Kids love to play games – especially social games.  They love playing so much that they are willing to lie about their age to create bogus accounts on websites which offer the games they want, i.e. Facebook.

This became an issue of growing concern to George Zaloom, a father of four daughters.  When his youngest (a 11 year-old) requested a Facebook account to play Farmville, mentioning that some of her friends already had one, Zaloom got an idea.  He believed that social gaming shouldn’t be off limits to kids under 13, rather, it should be offered via a platform that is safe and appropriate for kids.  The idea turned into giantHello™, a new website which gives kids (and parents) what they both want.

giantHello™ was designed for tweens (7 to 13 year-olds) who have outgrown Club Penguin and Webkinz, but are not old enough to sign up for Facebook or MySpace. The site’s many cool features include: friending, customizable profile pages, internal messaging, photo uploading, home page status updates, badges, web based IM, fan pages and casual games.

giantHello™ has also created a Facebook compatible API (launching in March), which will enable social game developers to effortlessly publish on the giantHello platform.  A number of major developers have already committed their games.  Additionally, giantHello™ “Like” buttons have just started appearing on many kids sites.  The buttons enable kids to Like sites, particular content, and post regular updates to the their own feeds.

Online safety is of great concern to giantHello™, and every effort has gone into making the safe for kids to connect with their friends.  If a child wants to add a friend all they need to do is send a special coded email or print an invite to hand deliver.  Strangers are not able to contact kids on giantHello™ because the site does not allow “Search.”  Kids are only able to communicate with are their real friends: classmates, teammates, kids from camp, youth group and cousins.

In the past, others have tried to create social educational sites or ones that were promoted as “parent” approved but kids greeted them like a bowl of tasteless spinach.  giantHello™ has created an awesome site for kids that has the look and usability of a real social network, offers tons of games and doesn’t restrict their communications (no canned chat).  giantHello™ complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and has been certified by the Children’s Advertising Review Board.

With over 32 million plus tweens in the USA and an even bigger international market, the future looks bright for giantHello™!

For further information contact: Press@giantHello.com

ScreenRetriever (www.screenretriever.com) proudly announces the launch of its flagship namesake product, ScreenRetriever, the first and only online safety product to provide parents with real time supervision of their children’s computer activity. ScreenRetriever provides an experience similar to television’s “picture within a picture,” displaying a live image of the child’s computer screen on the parent’s computer so parents can monitor everything their child is doing online as it happens, letting them parent online just as they would offline.

If it’s on the child’s computer, parents see it – all social networking sites, all videos, all webcam activity, games – everything.  Finally parents can achieve the peace of mind that comes from knowing what their children are doing online and, most importantly have the opportunity to intervene and reinforce safe, responsible computer behavior.

Internet safety experts recommend placing computers in a central home location so parents can monitor their children’s activity.  Until now, this was impractical.  ScreenRetriever virtually centralizes every child’s computer so online behavior can be monitored quickly, easily and unobtrusively.  The solution is transparent; children know their parents are using ScreenRetriever which builds an environment of trust and open dialog.

Social networking and online resources are the de-facto communication tools for kids.  ScreenRetriever addresses all computer usage concerns that Web site blockers, filters, online notification solutions and keystroke loggers fail to cover including, posting inappropriate comments, pictures, identifying information, multitasking while doing homework, online predators, phishing scams, webcam abuse, cyber bullying, Facebook, inappropriate websites, chat rooms and compulsive computer use.

ScreenRetriever Offers:

• Live access to children’s computer screen(s) from anywhere in the home
• A recording feature to capture online sessions when parents aren’t home, or for single computer homes
• A virtual central location of all children’s computers
• Ability to monitor Facebook™, YouTube™, Skype™, other video and chat applications, Twitter™ and all other social networks that parents may not be aware exist
• Security and peace of mind knowing the software is only accessible within the home – no third party servers or communications happen outside of the home network

“The key to successful online parenting is to have the same level of visibility into the child’s online life as the parent has into their children’s offline activities while keeping communication lines open,” said Lori Getz, Internet safety expert and Founder, Cyber Education Consultants.” “Trust is the biggest asset a parent has when it comes to keeping kids safe.  ScreenRetriever provides complete visibility into everything happening on a child’s computer without sacrificing the trust between them and their parents.”

“Parents would never bring their child into the heart of a major city and leave them unattended.  Yet every time a child sits down at the computer they enter a virtual, borderless unregulated world that is one click away from potential harm,” said Victoria Kempf, ScreenRetriever Founder and Chief Evangelist.  “ScreenRetriever is a tool to help parents teach their kids good habits for every online interaction they have, not just those with strangers.  Screenretriever gives parents immediate visibility into what’s happening into their children’s online world so they can intervene as necessary before their offline lives are negatively impacted.”

ScreenRetriever is offering a free, 14 day trial, downloadable at www.screenretriever.com.  Following the free trial, customers are eligible   to receive a limited time introductory subscription rate of $9.99 for the first year.  One license covers all household computers.

One of the biggest household controversies I come across (with regard to teen Internet and cell-phone use) is how to find a balance between protecting kids and giving them a modicum of privacy that may truly be deserved.

So I went on a mission and came across several terrific options. One of my favorites is Parental Guidance by GoGoStat, a new application that launches today within Facebook (just remember you got the inside scoop here). I like them so much I accepted them as a sponsor on my website.

While I have never been a proponent of spying on kids who don’t deserved to be spied on, I am a supporter of setting expectations that help guide young people toward making appropriate decisions about their online use. Considering the numerous cases of cyberbullying and unwanted sexual solicitations that occur within social networking sites, it’s no wonder parents are worried about how much access is appropriate for their children.

Parental Guidance found a middle ground. The application works like this:

1) The parent creates a Facebook account and “friends” their child(ren).

2) The parent adds the Parental Guidance application and sends a request to
their child(ren) to add the application as well.

3) Once the child accepts the invitation, the application notifies the parent of status changes, new pictures, tagged photos, comments and posts that use certain language that may alert the parent to a cyberbullying incident or even a sexual solicitation.

4) The application allows for a lot of flexibility. The parent can choose from a list of rules; only when the chosen rules are broken will the parents be notified of the situation. Parents can also define their own rules, including acceptable age ranges, the posting of cell-phone numbers and other private data. NOT ALL CONVERSATIONS ARE MONITORED!

Parental Guidance is not spyware; it’s a way for your kids to stay out of their own way!

In the past, I have given reasons why parents should NOT “friend” their children on Facebook, and I was always coming from the perspective of how children can trick parents into believing they are seeing it all when in
fact kids can exclude their parents from seeing certain wall posts and pictures. They can even create two accounts: one for the family, and one for everyone else. But what I hadn’t considered until finding Parental Guidance was how this could POSITIVELY impact the right kind of audience.

In my work, I talk to thousands of Facebook-using teens every year. For the most part, they are really good kids who don’t MEAN to get into trouble. But many of them often find themselves in the midst of idle gossip, rumors and cyberbullying just because of the network of friends they are connected to. Peer pressure and the idea of anonymous exhibitionism often trumps good judgment and impulse control. When a group of a hundred seventh graders unanimously told me that the reason cyberbullying happens is because they don’t think they will get caught, I realized something like Parental Guidance can help!

Teens need limitations, but at the same time, many of them deserve some privacy! The Parental Guidance application cannot be used unless both the parent and the child agree to use it. The Facebook settings will still allow kids to add their parents to a group that is excluded from seeing wall post and pictures, so don’t be fooled. Facebook settings trump Parental Guidance … but the relationship between the parent and child trumps all!

GoGoStat Parental Guidance will give good kids an out. As my friend and colleague Marian Merritt explains it, “If your child ever receives a message from a friend that makes them uncomfortable or could draw them into a situation they do not want to be involved in, the best thing to do is to tell them not to respond to the message, and have them blame their lack of response on you or their dad. The next day at school, when the friend questions why your child did not respond, your child should simply say, ‘Oh, my mom was using my computer last night. I didn’t see the message.’ That way, your child doesn’t have to get involved — and it lets the other person know that an adult may have seen the comment or post.”

I see this software behaving the same way — reminding kids to watch their manners, because a parent may be taking notes.

Imagine a world where you never had to leave your house to hook up with a complete stranger … Wait: No need to imagine it, we’re already living it!

Web 2.0 gave us the ability to interact with those we know — and those we don’t — in a whole new way. Making friends online is easy, what with social-networking sites and multi-player live gaming.

But now we enter what I believe to be Web 3.0: The next generation of social networking — and it’s all video based!

For some time now, I’ve been watching the growing trend of people moving from text chatting to video chatting. It started with iChat and Skype, which gave users the ability to stream live video to one another. Then Stickam.com popped up; it’s a video-based social-networking site that allows multiple users to connect in one video chat room. You can be an active participant or just a lurker; it’s completely voyeuristic in nature. (During the 2008 election, you could watch Obama Girl on Stickam as she viewed the election coverage.) And last week on Stickam, I watched three young girls wait for 800 lurkers to enter their chat room — at which point they promised to “flash” their audience. (When I realized what they were doing, I sent all three girls a private message, begging them to stop. They publicly called me a narc and booted me out of the chat room.)

There are several of these video-chat sites popping up, including tinychat.com and Chatroulette.com. Tinychat is very similar to Stickam, but Chatroulette is different: You enter a room with two blank video windows — one is labeled “Stranger,” the other is labeled “You.” You then click a button and are randomly connected with a total stranger who is also playing. Now you two can video chat. At any time you can click NEXT, and the virtual wheel will spin again, connecting you with someone new. (The site is an upgraded video version of another chat room called Omegle.com.)

Two years ago, I would have said that the chat-room trend seemed to be decreasing. Teens were moving in the direction of social networks. But as video-based chats are surfacing, the trend is moving in the opposite direction.

When I asked a group of senior girls, “Why Chatroulette?” one of them responded, “Without video, people can pretend to be anyone they want. But I can see who I’m talking to with Chatroulette — so it’s totally safe and easier than trying to meet people at a party!”

For the record, I do not agree with their assessment that it’s “totally safe!”

One of the senior girls (who is 17) admitted that she’d met her boyfriend on Chatroulette, and said they’re “very much in love.” However, he’s 35! She most likely wouldn’t have met a 35-year-old man at a high-school party. But online, it’s easy to do.

Not everyone on Chatroulette will be looking to fall in love with the person he or she has randomly selected to chat with. But think about it this way: Would you allow your teenager to go to a bar or an adult singles’ mixer to meet new friends (not to drink, but just to meet people)? If your answer is anywhere in the vicinity of “That’s inappropriate,” you may want to talk to your teen about video chatting online.

In the last decade, Taser International has been a leader in innovative technology for law enforcement. Their mission is simple: “Protect Life.” Now they are bringing that innovation to parenting.

With 75 percent of teens (ages 12 to 17) having cell phones, sexting, driving while texting, and cyber-bullying via cell phone are quickly becoming ubiquitous in their lives.

The statistics are staggering:

* More than 20 percent of teens have admitted to sending naked pictures of themselves.
* 1 in 7 kids admitted to receiving pornography on their phone.
* 1 in 3 kids said they had engaged in sexting (either as the sender or receiver).
* 2 out of 5 kids said they had been bullied on their cell phone.

Teen drivers are twice as likely to be injured or killed if they regularly text while driving. At the Consumer Electronics Show this year, Taser rolled out their new mobile-phone parental controls system called “Protector.” Protector (also known as Taser’s Family Safety Platform) can be installed on any smart phone, including the iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile, and it allows parents to screen calls, text messages, and even allows them (with a hardware addition to their car) to prevent their kids from texting or calling while the car is in motion.

