Get complete details here: http://kidsafe.com/

This is a passion of mine and I want all parents to have the knowledge and technology to protect and educate their kids on-line.

Here's the link to Teaching Your Kids Internet Safety:

---->>>>>> http://www.KidSafe.com/teaching-your-kids-internet-safety

Please make sure to leave your comments and thoughts!

Did you notice how the video was cut off?  In addition to the blooper we talked for another  3-4 minutes not knowing the batteries ran out and the camera was off.  It was a blast!!!

Ok moving on....Adria interviews me on my thoughts about internet safety solutions.

The Supreme court refused to hear President Bush's (hmm what do you call him now?) attempt to save the Child Online Protection Act.  But what's really weird to me is that the Supreme Court expressed doubt about the law (doubt about the law?  what does that mean?) but asked lower courts to examine it more closely. 

Lower courts?  Is our system so screwed up that it goes up and NOW back down the court system?  WOW lets be done with it, start saving tax payer money and come up with a solution that makes sense!

Well anyway I knew this was coming, the writing was on the wall.  So what this really does is validate that companies like mine (Children's Educational Network), that offer parental control software a place in the market.

But as I am always saying, it's not technology that is the solution, it's the combination of technology and education.  Lets teach the kids how to be safe & responsible on the Internet, make this mandatory in every school in the country.  It's time for a call to arms!

I'll start working on a plan!

Below you can watch each news clip.

When spouses are cheating or engaging in behaviors that they do not want anyone to find out about, what do they do? They erase phone calls, emails, text messages and begin to stay away from home longer than they had previously. Kid's behavior, if you are paying attention, that are doing things they don't want parents to find out about looks frighteningly like a cheating spouse.

Call me RoboCop, Inspector Gadget, or overprotective mom, but I am all about snapping up my daughter's phone when she least expects it to take a peek at her text history or log onto her MySpace to be sure the conversations and content she has, and others she is communicating with, is appropriate. I recently read some statistics that back up my choice to investigate on a regular basis.

A recent study shows that 30 percent of children between the ages of 9 and 18 delete the search history from their browsers in an attempt to protect their privacy from their parents. Kids are smart and in many cases, much more Internet savvy than their parents. Kids go online at a friend's house (this is how my daughter set up her first MySpace that I stumbled on), an Internet cafe, or school.

Many kids accidently or unintentionally accesses dangerous material online outside of the home. In these cases they will be unprepared to deal with the emotions that follow, including feeling as though they may have done something wrong, something bad and not tell their parents for fear of being punished.

The biggest problem facing parents, and the media, is that they, for the most part, are in denial. Parents are not as Internet safety, kid tricks for duping them literate as they could be. They don't have a handle on using popular online software and chat programs, and tend to have no clue about what is really happening online or on their kid's cell phones.

This lack of awareness or "head in the sand" attitude on the parents' part may be no different than the situation before the technological explosion we know as the Web. Parents that chose not to know what their kids were doing before the infusion of the Internet were at greater risk of their children getting into trouble or put themselves in harms way without even knowing it. The same holds true for parents of the Internet generation who choose to not know what is going on with their kids on their tech devices.

The old, "but it's my room" has been replaced by "it's my phone" or "my computer". Well, I say whomever is paying the bill is the rightful owner. Therefore, you have every right to take a stand for your kid's safety or emotional well being and take their phone for 5 minutes or but right in while they are online, especially when they are instant messaging. Make sure they don't suddenly sign off when you enter the room. If they do, think red flag and sign back in to see where the conversation left off. If you notice your kids cell phone is always void of Any text messages, again, think red flag and let them know you will be checking their text messages on a weekly basis. If they are erased, they lose their "privilege" of having the phone at all.

Be your kids hero by taking a stand for their well being. Heck, you may even want to take their phone for the day and see what kid's of texts come through. Yes, I have done that too and believe me, it was shocking, heartbreaking and a great opportunity for me to do what was right for my daughter in terms of getting her back on track and teaching her how to respond to inappropriate text messages and the importance of expressing self-esteem in every area of life, even online or over the phone.

It is safe to say that if the motto “Educate Not Regulate” was actually implemented it could create lasting, concrete results when it comes to Internet safety and media literacy efforts.  For example, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was passed by Congress in 1998 in an effort to restrict minors' access to adult-oriented websites. Now 10 years later, it was recently struck down again by a lower court. Just think about all the money that has been spent litigating this case that instead could have been spent on media literacy and online safety awareness campaigns that would have reached children and families around the world.  Here are some recent facts:

• 64% of teens post photos or videos of themselves online, while more than half (58%) post info about where they live.
• 32% of all teens and 43% of teens active in social networking have been contacted online by a complete stranger.
• 69% of teens regularly receive personal messages online from people they don't know and most of them don't tell a trusted adult about it
• 23% of children have had an encounter with a stranger on the Internet, including 7% of children who reported having met someone in the real world from the Internet
• 79% of sexual solicitation incidents happened to youth while they were using their home computer
• 40% of solicitations began with a solicitor communicating with a youth through an instant message or IM
• 56% of solicitations contained a request for the youth to send photographs of themselves to the solicitor and 27% of solicitations contained a request for the youth to send a sexual picture of themselves
• 34% of youth have encountered unwanted sexual material while online

Education is a vital part in online child protection efforts.  In fact, parental control tools that incorporate education as a key component in product offerings, such as Children's Educational Network (CEN) (www.childrenseducationalnetwork.com ) Shrek, McGruff, Miss America and soon to be launched Loral Langemeier-The Millionaire Maker Private Labeled Browsers, are making big statements in the Internet safety education world. 

