Alliance to Protect Our Children
Here are some tips from world-renown security expert and ex high profile hacker Kevin Mitnick on how to keep our kids safe when using a computer.
Anything that worries you as a parent of your kids using a computer.
Feel free to ask in the comments area we will do our best to give you possible solutions.
If you want to read more about our experience at the ISSA 2012 Puerto Rico conference where we met Kevin feel free to stop by.
As a parent, one of your main goals should be to have your children go on their own and embrace the world without you needing to be there.
Every time my daughter accomplishes something that gives her more independence, I get extremely happy.
I don’t want to overprotect my daughter because I know it can halt her growth in many aspects. I want her to build the courage to do things and not have to wait for anyone.
I want her to pave her own path. Only then can she change the world by making sure she guides herself and expects more of herself every day.
On multiple occasions I have seen how my daughter opens the iPad and searches for her favorite applications. Other things she does are related to self sustaining herself in the future from attempting to put on her clothes, to cooking with her mom by cutting mushrooms, and even making cupcakes or muffins; she is always seeking ways to do things on her own.
She will ask for help when she does not get the result or can’t find something. For the most part she is exploring and observing what she wants to learn and do next..
I smile when I see that she has discovered something new to do on the iPad or that she figured out how to put on a piece of wardrobe. On most occasions her mom and I have taught her how to do certain tasks but most of the time she has figured it out on her own by observing me like inserting her favorite movie into the Blueray/Dvd.
I remember reading in Steve Jobs Biography
I have to tell Steve that based on my personal experiences with my daughter, I can’t see how they could have made it any easier it is our job now to get into that kind of thinking where critical tasks that our kids need to learn can become second nature to them early on.
As I see my daughter exploring new things and with progress, we are committed to keep the momentum going.
One day I want her to say Dad I have everything under control.
But until then I will handle the next task at being independent; potty training.
P.S. Thanks Aaron Manley (owner of Motorphilia) for helping me understand this a lot better in a simple 45 minute conversation on your long term goals as a parent almost a year ago.
Recommended Reading
My daughter is fascinated by anything that clearly looks like a phone. She gets very curious by watching adults talking in to a small rectangle.
Instead of her grabbing her toys, she decides to go for our phones whenever she has a chance. With my previous iPhone 4, I had an Otterbox Reflex Case. So when she grabbed my iPhone and tossed it around it was kept safely inside the Reflex Case.
On one occasion our daughter attempted to use my phone as a toy for our black Labrador Juanga to fetch. I stressed out after seeing thinking of what could have happened if she had thrown the phone with out a case. I am sure it would have been worst than when I accidentally dropped my new iPad 2.
An iPhone can be a very instructional and fun toy for kids when it is used properly.
When it is thrown as a fetch toy, not so much.
As a parent, I am continuously making sure I keep my new iPhone 5 away from our 21 month old’s reach. I ordered some cases from Otterbox that took longer than it should to arrive at our home. I really don’t want to be part of the statistics of spending 5.9 Billion on Damaged iPhones.
After watching this video from SquareTrade, I felt a bit better that I choose an iPhone 5 since it seems to withstand drops and even falling in the water compared to its competitor Samsung Galaxy S3.
The combination of children and pets using phones as toys is more common these days because everyone has a Smartphone in their hands at all times. Since we are in such a rush to do things around the home, as parents, some of us leave the phones hanging around for the dog or child to have access to them. Having a parenting blog also gives us the opportunity to talk our community about their experiences with accidents regarding their Smartphone.
The folks at SquareTrade offered the Papaheroes core team of Rick, Lucy, and I warranties in exchange for our community to learn about the warranties they offer. And we certainly said, “Yes” to that offer! So if you feel like most of the cases are too clunky, and you feel brave enough to go case-free, you might want to look into buying a warranty for your new iPhone 5 just in case.
Disclosure: We will receive 3 Complimentary SquareTrade warranties for our core team members devices. I don’t feel that this influenced the writing of this post in any way.
Do you have any Smartphone nightmares?
Has your Smartphone perished at the hands of your children or dogs?
If you share your Smartphone Nightmare story, we will pick a person at random, to recieve a FREE Warranty for your phone provided by SquareTrade.
Here is a bit more about SquareTrade and what they do:
One of the great thing of using social platforms as Facebook, Twitter, and Google + is that you can connect with individuals that might have the same interests as you.
As I shared pictures of Ignacio Peña’s El Gran Debate del Planeta Tierra and commented on the great time and experience my Facebook Friend Wanda Tirado contacted me that her daughter had been in the same event.
