May 21, 2013

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Mashable: Why Being Young Doesn’t Make You a Social Media Expert

January 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Being a kid is tough.  Add learning how to navigate social media and build an online presence, something most parents are still trying to figure out for themselves, and being a kid just got significantly harder.  (Throw in the hormones of being a teenager and it just went from bad to worse.)

That’s why this article on Mashable, Why Being Young Doesn’t Make You a Social Media Expert, really resonated with me.  The author makes the case that you wouldn’t let your teenager drive a car without any training so why would she let them on the Internet without instructions.  She also has some great tips on how to setup social media rules for your kids.

So please, talk to your kids and help them navigate the online world.  It might look like they know what they are doing, but they are figuring it out as they go just like you are.

 

Related Articles

My Son Grounded Me From Facebook

Internet Safety for Kids: Teach. Rinse. Repeat.

Talking Tech With Your Kids – The Grandmother Rule

WSJ: Web Profiles Haunt Students

8 Words from my 5 year old that changed social media forever

 

 
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WSJ: Web Profiles Haunt Students

October 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In a piece published today in the Wall Street Journal, Web Profiles Haunt Students, it’s pretty clear that too many kids today forget that those social networks – Facebook, Twitter and Google+ – are not nearly as private as they think.

Here’s an excerpt:

About a quarter of admissions officers at the nation’s top 500 colleges have used websites such as Facebook and Google to vet applicants, according to an annual Kaplan Test Prep survey. Of those, more than one-third say they have found something that has hurt a student’s chance of admission, up from 12% last year.

It goes on to say:

Vetting by using social-media sites including Facebook and Twitter still hovers in a gray zone at most college admissions offices. Just 15% of the schools in the survey had an official policy about whether to do so, and more than two-thirds of those schools said they won’t use the technique.

Among schools without a policy, more than a quarter say they have checked out a student’s online persona, up slightly from last year, said Jeff Olson, vice president of data science at Kaplan Test Prep, who conducted the survey this summer. Kaplan has included questions about social media in its annual survey for four years.

“The trend line is there,” Mr. Olson said. “My advice to students is to be smart and think twice about what you post online.”

We’ve said this before (more precisely, Abby said this last February in Talking Tech With Your Kids ), but it’s obviously worth repeating:

Make sure your kids understand how social network activity, if not handled properly, WILL come back to bite in very uncomfortable ways.

Yes, the Grandmother Rule is a good rule: do not post anything online (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) that you would not want your grandmother to see.

So as Crosby, Stills and Nash once sang, teach your children well.

(Note: WSJ is a paid service, so access to the full article may require membership. Sorry, we can’t repost it in its entirety here.)

 
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Manage Your Passwords

April 23, 2012 by 4 Comments

It’s not a secret that there are plenty of threats out there in Internet-land; if you remember in the Watch Your Links post, the bad people out there are going to increasingly great lengths in attempts to get us to divulge passwords. Truth be told, in addition to just paying a little closer attention to how we use Internet-based resources, the best protection against fraud and identity theft on the Internet is to use a good password.

We’ve all heard the recommendations – but they’re worth repeating here:

  • Use something only you will know, but not easily guessable (meaning your kids’ names are a bad choice)
  • Mix in upper and lower case letters
  • Use numbers and special characters (such as !, & or @) wherever possible
  • Don’t use the same password everywhere (this is very important)

That last one is a really big deal – using the same username and password combination for everything from Facebook to online banking/credit card management inadvertently creates a single point of failure and a massive exposure. Once it’s breached, the thief has the keys to the kingdom. Literally.

This is where the reality fairy pays me a visit and says “there’s no way people are going to do this, even though they know they should.” And the fairy would be (mostly) right – which is why there are tools to help us do the right thing, and they’re called Password Managers.

Password Managers are add-on solutions that keep a list of the sites we use, and record the username and password required to authenticate when it’s needed. Usually there’s a master username and password required to open up “the password vault”, but once that’s been opened, the tool will auto-fill the information when it’s requested. Many of you will say “doesn’t this also create a potential single point of failure and exposure?” The answer is technically yes – which is why the password to the vault must be extremely complex and difficult to crack.

