Archive for July, 2009
Netgear router filters porn
Friday, July 31st, 2009There are lots of Internet filtering products on the market that enable parents to block certain types of websites such as pornography, hate sites, or sites that promote alcohol or drug use. Most of these products run on PCs or Macs by sitting between the operating system and the browser and checking any requested sites to make sure they’re not blocked. The products generally do a good job blocking requests from protected PCs, but most don’t work with game consoles, Wi-Fi-equipped iPhones or iPod Touches, or any other device that isn’t running the software.
Netgear is about to ship routers designed to simplify the process by allowing parents to block content on any device using the home’s wired or wireless network.
The new routers, which will be available in early September, will be equipped with firmware that configures them to use OpenDNS’ domain name server to look up the actual IP address of any site someone tries to visit. If that site isn’t on the blocked list, it will be displayed. But if a parent has blocked that site, the user will instead be sent to a page that informs them that the site they tried to access is blocked.
Some existing Netgear routers can be upgraded with the new OpenDNS-compatible firmware starting August 10th.
Because the filtering takes place at the router level, it works with any device in the household that uses that router including Web-enabled game consoles and Wi-Fi mobile devices. It won’t, however, work with devices that don’t use the home network such as an iPhone set up to use the 3G cellular network.
Like other filtering products, parents have control over the type of content blocked and have the ability to turn it off so that it doesn’t prevent mom or dad from visiting any sites. There is also a “white list” feature that allows parents to exclude any site from the blocked list. Because the blocking lists are “in the cloud,” parents can configure the filter from anywhere.
Before employing any parental control system, I urge parents to think about how they will or won’t fit in with your family. Consider the age of the child, the child’s Web surfing habits, the types of risk your child takes, and what you plan to say to your children about the filtering product. Parents should tell their kids that they’re using filters and explain why they think they’re necessary. Also, parents should never rely on filters as the only way to protect children–parental involvement is still important. If you decide to use a filter, consider weaning kids from them as they enter their teenage years. Eventually, your kids will be on their own and part of a parent’s job is to help a child make their own good decisions. You can’t rely on filters forever
Bamboo Nursing Pads by Bamboobino
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 Having a new baby around has certainly brought back some memories. Great ones, and memories of all the products I used with my first son before I knew much about anything. This time I have a chance to make some changes and use safer alternatives and try to “green” up the process of raising a [...] Related posts:- SafeMama Review: The Great Bag
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What’s Under Your Sink? (And a Giveaway)
Friday, July 24th, 2009 We love Seventh Generation Products. I use their diapers when we have a need for disposables (which has happened with more frequency since baby number two has arrived). So we’re really excited about their Under The Sink makeover contest. What better way to get rid of all of the bad stuff under your sink? With [...] Related posts:- Wee Generation Diaper Bag Giveaway!
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Phthalates in pills? What’s next?
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 Just when you think you’ve got it covered in terms of avoiding phthalates, you find out there’s something else to worry about (seriously, is there anything that doesn’t have phthalates or BPA?). An article via the Daily Green reports of a new study that found over the counter tablets contain enough phthalates to increase your level [...] Related posts:- Phthalates Ban in Washington on the Horizon
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We need critical thinking in a world without Uncle Walter
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009I both envy and worry about young people who are growing up in the age of the Internet.
I envy them for their life-long access to a media that’s diversified enough to bring them news, information and opinion from an enormous number of sources.
There’s something to be said for having access to thousands of media outlets. Unlike those of us who grew up in the 50s, 60s and 70s, young people who smartly use the Internet to consume news today don’t have to worry about everything being filtered by a small, elite and typically white male cadre of journalists working for one of only three broadcast networks or one or two local newspapers. And it’s no longer a one-way street. Today’s news consumers can also be producers thanks to blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, podcasting and microblogs like Twitter.
But, as I look back at the career of Walter Cronkite’s who died last Friday, I also worry whether young people are finding it harder to come by trusted sources for news and information. The Internet’s strength as a news resource is also its weakness. We never will or should return to the days of only a handful of media outlets, but today’s diversified media landscape and especially the Internet, do bring new challenges to consumers of news.
One of the things I loved about the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite was that it was watched by a high enough percentage of the population that it created a shared experience. When we heard Walter tell us “that’s the way it is,” we had something that we could all talk about the next day. We all knew it was true even if we didn’t all agree on how we should interpret the implications of what Cronkite told us happened.
