A relative of mine asked me recently, “What can I do if I don’t want to see someone’s updates on Facebook, but I’d rather not unfriend or block them?”

Here’s how to make it seem like you have unfriended a person.  It’s a two-step process.  First, you will prevent their updates from showing up on your news feed (the page you see when you first log into Facebook). Then, you can prevent them from seeing your updates.

Of course you could always go ahead and un-friend someone – they will not be notified.  But it could create an awkward situation, depending on the person and your relationship.  So it’s nice to have this option.

Prevent a friend’s updates from showing up on your Feed:

1. Go to your friend’s profile/timeline page by clicking on their name.  Hover over the Friends button, and then wait for a drop-down list to show up:

2.  Usually you will see that “Show in News Feed” is selected.  Unclick “Show in News Feed” and you will no longer see that person’s updates in your feed.

3.  Alternatively, click “Settings…” and then remove the checkmarks from the types of updates you don’t want to see.  In this example I only want to know about most of this person’s “Life Events” but I won’t have to suffer through their mundane status updates, endless photos, and Song Pop victories.

Now that you have limited what you’ll see about this person, go ahead and limit what they’ll see about you.

Add your friend to your “Restricted” list to prevent them from seeing what you share

Facebook provides a few built-in “Lists” for categorizing your friends.  You can use these lists to control who you share with.  One of the lists is called “Restricted”.  When you add someone to your “Restricted” list they will only be able to see your “Public content or posts of yours that you tag them in”.  It works like this:

• Share an update with “Friends” , people in your “Restricted” list won’t see it.
• Share an update with “Everyone” , people in your “Restricted list will see it.
• Tag your friend in an update, they will see it even if they are in your “Restricted” list.

1. Hover over the Friends button again and this time choose “Add to another list”.

2. Select “Restricted”.

3. If this person was in another list, select that list to un-check and remove them from the list.

Now test your new settings.  Go to your profile, click the little gear button and choose “View as”.  Then enter that person’s name to get a sense of what your now-Restricted friend will see about you.  (Learn more about Viewing your Facebook Timeline as someone else)

Is this fool-proof?

No.  There are a few other settings that could expose some of your information to the friend you are trying to ditch.

For example, if you have a mutual friend in common, and that mutual friend tags you both, then your friend might see that you’ve been tagged.

Or, if you and your “frenemy” both follow a public page on Facebook like…uh…good example here….okay let’s say you both follow that Star Trek guy George Takei, and you click “Like” on George’s funny picture, then your friend could potentially see that you’ve liked it.  That’s because she is also a fan of George and George’s post are available to “Everyone”.

So while there is no guarantee of total erasure of this person from your Facebook life, this is about as close as you can come to unfriending or blocking a person

5000+ LOL Jokes

At first glance, this seems like an innocent enough app – silly jokes for the kids to enjoy.  A few of the jokes are in the app description – “A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand”.   You might quickly approve this one for the kiddos.  But after looking closely at the app description, a few red flags go up.  First off, the app is rated 12+ in the App store for “Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity”.   There is also mention of a new feature “Chat with strangers who are using this app too.”  It almost seems like the jokes are there to lure minors into a chat app.

Once in the app there is a tab where the app developer sells his or her other apps – clearly these are not for children!  I’m sure there are other more suitable joke apps on the market for kids to enjoy – probably with funnier jokes, too.

Ask.fm

Ask a kid if they’ve heard of Ask.fm and they’ll probably answer your question with a resounding “Yes”. Ask.fm is a web site where you create a profile and invite anyone in the known universe (not just other ask.fm users) to ask you a question.  Some questions I saw on the site were innocent like “Are you scared of airplanes”.  Other questions were typical teen and tween inquiries: “Who do you like?” and “Who’s your best friend” but it can quickly go downhill from there.  “What are you wearing” was innocent compared to other questions I saw on the site.  Those asking questions may remain anonymous, so there is no accountability. Bullying has been a problem.  There is even a petition calling for the site to be shut down.

There is little to no privacy here. I saw that some kids used their last name in their profile and listed their Instagram or Facebook links.  I’ve also seen local kids – 5th graders – put their Ask.fm link in their Instagram profile description.  Instagram profile descriptions are PUBLIC even if the photos are PRIVATE so this is an invitation for anyone to pose questions to your child.

Learn more about the issues with Ask.fm from A Geeky Dad and a very comprehensive overview on how it works from Webwise.

Texting apps like Kik: WhatsApp, Oovoo, LiveProfile and IM+

With Kik Messenger getting a lot of attention I’ve had questions about similar messaging apps. Here’s a quick rundown.

I was recently asked about WhatsApp.  I had heard of WhatsApp but hadn’t heard about it having a “bad” reputation like Kik does.  One reason may be that WhatsApp is not available on iPods (only phones – iPhones, Android, Blackberry) and is not free.  Even though it’s only 99 cents that may be enough to keep people away when there are free options.  WhatsApp is rated 4+ in the Apple store.  Here is the Common Sense Media review.

Oovoo is an all-purpose text, video and chat application.  It’s available on desktops and mobile devices including iPods and iPads as well as phones.  A popular feature is video chat between more than two people – up to 12 at one time.  There are privacy settings available to control who can contact you in the app.  You can change the default of “Anyone” to “Only people who know my email or ooVoo ID”.  Oovoo is free and rated 4+ in the Apple store.

LiveProfile is another messaging app for iPhone, Blackberry and Android.  It can also be used on iPods/iPads.  With LiveProfile you can send messages, photos, videos, post status updates, and customize your profile.  Only those you “friend” can see your information.  There is a privacy setting to keep your phone number private and it is “OFF” by default which is helpful. You can only be contacted if another LiveProfile user knows your e-mail address, phone number (if you provide it) or your LiveProfile “PIN”.  LiveProfile is free and rated 4+ in the app store.

IM+ is yet another app for “All-in-one communication at your fingertips, plus text, voice, video and picture messages”.  Again, it’s available for all iDevices, plus Android, Blackberry and more.  IM+ has a feature called “Neighbors”.  When this feature is enabled, IM+ users can “locate friends on the map, chat with local friends, as well as initiate conversations with other people who are located nearby.”  So that would certainly be a concern for parents!  IM+ is free, or $4.99 for a “pro” version with no ads.  It is rated 4+ in the app store.

Any of these messaging apps could potentially be used safely as a way to communicate with known friends.  As pointed out by many commenters on the Kik article, if you only connect with real friends and don’t broadcast your username all over the internet, these apps are about the same as iMessage.

So the question to ask – how many methods does your child need for communicating with friends? You might find more than one of these apps on their iPod, depending on what other friends are using as their “text app du jour”. If they all have iPods/iPads, then iMessage and FaceTime should do the job.  If they want to use an app to connect with friends using different devices, then choose one app and ditch the rest.  Check through the contacts list to make sure their “friends” are truly their friends and take a look at the privacy settings.  Most of these have terms of agreement stating the user must be 13 or older, so if your child doesn’t make the age cut-off you can always have them wait it out using iMessage, or that old-fashioned device: it’s called the telephone.

By the time your teen is sending in their applications or pounding the pavement for a job, they may have created numerous profiles on sites from Facebook to Twitter, Instagram to Tumblr.  You might be worried about what they are sharing, who they are interacting with, and the activities they are involved in online.  Any comment, status update, photo or “like” contributes to their online reputation.

And it’s not just teenagers who are over-sharing (just read these 13 examples of adults fired over a Facebook post).  Adults need to manage their online presence as well – whether we are looking for a new job or just trying to set a good example.

Monitor your teen’s social media

Even if you are Facebook friends and Instagram followers, you are probably not seeing all of your teens’ activity.  One option that can help is a social media monitoring service.

One such service is called uKnowKids, which I first reviewed about a year ago.  They have recently added Instagram monitoring – a welcome addition.  You can also monitor Facebook and Twitter, and run a “social search” to see if there are other social network accounts they’ve created without your knowledge.

I gave Instagram monitoring a try since my daughter has an Instagram account.   After connecting the service to her Instagram (note – you will need their username and password) I was able to see the pictures that her friends had posted.  While I do follow her on Instagram, most of her friends have private accounts (one of my recommendations) so I would not normally see those pictures.  On the uKnowKids dashboard, you can scan through thumbnail size images for a quick review.  If you see any that look worrisome, you can start a discussion with your child.  (More about UKnowKids and Instagram).

Reviewing Instagram photos using uKnowKids (blurred to protect the innocent!)

Another helpful feature is Notifications.  You can check whether you’d like to be notified of any potentially troubling situations, like interaction with adults you don’t know, or talk of drugs, sex, depression and bullying.

