tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-629527010869961462024-03-14T09:22:07.986+00:00Social Net ResearchPersonal research into the safety of under 18's online.Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-48611747633413052702012-05-17T13:17:00.002+01:002012-05-17T13:22:43.300+01:00Weibo - What Do You Know About It?<br />
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If you've recently
downloaded the latest version in the series of “Angry Birds”
games, ‘Angry Birds: Space’, then you <i>may </i>have noticed
that during the level select stage, there is an option to share on
Facebook & Twitter, but there is also a new option – to share
on Weibo.</div>
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I'd never heard of this
site before and, after some research, it's likely that you haven't
either if you're reading this from anywhere other than China. I found
that Weibo is in fact a Chinese Micro-blogging website, similar to
Twitter. However, the only language it's available in at the moment
is Chinese, though if you were to visit the site and use Google's
“translate” feature, you'd see a very poorly translated English
version:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQfNZSL-w3bdsje8TJbl-KyxYqd0Y2oOL9NOH7DATyKQlLvdF1UNLFtslArxdv7ENqLtYlZy6bd9fK6w257mkr1_G7WvFCBj0i7P-rSrOFOX1opMY8sbNY5xyS4ncSiDgin4x9jIOrqOI/s1600/weibo+homepage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQfNZSL-w3bdsje8TJbl-KyxYqd0Y2oOL9NOH7DATyKQlLvdF1UNLFtslArxdv7ENqLtYlZy6bd9fK6w257mkr1_G7WvFCBj0i7P-rSrOFOX1opMY8sbNY5xyS4ncSiDgin4x9jIOrqOI/s640/weibo+homepage.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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So why has the creator
of Angry Birds, Rovio, bothered including an option for English
speaking people to share on a Chinese website? Well, to understand
that, you'll need to know a little more about Weibo.</div>
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<u>History</u></div>
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A basic version of Sina
Weibo, otherwise known as simply “Weibo” (<span style="font-family: SimSun,宋体;"><span lang="zh-CN">微博</span></span>)
was launched by SINA Corporation on 14 August 2009 after Sina's CEO
saw an opportunity after websites such as Facebook & Twitter had
been blocked in China following the Ürümqi riots in July 2009.
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The basic functions of
this new site only included messages, private messages, comment and
repost where possible, but was so successful that the site continued
to expand, and, as of February 2012, had more than 300 million users.
It also has plans to launch an English version of Sina Weibo, to grow
worldwide, however the contents will still be controlled by Chinese
law.</div>
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Like Twitter, Weibo
uses many of the same features, such as users only updating posts
with a 140 character limit, and talking to other users using the
“@UserName” format.. However, unlike Twitter, unregistered users
can only browse a few posts by verified members (normally verified
users are, like on Twitter, famous people who have proven their
identity), and cannot see ANY posts by unverified members including
those sent to verified members. Also unlike Twitter, Weibo is
moderated.</div>
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So, although this seems
like a nice idea in theory, the site will still have to abide and be
controlled by Chinese laws in which users are not allowed freedom of
speech. Weibo and many websites like it in China are heavily
monitored as the internet has been censored in China, and has the
largest recorded number of imprisoned journalists and
cyber-dissidents in the world. It is rumoured that there are over
30,000 members belonging to secret policing organisations to not only
monitor and block website content, but also monitor the internet
access of individuals. The following is a list of rules for anyone
(including tourists) wishing to access the internet in China to
follow:</div>
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“No unit or individual may use the Internet to
create, replicate, retrieve, or transmit the following kinds of
information:</div>
<ol>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Inciting to resist
or breaking the Constitution or laws or the implementation of
administrative regulations;
</div>
</li>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Inciting to
overthrow the government or the socialist system;
</div>
</li>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Inciting division
of the country, harming national unification;
</div>
</li>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Inciting hatred or
discrimination among nationalities or harming the unity of the
nationalities;
</div>
</li>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Making falsehoods
or distorting the truth, spreading rumours, destroying the order of
society;
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</li>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Promoting feudal
superstitions, sexually suggestive material, gambling, violence,
murder;
</div>
</li>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Terrorism or
inciting others to criminal activity; openly insulting other people
or distorting the truth to slander people;
</div>
</li>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Injuring the
reputation of state organizations;
</div>
</li>
<li><div class="western">
Other activities against the Constitution,
laws or administrative regulations.”</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div class="western">
- Wikipedia</div>
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For these reasons, I'm not sure whether or not
opening a Weibo site for English users would necessarily be a good
idea, or even take off in Western countries such as the UK, since
people generally don't like being told what they can/can't post in
their “private” online space. The majority of my Facebook &
Twitter feeds are regularly full of quite a few things on the above
list, and if users were forced to comply with Chinese law on a
moderated site I'm not sure if disobeying the rules would end up
resulting in legal consequences.
</div>
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<div class="western">
Thanks for reading, I think maybe we'll just have
to wait and see what happens with this site, but i'd love to know your thoughts on this too! </div>
<div class="western">
@Lizmundo</div>
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-24292758373065638902012-04-18T09:45:00.000+01:002012-04-18T09:45:03.790+01:00ForMums Chiswick<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hi all,</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Well things have been picking up in work recently, we've had quite a few schools interested in working with us, and we've also had some positive feedback from ForMums.net!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div>Formums.net was set up by a Chiswick mum and is a “unique directory of information for Chiswick mums with children of all ages, from bump to leaving home. Covering activities, classes, children's services, shopping, events and more, it's everything a Chiswick mum needs to know!”<br />
<br />
<br />
Looking around the site, it's clear to see that it really does have everything a Chiswick mum would need to know, it's a professional and dedicated resource centre! It includes sections on children’s parties, kids’ activities, sport, education and a detailed shopping guide to local outlets.<br />
<br />
<br />
The ForMums “Feature” section is particularly useful. It contains a monthly item called “Introducing...” rwhereForMums will introduce a business or services for parents (e.g. local fitness centres such as The Park Club) & children (e.g. Gymboree Play & Music), which they think will really add to the local community. It also has its own blog which provides information on activities in the local area, such as skiing, fetes, ideas to keep the kids entertained during school holidays and also helpful advice such as “Baby on a budget”. The latest post informs parents about various ways of reducing the cost of bringing a newborn into the world, which is very handy as I know how the cost soon adds up. I was shocked when one of my friends told me last year she was having twins, and after she showed me some of the items she had to buy – obviously being double the cost, I decided that I should probably start saving...five years ago!<br />
<br />
One of the ways in which you can help to reduce the cost in bringing up a child, is to buy items second hand. The ForMums.net site offers a section called “Pre-Loved” where local mums can register (which is free) and advertise the items they want to sell/buy. Items include:<br />
<ul><li>Clothes<br />
</li>
<li>Equipment<br />
</li>
<li>Furniture<br />
</li>
<li>Indoor Toys & Hobbies<br />
</li>
<li>Maternity<br />
</li>
<li>Outdoor Toys & Hobbies<br />
</li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">To add to the community spirit, there's a member newsletter which is currently sent to over four-hundred mums to keep them informed of information and events in the area. There's also a Community section, where local mums can look for and request help and advice on a range of topics from pregnancy to teenagers, and work to holidays and travel. This is really useful as it provides information that is localised to the area such as the going rate for babysitting in Chiswick. It also has a nice feeling of empathy as its members are able to convey their thoughts to people in similar situations to themselves – almost as friendly agony aunts! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">All in all, I think it's a very good site, and it's nice to see such a dedicated team providing this information too. Even if you're not from Chiswick, it's still worth having a look as you still may find some good ideas for activities to do with your own kids!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Thanks for reading!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">@Lizmundo</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-59235915701619218972012-03-06T14:07:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:42:18.081+01:00Are you committing a crime by sharing the things you love? My research into PinterestI've recently heard about a fairly new social website called Pinterest & also heard that they are having a few potential legal problems regarding copyright issues. <br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>What is Pinterest?</u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidE8UgtTXULWKpRAoafD6xYR7gpEZVJuIt7Q6pdZp0qouTo076YjHsLqcKthdd5ceatJM64bm2EQpf6M25Lm2pdbVqKdwdRsJ7WWM7RbNzvwcR1Mx6sFp6wibADWI6Fsa2B1usNrqHWaE/s1600/Pinterest.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidE8UgtTXULWKpRAoafD6xYR7gpEZVJuIt7Q6pdZp0qouTo076YjHsLqcKthdd5ceatJM64bm2EQpf6M25Lm2pdbVqKdwdRsJ7WWM7RbNzvwcR1Mx6sFp6wibADWI6Fsa2B1usNrqHWaE/s640/Pinterest.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Currently, you can only gain access to use the site by receiving an invite from a current member or requesting an invite to be placed onto a waiting list by the website itself. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The theory behind the site seems pretty good; you have the option to add images from web pages you visit by “pinning” them to your virtual board to create collages of things you love. E.g. you can create a collage to help plan a wedding or ideas to decorate your home. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><br />
</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>So what's the problem?</u></div><div class="MsoNormal">Well, websites such as Flickr are comprised of users who upload photos they have taken themselves. Users on Pinterest who are browsing through Flickr may see a picture they like and pin it to their board without having the photographers’ permission. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">After two days my request for an invitation to join Pinterest was accepted and I was sent an email inviting me to join. Once I'd signed up by linking my Facebook account, I was told that I was automatically following other users who were on my Facebook list that were also members. I performed a quick search on the site for “dreadlocks”. Even though I combed mine out, I still admire them (I’m even considering getting mine back in the near future but i'm still undecided!).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmdlw8qDn5PfkQ6Bo8L2Fr7hoZ4UI9tkNJ7gPNBG-ZA3MBECSt7TImUGBSqBicHyJ2IUbgDUqMuide8gEBA1pCE4aaQEhUlCdLEPhN4EzZ5oH9Xonk0IUGQii69flUASQk-DICFMonFcM/s1600/Pinterest+dreadlock+search.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmdlw8qDn5PfkQ6Bo8L2Fr7hoZ4UI9tkNJ7gPNBG-ZA3MBECSt7TImUGBSqBicHyJ2IUbgDUqMuide8gEBA1pCE4aaQEhUlCdLEPhN4EzZ5oH9Xonk0IUGQii69flUASQk-DICFMonFcM/s640/Pinterest+dreadlock+search.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"> The search returned quite a large result for images that other users had recently pinned. The image I've circled above is of a regular person whose image gets banded around a lot on the Internet – particularly when dreadlocks are involved. She is from Denmark and goes by the alias of Galapril. She takes her own pictures herself and posts them onto her blog or her Facebook page where they are forwarded on. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Like hers and many of the other images I discovered on that search, they are professionally taken and have more than likely been used without the owner’s consent. Although Pinterest should be covered by Copyright Law in the same way that websites such as Facebook & Twitter are protected from being sued if their users share copyrighted material, it may be excluded as none of the sources of the pictures are being informed that the images are being shared unlike it's predecessors. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the eyes of the law, Pinterest may be similar to illegal peer-to-peer file sharing software such as LimeWire, Kazaa etc. in that the people sharing the music/video files have not asked the original owners permission to distribute the media for free of charge. While images shared on Facebook are not necessarily always direct from the owner, a disclaimer when trying to upload images states that they must be your own and not copyrighted in any way, if anyone wants to share your photo, then you're notified and if you want to limit who can see and share your uploads then you can change your options too – from friends, to public or even customise a list so only preferred contacts will be able to see your activity. </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgay6Gh8lrq7cCQ6IsWLtGRvD1UkaHNgs6WEmhXRvlSCyrauReD53jApaNBke-ISxY1iJCEh3llwLqfx3aKRDeeQp5Tl6L2a_h2Q9nxb7wLlAWDUlAxHSUFlx-yDI12DCkBPTbCuq5h5R8/s1600/facebook+sharing+updates.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgay6Gh8lrq7cCQ6IsWLtGRvD1UkaHNgs6WEmhXRvlSCyrauReD53jApaNBke-ISxY1iJCEh3llwLqfx3aKRDeeQp5Tl6L2a_h2Q9nxb7wLlAWDUlAxHSUFlx-yDI12DCkBPTbCuq5h5R8/s640/facebook+sharing+updates.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">*image taken from Google images</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Pinterest however, does not currently have that option; users are free to roam the Internet to find their own pictures to add to their boards to show other Pinterest users.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It seems like the owners are trying to work on solving this issue though, as they've introduced a “Pin Etiquette” for their site, created a copyright policy where copyrighted images can be reported and removed and they have also introduced an opt-out button for Flickr users should they want to protect their own images. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://accidentaloutlaw.knowthenet.org.uk/" target="_blank">This quiz</a> from website knowthenet.org.uk shows just how easy it can be to accidentally commit a crime on the Internet without realising.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I hope you've found this information useful and maybe I've even educated you a little (I certainly learnt a few new things myself!). Why don't you take a look for yourself & test your knowledge on this subject? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">@Lizmundo</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-67859391725754513832012-02-27T11:02:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:41:55.008+01:00SafeSearch settings, are they really that safe?If you've got children who can access a computer, then you more than likely have SafeSearch settings on search engines such as Google or Yahoo set to “Strict” which will filter out any adult content. Theoretically anyway.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoBodyText">The search filters work by searching for key words linked to the image when performing a search, however if there aren't any objectionable words on the website where the image is stored then the filter will not work and adult images will be shown. For example:</div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText">I typed “fox” into Google with the SafeSearch settings set to strict and as expected, I was shown pictures of foxes, however I was also shown images of the actress Megan Fox:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljWYqaRmFRw19CVKsLohx2LLD2GoNKRG6XpHmQumckHMXypFsVxVQIBCZrlRoR3DeFqgRaoP-1PDtZQuMHEvXd6BeBxHSsCoBl4DQYOjy0cAxT9HyRxJulNCPRf0jBfxFM85aX8ZQN_c/s1600/google+safesearch.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljWYqaRmFRw19CVKsLohx2LLD2GoNKRG6XpHmQumckHMXypFsVxVQIBCZrlRoR3DeFqgRaoP-1PDtZQuMHEvXd6BeBxHSsCoBl4DQYOjy0cAxT9HyRxJulNCPRf0jBfxFM85aX8ZQN_c/s640/google+safesearch.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText">Not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">too</i> bad, but on page 8: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuqE_chTwtmhi-7HTSzpfrL4uhjFPbMUY9qhrkh3s2t_yP_KDqBm-RtYAxDY18qGCPcK70HVmbeS8djdsA1a8U7oSCTSWZ3d13fHZms08fNDZF27M6LUj3mkvX_5iAOoJSDudHgKgVxZw/s1600/google+safesearch2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuqE_chTwtmhi-7HTSzpfrL4uhjFPbMUY9qhrkh3s2t_yP_KDqBm-RtYAxDY18qGCPcK70HVmbeS8djdsA1a8U7oSCTSWZ3d13fHZms08fNDZF27M6LUj3mkvX_5iAOoJSDudHgKgVxZw/s640/google+safesearch2.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText">I also tried the same search on Yahoo with the search settings also set to strict which should filter out adult content. The results were worse:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbPDt_6uofQQg3GcFoMiBJH7yB2VuNYXQj4zakF-S9HQ00VBCu7fKclsVrku5R3TatyEyiWQlykU6P9mgfFNHFNqrzUeWj3taMQ_I2IUd6i7NPahYjB_xerWPTZISxR7LpKWeahiKnZM/s1600/yahoo+safesearch+fox.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbPDt_6uofQQg3GcFoMiBJH7yB2VuNYXQj4zakF-S9HQ00VBCu7fKclsVrku5R3TatyEyiWQlykU6P9mgfFNHFNqrzUeWj3taMQ_I2IUd6i7NPahYjB_xerWPTZISxR7LpKWeahiKnZM/s640/yahoo+safesearch+fox.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText">I also tried the same search settings with the word “melons”:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8MftgvDJYTrWXK7X5PKXMpOY72S1dt5p6RmXPEMqikYHA39Aavfi59TqJjdiI-GFCiTVqWlvgLb_RmSL6jrHyGPa_ldKxDZpyx9CdsZy6UB_RE5TFg4JltJxM0WrvL5jS-mp6tt1ddy8/s1600/google+safesearch3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8MftgvDJYTrWXK7X5PKXMpOY72S1dt5p6RmXPEMqikYHA39Aavfi59TqJjdiI-GFCiTVqWlvgLb_RmSL6jrHyGPa_ldKxDZpyx9CdsZy6UB_RE5TFg4JltJxM0WrvL5jS-mp6tt1ddy8/s640/google+safesearch3.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">I can’t actually show you the “SafeSearch” results for Yahoo as they’re not safe for work, but I’m sure you get the idea. However if you do want to see how bad it can be, have a search around for yourself with different words. </div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">There is an option to report the inappropriate pictures which is demonstrated in this video:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/maWx-ApkBCs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"> However not all images are guaranteed to be removed.</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">So is simply relying on SafeSearches (which many parents do) enough to protect your children from seeing inappropriate content online? Even if you wanted to check what they were looking at after using the computer by checking the internet history, you’re likely to not realise if they are. Admittedly though, you’d probably realise something wasn’t quite right if you had quite a few page views of “melons”. Obviously, you can’t sit with your child every time they’re using the computer but you can try to keep on top of what they’re doing to keep them safer online. Here are a few useful tips & warning signs to look out for:</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Wingdings;"></span>Keep the computer or laptop in a communal room and if possible, in an area which is easily viewable by you. Be aware if they quickly close or minimise windows when you enter a room or walk nearby and question the reason why. </li>
<li><span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Turn the internet off when everyone should be in bed. </li>
<li><span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Set up parental controls through your admin account on your PC so that the computer will limit internet usage for your child’s account during specific hours – you can also choose to prevent them from playing on certain age restricted games etc. </li>
<li><span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Use pop-up blockers for your browser to stop children being able to click through to other sites. </li>
<li><span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Be aware of ALL computers your child has access to – including smart phones and check them every once in a while – make them aware that the same rules apply to those as when using a regular PC. </li>
<li><span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Check your child’s internet history frequently – if it is being deleted often then question why </li>
<li><span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Still make use of SafeSearch settings but sit with your child when looking for vague search phrases or explore the idea of lettings them use child friendly search engines such as AskKids or KidsClick. </li>