Every day after returning from work, my father would open up his copy of the Los Angeles Daily Mirror (the long defunct afternoon paper published by the same company as the Los Angeles Times). He would then turn on the black and white TV to watch Cronkite on CBS or perhaps Huntley-Brinkley on NBC but, more often than not it was Cronkite who shared our living room for that half hour. As a young boy I didn’t necessarily pay close attention to the news but I did absorb portions of it. When big stories broke, my dad would summon me to watch the news with him or summarize over dinner what he read in the Mirror.
Not always, but sometimes at school the next day, kids would talk about some of those stories along with the entertainment shows most of us watched such as the Ed Sullivan Show or Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.
Looking back, it seemed as if all of America – or at least the slice of it I knew – had a shared experience. If nothing else, our family shared its media experience, probably because we had only one TV set, one newspaper subscription and no Internet. The closest thing I had to my own personal media was my bedroom table radio and, eventually, a transistor radio that I got to control all by myself.
We also had dinner together every night in a room with no TV, a household telephone that almost never rang during dinner hour and no mobile devices that let us exchange text messages with people outside the room. The only people we could hear from or talk to were each other. Having dinner together was one tradition my wife and I shared with our children.
I’m not longing to return to the repressed, racist, sexist and homophobic days of the 50s and 60s and I don’t think we’ll ever — or should ever – have another “most trusted man in America” like Walter Cronkite, but I do see some value in looking at what we might be missing as we move forward, not to repeat the past but to ensure a better future.
Without an almost universally respected news anchor to tell us “the way it is,” we have to figure it out for ourselves. It’s not that we don’t have resources – we have more than ever and that’s a good thing. But it does put more pressure on us to think critically about what we see, hear, read and say. Walter Cronkite demonstrated in 1968 when he took the almost unprecedented step as a newsman of critically evaluating what the government was telling us about the Vietnam war to come to and share his own conclusion that the war needed to end.
Today’s media environment provides an opportunity – and responsibility – for parents and schools to teach critical thinking. Not only must young people learn to “consider the source” of what they take in but also think critically about what they post in a world where just about every young person is now potentially an author, photographer and videographer. Kids – who may never even know who Walter Cronkite was – need to have a miniature version of him inside their head by asking questions such as “Is this true?” and “How do I know it’s true?.” And when they’re about to post they need to think carefully before they broadcast their own versions of “the way it is.”
Review: Kinderville storage and dishware
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 We see tons of dishware here at SafeMama, and I get to the point where one dish is like any other dish and rarely am I impressed with a product. I mean, it’s dishware, right? You eat off of them, you drink out of them, end of story. As long as it’s free of [...] Related posts:- SafeMama’s Safer Dishware Cheat Sheet: BPA, PVC & Phthalate Free Dishes
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How Eden started using BPA free cans
Friday, July 17th, 2009 I saw this article floating around on Twitter and I thought it was interesting. Eden Foods, is currently the only company that uses BPA free cans for their beans. Because of this, we exclusively use only Eden’s beans in this house (and we go through a lot of them, making this an expensive, but well [...] Related posts:- Eden Foods Canned Beans Are BPA Free
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100 Percent Pure Kids
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 If you read our other site (which is sadly neglected since we’ve been pregnant and/or giving birth, sorry), you’ll know that we LOVE the 100% Pure line of products. For me, it’s an obsession, really. I love just about everything they make, so when I saw that they had a kids line, I was ecstatic. [...] Related posts:- Review: Kiss My Face Obsessively Natural Kids
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How to stop cyberbullying
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009by Larry Magid
The first things you need to know about cyberbullying are that it’s not an epidemic and it’s not killing our children. Yes, it’s probably one of the more widespread youth risks on the Internet and yes there are some well publicized cases of cyberbullying victims who have committed suicide, but let’s look at this in context.
Bullying has always been a problem among adolescents and, sadly, so has suicide. In the few known cases of suicide after cyberbullying, there are other contributing factors. That’s not to diminish the tragedy or suggest that the cyberbullying didn’t play a role but–as with all online youth risk, we need to look at what else was going on in the child’s life. Even when a suicide or other tragic event doesn’t occur, cyberbullying is often accompanied by a pattern of offline bullying and sometimes there are other issues including long-term depression, problems at home, and self-esteem issues. And the most famous case of “cyberbullying”–the tragic suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier–was far from typical. Cyberbullying is almost always peer to peer, but this was a case of an adult (the mom of one of Megan’s peers) being accused of seeking revenge on a child who had allegedly bullied her own child.
And, as per “epidemic,” it depends on how you define cyberbullying.
