If Facebook's newly fashioned user profile, Timeline, says anything, it says that what you post on the social Web is forever (but it does say more – keep reading). In many ways, Timeline is a safety- and privacy-education tool right in your face (on your screen), as you go. Because "Timeline collects and chronicles everything you’ve ever posted to Facebook," Slate reports. It used to be that all … [Read more...] about Facebook’s ‘Timeline’: More than a new look
Risk & Safety
Declines in 2 online risks for youth: Study
Good news for online kids on two fronts this week. We're seeing a continuing decline in online sexual solicitations of young people. The widely misrepresented 2000 figure from the Crimes Against Children Research Center was "1 in 5" (more in a minute on the misrepresentation); the 2005 one was "1 in 7" (13%), and the CCRC has just announced that it's now 9% in 2010, which was when the CCRC … [Read more...] about Declines in 2 online risks for youth: Study
Will the global village have a ‘911’?
This is an important next step for suicide prevention as well as social media. Facebook and the US's National Suicide Prevention Lifeline have just announced a partnership that links Facebook users expressing suicidal thoughts directly to live chat with a crisis counselor at the Lifeline. Before, and like other social-media services, Facebook would just send the distressed user the Lifeline's … [Read more...] about Will the global village have a ‘911’?
Exploitative site alert for parents
In the Cyberbullying Research Center blog, professor and cyberbullying researcher Sameer Hinduja took the time to alert readers to the latest representation of the Net's darkside: "IsAnyoneUp," a year-old site that he describes as "essentially a hybrid of social media and amateur pornography." Dr. Hinduja links to other articles about the site, the first of which makes it sound like the go-to … [Read more...] about Exploitative site alert for parents
.xxx won’t make porn more accessible IF…
…for now – until the blocking technology works with all browsers – families make it a rule that kids use Firefox and they download this plug-in for it: the MetaCert Add-on. Firefox is the only browser for which there's a .xxx blocking tool, but that's changing. It'll work with Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera soon, and I'm sure the major stand-alone filtering products will soon offer … [Read more...] about .xxx won’t make porn more accessible IF…