Phone calls and text messages are received by the parent first, then the parent can choose to release the call to the child, deny access, or even permanently block the user from calling or texting. And children, beware … if you ignore your parents, they can jump into your current call and speak to you directly (it kind of reminds me of the days my mom would pick up the receiver and interrupt my phone conversation after she grew tired of my ignoring her yelling at me through the door).

The software is not yet available, but is coming soon. It is believed to cost about $20.00 per month per account.

Some critics are questioning whether or not this is overparenting. I recently spoke with two parents who did not agree with the critics. They are concerned about their 14-year-old son’s iPhone use. He was using the smart phone to download and send pornography to classmates. The parents had spoken with him about their feeling about inappropriate use and ultimately took the iPhone away (hindering his ability to communicate with peers and his parents). The parents were at a loss.

For now, they have decided to get their son a new cell phone without texting or an Internet capability, but they believe they would reinstate his smart phone use if they had an option such as Protector.

I also spoke with a 15-year-old boy that had texted a nude photo of himself to his girlfriend that was subsequently forwarded to the entire high school.

“It absolutely would have stopped me!” he said, with the utmost conviction. “It’s weird, having your privacy totally violated like that, but I think I would have been happier never going through the humiliation of having that picture spread around school.”

We all know that hindsight is 20/20 — and teenagers have a difficult time understanding abstract consequences. Until it happens to them, they have a hard time seeing the potential damage. But as parents, we have to ask ourselves: How far do we want to go to impede their ability to make decisions? So parents, the technology is here. How will you use it?

A bargain is great when you get what you think you are getting. But when that deal comes with a surprise, you may be getting more than you bargained for!

When 10-year-old Kade Goodman of Omaha, Nebraska, received a handheld PlayStation Portable (or PSP, for those in the know) for Christmas, he was expecting hours of gaming and not a picture of someone’s genitalia.

Kade’s dad had purchased the device used through CD Tradepost. Although the company says they try to make sure all images stored on the gaming devices by the original owner are deleted from the system, this one slipped by. The Goodmans are not the only ones purchasing used gaming devices online. With money troubles on everyone’s mind, sites like Craiglist and eBay seem like great options — and they are, as long as you follow a few simple steps:

1) Anytime you purchase technology used, request that the seller reformat the device to the manufacture’s original settings.

2) Check out the seller: On sites like eBay, you can read about the seller and see their rating (this tells you what types of experiences other buyers have had with this person).

3) Have the device sent to your office or a P.O. Box. No reason to let a stranger know there is a child in your home!

Knowing what questions to ask can help you from accidentally exposing your child to inappropriate content. Happy gaming, all!

Ever since GPS technology got into the hands of private business, it has been applied everywhere and in every way it can be sold. It guides planes to their destination, helps environmentalists locate sources of pollution, predicts the weather, and gives us that British robot voice to direct our cars on road trips.

Finally, GPS has entered the field of parenting. Products are now available that give parents the power to know exactly where their children are and where they are going, in real time. Parents can be alerted if their child leaves a certain area at a certain time of the day, and some more advanced products can even send a measure of a child’s heart rate and body temperature back home. These devices in phones, armbands, watches, backpacks, or shoes can be monitored by parents via computers and now from cell phones. The recent popularity of smart phones like iPhones and BlackBerries has spiked consumers’ interest in child location GPS. Everyone’s parenting bone is at least tickled at the prospect of never having to wonder if their son or daughter is sleeping at their friend’s house, or going crazy at a punk rock concert somewhere in the desert.

Moms are using GPS child tracking to make sure their younger children are safe at school during school hours or on their way home if they take the bus or walk. Parents can check to make sure older kids, especially teens with driver’s licenses, are where they say they are. Moms can even use GPS to make sure they’re driving safely – many products measure how fast someone is going and can display the speed limit of the road the car is on.

