Kids Email Blog - Protecting Children is our Priority

Have You Heard About Chatroulette.com?

March 10, 2010 | Author: kimberly.sloan

This is the site that pairs people in random chats. A woman in Texas may be paired to chat with a man in Japan. Anyone can join and no one is screened. That means your children could be paired with sex offenders and other felons. On Monday the Texas attorney general warned parents to make sure their children are not on the site.

However, the site has been featured on Saturday Night Live and the Jon Stewart Show so your kids may want to join. Warn them about the dangers and hope they listen. For more information on the Texas attorney general’s warning visit http://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagNews/release.php?id=3239.

What They Don’t Tell You About Being a Parent

March 9, 2010 | Author: kimberly.sloan

As I was scanning my Facebook posts today one of my friends, who is a new parent, posted that he didn’t wasn’t told how much it would affect you to hear stories of children being harmed after you have a child. He said it more elquoently than that but you get the picture.

I know exactly what he is feeling. I became a parent after a decade of reporting on crime. It always upset me to hear that a child had been hurt, but since my child has been born it has been so much harder to hear. We have to be vigilant and use all of the tools at our disposal to keep our kids safe offline and online.

Posted in Internet Safety | Leave a Comment

Happy Families Mentions KidsEmail.org

February 23, 2010 | Author: kimberly.sloan

Justin Coulson writes a great blog called Happy Families. If you are not reading it, I high recommend it. He has great advice from the Land Down Under.

His blog from today mentions KidsEmail.org. You can read it here.

http://happyfamiliesblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-are-your-children-doing-online.html

Posted in Internet Safety, Reviews, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Great headline!

February 22, 2010 | Author: kimberly.sloan

“It’s like Inviting Pedophiles Into Your Home” –Internet Safety.

This was the recent headline on a column in the Huffington Post. It sounds extreme, but it’s true. Pedophiles don’t often break into your home and hurt your children. They like to take the easy route and hide behind their computer screens.

Read the full article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheila-lirio-marcelo/its-like-inviting-pedophi_b_458213.html

Posted in Internet Safety, Internet Safety News, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Who’s watching your kids?

February 19, 2010 | Author: kimberly.sloan

Back in the 80’s there was a popular saying, “It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?” The premise behind the saying was that we should be watching our kids all the time. But in the 80’s parents could have never imagined the Internet and the dangers that it can bring.

As much as we would like to have our eyes on our kids every minute of every day, it’s not possible. KidsEmail.org is one tool you can use to keep your kids safe from online dangers.

Posted in Internet Safety, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Massachusetts Court Rules that Text Messages are not Illegal When Used by Sexual Predators

February 16, 2010 | Author: kimberly.sloan

You read that right. That was an actual headline in the Boston Globe this month. Here’s the back story:

A man in California was sending a 13-year-old girl sexually explicit messages. The Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts ruled that instant messages were not covered under the current law.

What do you think? Here’s a link to the story so that you can read other comments.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/instant_message.html?comments=all#readerComm

Posted in Internet Safety, Internet Safety News, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Kids Email on the Radio

February 10, 2010 | Author: ajandersen

Listen to internet radio with Dave and Bill on Blog Talk Radio

Posted in Reviews | Leave a Comment

Do We Really Want to Feed Our Kids Spam?

February 9, 2010 | Author: kimberly.sloan

I am talking about the kind of spam that tells you that you have chosen as the winner of an X-Box or that you can lose 10 pounds today. I talk a lot about howKidsEmail.org protects our kids from predators, but we also shield your children from spam peddlers.

Kids are apt to believe anything sometimes—they are kids. One day my son and I were playing a game online when an annoying pop-up claimed that we were one of 10 people selected to win an X-Box. All we had to do was click on the ad. My son was about to jump out of of his skin thinking we had really won something. He pointed out that the ad said, “this is not a joke.” He was totally convinced we were big winners. Until they understand the difference between legitimate advertising and spam, our kids need a filter.

I realize that people need to market their products. I don’t object to legitimate marketing efforts. But senseless spam is annoying. Oh, and just to show you what I am talking about, here’s a comment I deleted from our blog comments:

“I enjoyed the article and thanks because of posting such valuable paperback to the bathroom to all of us to skim.”

I am glad I can post valuable paperback for you.

Posted in About KidsEmail, Internet Safety, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

New York Officials Find More than 3,500 Sex Offenders on Social Networking Sites

February 6, 2010 | Author: kimberly.sloan

Social networking is becoming a popular tool for parents and children to share photos and information about their life. It’s also become a popular place for sex offenders to search for new victims. In New York, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that more than 3,500 sex offenders from his state were found on the popular sites Facebook and MySpace. Both companies deleted the accounts.

While laws prohibit sex offenders from logging onto social networks, many are still able to establish accounts using aliases and public computers. Both sites ban children under the age of 13 from having accounts.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10406914-93.html.

Posted in Internet Safety News, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

New Study Reveals Interesting Facts about Kids and the Computer

February 3, 2010 | Author: kimberly.sloan

As a child in the 70s (ooops, I am telling my age), a lot of emphasis was placed on playing outside. Kids seem to be getting away from outdoor activity. A new study from the Kaiser Foundation, kids between the ages of 7 and 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day using some form of media, including the computer. When you consider that school is about seven hours a day and they do need to sleep that leaves time for little else.

Much of that time on the computer could be doing school work. The study does show that kids are spending more time online.

That’s why it is so important to have safety measures in place for when your kids are online. If you have any questions about KidsEmail.org or internet safety, please ask us.

Here’s a link to the article.

http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012010nr.cfm

Posted in Internet Safety News, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment