Watch Your Facebook Invites

July 27, 2011 Leave a Comment

Do your kids use the “invitation” feature on Facebook to spread the word about parties and events with their friends? If so, make sure they know how to use the feature properly – or they could be putting themselves at risk.

Facebook invitations are fairly simple to use, and can be sent to anyone with a Facebook account or email address. Click “events” from your home account page and fill in the date and location, upload an optional picture, and customize the privacy level of your event (public or private.) The important part is this: don’t forget to triple-check the privacy level!

Last month a German teen identified as Thessa invited friends to her 16th birthday party using Facebook, but she forgot to mark the invitation as “private.” The result? The invitation went viral, causing 1,600 people to flood her street on the day of the party – even though Thessa later realized her mistake and cancelled the event. The police were called in to handle the crowd, and Thessa (who was nowhere to be found) had a very unhappy birthday.

Thessa’s real-life faux pas was preceded by a similar occurrence last year in Australia (which luckily turned out to be a hoax.) Facebook invitations for Kate Miller’s birthday went viral and Facebook ended up closing down the event after over 60,000 people RSVP’d.

What’s fortunate is that “Kate Miller” wasn’t a real person and that Thessa wasn’t hurt because of inviting the entire Facebook world to her house. But it serves as a reminder to you and your teens to be extra-careful with privacy settings on the Internet – that “private” button is easy to miss, but it’s vital when you’re giving out personally identifying information in an invitation!

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Watch Your Facebook Invites by Tim Woda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Filed under Facebook, General, Web 2.0 Tagged with ,

Facebook’s New Video Chat Feature

July 20, 2011 1 Comment

Video Chat Comes to Facebook

In an age where everyone has a social networking account and Facebook is the primary mode of communication for people (especially young people,) it was only a matter of time before Facebook introduced the ability to video chat.

Rolled out earlier this month, the new Facebook video chat feature is powered by Skype, which has enabled users to make free video calls since 2003. Facebook video chat allows you to connect to anyone on your “friends” list right from your Facebook account, and if they’re not there you can leave them a video message.

All it requires is a webcam and a simple plug in installation, and you can be chatting away with anyone you choose in no time.

This is a cool, exciting feature. Now your kids can keep in touch with friends who’ve moved away as if they still lived next door to each other. They can call home from college without paying long-distance charges – and since they’re already on Facebook anyway, they may be more likely to stay in touch.

However, as with any new technology Facebook video chat is subject to the obvious forms of abuse. Adding a video feature to the social network where your children and their peers already hang out opens the door for ramped-up video sexting (instead of just pictures) or your child becoming a target of even more in-your-face cyberbullying or sexual harassment.

Ask your teen today if they know about or are interested in Facebook video chat, and whether their friends use it. Talk about your expected guidelines for use of this feature before it becomes an issue, and as always, monitor their use on a regular basis.

Creative Commons License
Facebook’s New Video Chat Feature by Tim Woda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Filed under Facebook, Video, Web 2.0 Tagged with , ,

Parents’ Guide to Neopets

February 10, 2011 1 Comment

This post originally appeared on www.kidsafe.me.

Sort of a Tamagotchi-Pokémon hybrid, Neopets is an online game where players earn and spend virtual Neopoints to customize and care for up to 4 colorful cartoon animals.

Neopets launched in 1999 as a gaming site for bored college students, and today there are more teens and adults on Neopets than there are on comparable sites like Webkinz or Club Penguin.

After registering (kids under 13 must do so with a parent’s email), players can buy clothes, food, toys, and even houses for their Neopets. They can also track their Neopet’s stats as they train it to fight other virtual animals in the Battledome.

Many people can and do play Neopets for free (there is no fee for signing up), but a lot of the games and items can only be accessed by spending Neocash – which is bought via PayPal with real-life money. Gambling-esque games to win Neopoints (betting, scratch cards, spinning a wheel) are present, but are only open to kids over 13.

Parents sometimes complain about the overwhelming saturation of off-site ads on Neopets.com – ads are easy to click by mistake and hard for a young child to differentiate from the game. (You can get rid of the ads, but only with a Neopets Premium membership that costs $7.99 a month.)

Unlike other virtual world online games, Neopets doesn’t focus on social networking. In fact, there is minimal interaction among Neopets players. The main form of communication is through message boards, which are open to ages 13+ only. In the message boards, players are represented by Neopets avatars and can “friend” others, block users from contacting them, or send private messages to each other with NeoMail.

Neopets messages boards are automatically filtered for profanity and overseen by live moderators. Discussing dating and romance, religion, or politics can be grounds for getting your account “frozen.”

Though it might seem like a child-oriented site because of its cartoon graphics, Neopets is actually most appropriate for kids over the age of 12 or 13. Not only does it require fluent reading, but some of the concepts involved (such as investing in the stock market) are difficult for younger kids to grasp.

by Jenny Evans

Filed under Gaming, Social Networking, Web 2.0 Tagged with , , ,

“Don’t Talk to Strangers” Isn’t Such Old-Fashioned Advice After All

May 4, 2010 1 Comment

In March, Ashleigh Hall’s name was splashed across newspapers everywhere after her body was found in a ditch. The 17-year-old had done something that a worrisome number of teens do: made a new friend on Facebook and gone to meet him.

A 2006 survey commissioned by Cox Communications with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported that:

  • 71% of teens reported receiving messages online from someone they don’t know
  • 45% have been asked for personal information by someone they don’t know
  • 30% have considered meeting someone that they’ve only talked to online
  • 14% have actually met a person face-to-face that they’ve only talked to on the Internet (the figure for teens ages 16 and 17 jumps to 22%)

In Ashleigh’s case, her new friend was a predator who had lied about his identity, posing as a 17-year-old boy. Many were quick to point fingers at Facebook: can’t they do more to prevent people from lying about who they are online?

Check out www.kidsafe.me/blog for the rest of this article and practical tips for helping you educate, engage and protect your children.

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______________________________________________________________

Tim Woda is a passionate advocate for protecting children from today’s scariest digital dangers – cyberbullying, sexting and predators. He co-founded KidSafe, is the author of Keeping Kids Safe: A Guide for Parents of Social and Mobile Children and is a frequent public speaker on the topic. 

Copyright © 2009 Tim Woda

Filed under Facebook, General, Predators, Social Networking, Web 2.0 Tagged with , , , ,

Facebook Privacy Settings

March 15, 2010 Leave a Comment

If you are like most parents, you are probably not as comfortable with the social web as your children.  In my Internet & Mobile Safety Workshops for Parents, I get more questions about Facebook than any other website.  That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise since it is the largest social networking website by far and adoption of the site shows no sign of slowing down – especially with teens.

Larry Magid of ConnectSafely has published a fantastic video that explains Facebook privacy settings in details.  Whether to help your children set up their privacy settings or for your own profile, it is well worth the watch.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

______________________________________________________________

Tim Woda is a passionate advocate for protecting children from today’s scariest digital dangers – cyberbullying, sexting and predators. He co-founded KidSafe, is the author of Keeping Kids Safe: A Guide for Parents of Social and Mobile Children and is a frequent public speaker on the topic. 

Copyright © 2009 Tim Woda

Filed under Facebook, Social Networking, Web 2.0 Tagged with

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