The most commonly used products are cell-phone-supported programs like Loopt and Glympse, which aren’t actually made specifically for parents and children (but more for suspicious mates). Loopt, which can be used from a computer or smart phone, is a sort of GPS social networking program. Members can post where they are and what they’re doing. They might as well be honest, as their true location will immediately pop up on a map for others who are tracking them to see. It can also be set to simply follow the phone’s location in real time 24 hours a day.

Loopt allows you to choose privacy settings allowing only those you know to track your location. But not privatized, a public posting of your location in real time could be disseminated to the masses!

Glympse enables you to send a message to specific people to let them know where you are in real time, for a certain period of time. To make sure your child gets to their destination safely, you could ask them to “glimpse you.” You’ll be able to watch on a road map their exact path, how fast they’re going on the road, and where they are headed.

You can even record their motion for a certain period of time to show your teen how fast they were actually going if they don’t believe you.

Some parents argue that the constant supervision that child-tracking GPS offers ruins a child’s or teen’s sense of self-accountability. When they make a mistake while being supervised, the fault is partially on them, but also still on the supervising parents. An important part of maturing is making your own mistakes and then having to right your own wrongs. Marissa Signer, an 18-year-old in her last year of high school, has said on the topic, “I think cell phone GPS programs are good for kids when they’re younger to make sure they’re safe, but not for older teens. If you treat teenagers like little kids, they’re never going to grow up.”

It’s important to understand what technology is available and how it can be utilized. Now it’s up to you to decide … to track or not to track? That’s the real question.

After  13-year old Hope Witsell (FL) took her own life (due to a sexting incident) MTV put out a press release about their commitment to helping teens understand the consequences of their online actions.  They created a new site, athinline.org, that speaks to this generation of Internet users.  The site is completely interactive.  Visitors to the site can measure their own understanding of Internet responsibility by taking an online quiz, watch videos, read stories and even tell their own story!

The question is, will teens go there and what will they take from the site?  Is it MTV’s duty to teach our kids about their online use or is it our responsibility?

In order to uncover these answers I am asking you as parents to have your children take the “MTV vs. Parent Challenge.”  Here’s what you need to do:

1) Go to http://athinline.org

2) Have your child(ren) spend about 5-10 minutes on the site.  They need to watch at least 2 videos, read 1 story and take the MTV quiz.

3) Have your child(ren) take a quick survey about their experience at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8DTZ5FB.

4) At the end of the survey they will have the opportunity to enter a drawing to win a free iTune gift card.

All of the information is confidential!  And who knows it may spur new converstaion between you and your child(ren).