There are a number of tools out there – some are free, some are included with your browser and some are paid/subscription services. Some examples include:

  • Password Safe (Free app, Windows only)
  • 1Password (Paid app, Mac OS X only)
  • RoboForm (Paid app, Windows only)
  • Firefox Password Manager (Free, built into the browser, cross-platform but Firefox only)
  • Chrome Password Manager (Free, built into the browser, cross-platform but Chrome only)

My preference is LastPass – and here’s why:

  • It’s cross-platform: I run it on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
  • It’s also cross-browser: it installs as a plug-in to Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari
  • It permits organization of sites into folders, for easier bulk management.
  • It will generate secure passwords for you, if you want it to.

For me, it doesn’t matter which machine I use or which browser on whatever machine I’m on, my vault is accessible and integrated into the browser. I can’t begin to describe how much time and effort this saves me.  This doesn’t even include the time saved by another LastPass product called Xmarks  – another huge time-saver and must have.

Here’s the best part - it’s free. But if  you’re smart and want to be like me (and who wouldn’t), shell out the whole $12/year to be a Premium user to get the real value:

  • There’s an app for your smartphone/tablet that allows you to access your LastPass Vault – and I use it often.
  • You get Priority Support. You shouldn’t need it, but it’s there.
  • There are no ads – to me, no ads alone is worth $12/year.

I am of the firm belief that in life, you get what you pay for. LastPass is worth every bit of my annual subscription costs. Being a subscriber also provides the company (in some small way) a revenue model that helps sustain the product. I like it, I don’t want it to go away, so I’ll give them some money. Everyone wins.

(DISCLOSURE: I have been a paid LastPass subscriber for some time, and I endorse it because I like it and use it – not because I got a free offer in exchange for a product plug.)

So if you’re worried about keeping your passwords straight, no need to worry. There are solutions to make your life easier.

Be safe out there.

 

We at BTD also recommend reading (or viewing) these links, as they provide some additional ways to secure yourself.

 
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Watch Your Links

April 19, 2012 by 5 Comments

Most web sites, especially those for credit card companies,  take account security very seriously. They ask us for security questions, and they notify us when something changes. Change your e-mail address? You get a notification – and it tells you to contact them if you did not initiate the change. All very good things, except….when those notifications are not legitimate.

Over the past few days, I’ve gotten two e-mail notifications asking me to confirm changes to my accounts – one from Apple, the other from American Express. Here’s the one from Apple:

On the surface, this notification looks like something I’d get from Apple. The URL’s that are provided are actually correct. It really got my attention because I had not made any account changes. So naturally, my first instinct – and the first instinct of most people – was to click on one of the links to get it sorted out. That choice would have gotten me into a lot of trouble. There are six links in this message, and not one of them points to Apple. In fact, there’s a different link beneath each link shown in the message.

This kind of message falls into the world of phishing – impersonating a real site or company for the purpose of doing bad things. These “socially engineered” traps are designed to prey on people’s natural reactions or instincts, either in an attempt to trick you into surrendering personally identifiable information (like a user name, password, credit card number, etc) or to take you to a web site that’s set up to inject virus payload onto your computer. Either way, no good will come of it.

So how did I know that bad things were around the corner? I’m very security conscious when it comes to links sent to me, so I pay attention to the underlying URL’s that are delivered. I also pay attention to who sends these links to me. Just like attachments, if you don’t know the source, don’t click them.

Most e-mail systems (Outlook, Notes, GMail, iOS, etc) provide a way to see the underlying destination. In most cases, it’s simply a matter of moving the mouse over the link text. Here are a few examples of how to do this:

For Lotus Notes, mouse over the link to see the target URL in the status bar at the bottom of the window – here’s how the actual target URL link for the iforgot.apple.com link text in the message:

For Microsoft Outlook, moving the mouse over linked text will display a little balloon with the target URL:

Believe or not, this can also be done with mobile devices.  For the iPhone and iPad, using a “tap and hold” gesture on a link in an e-mail message will display the following choices:

The same applies for Android-based smartphones: a “tap and hold” on a link will display a prompt to either share or copy the link, but the URL in play is displayed at the top of the prompt.