For parents, combating the problem of unwanted online media exposure means they must rely on a mix of technological controls, informal household media rules, and, most importantly, education and media literacy efforts. Pioneers and experts in the Internet safety field, such as CEN Founder/CEO Greg Writer, use a compelling metaphor to explain why education is the most important tool on which parents and policymakers should rely:

Internet safety, when thought of in the form of fences around pools, pool alarms, and locks, can help protect children from drowning in swimming pools. However, teaching a child to swim and when to avoid pools or other bodies of water, not simply focusing on what is only in our own backyard, is a far safer approach than relying on locks, fences, and alarms to prevent him or her from drowning. Locks, fences and alarms provide substantial benefit. But parents cannot rely exclusively on those devices to keep their children safe from drowning.  Furthermore, teaching a child to exercise good judgment has relevance far beyond a single swimming pool.

Sadly, we often fail to teach our children how to “swim” in the deep end of internet waters. It is clear that a serious media literacy and Internet safety education agenda is needed in America. Government should push media literacy efforts at every level of the education process and our Presidential candidates should be talking about it during every phase of the election, and post election, process. And those efforts should be accompanied by widespread public awareness campaigns to better inform parents about the parental control tools, rating systems, online safety tips, and other media control methods at their disposal.

A good example of an effective awareness campaign is one that began in the early 1980s, when the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) developed its popular "McGruff the Crime Dog" campaign .  The McGruff campaign, which included the "Take a Bite Out of Crime" motto, offers publications and teaching materials on a variety of topics; programs that can be implemented in communities and schools, local, regional, and national training programs; public service announcements broadcast nationwide starring McGruff the Crime Dog; and support for a national coalition of crime prevention practitioners. The NCPC reports that "now 25 years after McGruff's first TV appearance, more than 75 percent of children recognize McGruff and over 4,000 law enforcement agencies own a McGruff suit." www.ncpc.org/about.  CEN is now partnering with NCPC and launching the "McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Internet Crime" via the McGruff Parental Control Browser using CEN Technology. 

This same type of effort, as listed above for the McGruff original campaign, needs to be emulated on the Internet safety front.  Government officials should seek to incorporate these examples, using Private Label Browsers with their image, as McGruff has done with CEN, if they want to construct a seriousl public awareness campaign about parental controls and online child protection efforts.

If policymakers want to encourage more widespread awareness and adoption of parental control tools and online child safety methods, they will need to expand their current efforts considerably and look at a bill introduced by Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) entitled the "Safeguarding America's Families by Enhancing and Reorganizing New and Efficient Technologies Act of 2006," or "SAFER NET" Act (H.R. 1008). The measure seeks to better coordinate and expand online safety education and efforts at the federal level by creating a new Office of Internet Safety and Public Awareness at the Federal Trade Commission that is explicitly responsible for improving public awareness and education about Internet safety.

If the legislation she introduced were ever implemented, the new FTC Office of Internet Safety and Public Awareness could co-create plans and materials for other lawmakers and communities.   Officials from that office, along with experts such as Greg Writer who can speak out from personal experience and share the importance of the educational aspect of CEN's technology, might be available to assist lawmakers or even accompany them on speaking tours to discuss parental controls and online child safety.

I say someone needs to light a fire under these candidates and get them talking about an issue they say, except on the campaign trail so far, is important to them. 

• 20% of youth include swear words in their MySpace profiles and 33% of MySpace pages have swear words in the comments sections.
•  18% of youth MySpace pages contain evidence of consumption of alcohol by minors
• 64% of teens post photos or videos of themselves online, while more than half (58%) post info about where they live. 
• 32% of all teens and 43% of teens active in social networking have been contacted online by a complete stranger. 69% of teens regularly receive personal messages online from people they don't know and most of them don't tell a trusted adult about it
• 23% of children have had an encounter with a stranger on the Internet, including 7% of children who reported having met someone in the real world from the Internet
• 79% of sexual solicitation incidents happened to youth while they were using their home computer
• 40% of solicitations began with a solicitor communicating with a youth through an instant message or IM
• 56% of solicitations contained a request for the youth to send photographs of themselves to the solicitor and 27% of solicitations contained a request for the youth to send a sexual picture of themselves

·         34% of youth have encountered unwanted sexual material while online

• Common cyber-bullying behaviors include name-calling, spreading of gossip or sensitive information, threats, teasing, sexual harassment, being ignored or disrespected, and being deceived by a bully who is misrepresenting themselves
• 43% of youth report that they have experienced some form of cyber-bullying in the last year. The incidence of cyber-bullying is most prevalent among 15- and 16-year-olds, particularly among girls

 Please claim your FREE Kid Safe software and parental controls at http://www.Tuki.com.