Archive for June, 2012
Choose Not to Bully
A little over a week ago, the Huffington Post wrote an article about the Youth Service America Top 25 Most Powerful and Influential Young People in the World. Reading about twelve-year old Olivia Bouler who has managed to raise $200,000 for environmental causes, and sixteen-year old Jonny Cohen who has been retrofitting school buses to be more [...]
Zilly Dilly Kid-Friendly iPad Browser Review
ZillyDilly (www.zillydilly.com) is a free app for the iPad. In a nutshell, ZillyDilly was designed to give parents some control over the content that their child views on the Internet. What’s interesting about it is that it isn’t just another “kid-friendly” browser; it’s actually a curated media manager. ZillyDilly lets children explore thousands of websites [...]
Common Sense Media – A Hub of Advice and Reviews for Parents
At Yoursphere for Parents we take pride in providing parents with information and advice on social networking and Internet safety. But as a resource that parents can turn to for advice on the movies, books, music and games that are appropriate (or not appropriate) for their children, I recommend looking no further than Common Sense [...]
Why Facebook Wants Your Young Child To Join Their Network
Great article by industry expert, Linda Criddle. Original article http://ilookbothways.com/2012/06/07/why-would-facebook-want-to-enroll-children-in-a-service-built-with-little-regard-for-adult-safetyprivacysecurity-for-the-money/ _____________________________________________________________________ A floundering Facebook is under increased pressure to shore up their revenue and flat per user minutes. So it was no surprise to see the Wall Street Journal report that Facebook is developing technology to allow children younger than 13 years old to use the [...]
Cyberbullying on YouTube: Six Things All Parents Should Know
Between the entertainment, marketing and sharing advantages that it offers, we can all agree that YouTube is a fantastic service. But in today’s world it either takes a lot of bravery, a huge desire for attention or a lot of ignorance to post a video of yourself on YouTube. Cyberbullying has highlighted something that we’ve [...]
Five Questions Every Parent Needs to Know the Answers to When Asking: Is Facebook Okay for My Child?
Facebook’s decision to investigate technology that would make them compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and subsequently allow children under the age of 13 to join the network, has me deeply concerned as a parent. The argument that this move would make Facebook safer for children is misleading and designed to placate [...]
Tumblr – Why Kids Love It and What Parents Need To Know
Maybe you’ve heard your teen talking about something called Tumblr. Or perhaps you’ve seen it on the Internet somewhere and always wondered what it is. Aside of its increasing popularity among the younger crowd, there’s really only one reason why you might want to consider blocking Tumblr on your home computer, or at the very [...]
Parent Internet Safety Survey
As a media company that publishes a kids-only social network and an Internet-safety information resource for families, we’re always interested in understanding more about the online-safety practices that parents are using with their children at home. Beyond that, however, there is also tremendous value in understanding exactly what it is parents are concerned about, why [...]
Mary Kay is a nationally-recognized Internet safety expert and the founder of 
