internet safety

While we laud the continual stream of gadgets that provide us with smart appliances for smarter homes, it gives pause for thought on how all of these connected devices are interacting with each other, what they're accessing, and most imp…

Just a few days ago while perusing new Cool Mom Picks Instagram followers (hey, thanks new followers!), I clicked over to the Sesame Place Instagram feed and noticed something pretty surprising in their bio: Photos using #sesameplace bec…

This is a sponsored message on behalf of Curbi. Whether your family added some new devices to the mix this holiday season or you've been pretty gadget-reliant in your home for a while, you'll want to check out the free trial of Curbi , w…

Over the course of the year on Cool Mom Tech, we’ve put together so many helpful tech tips and tricks, many of which are answers to reader questions we get via email, over Twitter , on Facebook , and heck, even from our friends and famil…

H i Cool Mom Picks, I'm looking to purchase the best kids' tablet for a 3-year-old, and maybe one for an 8-year-old. What do you suggest? - Reader, via Facebook. Oh, to be a kid on Christmas morning opening up a brand new tablet to play …

A lot of our readers have been asking us about Circle with Disney , a new device on that market designed to connect to your WiFi specifically to help parents monitor their kids' internet usage and manage screen time. We were really curio…

We're continuing our series about kids and cell phones on behalf of our sponsor, the premium authorized Verizon retailer, Cellular Sales , because wow, do parents need help with this! And by parents, we mean, ourselves too! Because we kn…

Trying to manage my three kids' time spent and content viewed on all of the various devices we have in this house is one of the most thankless, naggy job out there. They don't fully understand why I say "no" to the newest app, or why You…

When I finally broke down and got my daughter an email account ( all my friends have one! actually does work sometimes) we had the long, requisite discussions about safety, etiquette, and responsibility. But wow, it turns out there's so …

I'm always a bit leery of apps the moment they ask to have access to my location. Sure, it makes sense with Google Maps , weather apps and certain social apps that help me locate a specific store or get a restaurant review. Those kinds o…

I didn't even know there was a term for it, but of course there is. O versharenting . It's that thing that so many of us parents do on social media -- especially on Facebook -- where we share, or overshare, info about our kids that range…

I'm not even kidding that when I heard the the word Meerkat being tossed around for the past couple of weeks, I thought to myself, Is that Meerkat Manor show back on TV again? But then, when the Periscope live streaming app for Twitter l…

When I post a picture of my kids to Facebook, I tend to tag my husband, my parents and in-laws, maybe even aunts and uncles. If I want them to see the picture, I tag them. Because until yesterday, there hasn't been a way to officially ta…

This is a sponsored message for Webroot No matter how much you or your family is online, the last thing you want to worry about is malware, viruses, and data and identity theft. That's where the award-winning Webroot security software co…

See below for a breaking update about the Burnbook app If you haven't yet heard of the Burnbook app , it's the latest anonymous social app that's causing a stir among teens and parents and even law enforcement around the country. Next in…

Around here, we're all starting to wonder whether TV will continue to be relevant to our kids who are growing up in the age of online media. In fact, next to playing Minecraft, my tweens' favorite way to spend their screen time is watchi…

It's been a whole year since we discovered unlicensed Plastic Surgery Barbie apps for kids that made wonder what the freaking heck is wrong with people, and now, hooray! Here comes another series of games to file under Kids Games That Ma…

Remember when we had to buy magazines like Tiger Beat to get the scoop on our teen crushes? These days, tweens can get up-to-the-minute details on their favorite Instagram and Vine stars, right on their smartphones. ( Niall, Harry, Liam,…

We can't start the new year without first taking a quick look back at the 2014 posts that were most popular of the year. If you're interested in what caught the attention of our readers for the past 12 months, here are the top ten of the…

Over the course of this year, we've put together lots of helpful tech tips and tricks, so many of them from your own questions to us. (We love answering reader questions!) Here, 11 of our very favorite tech tips of the year (including lo…

Considering all the major security breaches of the last year at all kinds of major retailers, online and off, I've been pretty surprised to read the news over the past couple of days that tons of major retailers are trying to circumvent …

Bullying is an issue that's getting so much attention these days--and yet, it's still a big problem. While we're glad to see schools, parents, and kids tackling bullying head on, it can still be pretty scary for kids to report incidents,…

This is a sponsored message from F-Secure Freedome The trouble with Internet security in public places is that it often leads to a lot of nervous insecurity for the user. After all, how private could searches and page visits really be wh…

We've covered the Snapchat app extensively since its launch, and it's grown to be extremely popular with tweens and teens, and now even brands are jumping into the app, finding new ways to promote to users there. Now that Snapchat has an…