The most commonly recognized definition of bullying includes repeated, unwanted aggressive behavior over a period of time with an imbalance of power between the bully and the victim. In theory, that also covers cyberbullying, but some have taken a broader approach to cyberbullying to also include single or occasional episodes of a person insulting another person online. Indeed, because of the possibility of it being forwarded, a single episode of online harassment can have long-term consequences. “‘Power’ and ‘repetition’ may be manifested a bit differently online than in traditional bullying, Susan Limber, professor of psychology at Clemson University, said in an interview that appeared in a publication of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. She added, “a student willing to abuse technology can easily wield great power over his or her target just by having the ability to reach a large audience, and often by hiding his or her identity.”
Manifestations of cyberbullying include name calling, sending embarrassing pictures, sharing personal information or secrets without permission, and spreading rumors. It can also include trickery, exclusion, and impersonation.
Fuzzy numbers
Partly because there is no single accepted definition of cyberbullying, the extent of the problem is all over the map. I’ve seen some reports claim that up to 80 percent of online youth have experienced cyberbullying, while two national studies have put the percentage closer to one-third. A UCLA study conducted in 2008 found that 41 percent of teens surveyed reported between one and three online bullying incidents over the course of a year.
A recent study by Cox Communications came up with lower numbers, finding that approximately 19 percent of teens say they’ve been cyberbullied online or via text message and 10 percent say they’ve cyberbullied someone else.
One thing we know about cyberbullying is that it’s often associated with real-world bullying. The UCLA study found that 85 percent of those bullied online were also bullied at school.
Signs of cyberbullying
It’s not always obvious if a child is a victim of cyberbullying, but some possible signs include: suddenly being reluctant to go online or use a cell phone; avoiding a discussion about what they’re doing online; depression, mood swings, change in eating habits; and aloofness or a general disinterest in school and activities. A child closing the browser or turning off the cell phone when a parent walks in the room can be a sign of cyberbullying, though it can also be a sign of other issues including an inappropriate relationship or just insistence on privacy.
Preventing and stopping cyberbullying
After struggling with a school-wide bullying problem, Aaron Hansen, principal of White Pine Middle School in Ely, Nev., told Fox News that he asked the kids to fill out a survey indicating when the bullying took place and who the bullies were. He then invited the alleged offenders into his office to tell them “your peers feel that like you’re not very nice to people at times and they feel like sometimes you’re a bully.” Based on working with those kids and working with their needs–including problems at home–the school was able to reduce the problem.
Not every situation will resolve itself quite so easily, but identifying the reasons kids are acting as bullies can go a long way toward preventing it as can educational programs that stress ethics and cyber citizenship (”netiquette”). It also helps kids to know what to do if they are victims of bullying. At ConnectSafely.org (a site I help operate) we came up with a number of tips including: don’t respond, don’t retaliate; talk to a trusted adult; and save the evidence. We also advise young people to be civil toward others and not to be bullies themselves. Finally, “be a friend, not a bystander.” Don’t forward mean messages and let bullies know that their actions are not cool.
If your child is a victim of cyberbullying, don’t start by taking away his or her Internet privileges. That’s one reason kids often don’t talk about Net-related problems with parents. Instead, try to get your child to calmly explain what has happened. If possible, talk with the parents of the other kids involved and, if necessary, involve school authorities. If the impact of the bullying spills over to school (as it usually does), the school has a right to intervene.
Be careful what we legislate
There are lots of state laws that focus on cyberbullying, some requiring schools to provide educational resources. While I’m all for education, I think we need to be careful about any legislation that outlaws cyberbullying. U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) has proposed H.R. 1966, well meaning legislation that could imprison for up to two years, “whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior.” On the surface, it seems fine but as UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh has pointed out, it could also be used to punish political and other forms of speech. “I try to coerce a politician into voting a particular way, by repeatedly blogging (using a hostile tone),” he writes, “I am transmitting in interstate commerce a communication with the intent to coerce using electronic means (a blog) “to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior.” Professor Volokh said that if the law is passed, he expects it to be “struck down as facially overbroad.”
This post originally appeared on SafeKids.com
Washington Post piece questions filters @ school
Saturday, July 11th, 2009A well thought-out Washington Post column by Justin Reich points out that web filters in schools do a great job limiting what teachers can search while not doing much to protect kids. Reich calls filters “knee-high fences around the Internet” that “may trip up older folks, but teens leap right over.”
His conclusion is consistant with what we have been saying here on SafeKids.com and our sister site ConnectSafely.org for quite some time. “The best strategy for protecting students online is educating them about Internet citizenship and safety.” Well said.