I haven't done this in a while - written about products and services - so here's the caveat up front: These are not product reviews or tests; they're meant to spotlight options for parents to consider and trends in youth tech. 1. Safe playgrounds for kidsIt's like there's a "walled garden" trend afoot! Four of these services - three new ones and one tried and true - immediately come to mind. The … [Read more...] about New sites & services for kids, tweens, teens
Search Results for: Safety by design
Virtual Worlds field trip
One of the most interesting comments made at the second-annual Virtual Worlds Conference I attended in L.A. this week was from Jon Landau, producer of Titanic and of a project-in-progress called Avatar. Landau said, "I grew up being taught to worry about 'big brother'; with the Internet we have to worry about little brother." I don't think anybody else heard that quite as acutely as an advocate of … [Read more...] about Virtual Worlds field trip
Top 8 workarounds of kid virtual-world users
It stands to reason that bullying happens in kids' virtual worlds (e.g., Club Penguin, Webkinz, Neopets, Nicktropolis, etc.), because, well, it happens in school, instant messaging, and social-networking sites. But I hadn't learned how it happened until Sharon Duke Estroff called me about it. The Atlanta-based parenting columnist, former elementary school teacher, kids' pop culture expert, author, … [Read more...] about Top 8 workarounds of kid virtual-world users
Phone-based ‘icebreaker’
A new "real-space social networking" product for iPhones, iPod Touch devices, and laptops called iFob is a sign of the way social networking is going. It's marketed as being "simple, fun, and gamelike," and it probably is in the right hands. "Instead of logging onto a social networking site and searching through lists of far away strangers who may be living in virtual fantasy lands, iFob finds … [Read more...] about Phone-based ‘icebreaker’
Ukrainian parental controls got top spot
To mark the fifth-annual Safer Internet Day today, the European Union unveiled a three-year study it sponsored of parental controls software and services. In the study, the big-name brands in the US "were all beaten to the top spot by a small partnership that employs no more than 50 people, mostly designers and developers in Ukraine," the BBC reports. The partners who created Magic Desktop, a … [Read more...] about Ukrainian parental controls got top spot