Bowing to criticism, TikTok has unveiled parental controls in a new feature called Family Safety Mode that allows parents to link their accounts to their teens'. This allows parents to set time limits as well as manage direct messages and content. The safety mode is currently only available in the UK but will be expanded to other geographic areas in the near future.
There are a myriad of stories floating around online about laptop cameras, security cameras, and baby monitor cameras being hacked, allowing hackers to both spy on or communicate with unsuspecting adults and children. While these attacks do happen, they are preventable. Here are a few tips if you have these devices in your home:
When it comes to technology use at school, the “Acceptable Use Policy” is something that you probably don’t even think about except at the beginning of the school year when it is required for you and your child to sign. With luck, that is the last you ever see of it, unless your child is cited for a violation of the policy. To avoid this from happening, it is important your child clearly understands the expectations. While schools and administrators need to clearly communicate technology policies with students and parents, an article in the District Administration magazine online points out that acceptable use policies often can come across as intimidating instead of helpful. The author recommends that schools need to focus the policies on opportunity rather than just punishment, and that parents need to read these policies and work with schools to make sure everyone is on the same page in helping students safely learn how to navigate the online world.
In a recent opinion piece in The Dallas Morning News, Doug Levin, president and founder of the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, challenges school leaders to take measures to protect both their schools and communities from digital threats amid growing reliance on technology in school operations, teaching and learning. He urges them to collaborate on security challenges and share information on cyber threats with other school districts that face similar issues. School cybersecurity failures across the country have resulted in the theft of millions of taxpayer dollars, outages of school IT systems, and large-scale identity theft.
YouTube has announced criteria for how it will allocate $100 million to producers of children's content, an initiative it announced in September. The programming targeted to ages 3-8 is meant to “drive outcomes associated with the following character strengths: courage, compassion, communication, gratitude, curiosity, humility, teamwork, integrity, perseverance, self-control, empathy and creativity”, and can be live-action or animated. The announcement was made following YouTube getting slapped with a record US$170-million settlement from the US Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General for allegedly collecting personal information from children without parental consent.
According to Social Media Today research conducted by 5W Public Relations, Facebook is the most popular social platform among millennials and Gen Z, with 77% of them indicating that they're active on the platform every day, followed by Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest and TikTok, respectively. When it comes to targeted ads, 52% of millennials have clicked on an Instagram ad and 35% have purchased a product via the platform.
Looking for a guide to get yourself up to speed on exactly what bullying and cyberbullying are, the difference between teasing and bullying, and the warning signs of bullying? Check out these short video guides put together by The 74, a web site that looks at a variety of education issues. The site refers to these guides as “Flashcards,” but they are simple to understand presentations on different aspects of bullying and cyberbullying that can help you and others understand the problem and move to do something about it.
Efforts by school districts to supply students with computers or tablets are meeting resistance from parents who are concerned about the amount of time their children are spending in front of a screen. Parents have expressed various concerns, including changes in classroom instruction, access to inappropriate online content, and how the use of electronics is weakening student handwriting, eyesight and posture. One of the biggest issues with districts taking steps to distribute digital devices to their student community has been a lack of teacher training on how to make the best use of these devices and take full advantage of what the technology has to offer, rather than using them as a classroom diversion. Schools and parents alike are caught between making sure students are prepared for the jobs of tomorrow and being mindful that life and learning also takes place in places other than in front of a screen.
Did you receive an update or post from your children’s school on social media that seems a little off? Fake accounts for schools and school districts, and even school administrators, have popped up all over the country. Most of the claims on the sites - like a feral skunk being loose in a school building that has to be closed and burned down – are so outrageous that most parents spot them or figure out they aren’t coming from the school’s regular communication channels, but these kinds of accounts do pose all kinds of dangers, especially in emergency situations.
Schools are fighting back by sending out clarifying messages on their actual Twitter and Facebook pages and immediately forwarding the fake message to school, school board leaders, and local media to inform them of the issue so they don’t accidently share the false information.
In these divided times it is easy to blame social media for much of the partisanship and misinformation that is flooding the internet. But a new study from the Pew Research Center suggests that there is overall bipartisan agreement that news that comes from social media sites is suspect. Incredibly, almost two thirds of adults don't trust Facebook as a source of news — and the numbers are mirrored on both sides of the aisle, with 59 percent of Democrats (and independents who lean that way) and 62 percent of Republicans (and independents who lean that way) reporting distrust. The numbers are similarly symmetrical for Twitter (46 percent distrusted by Democratic voters, 51 percent for Republicans) and Instagram (41 and 45 percent, respectively).
On the whole, a whopping 72 percent of people in the survey said they trusted news information on social media sites either "Not too much" (38 percent) or "Not at all" (34 percent). As for the people who do trust their feeds to be factual: Only 15 percent of people across both sides said they trusted Facebook, 12 percent trusted Twitter, 6 percent trusted Instagram, and a slightly concerning 17 percent trusted what they saw on YouTube.
While is hard to know exactly what these numbers mean and what kind of “news” people are referring to, it is reassuring that many people seem to be aware that everything they read online may not be true. It is definitely a message that parents need to remind their children of constantly. And one positive note, new research from the Reboot Foundation suggests that it is possible to cultivate students’ ability to spot fake news by learning to "read beyond the headline," "check the date" and "check your biases."