If your kids use an Android or Blackberry smartphone, you can also monitor texts and locations.  There will be iPhone monitoring available later this year, although it is not clear if that will include iMessage.

If you’d like to give this a try, uKnowKids has provided a special sign-up link for Be Web Smart readers.   Just use the following link and then sign-up.  Instead of the one-month free trial they offer, you will get two months for free.

http://uknow.co/PlyCdn – this will give you two months of the “Premier” service which includes social media monitoring including Instagram.  After two months if you can switch to the Essential (free) service which offers fewer features.

Monitor your Own Social Media Reputation

Reppler is another service available for anyone wishing to get a handle on their social media reputation.  Reppler is a free service that helps you manage your online reputation.  It will scour your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, and Picasa accounts and give you an idea about how others might perceive you.   The service then offers suggestions on what you can do to improve your “score”.

Reppler is easy to set up through your Facebook account.  Once established, Reppler will notify you of any potential issues or risks – such as privacy and security risks and inappropriate content such as drugs, adult content, and vulgar language. You can even set up e-mail notifications.  I did this for testing and when I mentioned “meth” in a status update (talking about one of my favorite TV shows, Breaking Bad of course!) I received a Reppler alert by e-mail.

Here's what Reppler has to say about me

The e-mail alerts can be a useful tool for parents.  You can set up Reppler with your teen and have the e-mail alerts sent to YOUR e-mail address.  Then you will be the one notified of any potential inappropriate content.  Your teen can log onto Reppler too and get helpful hints for better privacy control and suggestions for making a better impression online.

Learn more about Reppler and how it works.  This video from the Career Services department at University of Colorado is a great tutorial and gives you an idea of how it works.

Now you have two more tools in your arsenal for managing your digital footprint  and social media reputation.  UKnowKids and Reppler are just two available tools.  While I have not used it, another similar service is TrueCare for social media monitoring.  And as always, these are just tools to assist your efforts in parenting in the digital age; frequent, open and honest discussions with your children are always the most the important tool.

You can save any search term and get an e-mail each time new results are found that match your keywords. There are a few ways to do this, but this is the easiest I’ve found.

How to create a Google alert

1. Log into your Google account. Note that you need a Google account to use this function. If you use Gmail or YouTube, you have a Google account. You can create one here for free if you don’t already have one. You don’t have to set up Gmail; you can create a Google account using your existing e-mail address.

2. Then go to this link: http://www.google.com/alerts/manage

3. If you haven’t created alerts yet this page will be empty. You’ll see the message “You don’t have any Google alerts. Try creating one”. Click to create a new alert.

4. Fill in the information:

a. The search term you want to track. This is where you’d type your name.

b. Result type – the choices are Everything, News, Blogs, Video, Discussion, and Books. I choose “Everything” to make sure I’m not missing anything. If you were, say, setting up an alert for a popular result such as “Justin Bieber” (although why would you do that?) you might choose just “News” to get the latest news on the Biebs, or just “Blogs” to see what the blogosphere has to say about his latest antics

c. How often do you want to receive an e-mail: Choose As-it-happens and you’ll get an e-mail as soon as Google knows about the new content. Choose daily or weekly for summary e-mails.

d. How Many – do you want to receive only the best results, or all results? When it comes to my own name, I chose “All results”.

e. Deliver to: E-mail or Feed. “Feed” refers to RSS feeds. I actually like to send my alerts to a feed and then I can peruse them at my leisure instead of being bombarded with e-mail. However, Google will be doing away with their Google RSS Reader this summer; so I’m not sure if this will be an option. If you don’t know what RSS is all about, I hope to write about it soon! For now, choose e-mail to get these results delivered to your Inbox.

You’ll notice that a preview on the right side will show what types of results you could expect to see.

5. Add additional alerts – for example, you might want to monitor your children’s names, business or organization, or add variations of your name such as maiden name. Also try searches with your name in quotes such as “Jane Doe” for an exact match. (I use both with quotes and without quotes to make sure I don’t miss anything).

You can also use Alerts to help you do research. For example, one way I keep myself up-to-date on emerging technology and social media is through alerts for various search terms such as “parental controls” and “kid friendly apps”. I scour through the results and share the pertinent information with you…so now you know my secret!

Create your alerts then sit back and wait for the results to roll in! If they don’t start pouring into your Inbox, you’re doing a good job keeping your name and information private and OFF the internet.

