That's a question that needs to hang around 24/7 in the back of social networkers' and bloggers' minds, because - according to the authors of just-published Born Digital (Basic Books, 2008) - "at no time in human history has information about a young person been more freely and publicly accessible to so many others.” This comes as no surprise to many parents, but few of us know the reasons. Here's … [Read more...] about Who’ll see what I post 20 yrs from now?
Literacy & Citizenship
Mobile parenting
I especially liked Nos. 4 and 6 in Marian Merritt's blog post about how parents can help their kids keep mobile phone use safe and affordable. If you use cellphone parental controls (she speaks to those, and I wrote about them last May here), "tell your child you are installing and using parental controls and show them the details on what you'll be limiting." She adds that this is not the time to … [Read more...] about Mobile parenting
Internet = ‘giant popularity contest’
The social Web is, in essence, a huge popularity context, Digital Natives blogger Sarah Zhang points out, with even Google search rankings based on how many people visit and link to the sites in your search results. We can't afford to assume "that what is popular is also most worthy" or we stand to miss a whole lot of quality material that hasn't yet hit the public radar. Sarah writes about how … [Read more...] about Internet = ‘giant popularity contest’
New Facebook worm
Tell Facebook users at your house to be very alert when social-network friends seem to say they've just got to check out this or that video. That scenario happens all the time - which is why it's used by social-engineering hackers to infect social networkers' computers. Where the new worm comes in is an extra step for which users need to be on the alert. The way it works is, they get a link … [Read more...] about New Facebook worm
European call for social-site privacy rules
The EU's Data Protection Authority has urged social-network sites to "warn users about the low level of protection given to their profiles," Agence France-Presse reports. At a two-day conference in Strasbourg, the regulatory body called for "a standard set of international rules" for privacy protection and user education. According to the AFP, it said that "users, especially minors, should be told … [Read more...] about European call for social-site privacy rules