Sharing pictures and updates about your children on social media has become a norm for most people who want to keep in touch with family and friends around the world, despite experts on digital safety cautioning parents about being very careful about what you post. Accustations of “sharenting,” or obnoxiously sharing every little detail of their children’s lives in pictures online, criticize parents who are robbing children of their right to privacy and dignity, and sometimes rubbing others the wrong way by what many see as bragging. So what should you think about when it comes to cautiously and sparingly posting pictures of your children online?
Facebook filed papers recently pledging to enact privacy protections "far beyond those required by United States law" as it urged US District Judge Timothy Kelly to approve the platform's $5 billion proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook is also working to appease advocacy groups that contend the fine isn't enough punishment and doesn't hold the platform accountable for past violations.
The "Outlet Challenge," a new trending challengs circulating on social media video platforms including YouTube and TikTok, is being blamed for kids damaging electrical outlets, causing fires in classrooms, and developing skin burns across the country. Officials are warning parents about the challenge, which involves inserting the plug part of a phone-charger only part way into a wall outlet and then trying to produce a spark by touching a penny to the exposed prongs. Firefighters are issuing serious warnings about possible fires and electrocutions.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun the glacially slow process of considering updates to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The last time COPPA was amended was in 2013, when the FTC updated the definition of personal information to incorporate geolocation information along with photos, videos and audio files that contain a child's image or voice. Critics say one model the federal government should be looking at is the California Consumer Privacy Act. The California law not only expands privacy protections to minors under the age of 13 but also creates additional protections for children aged 13 through 16, who must affirmatively consent rather than opt out of the sale of their personal information. Other models include Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which extended its privacy protections for children to the age of 16, and the United Kingdom, which required its Information Commissioner's Office to create an "age-appropriate design code," which would have applications to youth up to the age of 18."
The current media and technology landscape means kids are no longer confined to just learning in the classroom. Sure, kids have always been able to learn outside the classroom via books and other life experiences, but today’s technology allows children to learn in a multitude of new ways. Looking at that change, Project Tomorrow runs a survey called Speak Up, polling hundreds of thousands of sixth graders and adults about learning trends, and makes the local data available to individual districts. Here are a few takeaways:
As National Public Radio (NPR) has announced a second year of its Student Podcast Challenge, grand-prize winners of the first contest reflected in a recent NPR article on how they were affected by the process of creating their winning podcasts. High-school winners in Tennessee say working on their podcast gave them confidence and helped them discover previously unknown passions. The NPR Student Podcast Challenge is open to students in two categories: grades five through eight and grades nine through 12. The official rules, entry guidelines, training tips and resources for teachers and students can be found on the contest's homepage. The site also has lots of support and advice for teachers and students, starting with this video about making good sound from Don Gonyea, a veteran NPR correspondent who has filed stories from all over the world.
Esports are quickly gaining momentum -- with more colleges and universities offering scholarships to high-school competitors and a projected audience growth rate of 15% in 2020 -- but the gamer base remains primarily male, white and upper middle class. Some K-12 schools, including Hathaway Brown in Ohio, are implementing programs aimed at drawing more girls into Esports and downplaying games that center on first person shooters as their primary plot line.
Malware known as “Predator the Thief”, which is capable of stealing usernames and passwords, has received updates that could make attacks more effective. The malware has added phishing documents, such as fake invoices from companies you may do business with (while a previous campaign used a fake court summons as a lure), to attract victims and has become better able to avoid detection and analysis. Remember to never open an attachment in an email or text unless you know who it is from and what it might be about.
Facebook has announced some tools for users to limit the amount of political ads served, yet they are not budging in refusing to fact check political ads on the platform. And, although this new tool allows you to reduce the number of political ads you see, it does not allow you to cut them off completely. If you are curious about what categories of ads you are being targeted with, the information is available in your settings, but Facebook’s stance remains that they should not be forced to act as referee in political debate and they are not in any position to say what is true and what is not in such claims.
The debate over Facebook’s freewheeling stance has led to more attention being paid to media organizations, who many opponents argue have essentially been incentivized to publish more divisive, polarizing, and biased views in order to maximize engagement. Many critics say the divisions we are seeing in society today are the results of media being motivated by profit, and by allowing this to happen, Facebook has become the coliseum hosting the battles.
What does a balanced tech life for your children look like? A recent article in Martha Stewart Living discusses the framework of Dr. Mike Brooks, author of Tech Generation: Raising Balanced Kids in a Hyper-Connected World, who points out that thinking about how technology could become a problem - before it does - is the way to keep communication open with your children. He emphasizes the importance of being a good role model in your own use of technology, and setting screen limits for every family member. In his way of thinking, there is no one size fits all standard for limiting screen use.
While parents should know what the recommendations for screen use are from organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and Common Sense Media, Brooks points out that parents need to trust their parenting skills and teach children how to self regulate, pointing out that "Autonomy is a developmental need for children—they want greater independence. And if we're micromanaging all these aspects of their lives, screen time included, they're going to resent it." He argues that heightened anxiety over screen time amongst parents can actually be damaging to the child-parent relationship, and more harmful than screens themselves.
If you’re looking for some immediate ways to limit screen time for kids, this recent short video from Good Morning America interviews teens and highlights the problem of addiction, while offering some quick tips on limiting screen time. Practical suggestions include no devices at meal times or in bedrooms or bathrooms. They recommend setting up a central charging station so kids have no excuse to have their phones in their rooms at bedtime. Experts also suggest becoming familiar with and using timers and parental control apps. For the long term, think about investing in a router that can help you regulate the time each family member can use the Internet as well as nurturing your kid’s interests in sports, art, music and other activities outside of digital devices.