Later that day I went to Google and entered my name.  Since my name is actually somewhat common (among men in Quebec!) many of the links on the first page of search results had nothing to do with me.  However the fifth link went directly to my Twitter account.  Variations of my name such as my maiden name or middle initial, combined with my state of residence, resulted in more search “hits”.

Here are some steps to start taking control of your digital footprint.  I’ll follow up next time with a few tools you can use to monitor your name on the web and social networking sites.

1. Google your name

First find out what others might learn about you from the Internet.  Go to Google and enter your name.  You’ll want to log out of your Google account first (for example, if you use Gmail or YouTube) to gain a better idea what non-you will find.

Review the first few pages of search results.  What you may find here will depend on a number of factors:

1. How common your name is
2. How much information you have provided on the web (Facebook, LinkedIn, online forums or discussion groups, other social networks)
3. How much information has been written by others about you (mentions in newspapers, professional publications, employer’s website)
4. How much public data exists about you in general (public records ranging from marriage license, real estate transactions, legal actions)

For us married gals, also perform searches using just your maiden name or a combination of maiden and married names.

2. Review and remove from directories

Now start clicking through the results.  You may eventually see links to sites that have put together a profile about you, including your age, address, phone number, even family members.  There are many of these “directory” sites or “data aggregators” on the internet that use public data as their source. These are a few of the sites you may encounter:

• Spokeo
• Pipl
• Intelius.com
• Mylife.com
• Radaris
• 411.info
• White Pages
• Peoplefinders.com
• Zoominfo.com

Each site has different methods for creating listings.  Most all provide methods to have your information removed from their site.  The one site that I was most concerned about was Spokeo.com.  While many sites were able to figure out my current and former addresses and locations, Spokeo actually provided a map! So if you were going to take the time to remove just one listing, I would suggest starting there.  (Go to http://www.spokeo.com/privacy to learn how profiles are created, then click on the Opt out link at the bottom of that page).

While you can request that your information be removed from these sites, it doesn’t mean that someone won’t be able to track this information down eventually.  You’re just making it harder for them to get that info.

3. Clean up Social Media accounts

When I did test searches for some of my friends and family members for this article, I noticed that Google would often lead me to their Facebook or Twitter accounts.   You may want to tighten up the privacy on your social profiles.

Facebook: You can set your Facebook profile so that it won’t be found by search engines.  That option is on the Privacy settings page. If you do want your Facebook profile to appear in search results (see #4 below), you may want to review your profile settings.  I noticed in my test searches that I could see which Pages friends had liked.  Lots of folks miss this setting: find instructions here.

Twitter:  Twitter offers the option to “protect your tweets”.  If you check this option, people will have to request to follow you (similar to Facebook friending).  Most people on Twitter don’t use this. So if your tweets are public, you might want to review them to make sure you’re not sharing personal details.  As another option, if you don’t want your Twitter profile to show up when people search for you by name on the internet, don’t use your full name on your profile page.

Google+: We can’t really talk about Google searches without mentioning Google’s social network.  You might have a Google+ account without even knowing it – for example if you use Gmail for e-mail, or upload videos to YouTube.  If you never intended to join Google+, you can delete your profile but be careful that you don’t delete your entire Google account!  Instead, what you want to do is downgrade your account and choose “Delete Google+ content”.  If you want to keep the account but tighten up the settings, there are various privacy options (outside the scope of this article but available here.)

Abandoned accounts – Still have a MySpace (or other old unused) account out there collecting digital dust? Then deactivate or delete any old accounts that might pop up during a search.

4. Take control of your name on the web

What do you want the world to know about you?

One way to reduce the chance that searchers will find information you don’t want them to know, is to add information that you are comfortable sharing.  How much and to what extent really depends on your goals – if you are really trying to stay under the radar, perhaps there is no need.  But maybe you are trying to get back into the workforce after several years at home raising the kids, or you’re switching careers or launching a business or organization.  In these cases you might want to create content that will get positive messages associated with your name higher up in the search engine “rankings”.

LinkedIn – this networking site is a good choice for putting your professional foot forward on the web.  When I did my test searches, friends who had LinkedIn accounts had those accounts as the first link in the results.

Facebook and Twitter – while I recommended earlier to take Facebook out of the search results, some experts recommend the opposite.  Keep it available to search engines but set privacy controls carefully.  You can control the audience of each item you share.  Only those shared with “Public” will be visible, and only to those logged into Facebook.  But by having your name available to search engines, the Facebook results can appear higher up in search results for your name.

