Tag: "facebook"
Is Facebook’s Vibe Pushing Away College Students?
What if someone told you that the college crowd is slowly migrating away from Facebook? What do you think would be the cause? There are some obvious reasons, as Rebecca Collins points out in her recent article on TechFlash.com. For starters, college kids probably aren’t very fond of the fact that there’s been a huge [...]
Safe Social Networking for Kids on Facebook? No, but a Home for Pedophiles
As if the privacy concerns stemming from the WSJ report weren’t enough, FoxNews delved into Facebook’s safeguards only to stumble upon some extremely concerning content. What exactly did they find? Simply put, FoxNews found 100s of groups whose members were sharing child pornographic photos and other child exploitative materials between one another. According to Facebook, [...]
Facebook Under Fire in Recent Privacy Breach…Or So They Say
It’s hard to say that I didn’t see this one coming. Upon an investigation by the Wall Street Journal, many popular Facebook apps—including games from Zynga, a company whose CEO has clearly expressed his lack of concern for users’ privacy—are sharing your user ID with unauthorized third parties. In fact, the WSJ found that all [...]
The Empire Strikes Back
My good friend Mike Dermody seems to be getting under the skin of some corporate heads over at Facebook. Mike’s blog is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in technology or Internet safety; however, someone who claims to be a Facebook employee seems to think otherwise. Like me, Mike will occasionally write a blog relating [...]
Facebook Enables Man/Boy Love Relationships
“The Internet is the number one destination for pedophiles because they believe that technology grants these criminals anonymity.” That’s a quote from Thomas Harrington, the FBI’s Executive Assistant Director for Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch on August 2, 2010. And given the latest news from FOX, Mr. Harrington’s statement couldn’t be more dead-on. Bear [...]
Yoursphere Before Facebook – Here’s Why
As parents, we want what’s best for our children, there’s no doubt about that. We want them to enjoy life and everything that it has to offer, and we want them to be safe while doing so. In today’s world, the Internet is part of that life. Its mainstream influence on our society is growing more and [...]
When Facebook Status Updates Go Wrong
You might want to think twice before announcing over Facebook that you’ll be on vacation for the next two weeks. As a matter of fact, you may want to refrain from announcing that you’re leaving the house at all. Unfortunately, more than 18 families from New Hampshire were victim to the worst that could happen [...]
“Why Facebook Has It Wrong About Our Kids”
There are a lot of really great Internet-safety blogs and websites out there for parents to take advantage of. ChildrenOnline.org has always been personal favorite of mine. Their monthly newsletter is always jam-packed with useful advice and the latest news, and this month is no exception as Marje Monroe and Doug Fodeman put together a lengthy—and very interesting—article about [...]
Facebook Places – How to turn it off
After reading my first post on this topic, many of my friends on Facebook came forward and asked me what they can do with their account settings to protect themselves and their children. In this blog-post sequel, I will try to provide parents with somewhat of a solution, as well as address a few more [...]
Facebook Places – A Great Tool or A Stalker’s Best Friend?
Possibly feeling out of the loop when it comes to GPS locating features like the one you’ll find in the 2 million-member-social-networking site, Foursquare, Facebook has officially released their version of the service, called Places. The feature is available to Facebook users in the U.S., and just like Foursquare, Places allows users to post their [...]
Customer Satisfaction Survey Favors IRS over Facebook
A score of 64 on a 100 point scale puts Facebook in the bottom 5 percent of all measured private sector companies—down there with cable companies and airlines. The only company that scored lower? MySpace (63/100). Even customer satisfaction with the IRS was ranked higher (79/100)! You have to admit, it’s sort of funny that [...]
Facebook’s Minimalistic Solution for a Panic Button
A couple of weeks ago, Facebook teamed up with The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP) to develop a “panic button” application for their UK members who are between the ages of 13-18. The development of the “ClickCEOP” app was in response to the pressure that Facebook was receiving from the UK police agency. [...]
Possible Outcomes and Concerns Regarding the National PTA/Facebook Partnership
In an effort to spread education and awareness about Internet safety, the country’s largest parent-teacher association, the National PTA, has teamed up with the world’s largest social network, Facebook. At first glance you would think that only good things could come out of an alliance between the largest social network and the largest PTA in [...]
How You Can Easily Reclaim Your Privacy on Facebook
Thanks to Randall Deich—a professional developer, educator, and a LinkedIn friend of mine—readers of this blog post will be able to take full advantage of a very useful privacy tool made specifically for their Facebook privacy settings. The tool is essentially an all-in-one privacy scanner designed to point out any loose-ends that you may have [...]
MySpace, Facebook and a Half Dozen Other Companies Just Screwed Up. Big Time.
That headline’s a quote from The Next Web. It looks like the privacy issues facing Facebook and other social media sites have gained even more national attention and scrutiny after this Wall Street Journal report and a feature on the cover of Time magazine, both of which were published late last week. For the most [...]
Getting the Most Out of Your Facebook Privacy Settings
Lately there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding Facebook and the decisions they’ve made towards their users’ privacy settings. Some people have such strong feelings about it that they’ve banded together and have committed to quitting Facebook on May 31st. So far 3,500 people have “commit to quit”. Though this number barely scratches the surface [...]
How Hot Is Your Tween on Facebook?
That’s the first question that got my attention from Forbes.com writer, Joan Indiana Rigdon. The second question she asked: “Isn’t it time for schools, parents and social media sites to get extremely specific about Internet safety?” got my attention as well. Thank you, Joan, for asking these questions. Though there are many useful advantages of [...]
What to Say When Your Under-Age Child Wants a Facebook
Meryl, a friend of mine, shared an interesting story with me the other day. It was about her 11-year-old cousin, who, like many 11-year-olds, is starting to show interest in social networks, more specifically Facebook. The good news was that Meryl knew about Yoursphere; she knew that it was perfect for kids just like her [...]
Beware of Facebook Stalker Applications
Parents, as if all of the privacy concerns and deceitful third-party games weren’t enough, we Facebook users now have something else to worry about, not only for our sake, but for our children’s. The worry…stalker apps. Stalker apps, including ‘Stalker Check’ and ‘peeppeep-pro’, are applications that Facebook makes available for users to download and use [...]
Facebook Now Charging For Memberships. Price: Your Privacy. Mark, you should have called your mom
It looks like Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has shot himself in the foot with his clumsy comments regarding social-networking privacy. He should have talked to his mom first. Do you think the 25-year old Harvard graduate should be let off the hook?He only runs the most-popular social networking site on the internet. Nevertheless, this [...]
Mary Kay is a nationally-recognized Internet safety expert and the founder of 