</ul><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">I hope you’ve found some useful information here. I may look into the parental controls for PCs in my next post – thanks for reading!</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">@Lizmundo</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-40312822625445003702012-02-13T10:16:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:41:29.748+01:00Back In My Day...<div class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="text-decoration: none;"></span></u></b>I've found myself saying this more and more lately, (in fact, i'm starting to get on my own nerves – i'm only 22!) the way technology is advancing and the amount of different ways people can communicate with each other is getting crazy!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I suppose, if I think it's bad for me, I can't fathom how different everything is for my parents since they were younger. back in their day:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There were no emails, just letters, so if you happened to do something wrong and wanted to tell a friend about it, then that would be the only convicting evidence you'd have. There were no camera phones, or digital cameras so if there were ever any inappropriate photos taken, they would most likely only stay with the intended recipient – it would have taken more of an effort to try and get copies to pass around!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I recently watched a programme on BBCthree called “Websex: what's the harm?”, it's no longer available on the iPlayer, but i'm sure there will be clips on YouTube or somewhere on the internet as most things are these days (see, there I go again!). The programme followed Nathalie Emmanuel (@missnemmanuel) as she investigated the youth culture's attitude towards online sex and also a trend among young people called “sexting”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Nathalie spoke to one young girl who said that she had been picked on in school because of her looks, and although she was a naturally pretty girl, it still knocked her confidence significantly. The only place she found solace was online where she could meet new friends and boys would tell her that she was beautiful. Talking online with someone can sometimes create a false feeling of security with another person and over time this can develop into the passing on of phone numbers and this is generally where sexting occurs.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sexting is worrying trend that more and more young people are taking part in. It involves sending illicit messages or photos/videos of yourself to share with another person. Sadly, more and more young girls are sending these sort of images to new boyfriends only to split up a few weeks later and then the image is passed on (if it hadn't already been) to others or even posted online. Once online the images can be very difficult to remove. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Uploading images and videos to websites aren't just exclusive to mobile phones either, Nathalie also visited a lady who makes a living out of “performing” on webcams and she explained that on quite a few occasions, she has found her performances on pornographic websites without any knowledge she was being recorded. There are certain software programmes available to download, which records the screen without the person you're video chatting to knowing they are being filmed. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A lot of children will end up stumbling on websites such as ChatRoulette with their friends as a bit of fun or even just chatting with their new online friends via webcams. The danger of this can be explained with this video:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/U3CPQcaCewQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The young girls in this video wouldn't have known that they were being filmed, and thought they were genuinely talking to their idol, Justin Bieber – however this was just a loop of film. </div><div class="MsoNormal">This could be potentially done with anyone though. What if the purpose of the loop of film wasn't just for a laugh? What if it was being used to trick young kids into doing other things on webcam by pretending to be someone else? As seen in the video above, the whole thing can be recorded and posted online for everyone to see. Sometimes there are dedicated websites to these sorts of videos, although they're normally disguised as something else.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Last year CEOP took down a paedophile ring who were doing just that:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12762333">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12762333</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I know I seem to be repeating myself a lot on these blogs at the moment, but the only way to tackle problems like these with your kids is to be a lot more active within their online lives as well as their offline lives.<span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Keep internet use confined to a family room if possible, or turn internet routers off during times when they are supposed to be in bed to limit their activity.<span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Check what websites or programmes your child are visiting or using so you can monitor their use and check their friend lists if possible. Some programmes such as Skype will also keep a log of messages sent and received as well as any video calls sent/received. Check these regularly to see who your child is chatting to and the content (bear in mind they may use acronyms so visit <a href="http://socialnetresearch.blogspot.com/2011/11/plos-g2g-do-you-know-what-your-kids-are.html" target="_blank">my other post </a>to see a list of common acronyms used). </li>
<li>Chat to your kids and explain the dangers of whatever they do online can be seen by more than the intended recipient and can be very difficult, if not impossible to remove. </li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For more information on ways to speak to kids of different age groups about this subject or for other hints and tips to keep your kids safe online – visit CEOP's <a href="http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/" target="_blank">ThinkUKnow website</a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Thanks for reading!</div><div class="MsoNormal">@Lizmundo</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-31580274889254429512012-02-07T10:57:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:41:09.297+01:00Safer Internet Day 2012<div class="MsoNormal"> Hi all,</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Just a quick post to mention Internet Safety Day (SID) which will take place on the 7<sup>th</sup> February 2012. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The day has been organised by <span style="color: black;">The UK Safer Internet Centre which is co-funded by the EC and brought to you by a partnership of three leading organisations, Childnet International, the South West Grid for Learning and the Internet Watch Foundation.</span> CEOP's is helping to raise awareness to this day via their ThinkUKnow website and it's aim is to educate parents about how to keep their kids safer online. The ThinkUKnow website will host The Parents & Carers Guide to the Internet and will have interviews from experts including Dr Tanya Byron and Dr Linda Papadopoulos, industry players like Facebook and Moshi Monsters and, most importantly, children themselves - this guide aims to answer all of the tricky questions parents may be afraid to ask. It will be a short TV style programme which will be a light hearted and entertaining approach to show what it's like bringing up kids in today's online world. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A new page has been launched for parents on the ThinkUKnow site too which can be found here: <a href="https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/">https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/</a> it has new content and from 7am on the 7<sup>th</sup> of February will also contain the new video guide mentioned above. (The video can also be found on CEOP's YouTube channel too at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/ceop">www.youtube.com/ceop</a> ).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If you have any questions you want to ask the CEOP team – you can do so by posting questions via their facebook page (<a href="http://www.facebook.com/clickceop">www.facebook.com/clickceop</a>) or by joining the conversation on twitter by using #parentsguide between the hours of 6pm and 9pm.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Hope to see you there! </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">@Lizmundo</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-80118504297676044102012-02-02T14:30:00.002+00:002012-04-04T15:40:56.854+01:00CEOP – What do they do?<div class="MsoNormal">As CEOP has provided support and advice for the company I work for and are all over the flyers and leaflets in work, i've often wondered what exactly it is they do, I thought i'd create a post while I found out!. Although I've heard of CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) as it's a pretty well known name now e.g. i've heard it quite a lot on the news, I don't know a great deal about them, apart from when they were in the news a year or two ago, trying to persuade websites such as Bebo & Facebook to install “panic buttons” on their webpages, and i'm sure many people have roughly the same amount of knowledge. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">CEOP's main objective is to eradicate the sexual abuse of children. The organisation consists of police officers who have specialist experience of tracking and prosecuting child sex offenders and are working towards their objective with seconded staff from organisations such as the NSPCC, sponsored by companies such as VISA and SERCO as well as experts from government and corporations such as Microsoft who offer specialist advice and guidance. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">CEOP's work is far more in depth than just tracking convicted and potential sex offenders both at home and abroad though, they study how offenders operate and think, how children and young people behave and how technological advances are developing. Which is well needed in today's modern world. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As i've already mentioned (and this may also be how you've heard of CEOP), A “ClickCEOP” panic button was created to help protect vunerable kids online which has been installed on several websites that young people use including GreatBritishKids.com, Facebook, Bebo to name a few. The idea first came from CEOP's former CEO Jim Gamble who called for the panic button to be installed in March 2010. The idea behind it is that if a child felt uncomfortable or at risk online, they could simply click a button and it would be reported to the police via their ThinkUKnow website where it could then be investigated by police officers. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So what actually happens when the button is pressed? Well...</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOwAOrs2j4eee623X2nY7CKNzI95EHjBC6E8MpAEqRpeJfnzM7BxNesl5paQve9_PAcX03TXlaKLIHqFSDtxp-IwPu9JtvN6noq5mM0puNXutwuO9tSKlkouVfWof21pBeFuhc-5kMd8w/s1600/ceop.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOwAOrs2j4eee623X2nY7CKNzI95EHjBC6E8MpAEqRpeJfnzM7BxNesl5paQve9_PAcX03TXlaKLIHqFSDtxp-IwPu9JtvN6noq5mM0puNXutwuO9tSKlkouVfWof21pBeFuhc-5kMd8w/s640/ceop.png" width="440" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Statistics</u></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">CEOP first came together in 2006 and there's no denying that the work they continue to do is invaluable, just take a look at these statistics:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Key:</div><div class="MsoNormal">CP = Children Protected due to the help of CEOP</div><div class="MsoNormal">A = Arressts made thanks to intelligence passed on from CEOP</div><div class="MsoNormal">SO = High risk sex offender networks disrupted and dismantled. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji544Y6yvHd49rJpNCLI-QBJVINq02fBCFv50H7eRdbFW4Tt-dlFJwsHDwENj_qg-F-icZUTJkl2rVSnlNHDyDw6-Nbr3bl-3ZjVjDjuGunVhzVHar0YR3XeMH6bRDbijSRa5Ib1zyfFk/s1600/graph.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji544Y6yvHd49rJpNCLI-QBJVINq02fBCFv50H7eRdbFW4Tt-dlFJwsHDwENj_qg-F-icZUTJkl2rVSnlNHDyDw6-Nbr3bl-3ZjVjDjuGunVhzVHar0YR3XeMH6bRDbijSRa5Ib1zyfFk/s640/graph.