Recently Smart911, a technology service implemented by 9-1-1 centers across the country, reached out to me to make sure parents know that they can go online and enter life-saving information about their health, any disabilities, family members, pets, photos and the home address affiliated with their cell phone numbers.

Why is this important to you?  Well, most of us communicate these days via cell phone, in fact I know several households that no longer have landlines.  These cell phones are not quickly associated with home addresses the way a landline is.  That is why my preschooler was forced to learn both her home phone number (in case something happens where the authorities are involved and need to locate her family) and mommy’s cell phone number – in case she wants to reach me quickly.

Now, Smart911 offers a solution where your cell phone can be tied to your pertinent personal information. When a 9-1-1 call is placed, the operator has instant access to all of this vital information, improving emergency outcomes.

While adults and kids have been taught to call 9-1-1 in an emergency, in today’s world—where most of us depend on cell phones and texting—it’s important to know the new rules of 9-1-1. Below are tips from Smart911 that families should keep in mind when dialing 9-1-1, especially from a cell phone.

The New Rules of 9-1-1

1.     Communicate your exact location: When calling 9-1-1 from a mobile phone, 9-1-1 operators are rarely able to pinpoint the caller’s exact location. Especially if you are in a densely populated area, or if you live in an apartment building, it will be important to communicate this immediately.

2.     Find out if your city or town has 911 texting capabilities: While you may often choose texting over calling to friends and family, only select cities and municipalities in the U.S. provide the option to text with 9-1-1. Find out if your city or town offers text support.

3.     If you get a recording, don’t hang up: The call you place stays in the telephone switch queue for up to two minutes even if you get a recording. The 9-1-1 operator will call the person back when they do receive it, but by then you may be in a cycle of phone tag, prolonging the process even further.

4.     Make sure you have multiple ways to dial 9-1-1 and have a backup plan: For those who still have a landline phone in their homes, choose a landline when calling 9-1-1. However, keep in mind that most often this phone is a cordless device and will not work in the event of a power outage. As a backup, make sure your mobile phone is always charged—purchase a car charger if you don’t have one.

5.     Find out if your city/town has a system to record life-saving information used when calling 9-1-1: It is important that first responders have access to information, such as medical conditions, disabilities allergies and number of resident or pets in the home, and can link your mobile number to your home address.  Find out if your city or town has any systems in place that you should register for.

Introducing Toddler 2.0.

Young children are becoming increasingly tech-savvy, a new study finds. Recent research shows that 80 percent of children under five years old use the Internet once a week.

Did you know that your entire life if being captured online? Your home address, phone number, marital status and even your hobbies are being collected and now AGRAGATED! STOP- don’t panic! Your personal information has always been out there for people to find – even before the days of the Internet… anyone remember the white pages? But is there something you can do about HOW MUCH information is being collected and distributed?

Spokeo.com is a website that allows you to enter in a person’s name and find information such as full name, address, phone number, marital status, names of children and even hobbies. Recently, I was asked “how do I remove myself from Spokeo’s database?” Well you can, but the bigger question is, does it matter?

Where did all this information come from? Lots of sources, is the answer. Spokeo is just an aggregator, a collector of publically viewable material online. So just because you may remove yourself from Spokeo doesn’t mean other websites are attempting to protect your privacy.

The project started back in 2006 in the dorm room of (now) 27-year-old Stanford student Harrison Tang. Tang claims to get the data from “public” sources, such as LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter and Yelp. He site also pulls from public records such as real-estate databases and marriage licenses. Thus creating an environment where details of your life may be found.

While you may be feeling a little creeped-out by this over-exposure I want us to be reasonable here. Yes, it’s odd to have all of this information listed in one place, but the truth is, we over-share on social networking sites, post adorable pictures and videos of our children, and enjoy the convenience of shopping online. As we do those things we give up a little more privacy each day. We need to understand how this “Internet thing” works and make the best decisions for ourselves.

For those of you worried about Internet Safety and what this type of aggregator will do to the safety of our children, let’s get down to basics…

We know the information is out there, so rather than trying to put the toothpaste back in the bottle, let’s focus on what’s really going to keep our kids safe online.

• Do not draw too much attention to yourself online (to give someone a reason to go looking for you).
• Do not cultivate relationships with people online you do not know in person!

These two simple rules will help keep us all safe, even in an era of over-exposure and reduced privacy!

Oh- and just in case your were wondering…
How to remove yourself from Spokeo.com
Go to spokeo.com
Search for yourself
Highlight and copy the URL (at the top of the screen)
At the bottom of the screen… look for and click the link that says PRIVACY
Paste the URL into the appropriate box
Type in your email address (you will have to check your email and CONFIRM for this to work)
Type in the requested code
After confirming the email they send you, your name and private info will be removed immediately.

A couple of weeks ago, Jimmy Kimmel declared November 17th, National Unfriend Day, where he encouraged others to “weed out random acquaintances and old classmates with whom they’re not truly friends.”  Although cloaked in humor, Jimmy’s message is spot on!  Take a moment to watch the video and even show it to the other Facebook users in your house.  I promise it’s worth the 2 minutes and 40 seconds!

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Well at least for the week..

In a brave new world type of experiment, Harrisburg University shut off access to all social networking (including Facebook, Twitter and IM) for the entire week to it’s students while on campus.  The students are supposed to be experiencing what life was like prior to the era of being “constantly connected” (or pre 2004).

The experiment has been met with a mixed bag of feelings; some students even reported concern over being able to find friends on campus because of such GPS social networking like Foursquare and Facebook Places. Do you think they’ll survive?  Check in next week when I’ll have the results for you.

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