internet safety

I feel for parents of teens these days, who not only have to contend with the usual teen angst, but also have a whole new set of digital obstacles to face with their kids texting and app-downloading and web surfing. Not to mention apps l…

With a second grader in the house who is increasingly reliant on the computer for homework and projects, I'm finding myself becoming much more vigilant about what he's doing when online, and researching ways to be better about monitoring…

Over the weekend, my two older kids plunged head first into the world of Minecraft , and save the couple of desperate tweets and Facebook posts asking for help, I was pretty much on my own getting them started. If you've got a kid who wa…

Any time I talk to a parent with tweens, the conversation eventually turns to the kinds of technology they are using, which then eventually turns into a Q&A session of me asking about cell phone usage, social media usage, cyber bullying …

Having worked with a security company for years on the PR side, I'm super vigilant about what information I put out there, and more importantly, what networks I use to access information. (Those cybercriminals are more sophisticated than…

Is there a safe kids' browser that I can put on my iPad or phone for my son? Or do I have to just find a way to block sites on Safari somehow? Thanks! -Ellen K Ellen, we get the need for a safe kids browser for your devices! We also unde…

[This post has been updated as of January 2014 to include new information] I'm pretty sure almost every one of my oldest daughter's friends got an iPod Touch for Christmas this year. We're talking third-graders. And while even we here at…

Yes, we all make New Year's Resolutions to eat better and work out more and blah blah blah. Cue the leftover cheesecake entering my mouth at 10AM on January 1. But if you're online at all (hi there) I've put together a few tech resolutio…

My pre-teen wants an iPad or Kindle Fire for Christmas. Are there good Internet filters available for these devices? -Karen Hi Karen, great question! Yes, with kids bogarting our tablets and quite a few getting one for the holiday, we th…

So many of you have been asking us which of the many tablets on the market right now is the best tablet for kids. I get it. With two young kids who get more tech-savvy by the day, I'm always on the lookout for really high-quality devices…

This morning, our editor Liz Gumbinner talked to the TODAY Show about the pitfalls of SnapChat , the most popular app you've probably never heard of. But you should. Especially if you're the parent of a teen. Also known as the "sexting a…

Now that my kids have a bit more autonomy on my iPad, I have a greater awareness about what things they're tapping on. While they're still too young to know how to explore the Internet and poke around (thank goodness!), their curious han…

I'm not big on sharing kid photos on Facebook--I find my privacy settings magically change too often--but I'm also not great at queueing photos in emails to send to family and friends, either. This results in irritated people who are tir…

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about many different ways to connect kids with their grandparents . While I covered the big ones like Skype, Facetime, Google+ and others, I just discovered a new one that is solely designed for connecting you…

It's hard to know when kids are old enough for an email account. As soon as my tween opened her own, my youngest son has been begging for one and I've been stalling about it ever since. But now we've found a brand new and very cool iPad …

After we posted instructions on how to get your personal information off Spokeo , we received numerous comments and emails from our readers with concern about having to share your email address in order to remove yourself. While we under…

I shudder when I think about my kids running around as teenagers. I can only imagine the kind of technology that will be available to them and how they and their peers will be using it. I don't envision ever "tracking" my kids via GPS lo…

Since my job is primarily on the Internet, I'm pretty vigilant about my family's privacy. So every now and then I'll search my name to see what comes up. And even though I removed myself from the Spokeo database a few years ago, I was sh…

Kids and cell phones is a combo that strikes fear into even the most laid-back parents. As my oldest daughter inches closer to cell phone age, I've decided to do my research early so I'm ready when she's ready. And while it's tough to kn…

These days, I take so many photos with the Instagram app , I was happy about the recent update and intrigued by the Instagram Photo Map feature. If you haven't upgraded yet, go for it. You'll find cool changes like a cleaner, prettier in…

If you're a Google Mail user like us, then you've probably received a few notifications this week about some upcoming changes to Google's Privacy Policy . While you don't necessarily need to take any action when it comes to your privacy …

Before the holidays, we tackled questions about when kids are ready for e-readers and tablets , as well as handheld gaming devices . But one of the most frequent topics we're asked about is just when kids should get their own cell phone.…

Like many families, we could not live without our wireless router. We're streaming movies, playing games, working on computers, all of which require a wireless connection. Now that we've got all sorts of new gadgets from the holidays, we…

My kids have a serious iPhone habit, and yes, I suppose you could call me the ultimate enabler since the kidcentric apps on my devices vastly outnumber the ones meant to help adults make a decent mixed drink (ahem). And then there's YouT…