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Looking forward, CEOP has three priorities this year:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Prevent – to make it more difficult to exploit children.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Protect – Identify and safeguard children who are at risk.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Pursue – Identify offenders and stop or disrupt their activity. </li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And they will also be dealing with six high threats this year which is what they will be mainly focusing on: </div><ul><li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>How children behave online which is putting them at risk online.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Children who are particularly vunerable to abuse.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Use of developing technology by offenders and those who are vulnerable</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Offenders who exploit children</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Offenders who make, distribute or access child abuse material; and<span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Wingdings 2";"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>The trafficking of children. </li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">References:</div><div class="MsoNormal">CEOP</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.ceop.police.uk/">www.ceop.police.uk</a></div><div class="MsoNormal">If you would like to know more about CEOP then visit their website. It has information on Most Wanted lists and the child sex offender disclosure scheme. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">ThinkUKnow</div><div class="MsoNormal">www.thinkuknow.com</div><div class="MsoNormal">This website contains information for parents, carers, teachers and trainers, but it also contains useful information for different age groups of kids too. The 8-10 section has information about how to stay in control on different devices that many young kids have today, such as mobiles and online games. It's worth a look if you're a parent too – just to keep yourself updated!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Hope you've found this post useful. Thanks for reading! CEOP are also hosting a “Safer Internet Day” on the 7<sup>th</sup> of Feb 2012, so i'll be looking into what they've got planned in my next post.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">@Lizmundo</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">NB: CEOP suggest that if a child is in immediate danger and anyone is concerned then they need to contact 999.</div><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-18358376165332234262012-01-26T12:53:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:40:32.731+01:00Gary Glitter On Twitter?<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hi all,</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Some of you may have read the recent news articles regarding the Gary Glitter account set up on Twitter. If you haven't, this is the story:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Disgraced pop star Gary Glitter apparently set up an account on social media website Twitter last week. The singer tweeted news of a comeback tour, an album and an autobiography, however the account turned out to be fake and was just created as a “Social Experiment”.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The person behind this account, known only as “Ben” revealed the hoax by posting a link to his blog (Glitterontwitter.tumblr.com) however this has since been deleted for an unknown reason. Ben explained “Let me say that this account does not belong to convicted paedophile Gary Glitter. I am deeply disgusted by what Gary Glitter has done in his life and am not condoning, making light of or glorifying child abuse. His crimes are unforgivable and chilling. I set this twitter account up as a social experiment to highlight the dangers and safety of children using the social networking sites and to discover and question public morality. It's been an interesting and eye-opening experience for me.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">He went on to explain that the reason for the account was to highlight the dangers of internet safety- primarily children using websites such as Twitter and Facebook. He explained that Facebook has a strict rule that states that any person registered as a sex offender is not allowed to use their site, however Twitter does not have such restrictions. They didn't attempt to contact him when the account was set up despite being a well known convicted sex offender - however they have zero tolerance for any discussion of child sexual abuse. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Within 48 hours, the @OfficialGlitter account had over 2,000 followers, and had received media attention from several well known organisations and Newspapers, as well as celebrity followers. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Ben says that although most of the tweets were opposed to him being on Twitter, there were a large amount that were positive. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8EhKzLw0Pf8wy4XkeBjkitWrbgxkUW5fpWszn35_Y1xJ6bY7JB7RqktHkxpzzU73nSmUmInfyNKd6X0OQf54UHWoztvj6P4RqGWqvFirUGjKae4hatiEttrwUPkL_tSdF7pwb0KL5eus/s1600/glittertwitter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8EhKzLw0Pf8wy4XkeBjkitWrbgxkUW5fpWszn35_Y1xJ6bY7JB7RqktHkxpzzU73nSmUmInfyNKd6X0OQf54UHWoztvj6P4RqGWqvFirUGjKae4hatiEttrwUPkL_tSdF7pwb0KL5eus/s320/glittertwitter.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">An interesting point about this is that anyone can set up an account like this claiming to be official. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Anyone can pretend to be anyone else online. An example Ben used in this case is: imagine that a sex offender set up an account on Twitter claiming to be a Justin Bieber fan club. Imagine how many young followers that would get. Now imagine that even with privacy settings on, if your child sees that the club is willing to “follow” them, they will more than likely accept. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The person in charge of that account will then be able to directly message your child privately, as well as having access to all their images. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Very scary thought. Terrifying in fact. Especially when Twitter doesn't even have a “report abuse” button. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">There isn't a way of preventing convicted sex offenders from using the internet as it would be impossible to police and it would also “breach their human rights”. The only thing you can really do is discuss internet safety with your kids about the types of things that are acceptable to post & to encourage them to make you aware if they receive any sort of inappropriate contact – no matter who it's from. We'll all just have to be vigilant in this changing world and stay up-to-date with new technologies, privacy policies and pay extra attention to children's online activity. </div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Thanks for reading</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">@Lizmundo</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">NB: I'm <b>not</b> suggesting that any Justin Bieber fan clubs on twitter are run by paedophiles.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-87587240203189077342012-01-19T13:53:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:39:34.476+01:00Gossiping - Good or Bad?<div style="text-align: center;">Hi all!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As it was the most depressing Monday of the week this week (according to scientific study), sometimes there can be nothing better than a little gossiping – particularly about celebrities. Let's be honest, everyone has done it at some point, even about people they know whether it was meant to be malicious or not.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Providing you're not at the receiving end of said gossip, it can help to relieve stress and feelings of sadness. Gossiping can get out of hand pretty quickly though, especially when it is malicious, and even more so when the people gossiping are kids.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lately, there has been several news stories regarding one website, with one school in Dorking, Surrey petitioning to have it shut down following complaints from parents after their children had been bullied online by having rumours spread about them. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The site is called Little Gossip, and for those who haven't heard of it, it's a website where anyone (providing they are over 18) can post comments about anyone else in their school, college, uni or workplace. Users don't even need to enter any details about themselves to sign up & post “new gossip”. Everything on the website is anonymous. Although you have to be over 18 to use the site, it doesn't stop kids from misusing it, since all they have to do to gain access is to tick a box and click a button. There are no other questions asked!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Little Gossip's creators claim that the website is designed to “create some deep, clean, insightful and interesting conversation – as well as out and out gossip”. However it’s obviously not being used in this way. The site is only moderated by it’s members so only reacts when someone makes a complaint about certain comments. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I wanted to see what sort of things are being posted on there, so I did a quick search and came across a posting from a college (although there are still school’s listed on there. This is what I found:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxnPwfr8j253fT0B4DHfHv5IyPueZBfaio9phaisAkEbHkQ7qilyaEEz6WFQN0xgOgXjlV3r7wOWsxuTQEBHDipitlPJuGFp1LK7AHN3WK1SY0dcyKMihz66NvA-xRXj-mOUjN1lG-WQ/s1600/LittleGossip.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxnPwfr8j253fT0B4DHfHv5IyPueZBfaio9phaisAkEbHkQ7qilyaEEz6WFQN0xgOgXjlV3r7wOWsxuTQEBHDipitlPJuGFp1LK7AHN3WK1SY0dcyKMihz66NvA-xRXj-mOUjN1lG-WQ/s640/LittleGossip.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lovely! </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There is an option to report these, however it's likely that similar posts will reappear regardless. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Like most websites, users get around the restrictions such as swear word blockers by spacing out characters and using numbers instead of letters etc, which makes it even more difficult for the website to be monitored. As members are not supposed to be under 18 using this site, they shouldn’t be able to add their school as a list of places, but unfortunately, kids are also adding their school names by shortening them or changing the spelling. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">My advice to any parent concerned about this site is to try and search for the school’s name on there, and then report it to the site so they can take it down. The people behind Little Gossip say that they are against cyber bullying, but I think if this were the case, then they would take a lot more time to patrol the site themselves to remove slanderous comments.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I reported the above comment to LittleGossip by clicking on the “Report” button next to the post. I was then given a short form to fill in:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVC-avnC7kP3e8bcEGvHT08iGcs-2QFIg78-V_4PV__XOOZLIGufO2PeNPu_F-WfDqCoJIRq8DDN-U9ICbbRD3ZOAwPwsA6W7lNzCKLRX-UXXvybiL2NCTBL9WhZdnVb0XyTWyVFAhW1w/s1600/LittleGossip+report.