Create your own content – Your own blog or website using a web address such as www.mynamehere.com can help you appear in search results, and you have 100% control over the content.

5. Help your kids

Finally, follow these steps using your child’s name in the search.  You might be surprised what Google knows about your offspring, especially once they get to middle school and high school.  Along with congratulatory results like honor school mentions in the local newspaper, you might uncover social network accounts you didn’t know about (I found a few for my child’s schoolmates!)

So there you have five steps you can take to gain awareness of your family’s digital footprint and start taking control.  Let me know in the comments – which action are you are going to take today?

Here’s the Reply to All scenario at work:

1. Joe sends an e-mail to a distribution group at the company.  However, he sends it to the wrong group, meaning that instead of just the 25 people in marketing it goes to the entire company of over 500 employees.
2. Linda, Jane and Steve all receive the message and reply back (to ALL) asking, why am I getting this message? Please remove me from this message.
3. Joe tries to recall the message but it’s too late.
4. Ken, Sharon and Lisa reply (to ALL again), letting Linda, Jane and Steve know that they should just delete the message.
5. Barb, Chad and Wendy reply to all, reminding everyone NOT to reply to all.
6. Joe replies back to all to say he’s very sorry and he’ll never do it again.
7. And this goes on for a while until everyone gets tired of it, and it just fades away.

Now here’s the same scenario on an iPod touch group message involving a bunch of 5^th and 6^th graders:

1. Ashley sends a group message to everyone in her Contacts list that uses iMessage.  This includes her close friends, her good friends, her “just friends”, her BFF’s, a few acquaintances, her soccer team, and her friends from summer camp.  So, about 25 people.
2. When her BFF Brittany receives the message, she replies back to say hi.  Her message is received by the other 25 in the group message.
3. Chloe from camp replies back after seeing Brittany’s message and texts, do I know you? Who are you, Brittany?
4. Ashley’s close friends Molly, Holly and Polly start chatting back and forth about school work and boys, forgetting that the messages are seen by 25 people, some of whom they don’t really know (and maybe even the boys in question?!?!).
5. One of those kids is Mark, who is doing his homework and getting annoyed by the constant “dings” emitting from his iPod touch as each new text is received.  He replies “TAKE ME OFF THIS MESSAGE NOW”.
6. A few other kids see this and give Mark a hard time for yelling (ALL CAPS in text or e-mail is usually construed as yelling, screaming or otherwise raising your voice).
7. Ashley comes home from soccer practice and sees all the replies and the angry outbursts from Mark and few others.  Now she feels really bad; she didn’t realize this kind of thing could happen.  Ashley apologizes and asks everyone to delete the entire Message “string” from their iMessage.
8. Everyone deletes the Message and things quiet down. BUT, (you knew there would be a but, right?) the following afternoon Jake replies to the group.  He didn’t delete the message and now the whole thing starts all over again.
9. This continues on for a few days until everyone gets bored.  Finally the group message dies a natural death.

So what’s the problem with Group iMessages?

1. You can’t remove yourself from a group iMessage.

2. You can’t prevent yourself from being included in a group message (unless you use an iPhone).

3. The only way to end it is for everyone involved to delete the message.  If only one person keeps it going it will come back for everyone.

Is there anything good about using a Group iMessage?

I’ve described the down side of group messages, but there can be a plus side too. If the group message includes kids who all know each other, like each other, and can be respectful, it can be a useful way to communicate.  I’ve seen my daughter and a few friends use a group message to ask about homework assignments, or plan for an upcoming activity, or just have some fun chatting.  The key here is that they don’t abuse it with never-ending messages on a constant basis.

Keeping in mind that iOS and iMessage were not necessarily designed for children, group messages can be useful for adults too.  I’ve used it myself to send a message to a few people at a time.  It’s quick and efficient.

How can I tell a group iMessage from a regular iMessage?

You can tell that it is a group message because of the icon.  Also if you click to view the message it will say Group Message at the top.  It will show you the recipients of the message with the word Details to view all of them.

So what can kids (and their parents) do about group iMessages that go out of control?

1. First off, ask all the kids to delete the group message.  To do this, click Edit near the top of the Messages app.  Then click the red circle next to the message you want to delete, and then click Delete.  Again, this is the only permanent solution BUT it only works if ALL involved take the same action.

