SafeKids.com

Life360 is one of several apps that let you track family members

Thanks to my ConnectSafely.org co-director Anne Collier for her thoughtful post about cell phone tracking that concludes “most parents don’t really need software to parent.”  I of course agree. What she said about tracking apps, tracks (no pun intended) what I’ve long said about content filtering. The best filter isn’t the one on the device, but the one that runs between the  child’s ears. Still, I think a case can be made for using software to check in on your kids’ location as a way to reassure worried parents and free kids from having to call or text home to let mom and dad know they’re OK.

Anne linked to an article in Time that briefly describes some of the tracking programs available, in its attempt to answer the question of whether parents should use smartphones to track their kids. Time reports that “Some 20 million people have already downloaded Life360, a location app that allows family members to alert one another when they’ve arrived at various spots and to follow one another’s movements with by-the-minute updates.”  Another product covered in the overview is SMS Tracker that allows parents to see all incoming and outgoing texts, call logs and photos.

A product that tracks and monitors all phone calls, text messages, GPS location and web browsing is more like spying than parenting

While there may be some extreme cases where monitoring every text and phone call makes sense for parents of high-risk kids, I don’t generally recommend products that spy on kids’ texts, phone calls or web surfing.  I’m OK with programs that alert parents if their kids do something potentially dangerous, but tracking their every online move is not only overly invasive but leads to too much information. When my kids were young, we wanted to know who they were hanging out with,  but we didn’t plant a device on them to record conversations with their friends.

Location tracking

Glympse — which must be enabled by the user — can be used to track location, movement and speed but expires in no more than 4 hours

I actually think there is a justification for location tracking as long as it’s used for reassurance as opposed to spying.  It can even be used to give family members a bit more freedom as a substitute for having them always having to call in or ask permission to go from place to place. And I don’t think it should necessarily be limited to kids. They can also be reassuring when used voluntarily by adult family members as well.

Confessions of a worried parent

Smartphone tracking apps weren’t available when my kids (now 26 and 28) were young, but if they were, I think we might have used them.  I wouldn’t use a program to track my kid’s every move but if they were out late at night and I couldn’t reach them, I might use the program just to make sure they’re OK. If I saw they were at a friend’s house or perhaps a local eatery, I could relax and stop worrying.

When my son was in high school, he had a debit card that enabled me to track his spending online. One night my wife and I were out of town and he was staying with a friend. The friend’s parent called me to ask if I knew where their son and my son were and of course I didn’t. I then logged into his debit account and saw that he bought a meal at a local restaurant just a few minutes earlier, which reassured me and his friend’s parents that they weren’t lying it a ditch somewhere.

Even now, I sometimes use Glympse to reassure family members of my location.  Gympse is a free smartphone apps that allows you to share your location with anyone for up to 4 hours (as a privacy and anti-stalking measure it can’t be set to permanently track anyone).  If you’re in a car, it shows your movement and speed on a map (though this can be disabled).  One day when my son was on a long drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, he voluntarily let me track him so I didn’t have to worry if he was OK.  I’ve also used Apple’s Find My Phone app to reassure myself that family members are OK when they’re out late at night.

Conversation is the key

The key to using these apps successfully is getting everyone to agree.  If you’re a worried parent who wants to be able to know where your kids are, ask them if they’re willing to let you track their location in exchange for greater freedom.  Tell them that they don’t have to call or text-in as often or put up with you’re bugging them and consider giving them some additional freedoms in exchange for them giving you some additional peace of mind.

*Disclosure: I am co-director of ConnectSafely.org, a non-profit Internet safety organization which receives financial support from several companies, including Glympse.

A report issued by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and McAfee security found that “17 percent say they have been a victim of a crime that was committed over the Internet such as identity theft, data theft, bullying or auction fraud.”

When considering the data, be aware that not all crimes were serious.  Still, the release of this study — along with the fact that a bunch of companies and non-profits have designated October as “National Cyber Security Awareness Month” is as good a time as any to remind ourselves about this important topic.

October is National “Almost Everything Month”

Not to dismiss the importance of this special month but October is also National Bullying Awareness Month along with National Book Month, National Work and Family Month, National Dental Hygiene Month, Let’s Talk Month and so many more, according to Wikipedia.

For more on the survey see “State of cybersecurity concerns” from my ConnectSafely.org co-director, Anne Collier.

So, whether it’s October or any other month, you should still pay attention to cyber security  Not only are you protecting yourself and your family  but the rest of us as well.  Vulnerable machines that are taken over by “zombies” are a threat to everyone on the net.