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVC-avnC7kP3e8bcEGvHT08iGcs-2QFIg78-V_4PV__XOOZLIGufO2PeNPu_F-WfDqCoJIRq8DDN-U9ICbbRD3ZOAwPwsA6W7lNzCKLRX-UXXvybiL2NCTBL9WhZdnVb0XyTWyVFAhW1w/s400/LittleGossip+report.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhns5QyEw9QuhNa6IVUyvTBOQxHTgthdUDkbu5Q65jvNATHWDyca0xVRUwZmv_NvCku_KDgvCg4NmBzsT74TelBFZG_zDCFMTfbADnPdmz5ZbbVKXjO3_kiVhrbW0eeFWbmX1-mxVNtydQ/s1600/LittleGossip+report2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhns5QyEw9QuhNa6IVUyvTBOQxHTgthdUDkbu5Q65jvNATHWDyca0xVRUwZmv_NvCku_KDgvCg4NmBzsT74TelBFZG_zDCFMTfbADnPdmz5ZbbVKXjO3_kiVhrbW0eeFWbmX1-mxVNtydQ/s400/LittleGossip+report2.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Although to actually report this comment, I had to star (*) out the bad words, and also tick all the boxes at the bottom even though it did include that content. Realising that, after a few attempts, I was presented with this message:</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZMprGoHDqv1WKz-sS_ZqHYE-43z9KUKJ_qpY2XeqjrHzDL3Md1FRNYWjaHPuyOWliHOuzsZtw4o0RVVh7-0cYhZOg2HJntRFrbkUNr3wKZ2UAmhOWGhdSlNT3QtrxP-_6WmiiO1OFE4U/s1600/successful+report.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="93" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZMprGoHDqv1WKz-sS_ZqHYE-43z9KUKJ_qpY2XeqjrHzDL3Md1FRNYWjaHPuyOWliHOuzsZtw4o0RVVh7-0cYhZOg2HJntRFrbkUNr3wKZ2UAmhOWGhdSlNT3QtrxP-_6WmiiO1OFE4U/s400/successful+report.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I don’t think I made the site <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">much </i>more positive, but it’s a start. This is another reason why I like working for GBK, I am one of the people that constantly monitor the site for these types of comments – they are removed instantly and members are warned about their actions, and as we’re real people, we don’t just have to rely on the swear word blockers to pick up on them!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">To see news articles on this <a href="http://www.burnham-on-sea.com/news/2012/little-gossip-concerns-03-01-12.php" target="_blank">Click Here</a> & <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353513/Little-Gossip-website-Pupils-defy-ban-site-spread-rumours.htm" target="_blank">Here</a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Thanks for reading!</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">@Lizmundo</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-18336499668467779602012-01-11T11:00:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:39:03.235+01:00Safety/Parental Control Settings For Apple DevicesIt’s likely that many children may have received an Apple device from Santa this year, and you probably know that newer iPods, and iPads & iPhones all have access to the internet. Browsing the internet on these devices is no different to browsing the internet on a PC – except you can’t install programmes to block certain information being accessed on them. So how can you protect your kids in the same way you would on a PC without standing over their shoulder the whole time? Although you should always keep a check on what your kids are accessing online, luckily, the majority of devices (like the ones mentioned above) now have these sorts of security features built in. <br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">The following screenshots are taken from an iPhone, however, I think that most Apple devices are similar and should have similarities between their settings & parental restrictions. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Firstly, you will need to enter the “settings” for the phone which can be found on your iPhone's homescreen (somewhere, depending where you keep it):</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcRjfg2wExJU74MeayE0aNZBSj9eUFlDgf2yJg4dkBC8Jsp-2JYKx3Cz_Ssx1LHAn34JOVnpIajqx_c_Up4vv5sqxITHM1dvStYyjDGkWhNBS9rkXg_E9xYrFHEmV4-ypdcXVQgnRvDj4/s1600/1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcRjfg2wExJU74MeayE0aNZBSj9eUFlDgf2yJg4dkBC8Jsp-2JYKx3Cz_Ssx1LHAn34JOVnpIajqx_c_Up4vv5sqxITHM1dvStYyjDGkWhNBS9rkXg_E9xYrFHEmV4-ypdcXVQgnRvDj4/s320/1.PNG" width="213" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Once inside, you will see a list of different things to customise. I would suggest turning off the “Location Services” if the device is for your child as if they use apps such as Facebook etc, everytime they update their status, it'll also update their location. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitePuRWqtbdxpPBaXxSqBsa82cN0BMLhvMF3efcjqdZhCtFt-R5I1TlsIgwcMvoGdN389uuvoHDvk9ScPqmejVxkYwwDFxTlDQDwO7mm5gx8r39OtuaaeheRc1AkLWWwac5n7GP_tfkaM/s1600/2%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitePuRWqtbdxpPBaXxSqBsa82cN0BMLhvMF3efcjqdZhCtFt-R5I1TlsIgwcMvoGdN389uuvoHDvk9ScPqmejVxkYwwDFxTlDQDwO7mm5gx8r39OtuaaeheRc1AkLWWwac5n7GP_tfkaM/s320/2%25281%2529.png" width="213" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Next, go into the “General” settings:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZlkSOgMQq25ng3tAVifxcwPrzgebOcnffz4KWvRntG9xSRdyv_iMBMHCPT_JEyuDxnGr_JZHXmAfBrF5KfaurUdViQcADy7rsgmq3tap2n3AU-MWmuBXNtfEjKlLfMnSQa35hFBsD2o/s1600/2%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZlkSOgMQq25ng3tAVifxcwPrzgebOcnffz4KWvRntG9xSRdyv_iMBMHCPT_JEyuDxnGr_JZHXmAfBrF5KfaurUdViQcADy7rsgmq3tap2n3AU-MWmuBXNtfEjKlLfMnSQa35hFBsD2o/s320/2%25282%2529.png" width="213" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Inside the General settings, you can choose to put a “Passcode Lock” on your phone (which will be handy if your child is just using your device now and again and you don't want to give them access all the time). A passcode consists of a four digit number you can choose yourself to stop others from gaining access once the phone has been locked.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Note: If you have one, make sure your passcode is easy to remember but difficult for others to guess i.e. don’t use “0000”, “1234”, your birth year or your child’s as these will be easy to guess (especially by your child!).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Next go to “Restrictions: <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUzs7GSl6aoFog7qRflWro0NEAXf-8rJ6RiU211iRkVBI0FOOD36RjMxnxfPyZmH7OeuxJVMpUoMiQo6c1y29e3rWAfqGPcMIRDhflDpSKmB_ecACde_YWahqRyTSkK3SU-51sEV2Wlqg/s1600/3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUzs7GSl6aoFog7qRflWro0NEAXf-8rJ6RiU211iRkVBI0FOOD36RjMxnxfPyZmH7OeuxJVMpUoMiQo6c1y29e3rWAfqGPcMIRDhflDpSKmB_ecACde_YWahqRyTSkK3SU-51sEV2Wlqg/s320/3.PNG" width="213" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">The Restrictions menu offers you the chance to add parental controls onto the device for things like the internet browser (Safari), Youtube, installing and deleting apps etc. It also lets you control what media can be played on the device. For example, if your child wanted to use your iPod to listen to their music, but you also had explicit music on there too, you can select an option that will prevent any explicit songs from playing. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfawZNlgW-vp3BfAvhFs90Tt1-DE8HyJA77ebHEr7S8bef_gInGzgvYgfT2MKAfPtayJW-ibEF_wcqyij4GLDoS7Ozy3Z7ysgx1z5KinrUQIyhgRpek0k9z-7BAZLzT5YX-PfjHzLIPFI/s1600/4.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfawZNlgW-vp3BfAvhFs90Tt1-DE8HyJA77ebHEr7S8bef_gInGzgvYgfT2MKAfPtayJW-ibEF_wcqyij4GLDoS7Ozy3Z7ysgx1z5KinrUQIyhgRpek0k9z-7BAZLzT5YX-PfjHzLIPFI/s320/4.PNG" width="213" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20gTknDZudtwABB98OyhwGs5s1fv2aCiSenFRr2XCgCc8LqpJzQUTgiQD_xauu5gEEidRtsip_2_oYhG_qxTm6W_LgfAD1fnLMqv8UCSF1MpFmRu5AQhbxyCLkIdu3DAumUPLkHzeug4/s1600/5.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20gTknDZudtwABB98OyhwGs5s1fv2aCiSenFRr2XCgCc8LqpJzQUTgiQD_xauu5gEEidRtsip_2_oYhG_qxTm6W_LgfAD1fnLMqv8UCSF1MpFmRu5AQhbxyCLkIdu3DAumUPLkHzeug4/s320/5.PNG" width="213" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20gTknDZudtwABB98OyhwGs5s1fv2aCiSenFRr2XCgCc8LqpJzQUTgiQD_xauu5gEEidRtsip_2_oYhG_qxTm6W_LgfAD1fnLMqv8UCSF1MpFmRu5AQhbxyCLkIdu3DAumUPLkHzeug4/s1600/5.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20gTknDZudtwABB98OyhwGs5s1fv2aCiSenFRr2XCgCc8LqpJzQUTgiQD_xauu5gEEidRtsip_2_oYhG_qxTm6W_LgfAD1fnLMqv8UCSF1MpFmRu5AQhbxyCLkIdu3DAumUPLkHzeug4/s1600/5.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Most game applications on the iPhone (and probably iPods and iPads) can be played online with another person. The other player is selected through the “Game Center” at random and you can have the option to add that player to your friends list to play with again if you choose. To my knowledge, I don’t think you are able to converse with friends on the Game Center as there are no chat functions but if you wish to turn this option off anyway, you can also do this in the Restrictions menu:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSo2Dqfi4qu-g12XO9xvkD-1i6SF5-btHTmUBrBHqnMSDQb4pJDkI-l3QFTHcLWluzz1s9tUtAbTC1GonPTSEeburcYAOBfSwVWNWS1AcGlaVXRuYz1BF1IhyGwxqHpJgXXyomApk4-cE/s1600/6.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSo2Dqfi4qu-g12XO9xvkD-1i6SF5-btHTmUBrBHqnMSDQb4pJDkI-l3QFTHcLWluzz1s9tUtAbTC1GonPTSEeburcYAOBfSwVWNWS1AcGlaVXRuYz1BF1IhyGwxqHpJgXXyomApk4-cE/s320/6.PNG" width="213" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">I think I’ve covered the majority of the settings for the iPhone. If I have missed anything out then please leave me a comment as you’ll be educating me and anyone else who sees this post! </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Thank You</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">@Lizmundo</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20gTknDZudtwABB98OyhwGs5s1fv2aCiSenFRr2XCgCc8LqpJzQUTgiQD_xauu5gEEidRtsip_2_oYhG_qxTm6W_LgfAD1fnLMqv8UCSF1MpFmRu5AQhbxyCLkIdu3DAumUPLkHzeug4/s1600/5.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-10584964156519102922012-01-06T13:19:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:38:42.997+01:00Twitter Privacy Settings – A “How-To” Guide<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Following on from my last two posts about the security settings on Facebook & Google+, I thought i'd take a look at Twitter's. A lot of users have recently started switching from Facebook to Twitter due to Facebook's new complicated changes associated with their new Timeline feature. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">As a lot of these users are preteens and teenagers I wanted to show you a way of making them safer.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Before I learnt how to restrict who followed me on Twitter, I clicked on my followers one day and was quite surprised that quite a few were from sex websites (although at first glance appeared to be genuine people). The problem with not checking who is following you or restricting who does, is that anyone who can see your profile can also see your followers and can easily click on the links included in their profiles. Another problem is that if the account is not set to private and your child is identifying the location of where they're posting from, it leaves them vulnerable to predators. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Once you log into Twitter, you'll see Tweets from all the different people/organisations you have chosen to “follow” & receive updates from. To change your privacy settings, click on the silhouette of the person in the top right hand corner and select “settings” from the drop down menu. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPq4ZtynCYFGdr1Szx_pu5Y2mUYqx4Yk9oOrKlbvpHVB6gPWf4dpDuOPOl1hcOOcZYGPLdZwyROB_0_vmB5uEai1Vo71q6axMZYjUc94e9vYAtPJfjTmhfAkmO9kgnElW6YgXf9gViKc0/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPq4ZtynCYFGdr1Szx_pu5Y2mUYqx4Yk9oOrKlbvpHVB6gPWf4dpDuOPOl1hcOOcZYGPLdZwyROB_0_vmB5uEai1Vo71q6axMZYjUc94e9vYAtPJfjTmhfAkmO9kgnElW6YgXf9gViKc0/s640/1.png" width="640" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Under the “Account” heading, you can choose to make your profile private or public along with other options. Below is a screenshot to show which is the best options to select if you child uses Twitter:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRzbOz8sundcFUvlUrh8eSfTiX_iIh3dc8wWqUeEcn7sJ6rRvCQLVboSBkUjRZfNM8S-9ZYzOiHu-Xyh78ZzL2gbNvxBWjUKNlkNpmgZaTZAKc3CCwd9ojok1H36HeeuzszZcCowr6BMY/s1600/2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRzbOz8sundcFUvlUrh8eSfTiX_iIh3dc8wWqUeEcn7sJ6rRvCQLVboSBkUjRZfNM8S-9ZYzOiHu-Xyh78ZzL2gbNvxBWjUKNlkNpmgZaTZAKc3CCwd9ojok1H36HeeuzszZcCowr6BMY/s640/2.png" width="640" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you have already included your location in previous tweets, you won’t need to go back through them all and delete them, just click on the link on the same settings page as above:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyx9sJ8BYJpiiPl1b02dbgbznIUMo6dNQIjIT-OvlBKDlsxwS5XeMi5ofRwtV50UCIl0ZTVcTyZwM5PX2Kkrkb2XfPV07FjcLJCBA6bplczCiL04zx1TIVcThXGwA1H0A7VyWyhHHGZBY/s1600/3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyx9sJ8BYJpiiPl1b02dbgbznIUMo6dNQIjIT-OvlBKDlsxwS5XeMi5ofRwtV50UCIl0ZTVcTyZwM5PX2Kkrkb2XfPV07FjcLJCBA6bplczCiL04zx1TIVcThXGwA1H0A7VyWyhHHGZBY/s640/3.png" width="640" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Don’t forget to click “Save” and that’s it really. Just don’t forget to have a chat with you kids about the types of things they shouldn’t post – on ANY social network! I hope you’ve found this information useful if you didn’t already know about it, please spread the word!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Thanks For Reading</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">@Lizmundo</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-37066881748590362192012-01-04T09:42:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:39:19.403+01:00Privacy Settings On Google+ - A "How-To" Guide<div class="MsoNormal">I know that not<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> that</i> many people use Google+ as most are still hooked on Facebook (I am one of those people) but I also own a Google+ profile. In many ways, I find Google+ to be a much better social network as it has MUCH less “stuff” going on with it – the privacy settings are also a lot simpler and you won’t have to search online to find out how to delete your account as that’s also been made far more straightforward. For these reasons, this will be quite a small guide.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Similar to Facebook, when you log into Google+ you’ll see recent updates from your Circles (circles are groups of friends or other people you can follow) but it also shows “What's hot on Google+” to help you discover new content on the internet (a bit like Twitter's trending topics feature). To view your privacy settings on Google+, click the cog icon in the top right hand corner:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9mx6boUuGGg/TwQcq6jm28I/AAAAAAAAAEs/IX5BnJdHJ4M/s1600/Homescreen+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="326" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9mx6boUuGGg/TwQcq6jm28I/AAAAAAAAAEs/IX5BnJdHJ4M/s640/Homescreen+1.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">As you can see from just this small section of the privacy options in the next screenshot, the information is lot easier to understand and a lot easier to navigate than Facebook's. At the moment, parts of my profile are Public, which means they could be found on a search engine or if someone happened to click on my profile through one of their friend's lists. I haven't included any personal information in the public sections of the profile so i'm not really bothered by this. If you want to select which parts of your profile you want to make private or public though, you can click the button saying “edit visibility on profile” and then following the instructions from there:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d15eEh_kkRg/TwQdCvcn6wI/AAAAAAAAAE4/aT0U-dgBVCc/s1600/Privacy+settings+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d15eEh_kkRg/TwQdCvcn6wI/AAAAAAAAAE4/aT0U-dgBVCc/s640/Privacy+settings+2.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Next you can click “Google+” on the left hand menu which will show how people can connect with you:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8v4j7pZSv4E/TwQddVMiZkI/AAAAAAAAAFE/YsWncpemT2k/s1600/3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8v4j7pZSv4E/TwQddVMiZkI/AAAAAAAAAFE/YsWncpemT2k/s640/3.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">I would suggest changing all these options to “friends only” if the account belongs to your child. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">All your chosen security settings should now be customised to your own preferences. I hope you found this guide useful, if I’ve missed something out or you’d like more detail on something I’ve mentioned then leave me a comment & i’ll try to help, but as i’m not an employee of Google, then I may not be able to give you the best advice!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">@Lizmundo</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-19605391294101397132012-01-04T09:27:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:37:58.719+01:00Privacy Settings On Facebook – A “How To” GuideHi there, I hope you've had a good Christmas & a good start to the new year! I've tried to come up with a very basic guide to set up privacy features on Facebook for you or your kids (if they use it), although i'm pretty sure that this little guide of mine will be out of date very soon since the privacy settings on Facebook are forever changing. Until a few weeks ago, I didn't realise HOW much they had changed since the last time i'd set everything up. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When you first log into Facebook, you'll be presented with your Newsfeed – this is where you will see updates of everything your friends are doing which refreshes frequently. Generally, only the people you interact with most will appear.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">To change the privacy settings for your account you will need to select them in the top right hand corner of the screen: </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rV5-dvaPfKs/TwMsBbQLDKI/AAAAAAAAADY/qtX6bT25fHA/s1600/Homescreen+pic+one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QK-t_N2SV68/TwMsmLf4J0I/AAAAAAAAADk/GBSntlyvzL4/s1600/Select+privacy+settings+screenshot+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="329" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QK-t_N2SV68/TwMsmLf4J0I/AAAAAAAAADk/GBSntlyvzL4/s640/Select+privacy+settings+screenshot+2.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Once you're in your privacy settings page, you will see an explanation of how the privacy settings work. You can also select the “Default Privacy” options of “Public”, “Friends” or “Custom” - I have selected Custom for my own account – here you can choose to share your posts with most of your friends and stop certain friends from seeing them or vice versa.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o0g9Gxdyeec/TwMthCPb1GI/AAAAAAAAADw/8UfZdXVAB2I/s1600/Privacy+screenshot+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="329" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o0g9Gxdyeec/TwMthCPb1GI/AAAAAAAAADw/8UfZdXVAB2I/s640/Privacy+screenshot+3.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qmu0atwTdxk/TwMt7KUaHPI/AAAAAAAAAD8/oN8uiyz05b4/s1600/Privacy+screenshot+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="329" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qmu0atwTdxk/TwMt7KUaHPI/AAAAAAAAAD8/oN8uiyz05b4/s640/Privacy+screenshot+4.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">Once you have decided on your default privacy, there are quite a few other things you need to look at which can be found on the same page as your default privacy options:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kuw1n8COC-I/TwMuZjvkpSI/AAAAAAAAAEI/a1ASM2mmHgg/s1600/Privacy+screenshot+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="331" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kuw1n8COC-I/TwMuZjvkpSI/AAAAAAAAAEI/a1ASM2mmHgg/s640/Privacy+screenshot+5.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal">If you click on “edit settings” next to “How you connect”, you will see a popup box displaying how people will be able to find you on Facebook and contact you:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JaVMmARQp_c/TwMurgUb0XI/AAAAAAAAAEU/U082UKvFPas/s1600/How+you+connect+screenshot+6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="331" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JaVMmARQp_c/TwMurgUb0XI/AAAAAAAAAEU/U082UKvFPas/s640/How+you+connect+screenshot+6.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Again, here you can customise these options if you wish.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">The next option is controlling how tags work. Tags are when someone uploads a photo of you or updates a status and wants to include you in it. Other people that are friends with the <i>tagee</i> will be able to see your name on their photos/status updates and click on them to see your profile. If you don't want strangers to be able to see your kids' profile when their friends upload photos of them (which will probably happen as some point!) then i'd suggest turning this option off.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9556OVAz_gI/TwMvcvi9crI/AAAAAAAAAEg/kXuCaoyCfF0/s1600/how+tags+work+screenshot+7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="329" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9556OVAz_gI/TwMvcvi9crI/AAAAAAAAAEg/kXuCaoyCfF0/s640/how+tags+work+screenshot+7.png" width="640" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Next is “Apps, games and websites” - in here you can change the option so your name won't be discoverable via a search engine (Public Search) – I'd also suggest turning this off for your child. Another option to keep an eye on is “Instant Personalisation”, this isn't available to me yet but is enabled as a default so it's worth checking to see if you can disable it. This allows partners of Facebook to display YOUR image on their own websites. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If you're concerned about what information you or your child is sharing with Facebook, you can download a copy of all your information from the “Account Settings” which can be found just under Privacy Settings in the dropdown menu in the top right hand corner. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I hope you've found this little guide useful. If I haven't explained something then feel free to ask me and i'll try to help – although I don't work for Facebook so I may not be able to! </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Thanks For Reading</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">@Lizmundo</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-51298861420473441792011-12-23T10:34:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:37:43.722+01:00The Safety Of Christmas Presents<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">Hello there! Only 3 days to go until the big day so hopefully you're not like me and are more or less organised. We STILL haven't got the decorations up in our house yet, to be honest, I don't really see the point now! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I'm sure many of you will have children that has requested laptops, games consoles (Xbox, Playstation, 3DS, Wii etc), phones or iPod's, from Santa this year, and i'm sure if they're lucky enough then they'll get exactly what they want. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I just wanted to make a “<i>quick”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> blog before Christmas to</span> make you aware of the potential dangers your child may be in with these things & how you can make them safer. Below i've listed a few examples:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><u><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mobiles</b></span></u></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Mobiles can be a great way for kids to keep in touch their friends and have a feeling of independence. They're also very useful so they can let you know where they are when they're out with friends and give you piece of mind. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><br />
