Yoursphere Parent Newsletter November 2009

Yoursphere Parent Newsletter, November 2009

In this issue:

Happy November from Yoursphere! Here's the latest buzz in and around the safest, most vibrant site for kids and teens.

Inside The 'Sphere

The diversity of topics Yoursphere members are interested in never ceases to amaze. Our universe of spheres has recently expanded to include such esoterica as Koalas, I Love Donuts, Unicyclers, Fake and Fab Makeup and Fashion, Shiba Inu, Pokemon Sprites, NCIS, and...Canada. And that's just a few of the hundreds of spheres created by our members.

What's going on inside each sphere? Well, the Academics sphere is offering photos of new rings found on Saturn, tips on how to grow (not just carve) pumpkins, and an invitation to guess the weight of a crucial Fall accessory: a pillowcase stuffed with Halloween candy.

Art & Photo members are looking at intriguing, ghostly pics taken via a long (30-second) exposure.

And a Yoursphere member in a sphere devoted to Sims games posted a video with advice on "how to build virtual apartment buildings," including hints on how to place flooring and fixtures. Meanwhile, in the Sims 2 sphere, other members are sharing "vampire skins" for their Sims apps.

In The Lady and the Tramp sphere, a member posted a black and white video of Frank Sinatra's title tune. Sample response: "Lady and the Tramp is my favorite movie ever!!! It is such a nice movie!!!!!!!"

And finally, perhaps in protest against Fall's falling temperatures, in the Beach sphere members posted images of the white sand of California's Pismo Beach, and a sparkling blue ocean below an unnamed boardwalk. Comments: "Ahh, I love the beach! Isn't this beautiful water and boardwalk i would luvv to walk across this on a nice relaxing hot summer day! Wouldn't u?"

Gift Gallery

The Gift Gallery--where members are rewarded for being active participants in Yoursphere--expanded to include a raft of cool new stuff, like Ed Hardy backpacks and tees, gift cards from Target and Hot Topic, and hot new video games like NBA 2K10. All gifts are awarded free to members, who earn credits via their level of participation in the site. So as your child has fun interacting on Yoursphere, they're also earning their way towards terrific loot!

Latest Contest

A winner has yet to be announced from our latest contest, the Halloween-themed "What Are We?" Care to take a shot? Take a look at the photo on the left. Got any guesses?

Did You Know?

We post random "Did You Know?" fun facts on the teen homepage. Usually, the answer, at least for the adults here, is...no!
So if you are hearing some oddball trivia at the dinner table these days, here's a few to help you keep pace:

• The first soup was made of hippopotamus
• You inhale about 700,000 of your own skin flakes each day
• In a years time, most humans will consume 14 insects while in their sleep.

Web Safety News

Felony online harassment: TX teen charged

Our friends at ConnectSafely.org point out that a 16-year-old girl has been charged under a new Texas law that criminalizes online harassment. The law, H.B. 2003, states that "a person commits a third-degree felony if the person posts one or more messages on a social networking site [or via instant messaging or text-messaging by phone] with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate or threaten another person," KHOU-TV in Houston reports. Not much detail was available on the case but police said that "the harassment went on for a few months and involved a dispute over a boy."

Web Safety Tips

We're all awash in passwords these days, so we are taking a closer look at passwords. Last month's newsletter offered password creation tips, so here's some helpful hints for parents and kids on methods to keep those passwords from getting into the wrong hands.

Tips to Create and Manage Strong Passwords

5 tips to help keep your passwords secret
Furthering last month's password creation tips, here are some more ways to keep passwords secret.

Treat your passwords and pass phrases with as much care as you treat the information that they protect.
Use strong passwords to log in to your computer and to any site where you enter your credit card number, or any financial or personal information-including social networking sites.
1. Don't reveal passwords to others

• Keep your passwords hidden from friends or family members (especially children) who could pass them on to other less trustworthy individuals.
• Be careful with password recovery questions (i.e. "What was your mother's maiden name?") Don't reveal these answers to others and don't choose questions with answers that are freely available on the Web.

2. Protect any recorded passwords

• Be careful where you store the passwords that you record or write down.
• Don't store passwords on a file in your computer, because criminals will look there first.
• Don't carry passwords around in your wallet or hide them under your keyboard.
• Don't leave a record of your passwords anywhere that you would not leave information that the passwords protect.

