Parent Cyber Guide

Updated 3-2015

Mobile Phone Safety

Updated 3-2015

Askfm - What it is and what parents need to know

Ask.fm is a conversational Q&A service. Users can create a profile where other users can post questions anonymously or with a name. Questions that have recently been answered are visible on the user’s profile. Ask.fm allows users to record video answers as well. The website has been translated into 24 languages, making it available to users all over the world.

Cypersmart Families Guide

This Cybersmart Guide for Families is produced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) and is part of the Australian Government’s broad cybersafety program. The program includes education and awareness activities and resources for parents, children, teachers and library staff throughout Australia.

The ACMA is responsible for the regulation of broadcasting, the internet, radiocommunications and

telecommunications.

The area of internet safety and security is broad, and only key issues are covered in this guide.

Facebook's New Privacy Settings

In response to recent criticism, Facebook has added new privacy settings and made them easier to access. The new
settings give users more security options for who can view content that’s on their profile. In a nutshell, the new privacy settings address tagging, blocking events, blocking apps, and setting visibility restrictions to the public and friends.

Helping Kids Understand Their Digital Footprint

It’s easy to talk in general about an important topic and apply a catchy phrase to it without our kids really ever understanding it. When it comes to explaining the weight of their digital footprint kids can quickly glaze over and check out if we fail to speak in terms that matter to them.

How to Set Up Safe Web Browsing on iOS7

If you subscribe to Yoursphere for Parents, then you know how much I advocate for Apple products in your home (and mine!) I’ve written time and time again about the parental controls that Apple offers through the Restriction settings of the iPhone, iPod and iPad. These have always been great tools for helping your child or teen have an age-appropriate and safe experience on their iDevice. As iOS7 makes its way onto more and more iDevices —especially with the recent lease of the 5S and 5C—it’s important that parents know what changes have been made to the operating system.

Kik - What It Is and What Parents Need to Know

Parents are concerned about sexting – and rightfully so. But as a result of that concern, I believe there’s also a heightened sense of awareness among parents. I get emails from parents every day, asking how to prevent their child from downloading certain apps, and what’s the best way to monitor what their child is doing on their smartphone. Sexting continues to be an underlying concern in all of these conversations — probably because kids and teens use their smartphones to text more than anything else, and according to kids in the UK, sexting is just the new way to flirt. But what a lot of parents aren’t aware of is the fact that their child doesn’t need to be on a texting plan in order to text. There are plenty of third-party apps that offer texting services for free, and one that has come up in
several conversations that I’ve had with parents is Kik.

Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools