For summer vacation downtime, kid-friendly online video is always an option – but it's good for parents to know there are alternatives to Safety Mode-enabled YouTube. The new kid on the block in the kid video category is Kideos.com. It joins Zuitube.com, the video part of children's Web browser Kidzui that was so popular it became its own Web site. For parents who have created "white lists" of … [Read more...] about Pure kidvid: Kideos and Zuitube
Risk & Safety
From TV to Web: Tiny Planets
As many parents know, adopting a virtual pet and caring for it is a mainstay of kids' virtual worlds. Well, in the brand-new Web version of the animated TV series Tiny Planets, kids adopt and care for a planet (as well as pilot spaceships and play mini-games). That's at MyTinyPlanets.com, just one of the seven Web sites that make up the Tiny Planets presence on the Web. Others are … [Read more...] about From TV to Web: Tiny Planets
Social media in school more – yes!
"Just a few years ago, social networking meant little more to educators than the headache of determining whether to penalize students for inappropriate activities captured on Facebook or MySpace. Now," Education Week reports, "teachers and students have a vast array of social-networking sites and tools – from Ning to VoiceThread and Second Life – to draw on for such serious uses as professional … [Read more...] about Social media in school more – yes!
Short-term or long-term kid & PC security
Here's a very practical way to mark Internet Safety Month (June): free computer-security support for families. But you need to act quickly: Trend Micro will supply $100 worth of security diagnostics and advice to the first 1,000 people who sign up tomorrow (June 15) at FreeDayofSupport.com. Of course, this isn't that great if you're a longtime Norton or Kaspersky user, but it's great if you're not … [Read more...] about Short-term or long-term kid & PC security
Update in Susquenita student sexting case
I'm confused: A Pennsylvania district attorney says that, in prosecuting kids, "he is just trying to protect kids," CBSNEWS.com reports. Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot told CBS that child pornography charges were the only ones that fit the activity of the eight Susquinita high school students involved in a sexting incident last fall (for more see my earlier post "Susquenita, PA, … [Read more...] about Update in Susquenita student sexting case