It’s finally here, something to fill the void between outgrowing Webkinz and joining Facebook. And it’s great! No crawlers, ads or searching… as the owner of Facechipz put it, “It’s prep school for Facebook.”
Let me explain…Webkinz holds the interest of kids until they are about 8 or 9 years old. Then, suddenly they are too old for a “kid site” and ready to move on. But there is no place to move on to. Facebook’s terms of service clearly states that an owner of an account must be at least13 years old and MySpace says they need to be 14! So what are kids suppose to do between 10-13? I’ll tell you what they ARE doing…they are joining Facebook and MySpace before their time.
I reviewed dozens of “kid-friendly” and “safe” websites meant for digital natives but this is the first time I have been this excited about an online social networking product for kids 8-13. The problem with the other sites, in my opinion, is that they either promote behavior that is not safe for this age group (including searching out strangers, being searched out by strangers and becoming a friend of a friend) or they are so locked down with parental controls the kids feel as if they do not have room to breath.
Facechipz took a hard look at these issues and here is their solution. Facechipz requires a face-to-face interaction where the kids actually exchange a Facechipz (it looks like a poker chip with a emoticon printed on it-they are very cool looking).
Each chip has a registration code on the back.
The purchaser of the chip then registers the chip at the website before giving it to a friend.
The friend then registers the chip at the website and it connects the two friends.
What I love about this simple interaction is the fact that you can only connect with people you know. No “fringe friends” (that means friends of friends). If a small group of friends all want to connect then everyone in the group must exchange a chip. It sounds more complicated than it is, trust me, your kids will get it in a second!
The website itself contains lots of cool features including a “What am I up to” status bar, “My Mood,” “Secret Message,” “My 11s” (because 11 is better than 10), “ChipChat,” a place to upload photos, and even a virtual store where you can send gifts to friends using points you accumulate at the site (no additional dollars to be spent here). The virtual store even has animated videos.
Behind every user account is a parent account where you have the option to lock it down (and edit your kids’ site) or give them some freedom to roam. Facechipz was created to be attractive to kids while safer for all users. What I like best about this site is how kids can be kids in a contained environment. If they post a picture that we as adults may deem inappropriate, at least it is happening in a place where google and bing are not crawler and capturing their mistakes. If your child types SHIT… it automatically turns into **** on the page. You don’t have to worry about inappropriate ads because there is no advertising on the site; and because there is not a search feature, the only way your child can become friends with someone is by exchanging a registration code and that just comes down to good old parenting. We teach our kids not to take candy from strangers, so we can teach them not to take chips from them either.
Don’t get me wrong, no site on the Internet is ever totally safe because we have to contend with rapidly changing technology and behavior. However, this one is safer, more appropriate and a whole lot of fun! To learn more about Facechipz go to http://facechipz.com.

If my review was solely based on how easy KidZui is to set up, I would give it a 10. Kudos to you, KidZui, on a fully integrated system that is set up with ease. Just a quick bit of advice: make sure you wait for two e-mails to hit your inbox, one to confirm the setup for your child, and another to set up the parental access.

OK, let me review the rest …

Reporting: This is my favorite feature of KidZui. Every action is visible and sent to your inbox as a report. If your child tries to access a website that is restricted by KidZui, you are notified. If you choose to allow them to access the site, you can unblock it from anywhere you can access the web.

The Look: My 7-year-old niece loved the look. I had a hard time with it. There is so much going on, but it didn’t seem to stop her from diving in and locating the games she wanted to play. She also enjoyed tagging videos and sharing them with friends. The fact that KidZui limits this type of communication to other KidZui users is interesting. Even though we are limiting their ability to share personal information, we are still encouraging 3-year-olds to communicate with strangers. I don’t quite understand that. I would have preferred that KidZui create a system similar to the sub-accounts within e-mail systems. That way, before a child shares anything with another online user, that person must be approved by the parents. I think KidZui missed the mark here. I always tell children to bring a notebook to school, camp, or on a family vacation to collect the screen names of people they know face-to-face. That way they can add them to an address book or buddy list and know who they are talking to online. KidZui allows users to search out anyone and add them as a friend. I typed in a random name and immediately connected with a 6-year-old child.

Membership: I’m not really sure how necessary this is. If you want to use the Homework Helper, you need to become a member. For this feature, I think membership is beneficial. But how important is it that you be able to customize your avatar — enough to pay for the right? I don’t know about this one. There are lots of free educational sites out there, but I guess if the contained environment is what you need, then it’s worth paying for.

A few more notes: None of the pictures can be saved to the desktop, and the image quality is not great. This is great to eliminate copyright infringement, but stops students from using pictures in a report under the fair use act.

How realistic is this safe-web concept? I think it is a great tool to introduce the Internet to its youngest users. But because of the limited search and poor quality of images, I don’t see school-age children really adopting this system.

Overall, I like the concept, but I think it is most appropriate for the very youngest of users, maybe 3-6. After that, I would look to more realistic options, such as using the filtering systems within your operating system and talking to your children about what you deem appropriate. Remember, just because you are using safe-web at home doesn’t mean they will not be exposed to the Internet other places. These tools need to be followed up with a conversation!