If you have gamers at your house, you probably have heard of Twitch – especially if they like to either play, or watch other gamers play, while the play's being streamed live on the Web and everybody tuned in is chatting about it. Some people call it YouTube for gamers. In fact, Google, YouTube's owner, was rumored to be acquiring it last spring. But it has just been confirmed that Amazon is – to … [Read more...] about Heard of Twitch? Amazon has!
YouTube
More clarity on teens’ ‘Am I pretty?’ videos
The thoughtful New York Times story begins with a 13-year-old New Jersey girl posting her "Am I pretty?" video on YouTube. I won't steal its thunder, so I hope you'll read it. But I do want to highlight the points most helpful to parents of young teen girls: Ages 13-15: "Nearly all the people in these videos" are in that age range. Developmentally normal: The videos' sources are in that age … [Read more...] about More clarity on teens’ ‘Am I pretty?’ videos
Smart safety: YouTube’s ‘neighborhood watch program’
In every neighborhood, there are neighbors and then there are visitors, and it's mostly the neighbors who make it what it really is – great to hang out in or maybe not so much. That's true in social media too, only digital neighborhoods can be geographically based or interest based. They're interest communities. Some sites are single interest communities, others encompass masses of them – and all … [Read more...] about Smart safety: YouTube’s ‘neighborhood watch program’
10-year-old professional DJ
Probably because I'm a baby-boomer, I will never lose my sense of wonder that this is what's possible, now – 10-year-olds able not just to dream about the future but start making it happen while they're dreaming. To wit: 5th-grader Niel Mac is a professional EDM disc jockey in El Paso, Texas, who just started a blended school-plus-home-study solution because he's "about to start traveling" for DJ … [Read more...] about 10-year-old professional DJ
Safety tools for summer video viewing & search
Do the YouTube and Google search fans at your house know about SafeSearch and Safety Mode? Google made these safety tools available starting a few years ago (see my 2009 post about the former here), but software engineer Matthias Heiler just posted a heads-up about them for users who might be a little more active online during summer vacation. Even before summer was in full swing, 182 million … [Read more...] about Safety tools for summer video viewing & search