Wanda Tirado mentioned that her kid could not stop talking about her experience of being present at what I call Ignacio’s Science School of Rock.
I took the liberty to ask Wanda if her daughter Andrea could answer a few questions on the experience. Wanda and her daughter Andrea quickly agreed and the next day I did my first interview with Wanda as my correspondent.
Here are some of the replies of what 9th grade student Andrea Nicole Berrios Tirado from the school Ernesto Ramos Antonini Escuela Libre De Musica experienced.
Interview done by Raúl [RC] via Facebook with the help and permission of Andrea’s [ANB] mom Wanda Tirado.
[RC] Had you ever listened to Ignacio Peña before going to the Event?
[ANB] No, I had never listened to Ignacio Peña before.
[RC] What music do you usually listen too?
[ANB] I normally listen to Rap, Hip Hop, Pop, and Techno.
[RC] What part of the event did you like the most?
[ANB] I liked when the first song started and when I was reading the visuals that where coming out of the three screens during the concert.
[RC] Was there a scientist that captured your attention during the visual presentation?
[ANB] I was very interested by a scientist in a wheelchair that spoke via a computer…I don’t know his name. (Stephen Hawking)
[RC] Was there a scientific fact that you found interesting?
[ANB] How the world would end if we continue to contaminate it and also what happens in the atmosphere. That impacted me greatly.
I really enjoyed the fact that Andrea Nicole and I, although of very different ages, where actually seeing things from the same perspective. Another pat on the back to Ignacio’s team because it is always difficult to create the same impressions on different people; even more difficult when they are from different age groups.
We experienced how Ignacio was immersing kids into his style of music while captivating them with great information and knowledge of what is happening with our mother earth.
I am glad that Facebook gave me the opportunity to see “El Gran Debate del Planeta Tierra” from the lens of a 9th grade student.
Special thanks to Wanda for being a Super mom and super daughter Andrea for rising to the occasion so I could get her perspective.
How are your Kids learning? Are they immersed in Science?
What types of Music are they listening too?
I think taking your children to an event like Ignacio’s is a unique experience where they will learn and never forget.
My daughter is about to turn 18 months in a few days and different to how her mom and I were brought up, she has been immersed in technology from day one. The first time I shared a picture of her was when I predicted that a female blogger was born on my blog. Given that mom and dad run an IT Consulting Firm, does not help the fact that gadgets are laying around which are used for work but our daughter can find a way to play with them.
When it comes to technology our daughter interacts with technology mainly via IOS apps.
Now that my daughter is able to talk she requests her favorite apps on the iPad by name such as Toy Story Read-Along, Wood Puzzle, Curious George at the Zoo, GarageBand and lately the Elmo Loves ABCs app.
She really enjoys apps that have music or music videos.
Since our daughter enjoys Music, I tend to find Music Videos that play music in all genres and appropriate for her. I also recommend that if you’re a stay at home dad (parent) like me, it might be a good idea to have more than one monitor (It helps with productivity). Overall her favorite videos come from our friend Payasa Agapita. Agapita is a bilingual clown who primarily creates videos in Spanish (great if you want kids to learn Spanish).
Here is her latest video including her clown pals Che-Che and Potoco with some really cute dogs.
Since our daughter is still developing in all areas (language, physical, sensory skills) we keep her immersed with technology but thankfully we have a balance keeping her busy doing manual things. As much as she enjoys watching videos online and playing her favorite iPad apps, she also enjoys going outside smelling Basil in our garden, playing with rice, water, reading, painting, and searching for the moon at night.
What technologies do your kids like and interact with?
What restrictions do you put upon them?
When Raul came to me with the idea of starting PapaHeroes, I said it was a great idea to blog about parenting and how he wanted to help other parents understand the pros and cons of today’s technology. We have created awareness of various negative experiences throughout various posts on PapaHeroes.
Here are a few and the most recent one about iDoser.
There is a positive side to all of the technologies we are faced with as parents, especially for parents with children who have special needs. We came across a blog on Google Plus called Born Just Right written and managed by @JenLeeReeves. Jen’s daughter Jordan was born with a left arm with a full humerus. She is using techonolgy to learn more about how children with special needs can benefit from today’s advances.
Many parents turn to the internet first when they are new parents as we have done for many things. Jen will be bringing technology tools and special needs children and families together at a panel discussion at SXSW. If you will be at #SXSW and are a parent that could benefit from this discussion, definately plan to attend this session.
You can find @BornJustRight on Facebook and Twitter as well.
