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Dear Village School Community,
​
Thanks to all of your who came out on Tuesday morning to hear Dr. Yalda T. Uhls discuss parenting in the digital age. We are so grateful for your time and support.

Common Sense believes strongly in working to effectively engage families and build a positive home-school connection around technology. We know that you are in great hands with Jayme Johnson, Angela Mackenzie, and Landon Loeber, as they do a smart job of offering you and your kids support in this area at school.

In terms of what you can do at home, here are some useful links from Common Sense Media:

• Common Sense recommends that you take time out to have "The Talk" with kids about media use. Here's a great link that outlines talking points and tips on how to approach this discussion with your children.
• Another essential resource for families is our Family Toolbox. Here you may access everything from the new family dinner project to our digital glossary to our family agreement and the customizable device contract.
• Many people asked about how to approach setting filters for their tech at home. Here's a recent post with advice for Everything You Need to Know About Parental Controls.
• On the issue of addiction, here's a post: What should I do if I think my kid is addicted to video games?

All of our online resources are free 24/7. Check them out and, if you have problems finding something specific, please call the LA office at 310-689-7536. Additionally, you may always reach out to Jayme Johnson with any questions about technology, digital media, or parenting as it relates to 21st century skills. Thank you again for your time and interest.

Best-Lisa
--
Lisa Solomon
Regional Coordinator, LA | Common Sense Media
P: 310.689.7536
e: lsolomon@commonsense.org
Connect with us: blog | twitter | facebook | www.commonsense.org

What is this game my kid keeps talking about?

It’s like Legos online.
Those little blocks are like Legos that don’t hurt your feet. Kids can build freely in creative mode. In survival mode, they have to defend their builds against attackers.

On computers, Minecraft is a piece of software that, once installed, can be played in stand alone mode or connected to a server for group plan.

On iPads, iPods, or tablets, Minecraft is an app that can be played alone or with others, only if they are on the same wifi network.

Is it scary?
In survival mode, zombies,skeletons, and creepers stalk the players, forcing defensive moves and cooperation. The violence is extremely unrealistic, but kids under 7 or with vivid imaginations may be creeped out.

Is it teaching anything?
Yes! Play requires critical thinking and delayed gratification, and cooperation makes it more fun.
Kids learn online etiquette. Minecraft gives you the chance to discuss online behavior before the cell phone years.

Is it safe?
It can be. Kids are at risk for abusive play called “griefing:” think of one kid smashing another’s Lego creation. Kids need to know game etiquette.

Strangers can play with and talk to kids, too, in certain settings. Kid-safe servers and setting the Pocket Edition to Single Player may be right for your kid.

The new You Tube Kids app was announced this week providing a curated library of family-friendly videos and channels from well known brands as well as lesser known YouTubers (from Dreamworks, Henson, Reading Rainbow, and NatGeo Kids, to Vlogbrothers and Stampylonghead). The app also provides a simplified interface and parental controls.

Suggested Videos, always a mine-field on regular YouTube, have been pre-filtered and are all just as kid friendly as the one currently being watched. Comments have also been disabled.

Download YouTube Kids for free on your Android or iOS device:

• Android: http://goo.gl/SsDTHh
• iOS: http://goo.gl/P0cikI

Read more about YouTube Kids:

• Tech Crunch article 
  
• Common Sense Media review

There are lots of other things that Google Search can do. You can track packages, look up zip and area codes, find time zones, and more.

Watch: Search Tips & Tricks YouTube Playlist
Read: Learn more about other things you can ask Google
Try it: Need a timer? Google the word timer!

Use quotation marks around multiple words to search for that exact phrase. This is handy when searching for things like "Village School" or "ice skating rink" or when searching song lyrics like "imagine all the people."  

Google Inside Search - learn how search works, features, and watch search stories
How to Search on Google - tips and tricks to help you easily find information
Google Guide - interactive tips for novices, experts, and teens

Here are the sites and resources shared during our conversation:

Digital Glossary - Want to know the difference between FBF and Formspring? Take a look at Common Sense Education's Digital Glossary.

Google Family Safety Center - Tips from Google on family safety basics, safe search, youtube settings, and keeping your information private.

Common Sense Social Media - FAQs, articles, and videos about social media topics, sorted by age and/or theme.

15 Sites Beyond Facebook - Many teens and tweens have moved beyond Facebook. Here is a list of 15 additional popular social media sites.

Common Sense Parent Concerns - A new resource from Common Sense Media to assist parents with those tough questions and digital dilemmas.

3 Tips to Help Manage Privacy on Facebook - This information comes directly from a Facebook email.

1. Check out who can see your past posts—and limit the audience if you're not comfortable with anything.
     - You can review the audience for your past posts in your activity log.
     - To quickly limit the audience of old posts to Friends, visit your privacy settings.
2. Consider who you're sharing with today. Each time you post a new photo, status update, link or other content, you get to set the privacy for it. Just look for the audience selector. If you want to:
     - Share big ideas for anyone in the world, set the post to Public.
     - Reserve personal pictures for the people you know the best, set the post to Friends, Close Friends or Custom.
     - Share something with someone specific, you can also send it as a message instead of posting it.
3. To review or change who can see your stuff, any time, visit your privacy shortcuts. Just click the lock at the top of any page of Facebook.

While we have discussed YouTube settings previously, new resources are always coming to our attention. Most recently, this fabulous post that includes 8 ways to make YouTube safe for children.

While suggested videos and ads can not be eliminated completely, the following tools may help increase viewing safety.

ViewPure - http://viewpure.com/
ViewPure is very similar to Quietube. It offers both a bookmarklet and an on page field to paste in YouTube links. ViewPure also provides a filtered search for YouTube (default=strict)

Kideos - http://www.kideos.com/
Kideos compiles YouTube content and organizes it for ages 0-10.

This will definitely be a topic for an upcoming Parent Technology Academy. Briefly, we reviewed some useful extensions for those using the Chrome browser. These three are extensions used by our 4th-6th graders.
AdBlock Plus - strip away most ads on webpages and in videos
Tab Scissors and Tab Glue - separate and merge multiple tabs or windows
Clearly - streamlines webpages for viewing and printing.

Frankly prides itself on being off the record. "Say whatever you want." "It's a secret." "Anonymous." Those are all words that may encourage teens to share or say more than they should.
 
"Regret it? Unsend it." That's what the app store advertises! While this may delete the message from your device, it may have still been read by others. This regret-unsend mindset provides a false security for teens who may believe that unkind messages can be unsent or who may not always think, and consider how the message will be received, before pressing "send."

As with all apps, there can be good, fun, upstanding ways to use this communication tool - it isn't all bad. Parents should use awareness of this and other social media apps as opportunities to have frank, open discussions with tweens and teens about their social media use.