It’s unfortunate that there are so many out in Internet-land that have bad things in mind, so it’s worth just a little extra effort to pay attention to links that are sent to us. I received two messages in two days, both looked very legitimate. So take the extra step when you’re not sure, because one wrong click can create a slew of new problems.

 
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Talking Tech With Your Kids

February 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Have you seen the viral video of the father shooting his daughter’s laptop after she posted a rant about her parents on Facebook?  If you haven’t, I suggest you check it out (there is some language that may not be suitable for work or small children).  To give you a quick backstory, the daughter felt the treatment she was receiving by her parents was unfair and decided to share her frustrations with her Facebook friends.  She tried to hide the post from her parents but her dad discovered the post anyway and was, in my opinion, justifiably upset which lead to him responding with a YouTube video of his response and shooting his daughter’s laptop with a handgun.  (To any kids reading this post, parents always find out no matter how hard you try to hide it.)

Regardless if you agree or disagree with his actions, I think we all can agree that after watching this video its important to teach your kids how to be responsible with social sites like Facebook and Twitter.  Whether they realize it or not, they are creating a digital footprint and words can hurt, whether they are written or spoken.  So not only is her Facebook rant and her father’s response forever immortalized on Facebook and YouTube but their family issues have been publicly aired by both child and parent.

The Grandmother Rule

When you talk with your kids about what they post online, I suggest you teach them about the Grandmother Rule.

The Grandmother Rule states, do not post anything online (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) that you would not want your grandmother to see.  Yes, it is that simple.

You see, my grandmother is 83, is on Facebook, and because of that I make sure I don’t post anything that I would not want her to see.  This means that I do not post any passive aggressive comments about other people, I do not post any questionable photos (underage drinking, provocative pictures, etc.), and if I have to hide it from her, then its not something I should not be posting anyway.  Basically, if I would not say directly to Grandmother or show her the picture, I do not post it on Facebook.

Because let’s be honest, if you can’t show it to your grandmother than you probably don’t want any future employers, prospective colleges, or anyone else in a decision making position to see that post or picture either.  And if you can’t show it to your grandmother, then you probably shouldn’t have any evidence of it at all, never mind post the evidence yourself online, where it will live forever.

My stepson is only 7 and he’s already had to deal with a few bullies at school.  When I was in school, bullies stayed at school and home was a safe place to be.  That’s not the case today, now bullies follow you home and can reach you through the computer.  Words have the power to lift you up or tear you down.  When you can’t see the other person’s face, its easy to think that your words don’t matter and its easy to hide behind the anonymity the internet provides.  As my stepson gets older and goes online, I will be reminding him of how those bullies words and actions felt and to think of how you felt before you write something that could have the same effect on others online.

Kids are kids and they don’t realize that their online actions now can affect their future.  That’s our job, to teach them how to navigate this crazy online world and make sure the mistakes they make today don’t affect their future.  Otherwise, the alternative is you shoot your kids laptop, that you paid for, and you become a YouTube sensation and the subject of public scrutiny.  Its your choice.

How do you talk to your kids about tech?  Do you agree or disagree with the father’s action in the video?  Let us know in the comments, but keep it nice, we want to practice what we preach.

 

 
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Internet Safety for Kids: Monitoring Tools

December 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

(Fifth in a series)

Ok – you’ve done the easy (and free) stuff:

  • Everyone’s got their own accounts.
  • Account restrictions are in place.
  • Browser content management options have been set.

But yet, it’s still not enough to make you comfortable.

Whether it’s a case of the free tools are not working as well as you’d like (remember, they’re free), or you’ve got “creative” users that seem to always find ways to work around the safeguards you’ve put in place, you’ve still got options to pursue. Now we’re getting into the world of software-based monitoring solutions, and some of these aren’t free.

