Sunday, October 18, 2009

Opening My Kids' Eyes To Fake Profiles


A friend once forwarded me an e-mail featuring skillfully edited photographs of "blended animals", such as a cat with a beak, and a dog with wings. They looked amazingly real. I showed the photos to my kids, and as they ooohed and laughed over the images, I couldn't help but think how beautifully the pictures illustrated a very important lesson.

You cannot believe everything you see online, no matter how convincing or real it appears to be.

Kids can be taught to not give out personal information, but what happens when they start to believe that the online alias they're chatting with is real, and then let their guard down?

What if...

...I sat down at the computer with my kids, and I built my own online alias while they watched. Not as a Mom, but as another kid.

I could make up a nickname, create a web mail account with that nickname, and then build an online profile. I could google and surf for some pictures, and show them how easy it would be to "right click save as" to add them to my profile to make it more convincing. This is where we would discuss copyright, as well as: "see how careful you have to be with pictures? If you upload a picture of yourself, anyone can copy it and use it!!". (I wouldn't feel right about actually inserting the pictures into the profile, but hopefully my kids would see how easily someone could.)

I could then use this new profile and register for a chat room, and strike up a conversation with another kid. As a fellow kid. (For the sake of that child it would be an short and harmless chat, after which I'd simply log off). Then I'd delete the false profile.

"Wow, Mom! She totally thought you were ten years old."

That's right, she did. I was convincing, wasn't I? It was wrong to lie, and maybe even against the law to create a false identity, but at least she wasn't hurt, because it was just me.

...and not a bad stranger.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

TOTLOL and YouTube

My kids spend a lot of time at www.totlol.com. It's a website featuring kid safe videos that have been screened by viewers. Once you view a video, you can add your own rating. You can also save a favourites list of videos your kids particularly like.

Imagine my surprise when I turned my back for a moment on my then four year old son, only to look again to see that he'd left Totlol.com and was on YouTube, and about to click on a not so kid friendly video. He'd gotten there because the YouTube vids on Totlol have a YouTube link in the bottom right corner that your child can click on, that transfers you to the adult site.

Don't get me wrong, I still love Totlol. I'm assuming they would not be allowed to use the YouTube videos without the YouTube logo, but there should be some way to disable the link. (Am I wrong that there isn't? I just checked again and couldn't find a way).

It just goes to show that even "kid safe" sites require parental supervision. We just can't be too careful!

Monday, October 12, 2009

How Vulnerable Are Our Children Online?


Here's one (of many) ways. This is a summary of a true story, told to me by a friend:

  • a "tween" aged girl (11 years old) had a conversation with a friend via social media.
  • she divulged three critical pieces of info: where she played soccer, when she played, and what her number is.
  • an under cover police officer (thank goodness!) used this information to find her and follow her home.
You can imagine the shock felt by the family when the police officer knocked on the door and informed them how easily their girl could have been taken, if he had been an Internet predator rather than a cop.

Scary.

One of my objectives with this blog is to collect such stories to not only share them with other parents, but with my kids as well. They need to think about things such as:

  • what shouldn't the girl in the story above have revealed?
  • what would have been another way to arrange a meeting with her friend, without giving away her location?
  • just because you don't give out your name, address and phone number, is everything else safe to talk about?
I don't think it's possible (nor is it entirely beneficial) to keep our kids entirely off the internet. Instead, we need to teach them to think before they type.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Welcome To Web Eyes Open

I have two children who use the Internet. They are too young at the moment to participate in social networking, instead playing games on websites designed for very young kids. I know the day will come, however, when they'll be on Facebook or Myspace, among other things.

Realistically, the Internet is everywhere. As our kids get older, denying them access to certain things becomes more difficult. My approach is to educate myself and them instead, and I'm using this blog to compile all of the information I find.

Thanks for visiting, and come back soon!