Teens are increasingly turning to Twitter as an alternative or addition to other social media platforms. Like any technology, it has its own language, culture… and risks. How are teens using Twitter and how can they minimize privacy concerns? While you can make your Twitter account “private,” or even use a pseudonym, others may still be watching-including peers, school officials, parents, and even Homeland Security.

As we learn to integrate new technologies into our everyday lives, students and professionals alike grapple with the thorny questions of the boundaries surrounding freedom of speech, appropriate speech, and content censoring. Read on for a primer on Twitter-speak, and find out who’s Twittering… and who’s reading.

To see and use this lesson, the companion presentation, professional development materials, and parent tips click here: Using Twitter Wisely 

Linda

For example, “social networking activities are ranked as only the 4th highest contributor to online profiles.  Yet, photos or comments posted on a social network, webpage or blog are the leading contributors to positive AND negative influences to people’s online reputation.”

Microsoft’s material is excellent, and their findings should be a wakeup call to anyone who hasn’t yet paid attention.

This data highlights just how damaging a bad online reputation can be through an infographic, a video infographic, and the more traditional forms of information sharing – a report and a PowerPoint.

• Executive Summary: Online Reputation Research (PDF)
• Research Deck: Online Reputation (PPT)
• Video Infographic: What Does Your Online Image Project About You? (.wmv)
• Infographic: What Does Your Online Image Project About You? (PDF)

As Facebook forces their Timeline feature on all users, and Google shoves ‘Search Plus Your World’ down users throats, Microsoft’s information couldn’t be more timely.

Linda

To view and use this lesson, the companion presentation, professional development materials, and parent tips click here: What does data privacy mean to you?

Linda

To see and use this lesson, the companion presentation, professional development materials, and parent tips click here: 2012’s Must-Have Resolution: Improve Digital Security Awareness.  

Linda

To see and use this lesson, the companion presentation, professional development materials, and parent tips click here: The Internet and Civil Rights; A Look at Gains and Losses.

Linda

But what does data privacy day mean to you?

Instead of being just another designated ‘day’ or ‘month’ that you hear about in passing, take a few moments to consider what privacy in the digital world is like, what you want it to be like, and where privacy is headed.  I put together some materials on behalf of IKeepSafe to help you take stock and consider what you want to see in the future.

Check out:

• A Look back over last year in the 2011’s Data Privacy Year in Review—The Good the Bad and the Breached – INFOGRAPHIC
• A look forward in 2012 Data Privacy Roadmap
• Then take some Simple Steps to Safer Devices

Then, watch for a post to this week’s internet safety lesson “What does Data Privacy Mean to You?”, or register to get notified directly when new lessons appear on the ikeepcurrent.org site.

Linda

I would add one more to the list, one I suspect McAfee left off fearing consumers would think it self-serving; “I will have strong, up-to-date security on every laptop, computer, tablet, e-reader, game console, and smartphone to protect my family from security, privacy and safety threats.”

The rest of the list is great, so here is McAfee’s resolutions for parents in its entirety:

McAfee Offers Five New Year’s Resolutions For Parents

With more devices in everyone’s hands after the holidays, children are sure to take their cues from parents and older siblings. Ultimately children will become frequent users of online devices — playing games, watching videos, texting, listening to music, web surfing, etc. — just like their other family members — and they’ll imitate the behaviors they see at home.

“Now is the time for parents to model good behavior and etiquette.” McAfee, provider of the award-winning web filtering McAfee® Safe Eyes® software, suggests that, this year, parents take time to teach healthy online habits.

“What child doesn’t want to be just like Mom, Dad or an older sibling? Kids today see Mom spending lots of time on social networking sites, Dad taking calls or checks email during the dinner hour and older siblings texting friends and listening to music on their cell phones while doing homework,” says Stanley Holditch, online family safety advocate at McAfee. “Now is the time for parents to model good behavior and etiquette.”

McAfee recommends parents start the New Year off fresh with resolutions that address their own behavior so they can model best practices for kids and teens:

1. When I’m with my children, I pledge not to spend more than 10 percent of the time on my phone or computer.

Adults spend about 3.5 hours a day perusing the Internet or staring at their cell phone, according to estimates from eMarketer.¹ This year, make a promise to give your full attention to your children and develop a plan to limit their use of electronic devices. For example, make rules against using cell phones during dinner and set a time that everyone turns their devices off.

A Kaiser Family Foundation study¹ found that eight to 18-year-olds average over 7.5 hours per day to using entertainment media including cell phones and computers. Some of that time is spent multitasking, including doing homework. The study also found that only three in ten young people have rules about how much time they can spend watching television, playing video games or using the computer.