2. Turn on the Do Not Disturb feature (if you have updated to the most recent version of iOS).  This way, your kiddos won’t hear the sound of the texts coming through and won’t see notifications on their screen.  This would be a good way to stay focused on bedtime or homework, if the others haven’t deleted the group message.

Go to Settings – Do Not Disturb, and turn it On.

Or, another great idea for kids is to schedule Do Not Disturb for set times.  For example I don’t want my daughter sidetracked during bedtime so her iPod automatically goes on “quiet time” at 9pm each night.

Go to Settings – Notifications – Do Not Disturb.

4. Turn off iMessage for a while (Settings – Messages – Off)

So that’s the scoop on Group iMessages, the modern day equivalent of REPLY TO ALL.  If anyone knows a way to remove oneself from a group message or any other tips for dealing with this issue, please leave a comment!

Omegle has been around since 2008, with video chat added in 2009.  When you use Omegle you do not identify yourself through the service – chat participants are only identified as “You” and “Stranger”.  From there however, anything goes – certainly a chat participant may decide to give their name, location, age and other personal information.

I tried it a few times by clicking on the link to start chatting with a stranger.  The first thing I was asked was “asl” – meaning what is my age, sex and location.  I disconnected immediately from that chat! On the second test, I ended up in a brief chat with a young man, a software developer from India.  Well, that is what he said but that’s the thing – who really knows?

Another Be Web Smart reader did a test and shared the conversation with me:

Q: is this site safe for preteens?
Stranger 1: hahahahahahaha
Stranger 2: Wow
Stranger 1: send them to me pls

Are teens using Omegle?

A quick Google search helped me to answer this question.  A few clicks and I found text excerpts and videos on YouTube of teens sharing their stories of Omegle encounters.  One video was a teen girl’s story of how she met up with an Omegle chat buddy in person without her parents’ knowledge. Another particularly sicko video showed how someone scared teens on an Omegle video chat with his face made up similar to the Joker from the Batman movie (R.I.P. Heath Ledger).

Five reasons not to use Omegle

In case you’ve read this far and are still not quite convinced that Omegle is a bad idea, here are a few facts about privacy and how the Omegle service works:

1. The Omegle homepage clearly states that the service is not for those under 13: “Do not use Omegle if you are under 13. If you are under 18, use it only with a parent/guardian’s permission.”  I’m guessing that not too many 16 year olds are asking mom or dad for the okay.

2. You can connect Omegle to your Facebook account to find chat partners with similar interests.  When choosing this feature, an Omegle Facebook app will receive your Facebook “likes” and try to match you with a stranger with similar likes.  This action connects your Omegle use to Facebook, and Facebook friends could potentially see Omegle activity on your profile. (Although you can change that setting – highlighted below – to “Me Only” so that your Omegle activity is not shared).

3. The Omegle privacy policy clearly states that the following information is saved on their servers for 120 days: “the time your chat began, your IP address, a randomly-generated ID tag assigned to your computer, your chat partner’s IP address, and your chat partner’s randomly-generated ID tag.”  While this data is used for law enforcement and to try to track and prevent spammers, note that you are willingly providing this information when using Omegle.

4. There are two video chat modes, monitored and unmonitored. Using video chat requires that your computer’s IP address is made available to the stranger’s computer:  “Omegle video chat requires a direct connection to be made between your computer and the other user’s computer…”

This is the warning received when initiating an unmonitored video chat:

5. At the end of an Omegle chat, users have the option to save the chat’s log and share the link. Therefore your conversation is not really private, and the contents of the chat including any personal information you might share can be sent to anyone without your knowledge.

Omegle sharing options

How do I know if my teen is using Omegle?

You can take a look at the history in their web browser.  The shortcut Ctrl-H will open the browser history in Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari.  Then you can see what sites have been visited.  Keep in mind that savvy kids may know how to delete their browsing history.

You can also ask them.

How to Block Omegle and similar websites

I was curious to know if the parental control software I use on our family laptop would allow my daughter to visit the Omegle site.  We use Microsoft Live Family Safety and her account is filtered to only allow “General internet” websites, and no social media.  I logged in to her account (I have the password, of course) and WAS able to get to the Omegle website.  Not good! However, Live Family Safety gives me the ability to add any website to a block list.  I can log into my admin account and specify any websites that should not be allowed.  I did this right away to prevent Omegle from being available to my daughter.

Other services you can try for blocking specific websites include parental control filtering such as http://www.keepmyfamilysecure.com/ and http://www1.k9webprotection.com/, or browser add-ons such as BlockSite for Firefox and Chrome.