Here are a few solutions worth checking out:

Net Nanny offers a complete security and monitoring solution – for Windows, Mac and now Mobile solutions. Free trial is available.

 

SafeEyes also offers a complete solution, including support for Windows, Mac and mobile. No free trial, but a 30-day money back guarantee is offered.

 

Both of these solutions offer website content filtering, website white/black listing, social network monitoring, Instant messaging monitoring, parental alerts, reports and more features than I can list accurately here. They’re very comprehensive solutions, but there’s a price for it – both are less than $60/year (it’s an annual subscription), and permit installation on up to three computers.

One option that’s becoming more common (but oddly enough is quite often forgotten) is using what your anti-virus solution offers (and you most certainly are using an anti-virus solution – I know you are, because you’re smart and you read this site).

Many of the newer security packages offer “complete protection” – meaning in addition to virus/malware/spam protection, it can also provide content filtering and parental control tools. For example, the Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security offers anti-virus, parental controls, data theft prevention and a slow of other features – for the same price and number of computers as SafeEyes and Net Nanny.  Just another option to consider.

(In the spirit of full disclosure, I personally use Trend Micro solutions for internet security and anti-virus protection. I’ve used others’ solutions, and prefer Trend. Just so you know.)

So if your monitoring needs (or desires) are more comprehensive in nature, for about $60 annually you can break out the big guns. Keep in mind, using these kinds of tools (in particular, the reports that they all offer) will eventually raise the question of individual user privacy. But if you’re anything like me, Internet security will trump whatever privacy concerns might come up any day of the week.

If you have other ideas or suggestions for the class, I welcome your comments.

Some links to additional reading/references (should you be so inclined):

Be safe – it’s a jungle out there.

 

 
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Internet Safety for Kids: Tweaking Internet Explorer

December 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

(Fourth in a series)

Internet Explorer

Most users have and use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as their browser. While there are other browsers freely available (such as Firefox or Chrome), IE seems to be the one that most people use.

What most people don’t know is that there are a lot of things that can be customized and tweaked within the settings of IE itself – in particular, using the Content Advisor to manage how Internet content can be filtered or prevented from being displayed.

Go to Tools > Internet Options > Content ; the first section of the panel is for managing the Content Advisor.

Content Advisor allows you to determine just what should be permitted to be viewed through the browser. There are a variety of categories (I won’t belabor them here) for which a rating level can be established. Set them to what’s appropriate for you.

My favorite is the Approved Sites list – where individual sites can be Approved or Denied viewing, regardless of its content rating. So if you’ve got a kid that’s getting a little carried away with YouTube, list it as a blacklisted site. Simple enough, problem solved.

So now you’re thinking “how do I make sure Junior can’t tinker with my restrictions?” That’s where defining a Supervisor Password is important. It’s on the General tab:

Set a password to something that the adults can remember – because it’s how the Content Advisor can be unlocked for further tweaking. And don’t share it.

While the options in Content Advisor might seem somewhat limited, in a lot of cases they’re enough to do what you need for them to do – prevent unwanted content from being viewed by a user of the system.

For next time: Using software solutions to manage content viewing and computer usage.

 
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Internet Safety for Kids: Using Individual Accounts

December 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment

(Third in a series)

If you’re like most families, there’s one computer that everyone uses. Something that helps with the management of the machine is assigning each user their own account on the machine. It’s not hard to do, regardless of what kind of machine you have.

For Windows: Go to Control Panel > choose User Accounts

For Mac: Open the System Settings > choose Accounts

The important part of this process is defining what kind of account the user has – there are a few types:

  • Administrator – an all-powerful being on the machine. Administrators can install software, change user accounts, or do just about whatever they want to do to the machine.
  • Standard User – these users can generally install software and make changes to their own accounts, but can’t change other’s accounts.
  • Restricted/Managed User – these users can’t install software, make changes or really do much more than “use” the machine.