2. I will not communicate with my children via text when they are in the house.

One downside of technology is that fewer people actually speak to one another. The Kaiser study found that children in grades 7-12 spend an average 1.5 hours a day sending or receiving texts. A recent Nielsen study revealed that, on average, teenagers send more than 3,300 texts each month (girls send about 4,000 texts a month).² Adults are texting more frequently, too, but haven’t quite caught up with the younger generation. The Pew Research Center found that adults send only about 10 texts per day.³

3. I will not give my child access to an Internet browser on a smartphone or tablet that is not safe for them to use.

At age three, about one-quarter of children go online daily, and that number increases to about half by age five. By age eight, more than two-thirds use the Internet on any given weekday.⁴ In addition, 20 percent of children age 6-11 own cell phones with Internet capabilities, according to reports from Mediamark Research and Intelligence.⁵

It’s important for parents to shield children from cyber-dangers by filtering explicit content on smartphones and tablets via applications such as Safe Eyes Mobile software. The software can prevent children from establishing or accessing social network accounts, limit Internet use, block inappropriate websites or messenger chats, or use other strategies to ensure youngsters are safe online.

4. I will be prepared to have a “texting intervention” if my teen’s thumbs begin to look like tiny body-builders.

Texting may be a quick and easy way to interact with others, but the impersonal nature of the communication and frequency of use can cause problems. Too much texting can lead to a variety of issues: poor study and sleeping habits, less face-to-face social interaction, and, for older teens, distracted driving.

Discuss appropriate behavior before problems arise and set boundaries. Most mobile device providers have ways to monitor and limit the number of text and picture messages youngsters can send and receive.

5. I will have “the” talk with my kids. Not “that” talk, but rather the one that discusses who they are connecting with and what they are doing online.

Children often lack an understanding of online dangers or they may lack the maturity to make appropriate decisions. A recent survey found that 96 percent of parents have offered guidance to their children about online behavior and the risks and benefits of being on the Internet.⁶

Summary

Children learn how to use technology, including how much and when, by watching their parents, so it’s important that parents model good behavior. They also look to their parents for guidance and protection when they are online. In addition to education, there are mobile solutions available for parents and kids to help keep them safe, such as McAfee Safe Eyes Mobile software, which provides a filtered browser for iOS devices, as well as McAfee Family Protection for Android.

By modeling good behavior and ensuring that children’s experiences on Internet-connected devices is a safe and healthy one, parents can ensure a 2012 that is free of digital drama.

Sources:

¹eMarketer Digital Intelligence,Time Spent Watching TV Still Tops Internet, December 2010

²Kaiser Family Foundation, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, January 2010

³Nielsen, U.S. Teen Mobile Report: Calling Yesterday, Texting Today, Using Apps Tomorrow, October 2010

⁴Pew Research Center, Cell Phones and American Adults: They Make Just as Many Calls, but Text Less Often than Teens, September 2010

⁴Joan Ganz Cooney Center, Always Connected: The New Digital Media Habits of Young Children, March 2011

⁵Mediamark Research and Intelligence, American Kids Study, 2009

⁶Family Online Safety Institute/Hart Research, Who Needs Parental Controls: A Survey of Awareness, Attitudes, and Use of Online Parental Controls, September 2011

The latest lesson is This Year’s Social Networking Trend: Private – It’s the New Public!

Here’s a quick overview: News reports about the repercussions of sharing thoughts, attitudes, actions photos, videos, and more through online services have increasingly been making headlines this year. Whether personal information and private comments are exposed through leaks, hacks, changes in privacy settings, new features, or general indiscretion, the fallout is beginning to catch up with consumers of all ages. This lesson will help students and families develop an understanding of the very real likelihood that any content they post online will be seen by far more people than they intended to share with, and how understanding this reality can help them make smarter choices about what and what not to share. Take a look and start the conversation in your home…..

Linda

Why add someone? The most common reason is that you already know them. The most common reason to dump someone is offensive comments.

Some recent news articles – How Facebook Can Hurt Your Credit Rating, Privacy Fades in Facebook Era, and the recent FTC ruling against Facebook, Facebook Settles FTC Charges That It Deceived Consumers By Failing To Keep Privacy Promises – plus a new 30 minute school curriculum piece I just finished for ikeepcurrent may give you even more reasons to be selective when evaluating potential friends – because what they post may not only be rude, irritating or depressing, it may also harm your future.

Linda

The service commands 95% of all social networking time, a remarkable feat essentially accomplished in just 4 ½ years.

Facebook’s fortunes took off when the disastrous mismanagement of MySpace, horrific lapses in privacy and safety features (think of the news stories of early 2009 when MySpace had to acknowledge removing 90,000 convicted sex offenders) and tawdry ads placed on user’s pages disgusted their user base and marketers alike.

How much has Facebook learned from MySpace’s foibles?

While Facebook has largely avoided the label of being a haven for sexual predators, they have been slow to provide consumer with customer support or assistance, and they have trampled consumer privacy so many times that last month’s FTC charges against the company for deceiving consumers by failing to keep their privacy policies is but one incident in a long line of penalties and fines Facebook has faced for their practices. Of note is the $9 million dollar fine levied by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s office in 2009, the Facebook Buzz debacle, and the current demand by European countries for changes, see Europeans calls on Facebook to adapt data-privacy changes to comply with local laws.

It is tempting to believe that Facebook is an unstoppable juggernaut, but that may change if another, more respectful alternative comes along.

Linda