Social Media

The speed at which teens adopt and master new social networks and apps can be dizzying, and it can make it difficult for parents to respond when a child reports being bullied on a platform that parents are not familiar with. One thing to stay aware of is the growing swarm of anonymous messaging apps like Whisper, After School, and Yik Yak.  This extensive list of ways to report problematic behavior on various social networks and apps is also useful if you need to report an incident.

Twitter recently addressed longtime complaints by banning certain users and making its exclusive "verified status" option to be more openly available. Verified accounts include those maintained by public figures and organizations in music, TV, film, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas. The accounts have a blue checkmark next to the user's name to show the user or organization has been vetted by Twitter and the user's phone number and email address are legitimate.

This action was a direct result of the abuse that "Ghostbusters" actress Leslie Jones received from Milo Yiannopoulos, a tech editor at Breitbart.com who has been suspended in the past for violating Twitter's code of conduct. Yiannopoulos incited his followers to bombard Jones with tweets criticizing the "Ghostbusters" new release that features all-female leads. Digital rights activists and victims of online abuse have long called for more proactive solutions that would give users means to address harassment more quickly without waiting for a response from the site's complaint department, or to ban repeat offenders who switch accounts.

Twitter recently addressed longtime complaints by banning certain users and making its exclusive "verified status" option to be more openly available. Verified accounts include those maintained by public figures and organizations in music, TV, film, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas. The accounts have a blue checkmark next to the user's name to show the user or organization has been vetted by Twitter and the user's phone number and email address are legitimate.

This action was a direct result of the abuse that "Ghostbusters" actress Leslie Jones received from Milo Yiannopoulos, a tech editor at Breitbart.com who has been suspended in the past for violating Twitter's code of conduct. Yiannopoulos incited his followers to bombard Jones with tweets criticizing the "Ghostbusters" new release that features all-female leads. Digital rights activists and victims of online abuse have long called for more proactive solutions that would give users means to address harassment more quickly without waiting for a response from the site's complaint department, or to ban repeat offenders who switch accounts.

Before you sit down to talk about social media with your kids, you need to make sure you are up on all the latest apps. Need a summary of what to look out for? Check out Common Sense Media’s article Social Media Apps Parents Should Know About.

Before you sit down to talk about social media with your kids, you need to make sure you are up on all the latest apps. Need a summary of what to look out for? Check out Common Sense Media’s article Social Media Apps Parents Should Know About.

Facebook recently announced an update to its news feed algorithm that will more favorably promote content posted by the friends and family of users. Those changes, the company says, will limit content posted by publishers, resulting in significantly less traffic to the hundreds of news media sites that have come to rely on Facebook. The change comes in the wake of criticism that news featured on the site has a liberal bent, and is accompanied by Facebook’s publication of a set of family friendly “values” which reiterates that content posted by friends and family is the top priority.

Facebook recently announced an update to its news feed algorithm that will more favorably promote content posted by the friends and family of users. Those changes, the company says, will limit content posted by publishers, resulting in significantly less traffic to the hundreds of news media sites that have come to rely on Facebook. The change comes in the wake of criticism that news featured on the site has a liberal bent, and is accompanied by Facebook’s publication of a set of family friendly “values” which reiterates that content posted by friends and family is the top priority.

A recent report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism reveals that social media is more popular than television with people ages 18 to 24. Social media is also the leading source of news for this age group, with more than half of online users getting news from sites such as Facebook. It is interesting to note however, that although this group prefers getting their news online, they are still highly distrustful of the accuracy of information found through social media.