Yoursphere Parent Newsletter January 2010

Yoursphere Parent Newsletter, January 2010
In This Issue:

Happy New Year! You can be well assured that we've got some great stuff lined up for Yoursphere this year, but for now we'll share with you what's been going on in the site recently. If you want to know more about what we've shared here, we encourage you to ask your kids.

Contest Winners

Team Edward or Team Jacob contest: We were wondering whether we'd have more Edward or Jacob fans, we actually had more Jacob fans!

And the winner is ......Devon 101!

Prize for winning: New Moon Guide & a limited edition artist's Jacob necklace.

Looks like it pays to be a devoted Twilight fan - Congrats Devon 101!

Gift Giving Contest

Our members have big hearts and they all should have won; we had to name a winner, since it was after all, a contest, and .......Quidditch Girl was it!

Prize for winning: $25 Best Buy Gift Card
Quidditch Girl said her gift was a "memory jar or basket for my Mom & Dad"

Congrats on being the #1 Yoursphere gift giver, Quidditch Girl!

Other Contest Winners

Where is your favorite place? Contest - the winner is lockckey who chose school as their favorite place. They love school they said because they have fun, learn alot and all their friends are there.

What am I? Contest - the winner is Tessalichtenhan13
Correct answer = cakebatter

Congratulations to all Yoursphere contest winners!

Mommyperks.com Contest Winner

Recently one of our third-party website affiliates, mommyperks.com, ran a giveaway contest in support of Yoursphere. The winner of the contest, and a year membership to Yoursphere was Gail. Congratulations on your win Gail! We hope your child has a great time on Yoursphere!

New Contests On Yoursphere

New Prizes In The Gift Gallery

Recently we asked Yoursphere members to vote on what they wanted as new prizes. Since then some great new gifts have been added to the Gift Gallery on Yoursphere. These gifts can be bought by Yoursphere members by redeeming the credits they earn from being active on the site, i.e join a new sphere, create a new sphere, play games, etc. Here are a few of the newly added gifts:

Cool New Spheres

Everyday Yoursphere kids are coming up with very cool, creative spheres. This is a great way for them to socialize with one another and find some commond ground. The spheres showcase just how creative, talented and unique our members are. We love to see all the positive things that happen when kids and teens are allowed to be themselves, and not influenced by an adult culture. To encourage creativity, we feel it's necessary to acknowledge some of these awesome spheres:

Check out the Hotwire Sphere under Music. Hotwire is a band from Davis, Ca and they're here on Yoursphere to get their name out there and promote their music. Check out their sphere to watch and listen to them play. Good luck guys!

Who doesn't love a good Disney classic? New under TV & Movies, is the Disney Classics Sphere. Here Yoursphere members have created "a whole new world" where they can share their favorite Disney films and watch clips of some of the great originals!

Movies and TV shows just not cutting it for you? Then check out this awesome Broadway Sphere under the Performing Arts catergory. In this sphere you can watch clips from some of the best Broadway plays out there, including: Les Miserables, Grease and The Phantom of the Opera. It's been exciting to see how many aspiring performers we have as members of our community ranging in interest from Broadway to their own high school performances.

Speaking of spheres...

As you know by now, Yoursphere members have the opportunity to create cool, new, creative spheres on their own. This can work in favor as the child is able to promote themselves in any activity that they do whether it's sports, music or school. To get a better idea of how this works, check out this sphere created by one of our users to promote his football stats, highlight video, uncoming schedule and more.

Yoursphere In The News

In a recent article by Associated Content, Yoursphere was names the #1 Social Network for Kids. The author addressed the issue of child safety on social networking sites and provided some good links to internet safety tips.

Here at Yoursphere we put your child's safety first. However, we don't neglect providing them with fun and engaging content on the site while doing so.

School Fundraising with Yoursphere

Education budget cuts are never a good thing. Unfortunately, these cuts are becoming more and more of a prevalant problem in school systems across the country and Yoursphere wants to be a part of the solution.

Our fundraising program is a great way for schools and youth programs to raise some money. Your child's school or youth program can reap the financial benefits for years while at the same time promoting the safest online community for kids. Additionally, everytime someone signs up for a Yoursphere membership, the school/youth program gets 40% of the proceeds for the lifetime of each membership.

Go to https://yoursphere.com/register/fundraiser to see the details of this amazing opportunity!

Cyberbullying

The difference between physical bullying and cyberbullying (or online bullying) is that cyberbullying can come in many different forms and through many different mediums. Unfortunately, most parents are only familiar with physical bullying and thus aren't aware of the severity and pervasiveness of cyberbullying. Here are a few tips to help you out:

Different ways cyberbullying can occur:

1. Text Messages: Almost all children have a cell phone nowadays, and almost all of them text on a daily basis. Parents need to be aware that bullies can easily send hateful and threatening messages, sometimes non-stop.

2. Instant Messaging (IM): Some Internet Service Providers (ISP) such as AOL offer IM services. If your child isn't using one of these ISPs then they might be using services such as AIM to chat with their friends. However, just like text messaging, IMing is another way that bullies can harass your child.

3. Social Networks: As you're fully aware by now, social networks can be both scary and fun for children and parents. However, the ability to comment or message people on these sites, creates and open window for bullies to send hateful messages or post embarrasing videos/pictures/

4. Online Gaming Services: There are hundreds of online gaming websites that children and adults participate in everyday. One of the more popular ones is Xbox live, where people can play games with each other and have party chats. These capabilities make for an easy means to bully someone.

Ways to avoid dealing with cyberbullying:

1. Monitor your child's online activity: From time to time you should check up on your child's online activities and ask them if everything is alright. Let them know it's ok for them to tell you if they're being bullied online or through their phone.

2. Look for signs of cyberbullying: These signs can be anything from fear of attending school to getting angry when they're on the computer, playing online video games, or even texting. Recognizing these signs in the key to stopping the cyberbullying before it gets too serious.

3. Utilize privacy settings: Almost every online application, whether it's Facebook, Flickr or Xbox LIve, has some sort of safety feature that allows you to block or restrict certain communications with another person. This can be helpful when your child is beingcyberbullied on any online service.

Yoursphere's take on cyberbullying: Yoursphere's online mediators have a constant presence in the website. They oversee any use of foul language or content that can be offensive in any way-this way, your child's online experience with Yoursphere is as pleasant as possible.

Jump to this link for more information on cyberbullying.

For more helpful tips and news about internet-safety for children, check out Mary Kay's blog or follow her on Twitter to get constant updates and useful information.

Until Next Time!

As always, thank you for entrusting Yoursphere with your child's social networking experience and helping us to "raise the bar" for online safety for our kids and teens. Here's to a great year!

Best Regards,

Mary Kay Hoal, Lee Rees and the Yoursphere team