To sum it up, I generally think it’s a good idea to avoid websites that include a disclaimer like this one from Omegle’s home page:

“Use Omegle at your own peril.”

Upcoming Workshops

For those of you in New Hampshire, I have two upcoming workshops.  The first is for residents in the Sanborn area.  I’ll be presenting at the high school’s Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) meeting this Wednesday, February 13 at 6:00pm.  The workshop is open to all residents of nearby towns as well.

I also have a Web Smart Workshop in March through Exeter Adult Education.  This is open to anyone and you can register through Exeter Adult Ed. The workshop is on March 14^th from 6:30-8:30pm.

A look back

In looking back on the last year, it’s been gratifying to see the growth of the site. Back when I started I’d see about 10 visits per day (most of them were probably me checking on the site!), and now it is usually over 1,400 visits per day.  Things really picked up back in July 2012 when I joined the BlogHer publishing network.   The busiest day so far was the day after Christmas – probably lots of folks looking up how-to’s for their new gadgets and devices!  Still, most visits (70%) come from Google and lead to the following pages on the site.

Top 10 most-viewed articles:

1. What is Kik? And is Kik okay for Kids?
2. How to view your Facebook profile as someone else
3. How to Restrict iMessage
4. What is Snapchat? Is Snapchat okay for kids?
5. Kid Safe Browsers for iPod Touch and iPad
6. Kids and Instagram
7. Who can see your comments and likes on Facebook?
8. How to set Safe Search in Google to filter out adult content
9. How to Restrict YouTube and Safari in iPod touch and iPad
10. How to add icons (emoticons) to your Messages

What’s Next

My main goal for the coming year on Be Web Smart is to continue to write articles that help answer your questions about keeping your family safe online.  There is no shortage of topics to write about and I already have ideas planned for the next two months!  Other plans of mine for the coming year:

1. I am hoping to improve my mailing list subscription process.  I’ve realized that some people who sign up never get their confirmation e-mail (it probably goes to their spam folder) and I’d also like to make the e-mails a bit “prettier” and include more information.

2.  I may also look into the possibility of a monthly newsletter.  In addition to the articles I write here I also pass on other links and tidbits of information through the Be Web Smart Facebook page.  E-mail subscribers may not be following on Facebook, so this would give me the opportunity to offer a monthly “roundup” of sorts.

3. In addition to writing new articles I’ll be reviewing and updating all the existing ones to make sure they are still current and up-to-date.   Whenever there is a change in Facebook or iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system) my screenshots and instructions need a quick review to make sure they are still accurate.

4. I’ll also be reviewing my list of Links and Resources and possibly add some of the presentations from my workshops.

5. I’ll be looking to partner with other website and publications to help get the word out to parents who could use some help and advice on technology topics.  I’ve recently had my article on kid-safe browsers published on Seacoast Kids Calendar (a great resource for families who live or visit the Seacoast NH area.  If you’ve never visited before you definitely should!)

Giveaway

Click for larger view

Once again thanks for reading over the last 12 months and here’s where I get to show my thanks! I have two Be Web Smart mouse pads to give away (mouse shown here not included).  I’ve had a lot of compliments on the flower logo and it looks really great on this mouse pad! All you need to do is enter a comment below.  In the comment let me know what topics are important to you and what you’d like to read more of here.  Make sure to include your name and e-mail address (e-mail won’t be displayed on the site) so I can contact you if you are one of the winners.  The comments will be open until Friday February 15, 11pm EST. I’ll randomly choose two winners (numbers in a hat approach) on Saturday February 16 and announce the winners here.  As always, all comments are previewed before being posted on the site so don’t panic if you don’t see your comment right away.

Thanks again!

12/16/2013 – Congratulations Susan and Carolyn! You are the randomly chosen winners and I’ll be contacting you to make arrangements for sending the mousepad.  Thanks all for the suggestions on future topics as well.

KidzVuz is a new app but the KidzVuz website isn’t new.  With KidzVuz kids can create video reviews of the things they love – such as books, movies, games, sports and food – and comment and “like” each other’s videos, all in a safe and supportive environment.  What sets KidzVuz apart is that each and every video is reviewed by an actual adult person before it is allowed on the site.

KidzVuz complies with COPPA (the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) meaning parents must approve their child’s account, among other things.  They have a very informative page for Parents that explains all about the protections in place on the site and in the app.

