Not many Internet companies know more about parental controls than AOL, which has been providing a range of them longer than I've been writing about youth and tech (since '97!). So I was interested to hear that AOL was releasing two very Web 2.0 tools, one free, the other $9.99/month. First the free one: 1. Safety Toolbar This light little software app, which AOL says takes about a minute to … [Read more...] about AOL’s two new, easy-to-use safety tools
Risk & Safety
Videogaming: Parents can be workarounds too
It's a great headline in Kotaku.com – "Confessions of a failed gaming parent" – and what he's confessing to is that the loophole his all-too-smart son Tristan found was ... his parents! "My wife and I set up parental locks on the [Xbox] console and on Tristan's Xbox Live gold account," so Tristan found "human error" workaround. Among other measures, his parents didn't allow Tristan to play Halo … [Read more...] about Videogaming: Parents can be workarounds too
‘Net addiction’ & depression
One young person's strategy for so-called Net addiction is FreeFace.com. He commented in a New York Times blog asking students for their strategies that, as a part-time student [who] "found myself drifting sometimes, usually to news websites or Facebook," he started using this time management software that restricts access to sites and programs during time periods the user sets for him or herself. … [Read more...] about ‘Net addiction’ & depression
Facebook adds ‘Places’: Cellphone location service
I'm sure you've heard about Foursquare, a game and geolocation app that lets people "check in" to their favorite spots virtually when they're walking in physically. Well, Facebook now has a geolocation app like that called "Places," so users can use their cellphones to let their FB friends know where they are (only in the US at this point). In addition to checking in, FB users can "see who else … [Read more...] about Facebook adds ‘Places’: Cellphone location service
Video sex chat on phones
Porn operators have long been early adopters of new technology. Now it's video on smartphones. What's newly concerning about it is that video phone-based porn is getting more personal, more one-to-one, more like Webcam conversations. "Video sex chat," as it's described in this Washington Post piece, stands to make the adult content industry "big money," according to the article and is already … [Read more...] about Video sex chat on phones