You’ll find plenty of good advice at StaySafeOnline.org in addition to the following suggestions from NCSA:

• When in doubt, throw it out: Links in email, tweets, posts, and online advertising are often the way cybercriminals compromise your computer. If it looks suspicious, even if you know the source, it’s best to delete or if appropriate, mark as junk email.
• Get savvy about Wi-Fi hotspots: Limit the type of business you conduct and adjust the security settings on your device to limit who can access your machine.
• Protect your Money: When banking and shopping, check to be sure the site is security enabled. Look for Web addresses with “https://” or “shttp://”, which means the site takes extra measures to help secure your information. “Http://” is not secure.
• Think before you act: Be wary of communications that implores you to act immediately, offers something that sounds too good to be true, or asks for personal information.
• Back it up: Protect your valuable work, music, photos, and other digital information by making an electronic copy and storing it safely.
• Help the authorities fight cyber crime: Report stolen finances or identities and other cybercrime to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov) and to your local law enforcement or state attorney general as appropriate.

The organization also advises consumers to:

• Keep security software current: Having the latest security software, web browser, and operating system are the best defenses against viruses, malware, and other online threats.
• Automate software updates: Many software programs will automatically connect and update to defend against known risks. Turn on automatic updates if that’s an available option.
• Protect all devices that connect to the Internet: Along with computers, smart phones, gaming systems, and other web-enabled devices also need protection from viruses and malware.
• Plug & scan: “USBs” and other external devices can be infected by viruses and malware. Use your security software to scan them.

by Larry Magid

October is National Bullying Awareness Month and that’s mostly a good thing because it reminds us that bullying can be hurtful and can be prevented.  But part of “awareness,” is being aware that most kids don’t bully.  In fact, numerous studies have shown that the norm among most American (and other) kids is to treat each other respectfully.

A 2011 study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project for the Family Online Safety Institute found that “Overall, 69% of social media-using teens think that peers are mostly kind to each other on social network sites.”  Unfortunately, “another 20% say that peers are mostly unkind, while 11% volunteered that “it depends.” That’s an issue we need to confront, but it’s important to realize that about 7 in 10 kids are mostly experiencing kindness, not rudeness and certainly not bullying or harassment.

It’s also important to remember that not all rudeness is necessarily bullying. Bullying is typically repetitive and usually involves a power differential. Kids making jokes about each other –even while sometimes not all that kind — are not necessarily engaged in bullying.

I say this not just to defend our kids but to remind adults that it’s actually a mistake to combat bullying by exaggerating its frequency and its impact.  Yes it happens and yes it can be bad but the last thing we need is to create the impression that its common because if it’s common it must be normal and if it’s normal it must be OK.  It’s not normal and it’s not OK.

Bullying on the decline

As Crimes Against Children Research Center Director David Finkelhor recently wrote “Bullying, in spite of the new attention has been receiving, has been on the wane.”

Writing in NetFamilyNews, My ConnectSafely.org co-director Anne Collier recently pointed out that “Most kids do not engage in bullying or cyberbullying” and “The prevalence of cyberbullying has been widely overstated.”  She pointed to a USA Today article that cited research that found “not many students report being bullied online at all.”  USA Today quoted renowned bullying expert Dan Olweaus saying “There is very little scientific support to show that cyberbullying has increased over the past five to six years, and this form of bullying is actually a less frequent phenomenon.”

A 2010 study by Finkelhor and other scholars found that the percentage of youth (2-17) reporting physical bullying in the previous year went down from 22 percent to 15 percent between 2003 and 2008.

The fact that bullying may be going down rather than up is not a reason to stop campaigning against bullying. The fact that it happens at all is terrible and we need to stop it when it happens. But as we educate against bullying we need to remind ourselves, other adults and children that most kids don’t bully and most kids — like most adults — want to live in a society where people are compassionate with each other.

Contrary to some media reports, there is not an epidemic of bullying and as I wrote a year ago, exaggerating the problem can increase the risk.

For more on the dangers of exagerating risk, see this slide show:

by Larry Magid

As a journalist I don’t endorse candidates, but that rule doesn’t apply when it comes to endorsing birds, whether real or stuffed.

Like lots of others  I was concerned on Wednesday night when Governor Romney suggested ending the federal subsidy for PBS despite his affection for Big Bird.