One of our members and co-founder of the Alliance, Raul, will be attending SXSW and will hopefully catch up with Jen and other parents at this panel.
How do you use technology to benefit your children?
What special needs social tools have you come across that you can share with Jen’s community?
This morning, I was listening to my favorite Radio Station here in Puerto Rico, and they had an unusual topic (to say the least). They were talking about a drug that you listen to. Yep, you read that right. You purchase and download an mp3 and listen to it through your favorite device or from your computer. After listening to it for a while, your brain reacts to the sounds as if you were consuming one of many “traditional drugs”.
This new trend is taking the lives of many youngsters that believe no harm is done, since nothing is “consumed” in the literal way. Problem is, you ARE consuming it, but in a new way. Every drug out there affects the brain. No matter how you take it, the effect is produced in your brain, so this is no different. What about the addiction? well, if you like what you’re feeling, you will want to come back, no? Meanwhile the people behind iDoser become rich, while our youth is taken slave by this disgusting “new” drug.
This is one thing, internet should be legislated against, no? After doing a mild search I found many videos of teenagers using iDoser and showing simptoms of typical drug users, such as skinny complexion, ticks and shaking of the hands.
Here’s an exposé from NewsChannel4.
Here’s a kid actually experimenting with one of the audio tracks. Be cautious if watching with children around.
I urge you to Google the term Audio Drug or iDoser and make your own conclusions, but please take into consideration that this could affect your child in time. This is something that needs our attention as parents.
Leave your thoughts below and share with the parents on your circle!
A friend of ours had her daughter download an iPhone App on her iPod touch. The app is called Simsimi and it pretty much has a chat system where you can ask the app questions.
My friend was startled when she saw that the app was making racists comments when they asked the app about a certain nationality.
I went ahead and downloaded the App and it had the age requirement dialog box that people quickly click without reading (I tend to do the same when I am in a hurry).
The warning explained how the application had user-generated content of users all over the world. Apparently the developers of the app are based in Korea and they do as much as possible to keep inappropriate content of their app (removing all negative content in various languages can become an impossible task.)
Imagine a few folks trying to control the content created by an app that clearly has gone global. I can’t imagine how many users have probably downloaded the app. The apps functionality, which is not useful to me, ends up being in the wrong hands and with people who don’t have much to do but feed the app inappropriate content.
A user generated content application or website is one that depends heavily on what users input into the system. For this application to grow and survive, the most critical part is what created, shared, and published by its users. (This is my definition).
A good example is Facebook and other social platforms where its users create the majority of the content. We already know Facebook requires children to at least be 13 years old before they register.
One of the key factors for that age restriction is the that the User Generated content created might not be appropriate for children. We can pretty much say that the fact that the millions of users control the content makes it extremely difficult for Facebook to have safeguards in place to ensure the quality and safety of the content being published is appropriate for all users.
Moving on to the mobile apps. There are plenty of mobile apps that connect to a large database of content where users publish content freely and with very little moderation.
If the moderation is up to the users, you can rest assure that many things will be left on these platforms that might not be attractive for younger readers to consume.
How do you control what applications your children use on their devices?
What age would you consider appropriate for giving them freedom into using these apps?
Maybe this topic is a little off season, maybe it doesn’t matter. On my household, we don’t participate of Halloween. There are a lot of reasons for this. But on this post, I’ll only cover one: inappropriate costumes.
Can I suggest a different attire?
Not only on real life, but also on any social networks. Kids should never wear suggestive attire or costumes that will endanger their innocence. Imagine, if you will, a 7 year old wearing a bunny costume that does not fit well with her innocent persona (much like the one the girl on this post’s picture is wearing). Doensn’t it ring any warning bells? Can you imagine if some child molester saw her like that? that’s the only thing that comes to mind when I see this. That attire reminds me of the dress-up many Playboy Playmates wear.
Keep in mind your kid’s age
On social networks, and using Raúl’s post on friending kids on social networks as inspiration, you may find a few kids that wear what they think is a pretty dress on their profile picture or avatar. They might even have full photo albums of them trying out clothing that is completely inappropriate for their age. Problem is, adults do not see it the same way they do. I can never understand how parents let their kids wear suggestive clothing in the real or digital world. Those parents more than likely never even visit their child’s profile page on Facebook. They make it easy for any child predator out there.
Pants, please!