In my view, the account should be as restrictive as possible – because if kids (or other adults, for that matter) can’t install anything, they won’t be able to hurt themselves or the computer with a virus, malware or simply software that just doesn’t need to be there.

In Windows 7 Home, there are only two kinds of users: Administrator and Standard. Choose Standard, but then apply some of the Parental Controls that are available in Windows 7:

 

Windows 7 Parental Controls

Within the Parental Controls, set time limits or windows for usage, or restrict programs/games.  All of these settings are defined for each user, so creating different rules for different people is easy.

So what happens when a Standard/Restricted user tries to install something? It prompts for a username and password of an administrative user; if it doesn’t get one, nothing installs.

This is just one way and one step in securing a machine – there are plenty more ways to infuriate the non-Administrator users of the household. In the next installment, I’ll talk about the browser – in particular, Internet Explorer.

 
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Internet Safety for Kids: Teach. Rinse. Repeat.

December 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

(Second in a series)

As Crosby Stills and Nash once sang: “Teach your children well.”

The best defense in the world of Internet Security is a good offense – and that offense is to teach users of that big, bad Internet the right way to use it. Teaching costs nothing, and provides the right foundation for understanding and recognizing what kinds of things have trouble written all over them.

I know that sounds pretty basic and simple, and that you’re thinking “well, duh, that’s obvious.” I’d say the same thing as well, but it never ceases to amaze me how little today’s kids understand about the long-term effects of what they say and/or post to things like Twitter and Facebook.

Technology today is extremely advanced, and a lot of people simply don’t realize how advanced it has become. For example, did you know that:

  • Taking a picture with a smartphone and posting includes the GPS coordinates of the location where it was shot (assuming the defaults haven’t been changed).
  • Tweeting can do the same kind of geo-tagging (which can result in geo-tracking – - also known as cyber stalking).
  • Ditto for Facebook.
  • Speaking of Facebook, those applications that look like so much fun or yield a great deal will want (and usually get) access to all of your personal data (your likes, your friends, etc.).

If you knew these things, then good for you. My guess is that a lot of readers didn’t, at least until now.

More importantly, there also seems to be a belief that the social norms of society don’t apply to the online world. So for a lot of people, the anonymity of the Internet is taken as a free pass to badger, berate or simply just act like an ass. What’s not realized, at least until it’s too late:

  • Once you post something, it’s there forever.
  • Even if you delete it, somebody took a screen capture of it and has posted it elsewhere.
  • Bad online behavior can have some serious adverse impacts on things like college acceptance or employment.
  • What they post, say or send may constitute something illegal.
  • Frankly, it’s just not very nice.

So teach your kids how to be good Internet citizens. Yes, it will take some time and monitoring of activity (at least at first), but the longer term payoff is worth the effort. The Internet is not a fad or passing fancy; it’s a part of daily life for the most recent generation. As with anything else, we as parents have to equip our kids with the right tools and skills to manage  this part of their life.

Next time: Protect your family of users (and your computer) by creating accounts.

 
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Internet Safety for Kids

December 15, 2011 by 1 Comment

(Image Credit: Montrose & Olathe Schools, CO)

One of the most frequent questions I get is what’s the best way to handle internet security – in particular when kids are using the computer.

The bad news for parents is that there’s no single, magic bullet solution or answer.

The good news is that there are a number of things you can do as a parent to ensure that your kids are either safe or know how to stay safe when it comes to the Internet. Some are simple, some are free, some are draconian; everyone has a different idea of what’s the right amount of control to exert over the situation.

There are a lot of different approaches to security – too many to cover in a single post. So I’ll be breaking it down into pieces (this is the first post in the series), covering topics ranging from software you can purchase or install, changes to your browser or simply providing the right kind of education and guidance to your younger users.

I’m looking forward to your comments, suggestions  and feedback. If there’s something in particular you’re looking for, post a comment or use the Contact Us page. I’ll see what I can do to work it into a post sooner rather than later.

In my next post: teach your children well.

 
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