Of course, the actual cost of PBS is more like “bird seed.” According to the Christian Science Monitor, it’s about $445 million which is less than 1/100th of 1% of the Federal budget.

I took this proposal personally for two reasons. First as a parent who’s kids benefited tremendously from PBS’s children’s programs and second because I’m an (unpaid) member of a PBS Kids advisory board, where I learn first hand about the incredible educational outreach done by PBS to schools across the country, with a special emphasis on providing free services to low income populations. I’ve also reviewed some of PBS’s excellent learning games, apps and web sites that provide incredible resources on all platforms with some pretty advanced technology, including its early use of augmented reality, using tablets to bring static objects to life.  Click here for an interview I did last year with PBS CEO Paula Kerger about some of their offerings for kids and schools.

PBS Learning recently launched an election site, where it truly does provide fair and balanced information while encouraging students to take an interest in this important election.

While I’m not endorsing either candidate for President, I am willing to wage a campaign for my favorite bird, which is why I just launched a new site called  DefendBigBird.com,

A new browser for iPad lets parents and teachers block porn

There is finally a way to let kids access the web on an iPad without having access to porn.

The Apple iPad is a phenomenal success not only among consumers and business users but in schools as well. It turns out to be an incredibly popular device for children  who take to its user interface immediately and intuitively.  It’s no wonder that lots of iPads wind up in the hands of children.

But there is a problem. When it comes to the ability for parents and educators to control what their kids can do using Apple’s Safari browser, there are only two choices: On and Off.  The adult in charge can disable access to Apple’s Safari browser but there is no built-in way to give kids access to appropriate content and keep them away from porn.  What’s more, there can only be one account associated with an iPad (or an iPhone too) so, unlike PCs and Macs that allow for multiple users accounts, if you share an iPad, every user — whether 4 or 40 —  has access to the same software and same rules on engagement.

PCs and Macs allow for multiple user accounts but not iPads and iPhones

As far as I know, only Apple can solve the problem of only one account, but MetaCert, a San Francisco-based company that’s dedicated to protecting kids from pornography, has released a new browser — called Olly — that provides all the features of Safari plus the ability for parents to turn on “safe browsing,” which filters out millions of porn sites.

Because Apple does make it possible to disable Safari, it’s possible to make Olly the only available browser. Parents can always turn Safari back on when they’re using the iPad but after using Olly for awhile, I think it makes more sense for parents to simply use Olly with safe browsing turned off.

Easy to use

Olly is very easy to download, install and use. Parents assign themselves a four digit numeric passcode that enables them to not only turn Olly’s safe browsing mode on or off, but to add additional sites to the filter list including Badoo, BlogSpot, Digg, FaceBook and Twitter, however By default these sites are not blocked, which is smart,since there are plenty of good reasons why kids should have access to social networking sites.

Olly allows you to toggle safe browsing and block specific sites

Once it’s configured, every web request is passed through MetaCert’s filtering system, which currently labels 638 million sites.  If the site isn’t on the list, you get to it instantly. If it is, you see a page telling you it’s blocked.

Olly also allows parents to add pages to be blocked and to report if a site should be blocked or unblocked.

In my tests, Olly performed well, but no filtering system is going to be 100% effective. Parents and teachers still need to supervise their kids’ use of technology and set ground rules on appropriate use of technology. Still, Olly is another tool in the toolbox which not only helps parents, but makes it easier for schools to allow kids to access the web without having to worry about kids looking at porn.

Currently, Olly is available only for the iPad. iPhone, iPod Touch and Android versions are forthcoming.  MetaCert also publishes porn blocking plug-ins for Chrome and Firefox.

Update: After this article was first posted, I heard about another filtered browser for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch called McGruff (as in the crime dog) SafeGuard. I tested it and found that it has overly zealous  defaults. I configured it for a 16 year-old and it banned Facebook, Planned Parenthood, Kaiser Permanente  and other health related sites, by default. It allowed access to the National Pro-Life Action Center but banned Focus on the Family’s website.  Parents can override the defaults but defaults are important and, whether intended or not, make  a statement about what is and isn’t appropriate.

McGruff SafeGuard,by default, blocks Facebook, blogs and health sites like Kaiser Permanente

I certainly understand why Huffington Post blogger Soraya Chemaly wants Facebook to take down the page entitled “Boobs breasts and boys who love em,” and of course there are many reasonable people who feel that Google (which owns YouTube) should remove that horrible anti-Muslim video that has been associated with sometimes violent demonstrations in Arab countries.