3. Never provide your password over e-mail or in response to an e-mail request

• Any e-mail message that requests your password or requests that you to go to a Web site to verify your password is almost certainly a fraud.
• This includes requests from trusted companies or individuals. E-mail can be intercepted in transit, and e-mail messages that request information might not be from the senders they claim.
• Internet "phishing" scams use fraudulent e-mail messages to entice you to reveal your user names and passwords, steal your identity, and more. Learn more about phishing scams and how to deal with online fraud.

4. Do not type passwords on computers that you do not control

• Computers such as those in Internet cafes, computer labs, shared systems, kiosk systems, conferences, and airport lounges should be considered unsafe for any personal use other than anonymous Internet browsing.
• Do not use these computers to visit chat rooms, check online e-mail, bank balances, business mail, or any other accounts that requires a user name and password.
• Criminals can purchase keystroke logging devices for very little money and they take only a few moments to install. With these devices malicious users can gather information typed on a computer from across the Internet-your passwords and pass phrases are worth as much as the information that they protect.

5. Use more than one password

• Use different passwords for different Web sites and services.
• If any one of the computers or online systems using a particular password is compromised, all of your other information protected by that same password should be considered compromised as well.

From Microsoft.com 

School Fund Raising

A Yoursphere membership drive is the perfect fundraiser for schools and youth programs looking to raise money. A quick and simple solution, a one-time Yoursphere-directed fundraiser can even reap financial benefits for your school for years. It's easy--we do all the work, your school creates the safest online community for their students, and even earns a large share (40%!) of the proceeds. Go to yoursphere.com/fundraising to find out more.

Follow Us For A Real Look At Internet Safety

Want to stay up to date on the latest in Internet safety? Follow Yoursphere founder Mary Kay's blog right here. Recently Mary Kay took a no-holds-barred look at Social Networking Sites. "The Truth Revealed: Internet and Social Networking Facts" is a four part series. An Excerpt:

The problem to date in my opinion is that no one has set out to protect minors from the fall-out of what happens when children participate in online communities created by adults for adults.
While the benefits to participation in social media are plentiful, the negatives are devastating and unacceptable.

Brand A is a social media company that:
Sexualizes kids.

1. Allows for participation in a culture that if the computer wasn't involved would be illegal.
2. Expose kids to a negative culture and content they'd likely never have seen prior, if at all.
3. Allows minors to put themselves in a position where they likely will be agressively sexually solicited.

   Allows minors to be in danger of losing their true selves.

4. This is wrong. We as parents have to help change things for our kids.
   Brand A:
   "James H, 15 likes sucking dick and _ucking black males 14, 15,16."

I hope the facts that I reveal in this series help you understand why I've committed myself, (including the entire Yoursphere.com team) to changing the environment our kids socially network in. As well, why I've decided to become an advocate for parent education and involvement regarding social media participation and the Internet.
Look for Part 2 in this series that shares how "Brand B" monetizes itself (and boasts about an increase in profits), due in part to an application that "buys and sells people". No, that's not a slip of the keyboard.

And further:

When it comes to minors, here's what we parents need to be consider about Brand D and our kids:

1. Would we allow our kids to walk around their school, at a football game, or down the street, wearing a shirt that proclaimed their "favorite sexual position" ? When our kids utilize popular adult-created "applications" (one of the main ways Brand D monetizes itself), such as these, and they're posted on their page, in essence we're sending our kids off to school, or to a public event wearing the shirt. Don't be fooled. Your child may not seek them out, but they're immersed in a community created by adults and for adults. These 'engagements' will come to them. They won't have to seek them out.

Read the entire series here.

Yoursphere On Twitter

You can also follow Yoursphere on Twitter here, and Mary Kay's own tweets.

Of course, for those desiring a deeper look at the leading edge of Internet safety techniques, have unaired concerns, or wish to simply engage in a dialogue, check out Yoursphere's parent-only Internet safety forum.

Completely separate from Yoursphere.com, it's a place to listen in as Yoursphere team members blog about tech issues, site news, and all the other intriguing questions that make what we are doing here so challenging and unique.

Thank you for continuing to entrust Yoursphere with your child's Internet experience and helping "raise the bar" for teen networking.
Yours,
Mary Kay Hoal And The Yoursphere Team