internet safety

Keeping our kids safe and healthy is our number one job as parents. And with so many of them using smartphones and other electronic devices, their online safety has become a huge part of that. At Cool Mom Tech, we have always provided pa…

One of parents' biggest concerns about kids today, is the access they have to inappropriate content. Parents are often asking us for parental control devices, services and apps to help them moderate what kids' can see and keep them safe.…

Perhaps you've heard about the Amazon Teen shopping program , in which parents can set up an Amazon login for your teens to shop on their own. It includes lots of safeguards to make sure kids don't spend more than you want them to, but i…

If you thought your kids tech-savvy as toddlers, it's amazing to see how quickly they pick up video games when they get a little older. They know what's hot and what's not faster than Mario with a super star power-up. Turns out there are…

The good news: most teens know that sexting is a crime. The bad news: older teens are less likely to think sexting will have negative consequences. All this from a new study about teens and sexting, conducted by researchers at Boston Uni…

So, we were all a little freaked out about the story that an Amazon Echo had recorded a private conversation in a user's home, then sent that conversation to someone else. Because, oof. Beyond embarrassing, this is a major privacy breakd…

I am not going to say "I told you so!" when it comes to Snapchat , but it's mighty tempting after the recent launch of Cosmopolitan's new Cosmo After Dark stories that go live every Friday at 6pm EDT. And hey, I even wrote a book about s…

As Twitter has just informed all 330,000,000 of its users in an apologetic but so far underreported post, you should really change your Twitter password right now, this very second. Not to be alarmist -- but out of an abundance of precau…

We've been fans of the YouTube Kids app ever since it launched a few years ago, but as more and more publishers are creating content on YouTube, it's not surprising that there have been some issues in terms of what ends up showing up as …

It's not surprising that as of late, there's been a magnifying glass on privacy issues when it comes to technology, particularly as it relates to kids. Remember those WIFI-connected stuffed animals ? Yikes. Well, in a recent study, resea…

Updated on 4/11/18 below Today, Facebook will be rolling out a feature to help you check to see if your data, along with around 87 million other people, was stolen by Cambridge Analytica. While we haven't seen anything on our own Newsfee…

If we didn't know before, we've certainly learned very recently that Facebook knows a whole lot about us. But today I discovered that they're assigning us to marketing categories, which are chosen based on the data gathered from your Fac…

After this recent Facebook data-mining scandal, we know that many users are feeling conflicted about staying on the platform. And we're seeing various articles and reports, from whether you should leave altogether to why you should stay …

Back in 2017, we covered a story about hackers using Facebook quizzes to steal user data . And now, here we are in 2018 with the Cambridge Analytica scandal , where over 50 million users had their information pulled thanks to a personali…

By now, everyone knows about Snapchat and kids right? It's like Snapchat has come to epitomize the "watch out for kids and their apps." But the truth is, there are so so many apps that can get kids into trouble, and it's hard to keep up …

We're all learning about new technology right along with our kids, which can put us at a bit of a disadvantage. Darn those growing brains. And if you've ever gotten a new cell phone and seen how much more your kid knows about it than you…

The TBH app has been blowing up over the past few weeks and just hit #1 in the App Store for iOS following the announcement that Facebook has purchased it. I've seen multiple articles referring to it a "kindness app" or an "anonymous com…

When we were Apple newbies, my kids racked up quite a collection of paid apps before I realized what was happening. And I wasn't the only one. Apple ended up refunding lots of parents money for apps their kids bought . Then they set up t…

As someone who uses Instagram on an almost hourly basis (hey, it's work, too!), I was pleased to discover that just yesterday, they launched 2 new features to help keep users a whole lot safer. Here's the quick scoop on what they are, an…

Over the years, you've probably heard a few different suggestions on how to create strong passwords , one of which was pioneered by Bill Burr, formerly of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. However, he's now saying that …

When Snapchat (or just Snap , as it's being called these days) rolled out it's Snap Map feature earlier this summer, there was a lot of buzz about the safety risks it could present, especially with so many younger users. Basically, the S…

I'm grateful to my daughter who (much to the chagrin of tweens and teens everywhere, I'm sure) tipped me off to a trick I wasn't aware of: Kids can easily download new apps to their devices without your knowledge, if you have Apple Famil…

A recent survey of more than 1600 U.K. kids revealed some fascinating results when it comes to kids' online behavior , leading the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to make some pretty strong recomme…

Just when you thought you needed to worry about your kid's screen time, it turns out that the amount of time you spend on your phone could be affecting your child's behavior. According to a new study conducted at the University of Michig…