The Facebook “boobs” page (Chemaly links to it, but I won’t) is incredibly sexist and distasteful. Yet, as offensive as these pictures are, they do not violate Facebook’s Community Standards that don’t tolerate hate speech, graphic content or nudity and pornography, among other categories.

The images on the page are definitely not nude and don’t pass any reasonable test for pornography. One could argue that they’re hateful towards women, but that’s not an opinion everyone would share and it certainly doesn’t “attack a person based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition.”

YouTube has blocked access to “The Innocence of Muslims” in Libya and Egypt (where it is illegal) but won’t ban it in the U.S. and most other countries.  In response to pressure from the White House and other quarters, Google issued a statement (as reported by AP) that the video “is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube. However, given the very difficult situation in Libya and Egypt we have temporarily restricted access in both countries. Our hearts are with the families of the people murdered in yesterday’s attack in Libya.”

In its Community Guidlines, YouTube doesn’t permit hate speech, which it defines as “speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity.” I suppose it’s up to interpretation as to whether this video “attacks or demeans a group”  As the New York Times pointed out, “Under YouTube’s terms of service, hate speech is speech against individuals, not against groups. Because the video mocks Islam but not Muslim people, it has been allowed to stay on the site in most of the world,” a company spokesperson told the Times.

Tough call

Regulating nasty and offensive speech, even for private companies is a tough call even though (unlike government entities in the U.S) they have a legal right to ban just about anything they want. On one hand, banning offensive Facebook pages and hateful YouTube videos would be popular among many people. Yet, having to make decisions on a page-by-page or video-by-video basis without adhering to guidelines, sets a dangerous precedent because it would require censors at the companies to make value decisions about the nature of specific content their users post. It’s one thing to enforce guidelines, but it’s something different to make exceptions just because a piece of content is offensive.

Solemn responsibility

Combined, Facebook and Google have a reach that’s bigger than any of the world’s governments, so decisions made by these companies have enormous weight, even though they have nothing to do with the rule of law. As a result, it’s incumbent on these companies to treat speech with an enormous amount of reverence. They do have a right to set limits that exceed speech rules in democratic countries like the U.S. but they also have a solemn responsibility to take their roles seriously and not arbitrarily censor content unless it clearly violates their stated guidelines.

Please comment on Twitter (@LarryMagid) and Facebook.

PBS provides election resources for students and teachers

Even though most K-12 students can’t vote, they do have an interest in the 2012 election. And if schools do their job right, students will be inclined to vote and make informed decisions when they turn 18.

To help in that important goal, PBS Learning Media, a division of the Public Broadcasting Service, has launched an election site with resources for classrooms.

The site provides teachers with the tools they need to help students understand the election process and the issues facing this year’s voters.

You need an account but you don’t have to be teacher to get one (I designated myself as an “Informal teacher” but you can also select “other.”)

In addition to resources from PBS, the site also has audio from NPR as well as games such as “Documenting Key Presidential Decisions,” where students see documents related to important historical presidential decisions and try to identify the president associated with the document.

Other useful election related sites include Face The Facts USA which is presenting a fact a day between now and the election (it actually started 100 days before the election) and AllSides.com which presents news about the election from the perspective of the left, the right and the center.

By Larry Magid

The Federal Trade Commission’s proposed revisions of the rules that implement the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is well meaning and well-timed. It’s well meaning in that the FTC truly does care about the privacy and safety of children and it’s well-timed in that it’s the first revision since COPPA was implemented back in 1999 during the days of Web 1.0.  Back then there was no Facebook and no smart phone apps. There were websites, including some that were using information collected from children to send them marketing pitches, which is why Congress decided to clamp down with a law that requires verifiable parental consent before a site could collect personally identifiable information from children under 13.

COPPA 2.0

Over the last several months, the FTC has been taking another look at COPPA, seeking to update it to modern times and, in August, issued a proposed set of new rules.

As I wrote at the time, the new rules recognized some of the changes such as the role of apps and third party plug-ins and sought to add Internet protocol addresses (IP address) to the list of “persistent identifiers” that also includes tracking cookies that are used to display ads based on a user’s behavior, in some cases on sites other than the site displaying the ad.

I also mentioned some unintended negative consequences of the rule changes, which prompted my ConnectSafely.org co-director Anne Collier and me to submit an official comment for the FTC to consider as it finalizes its rule changes.