Back to the small girl. There’s a fast cure for this type of situation: put some pants underneath the skirt, after all, with those clothes, she won’t be able to play at all, and still… the costume remains innapropiate. I mean, think about it, she wouldn’t be able to move much without showing her underwear. Talk to your daughters about this. They need to understand why they need to put pants on and why you don’t approve of such costumes. If they are as wise as my daughter, you won’t even have to finish your speech. They’ll get it immediatly! Always remember that not all parents think the same way. Maybe some don’t see anything wrong with that attire, they believe no one can come and harm their kid. I urge you to think again.
Someone is always watching
Next time you buy a costume for your child, be sure is age appropriate. Never expose them to sick people that might be watching them and creating dirty scenarios in their heads. Also be watchful of you children’s digital life.
What do you think? What is your approach to costumes? Are we indoctrinating our young ones on the incorrect path without knowing? Give me your thoughts!
Since I began using Facebook in 2006 I remember I have had a few situations where I have received friend requests from Kids who are in the family or are the kids of my close friends.
Over the years my way of thinking has changed drastically on accepting friend requests from kids and although I have a few exceptions like kids in my family I have opted for not accepting any friend requests from kids. I am mainly talking about Facebook because this type of behavior is more common on this platform but my thoughts would apply to most social platform.
A few weeks ago this post was inspired when Chris Brogan during Kitchen Table Talks on the Pulse mentioned that our good friend Berni (@bernixiong) had received friend requests from her son’s friends. I guess that since my daughter is a few days over a year old I won’t be having that problem anytime soon but I can clearly relate with Berni based on past experiences where kids sent me friend requests and I had to decline.
Accepting friend requests from Kids can cause many future issues and misunderstandings and rejecting a friend request from a kid might not be the easiest thing to do since you probably don’t want to hurt their feelings but overall it is very risky and my recommendation is to reject those friend requests in a polite way.
For example on occasions I might post something that might not be completely appropriate or understood correctly by a young kid. These happen rarely on my timeline but some topics and content are not appropriate for kids. I personally try to share online what I understand my mom or grandma would not be embarrassed to see but sometimes some of the topics my contacts are writing about in which I respond might also not be appropriate for kids.
In some places like Missouri a Senate Bill 54 makes it illegal for teachers to connect with students on any type of social networking site that allows private communications. The bill needs some tweaking because it has lots of gray areas but personally I would follow what the bill establishes. If you are also in any position of authority like a sports coach, counselor, or babysitter you should try to stay away from keeping in contact on platforms that have a private communications channel.
You never know with what intentions your kid’s friends are sending friend requests on Facebook (let’s hope they are well intentioned). It is better to politely decline and let them know you only use the platform for family members and other adults.
I clearly stay away from accepting friend requests from strangers on most platforms unless they have something interesting in their blogs or content they share that is of value to me. But when it comes to kids I don’t accept kids that are not family members.
The only exception in my case when accepting friend request with kids on Social Networks is if they are part of my family. In my case I have Lucy’s nephews and I communicate with them through Facebook very often. I see them as my nephews also and most importantly their mom is ok with me having them as my contacts. I also keep an eye on them to make sure they are safe online. Always be very transparent when you add a kid even if they are family let their parents know and verify if it is ok to have them as a contact on Facebook. Don’t assume it is ok.
When you add people in your social networks via email make sure that the adult that owns the email is using the email. I have seen a few adults that give their kids their email to open up a Facebook account and you might be sending a request to the parent and friending their son or daughter. I had a very uncomfortable situation when I used the application on Facebook to add my Gmail contacts as friends.
A friend of mine had given his daughter his email so she could open her Facebook account and I believe at the moment she was not old enough to use the platform. On one occasion he asked me why I had sent a request to his daughter on Facebook. I really had no answer because I had not sent his daughter any request. I felt very uncomfortable because I put myself in his issues and thought it was a bit strange that someone would want to add his daughter on Facebook. Weeks later I ran my Gmail contacts to see who else had joined Facebook in my contacts and I see his daughter on the friends suggested I confirmed that I had sent his email a friend request and his daughter accepted it. This guy is not very tech savvy so till this day I am not sure if he understood that I had sent him a friend request and since his daughter has signed up to Facebook using his email account it went to her.
Till this day it bothers me that someone allowing their kid to use a platform they don’t understand when they are not even of the appropriate age to use the platform. He was very irresponsible because he did not know better but it was easier for him to question my actions.
Always check your contacts to make sure you have the right people. You don’t want any surprises.
On the other side it is critical that you as a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, or guardian keep an eye on how is adding your kids as their contacts on social platforms. I will leave this topic for future posts. If you want to receive future posts via email feel free to subscribe to our mailing list.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding friending children or adding them to your social networks feel free to share in the comments area or contact us directly.
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