTube, there are far too many ways unsupervised kids of any age can get into trouble on the Internet. We look at a baker’s dozen ways to keep your kids out of trouble online—whether they’re toddlers or teens or thirty-something return-to-the-nesters.

Today’s free download: Download Over 5000 National Geographic Wallpapers with One Click