Unintended consequences & ConnectSafely’s FTC comment

Our comment, which we’ve posted on ConnectSafely.org, outlines our concerns about the unintended consequences for both children and small businesses that create apps for mobile and social networking platforms.  While we are sympathetic to the (mostly) small businesses that create apps, our primary concern is, of course, for children and we believe that over-regulation could actually jeopardize children’s privacy and safety.  I know that sounds a bit far reaching but consider that the proposed rules could — among other things — require parents to verify the identity of children who click on YouTube videos if those videos are embedded on sites aimed at children — a common practice.

Requiring that parents submit child’s name and age to both the site operator and to the source of the embed, is a “remedy” that’s more harmful than the disease it seeks to cure.  Curently, Google and virtually every other site on the Internet (including this one) gets the IP address of every visitor. In theory, it could be possible to identify the household or device of that individual in some cases, but in practice is extremely difficult and generally requires a court order. But if the FTC requires parents to verify their child’s identity, that very information the rule is attempting to protect, will in fact be disclosed. That doesn’t protect children, it makes them more vulnerable.

Platforms and compliant apps

Another proposed rule change would hold both the platform developers (like Apple, Facebook and Google) and the developers who write apps for their ecosystem responsible for compliance with COPPA without providing the app developer additional resources to comply. It strike us that if the FTC wants to extend its rules to app developers (a reasonable idea), it should enable platform developers to provide the verification for them with the assurances that there are consequences for any app developer who fails to comply.   We wrote:

“An updated COPPA rule should make it practical for platform operators such as Apple, Google and Facebook to enable parents to provide verifiable consent to the platform which can then pass it on to app developers – most of whom are very small businesses with few if any resources for collecting consent on their own – with the understanding that the developers must adhere to COPPA guidelines or be subject to being kicked off the platform as well as to any potential civil or criminal consequences.

Our comment also covers the chilling impact that the rules could have on small businesses that offer education and entertainment resources to children. We worry that the cost of compliance will discourage legitimate businesses from catering to children while having no impact on sleazy businesses that will continue to violate the privacy of children and other visitors.  Of course kids will continue to seek content, but if well-meaning legitimate businesses fail to provide it, kids could be driven “underground” to sites — perhaps some operating from outside the United States — that are only more than happy to “serve” and potentially exploit them.  As my ConnectSafely.org co-director Anne Collier stated it in her recent post about COPPA, “The more government tries to regulate, requiring protections that by definition restrict children’s free expression, the less likely it is that children will stick around to “enjoy” that safety. If they do go underground to sites, apps, games or other services that aren’t compliant – whether in the US or outside of it.”

COPPA could be “so 2012″

Finally, we worry that an overly specific set of COPPA rules could quickly render the legislation obsolete in the face of ever changing technology. We do support a broad framework that requires sites to operate ethically but we also feel that there needs to be an on-the-ground constant conversation involving the stakeholders including the sites and apps, parents and the kids themselves. As we said in our comment:

The last thing we want is for people to look back at COPPA revisions a few years from now and say, “that’s so 2012.”

AT&T urges young drivers to “take the pledge”

Back in the days before deregulation, AT&T was nicknamed “Ma Bell.”  The new AT&T is no longer called that, but — at least when it comes to safety – it’s acting motherly towards teenaged drivers by encouraging them not to text while driving. The company just launched its It Can Wait campaign to get young drivers to pledge not to text while behind the wheel.

An AT&T survey found that 75% of teens say it’s “common” for their friends to text while driving but that can change. Smoking was once “common” as was failing to use a seat-belt, but social norms (along with laws) have changed that over time.

The dangers of texting and other activities that distract drivers are well documented.  Research, reported on the government site distraction.gov, found that ‘In 2010, 3,092 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver and an estimated additional 416,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver.” A 2009 Car and Driver study found that texting is even more dangerous than drunk driving. It was based on a very limited sample, but comparisons to DUI aside, other studies have conclusively shown that texting while driving decreases reaction time and increases the risk of an accident.

What I like about the AT&T campaign is that it’s using social media to change social norms. The site links to a Facebook page where drivers can “take the pledge” not to text and drive. I took it and encouraged my Facebook friends to do likewise.

I took the pledge and posted it on Facebook

AT&T competitors, Verizon and Sprint, also caution their customers not to text while driving. Here’s Sprint’s “Focus on Driving” page. Verizon is conducting a “Don’t Text and Drive Pledge” in Ohio high schools and has done other educational work on the subject.

Disclosure: I’m co-director of ConnectSafely.org, a non-profit organization that has received support from AT&T to do research on texting while driving