For a thorough review I had my daughter (HippyChippy) download the app on her iPod touch. She was up for the challenge of reviewing the app for Be Web Smart readers!

Her first step was to sign up for an account.  KidzVuz only asks for first name and last initial.  No real names are used within the app, only usernames chosen during sign-up.  A parent’s e-mail is required and parents must confirm and okay the new account. After my daughter completed the sign-up form, I received an e-mail.  Only after I confirmed the account could she create a video.

My daughter used a button in the app to record her video – a review of a new frozen yogurt shop nearby.  She followed the guidance provided to produce her video.  For example, kids are told not to include their real name, address, town, school, or any other personally identifiable information.  Also on the NO list are:

• Cyber bullying, gossip or rude/negative comments about another user’s review
• Full or partial nudity
• Obscene and/or offensive material or language (that includes song lyrics)
• Violent Content – real or pretend
• Dangerous stunts
• Negative stereotypes

Once recorded she submitted the video.  It did not appear on KidzVuz right away; as mentioned all videos are reviewed before posting.  When she checked the next day, her video was there!

Here’s what HippyChippy has to say:

“I think that KidzVuz is a good way to get ideas and reviews from fellow kids. I had fun recording my review, and I’ve already got 50 views! The one problem I had was with the app version of KidzVuz. The app is slower and is a bit more confusing. So I recommend making and submitting your video on the app, but browsing through reviews and friends on the computer.

If other kids want to make a review, the most important thing I would suggest is the time of the review. I find that many reviews go on and on, some even for over 10 minutes. I think that all reviews should be 3 minutes or under, because no one likes videos that drag on. I would definitely create another review in the future, and other kids should too!”

According to one of the KidzVuz founders, the next version of the app is already in production.  One change will be the ability to customize your avatar from within the app; right now you can only do that on the website.

Parents if you are looking to get your kids off of YouTube introduce them to KidzVuz. It has the HippyChippy stamp of approval!

For more information visit the KidzVuz website or download from the Apple app store.

What is AppCertain and how does it help monitor apps?

AppCertain is a free app monitoring service that notifies you each time a new app is downloaded onto your child’s iDevice.  The service will also let you know some important details about the app:

• Does the app use location tracking?
• Does the app have in-app purchases?
• Does the app have ads? (Many free apps use ads to generate revenue.)
• Does the app have any educational value?
• How much did the app cost?

This is valuable information that you might not detect by just looking at your child’s device and perusing the apps.  For example, if an app allows for in-app purchases, you can check to make sure you have set up restrictions to prevent in-app purchases on the device.  If the app has ads, are they appropriate for your child’s age group? (I’ve seen ads for dating sites in a popular word game app!)

How it works

AppCertain is not an app; it’s a service that uses something called a “security profile” to detect new apps.  Once the security profile is installed (on iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone), it ties into the “device management system” of the device to detect apps.  The security profile only collects the bare minimum of information needed to provide the service.  They do not collect “contacts, the device’s location, your child’s email, or any data of other apps.”  Their privacy policy states “We use the ID of the device for security purposes to ensure no one else can see the list of apps installed.”

When a new app is detected, you get an e-mail.  Here’s a sample e-mail I received after installing a few new apps on my iPhone:

Sample e-mail from AppCertain

Now if this had been something my daughter had downloaded, I would want to take a closer look.  Since she is too young (says me) for Facebook and Twitter I’d be sure she was not connected to those services, and find out more about the in-app purchases available in the app.

Multi-device tracking – not yet

Once I tried AppCertain on my iPhone, I wanted to install the security profile on my daughter’s iPod Touch for some further testing (and to get an idea of the apps she is using of course!) Unfortunately the security profile can only be added to one device.  AppCertain tells me that this is something they are working on and can hopefully offer in the future.

Monitoring is only the first step

So if you’re looking to get a better handle on the apps your child is using, AppCertain is a useful tool.  As with any monitoring tool, it is not a replacement for open and honest communication with your child.  (AppCertain or any monitoring service should not be looked at as “spying” – in fact AppCertain suggests you let your child know you are tracking their apps.)  But by using these tools you have a great way to get a conversation started about the apps, games and online activities your child is involved in.

How to get AppCertain

As mentioned, AppCertain is not an app; you will not find it in the Apple App Store.  Instead, go to the AppCertain website and click the Sign Up link.   I also recommend the video on their home page which will walk you through the steps.