</b> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Problems:-</b> Newer & more advanced mobile phones have access to the internet and mobile TV. Here children can gain access to all sorts of content without any parental supervision. Most mobiles also have the ability to take and receive picture & video messages through MMS or Bluetooth facilities. Unfortunately, this can be misused and a picture sent to a “friend” can easily be forwarded on to others or even uploaded to the internet in a matter of minutes. Many also use location software so if your child were to update their status on Facebook for example, their location could easily be identified. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><br />
</b> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Solutions:-</b> Speak to your child about how you have trusted them enough to be allowed a mobile phone and that they should use it responsibly. Explain to them that they should never give out their mobile phone number to anyone they don't know very well and that they should never send anything that they wouldn't be happy for you to see. You can also contact the phones network provider as they may be able to help you set up parental controls on the phone.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><u><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Gaming</b></span></u></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Many children will more than likely get some sort of new games console this Christmas ranging from Xboxes, Playstations, Nintendo DS', Wii's etc which can be brilliant fun to play on their own or with their friends – they can even make new friends online through playing online multiplayer games. </div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Problems:-</b> Many children can become addicted to these online games and lose contact with offline friends, as they can spend hours at a time playing on them, sometimes late into the night when you think they are sleeping! They can also be contacted by fellow players of the same games who may request favours in return for cheats for the games so the child can advance levels or be a victim of abuse from strangers. Many consoles also now feature web access so internet sites and tv can also be viewed on those too. </div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Solutions:-</b> It can be useful to to keep all games consoles in a central family room or removing them before bed so the usage can be monitored & you can also see what the content of the games are like. The consoles normally feature parental features so you can choose what the child can/cannot see and gain access to. It's also worth having a talk with them about speaking to strangers over the internet and to discourage any sort of cheating on these games anyway.</div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><u><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Social Networking</b></span></u></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Social networking can come in many forms of online communication, generally the new user will be given their own personal space online where they can write about their selves and upload photos to share with their friends. Social networking can also include Instant Messaging services (IM) like Windows Live Messenger or similar on their phones such as BlackBerry Messenger, Kik messenger etc. Applications are also popular to enhance social networking experiences. These are “add-ons” which brings more content to someones online profile. </span> </div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><b>Problems:-</b> There are several safety issues surrounding IM services, friends occasionally share email addresses with others to find new friends or send chain emails with all original email addresses included. This results in strangers attempting to add and contact your child. </div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">The following is a case study taken from the CEOP's thinkuknow website:</div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><blockquote style="font-weight: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">“Olivia visited a chat room where she was talking to friends about her favourite band. A guy she hadn't met before read her profile and said hi. They started chatting, and Olivia got on really well with him - he seemed to agree with everything she thought and said which was cool. After some time, he asked her for her Instant Message address so they could chat more privately.</blockquote><blockquote>Olivia accepted him onto her contact list and after a few weeks of chatting through IM every day she felt she knew him pretty well. He sent a photo of himself to her and she thought he looked really nice, so when he asked her to send him a sexy photo of herself - she felt apprehensive, but sent one anyway. He told her that she looked great and suggested meeting up.</blockquote><blockquote>Olivia felt quite uncomfortable with this, since she felt that he was still a stranger - however well they were getting on, so she refused but her new 'friend' got a upset with her and then aggressive and ended up saying that unless she agreed to meet up, he would send her sexy photo to all the people in the chat area.</blockquote><blockquote>Olivia was mortified, and really wasn't sure what to do; especially since she had started to worry about his intentions; not only was he blackmailing her but he was also making really suggestive comments which she felt very uneasy about.</blockquote><blockquote>One of Olivia's friends advised Olivia that she shouldn't have to put up with 'freaky guys' like this one, and told her to save her conversations with him, and report them to CEOP by pasting them onto the reporting form. This was then seen by a police officer who began to make enquiries and investigate further. Olivia was relieved that she didn't have to deal with the man on her own, and also found some great advice and support on the website.”</blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Solution:-</b> Ask your child to be responsible when using ANY form of social networking site. Reminds them to never post photos of themselves in school uniform so their location can be identified or anything they wouldn't be happy for you to see. Tell them to never include their phone number or email address on their profile where it is easily accessible by strangers. Remember that once information has been sent to the internet, it can be very difficult or sometimes impossible to get back and can be forwarded easily. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">You could also ask them to show you how they use the social networking sites they use so you can get a better understanding of them and it'll also help you to see what sort of people they have as friends and the security features they have set up. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote style="margin-left: 0cm;">Sorry for the LOOOONG post, but I hope you found it useful!</blockquote></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!</div><div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">@Lizmundo</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-14685365359668549182011-12-15T12:50:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:37:28.255+01:00It's Chriiiiistmaaaaaaaas!It's almost Christmas time and once again, like every other year I'm totally unprepared! Christmas presents haven't been bought and the decorations aren't even up yet! <br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I'm not feeling extremely festive this year either, and it feels like Christmas has crept up on me again (despite being shocked that a card shop had Christmas decorations in their window in September), but I thought I'd have a go at creating a mini Christmassy blog for everyone to read which will hopefully start to bring my Christmas spirit out! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I think it's different if you have kids around to help with this sort of thing (or if you are a kid yourself?). I always remember Christmas being an amazing time of year, I'd circle things I wanted in the Argos catalogue or I just used to ask my mother if Santa would bring me “that” for Christmas at various intervals during the year and present her with a list on Christmas Eve (CHRISTMAS EVE!) to send to Santa. I was never disappointed with the presents I got anyway. My parents must have been psychic! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">It's much easier for some parents these days though as they let their kids to make wishlists of things they'd like on websites like Amazon. I suppose this is a much easier way of being able to see what your child is after so you can pick bits up through the year but I don't think i'd want to be the one reading the total bill!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">On the subject of websites, I've been trying to look for a few child friendly websites to give kids & their parents some things to do during the Christmas break if they're stuck for ideas. So, here goes:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://www.noradsanta.org/">http://www.noradsanta.org</a> This is a website where children can track Santa's travels around the world starting on Christmas Eve, although I think you may need to download Google Earth to do this (which is free). It even includes a countdown timer so they can see when his travels will begin. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://www.northpole.com/">http://www.northpole.com/</a> Another Santa website which is more professional looking than the one above, and there are lots of activities for kids & parents! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://www.primarygames.com/">http://www.primarygames.com</a> This is is a website which can be used by children, parents and teachers to find fun activities such as educational games and quizzes etc for all times of the year. At the moment, they have a Christmas theme on the website.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://www.santa.net/">http://www.santa.net</a> I haven't explored much of the website yet, but I think I would have loved it when I was younger, you can play games etc and you can also email Santa and send him a Christmas list electronically! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">There's also the CBBC website: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/thingstodo">http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/thingstodo</a> which i'm sure you'll probably already be aware of anyway, but if you've never looked at it yourself then the link above is at least worth a look. It has plenty of recipes and arts and crafts ideas you can use. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I hope you find these useful and hopefully brought you a little Christmas spirit too!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Merry Christmas!</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">@Lizmundo</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-38666187773228251332011-12-05T10:56:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:37:09.544+01:00Lizmundo's Research Into Teen Website: VampireFreaks.comWell, my job is still going pretty well, as is my peace lily, i've named her Phoebe and she's even started making new flowers! There's been quite a few new improvements made to the website over the last week or so too. There's a new video on the homepage so parents can have a preview of the website, and there's also a new “safety centre” page. The “about us” page has also been updated too, which can be found here: <a href="https://www.greatbritishkids.com/aboutus.php">https://www.greatbritishkids.com/aboutus.php</a> <br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">With the new Twilight film recently released in cinemas and a generation of Vampire loving kids growing up, I thought I'd take a look at a popular social networking website called VampireFreaks.com.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This website, is primarily aimed at teens aged 13 and over, who are interested in Gothic & other subcultures. Like Facebook, the website has features such as the ability to join groups, add friends and chat to each other but there are also paid features of the website too. Paying members have the ability to join more “cults” (groups), upload more pictures – 500 instead of 50, and Powerbomb “unwanted” members. This involves clicking on a member that only has a free membership and “damaging” them with a point. If the free member receives 10 damage points within a month then they will be suspended for 15 days. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">As a basic member, I have access to join cults or create one of my own and I can also view the message boards and enter chat rooms (after a few days of signing up to prevent trolling I guess). After looking at the message boards for a short while in the “Advice” section, it came to my conclusion that this was being used as a place for extremely depressed members to try and seek guidance from others, or possibly just to look for attention. One member talks about cutting herself all the time and another talks about someone stalking both herself and her twin, whom their parents allow the stalker to come into the house as he claims he just wanted to be friends. When I clicked to enter a chat room, I was presented with a few options as to which one I wanted to enter. I had the choice of entering a 13-17 (under 18) room, an 18+ room or a 21+ room to name a few. My concern is, how do VF prevent users from entering the wrong chat rooms?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">What's worrying about this website, is like Facebook, younger members can lie about their age, and could potentially gain access to other areas of the message boards for areas that are 18+. It also mentions in the websites FAQs that due to the large amount of users, they are unable to moderate the website, however if they receive abuse reports they will respond to those. They (the website) don't seem to have any real issues with bullying on the site either, for example one of the questions in the FAQ section says:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">“<b>Q. help, somebody is being mean to me, they hurt my feelings.”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">“A.</span><b> </b>stop whining you pussy. you can easily block people from commenting on your profile or emailing you. you simply click the "block this user" button on their profile. but if someone is an obvious asshole to multiple people, we will delete them, but if you keep bothering us with your personal drama we will delete you. Report assholes to the <a href="http://vampirefreaks.com/admin">admin inbox</a>.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i>nice.</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-style: normal;">There have been several controversies surrounding this website too. Like other websites such as Facebook, Myspace etc, it has been used by paedophiles to contact younger members and arrange meeting up in real life. In other cases, some young members have been murdered by other deluded members on the website <a href="http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=765b7ad8-e00a-49a1-9d72-d3d35e5c2627">http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=765b7ad8-e00a-49a1-9d72-d3d35e5c2627</a>.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">So my advice to parents with kids who may come across this website by watching the films such as Twilight, I'd either block the website or check what they are viewing on there regularly. </div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">I hope this post has provided some valuable info for you, thanks for reading!</div><div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">@Lizmundo</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-22548942967965859572011-11-28T12:28:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:36:22.127+01:00A Little Bit About Me – Well, My Pets<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hi everyone, hope you are all well and have not caught the lurgy as I have. I've just spent the entire weekend in bed. The good news is that i'm feeling a lot better today (with the exception of an annoying blocked nose), and at least i've caught it well before Christmas, so just hope I don't catch anything else now! I thought I'd tell you a little bit more about my little ones I have at home.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><u>Poppy The Princess</u></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Poppy is a 3 year old Bichon Frise, that can do no wrong. She is very sensitive and highly intelligent, but does, on occasions, think she's is a German Sheppard. She's scared of quite a lot of things and she's not fond of other dogs. I want the ground to swallow me up every time I take her to the vets for her booster. I got a puppy this year (which wasn't really planned) but I thought he would help Poppy get used to other dogs, which has <i>sort of</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> worked.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7QAFF34ohiq3YZBF4g1hfm_YWeszsvlgHMiwYyfHkdnFts7Lz4YIs8puLUThf5v-ksujpDbCZ36OJTiUL37qglGkhTEaezG5aBWPV0R6DKNNG6QFqzRFtto4hSEEMEmc8js5lHBYSX0M/s200/poppy.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="149" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you look closely, you can see her halo. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHk6LzF6HS9j3EBQaHWcIWxUQ8a2O5Y-h4u7vqf8nVqTNgcjCQXZ0QRePJpwelSxgF62oAyzADVTUAp1p6HUy9LlS02i9ZqpoQVFonyS-9IkdUAtavkVtrrqmV3y0jTNBlUphZqoJkZ5s/s1600/poppy+%2526+buddy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHk6LzF6HS9j3EBQaHWcIWxUQ8a2O5Y-h4u7vqf8nVqTNgcjCQXZ0QRePJpwelSxgF62oAyzADVTUAp1p6HUy9LlS02i9ZqpoQVFonyS-9IkdUAtavkVtrrqmV3y0jTNBlUphZqoJkZ5s/s200/poppy+%2526+buddy.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buddy terrorizing Poppy</td></tr>
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<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><u>Buddy</u></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Buddy aka Tarzan is my puppy. He's a mixed breed consisting of a King Charles Spaniel, a Bichon Frise and has a little bit of Yorkshire Terrier mixed in there somewhere. H</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">e's a ball of woolly fur and deceives everyone he meets as he looks like a teddy bear. He likes to terrorize Poppy and more often, my cat, Jack.</span></span></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB98qziA2aMYNFqnOkkIPPk3FPQOoyaN7LIip9gFQ14iyYQgNE_l2H7vrL8TETVmeVY76-7ctp_c2f0lMuRfryMBV8_jpSkFnxdKmJ9kyEpf2tcrrBQaltZPK83-ZuH2gfWKzKIBzcZ5s/s1600/buddy+teddy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB98qziA2aMYNFqnOkkIPPk3FPQOoyaN7LIip9gFQ14iyYQgNE_l2H7vrL8TETVmeVY76-7ctp_c2f0lMuRfryMBV8_jpSkFnxdKmJ9kyEpf2tcrrBQaltZPK83-ZuH2gfWKzKIBzcZ5s/s200/buddy+teddy.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The technique</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigszxHTNHwQYwt-hTSjE3gJSQbpEUCoZVaL925ecRDe9TBiBTBhmXVoPHReplm8cBGvEwI0JGwPnlQkwLlGJZE642F_TH3DhEyA6Jf-hL0oz-RG5RMROQgNeX7-fdPa4TWgFX0Xq3UVnU/s200/buddy+vicious.PNG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="133" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vicious monster</td></tr>
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><u>Jack</u></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Jack is my 4 year old cat. Named after Jack Sparrow and also Jack Black (geddit?), I first got Jack when he was just 5 weeks old (yes that is too young to be taken away from his mother but at the time I didn't know that). As a result, Jack doesn't seem to have developed like a normal cat would. He's quite lanky and has a strange meow (it sounds like a baby dinosaur). He's not a very snugly, but enjoys company when Buddy isn't around to bother him and he enjoys to have a wrestle with Poppy when he can. Jack has learnt how to open the fridge door help himself to the contents (as long as it's not in a tin or a jar). Luckily for us, Poppy has developed a built in alert button so if Jack opens the fridge she'll let us know.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEX8fyFWT2ePtJM3iqQba2nZ_cNkD1JAb8fscXWqBuJWzM0eVFoJQ6gNSVsl_G6QIXkP1HfIlofAe7gF57oRw0yVLWTGxFCLGuXK5UWUliWFqYFcqa15yKhR9-n-paoLHSRjsy1ciTQWI/s1600/baby+jack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEX8fyFWT2ePtJM3iqQba2nZ_cNkD1JAb8fscXWqBuJWzM0eVFoJQ6gNSVsl_G6QIXkP1HfIlofAe7gF57oRw0yVLWTGxFCLGuXK5UWUliWFqYFcqa15yKhR9-n-paoLHSRjsy1ciTQWI/s200/baby+jack.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby Jack at 5 weeks old. Fitted into the palms of my hands!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jack "mowing" (not meowing) for food.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">So that's all of them (for now!). I'll be back soon to update you on goings on at GreatbritishKids.com and also do have a look at a few more kids websites. In the meantime, if you have any questions for me, or if there are any websites you'd like me to take a look at then please leave me a comment below.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">Thanks!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">@Lizmundo </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-28125288330684399662011-11-24T12:04:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:35:52.871+01:00PLOS, G2G! - Do You Know What Your Kids Are Saying Online?<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hi everyone! So, I was browsing on my Facebook newsfeed the other night, scrolling through endless status updates about “I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!” and came across a post from a younger relative of mine saying she thought somebody on the show was “peng” (no it wasn't Willie Carson! Haha). I think this picture of the conversation will explain what happened next...”S” is my younger relative, and “R” is my brother that lives in Germany – the reason why I say that will make sense when you read it. Oh and I'm still “Liz”!</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY4eUszlC6KI5Jgd3zJyaEHZEwldPMVV2keo4ZpxE6XMoUJ1twN45Anh1rHBH7sgvMIG2qgbhg07RJERcBtoS5FXqtmnp1vxTHt3AKToLHy6Y4KtkZuLbjWenc9DuHosHXZx5sDzgXX2M/s1600/facebook+peng.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY4eUszlC6KI5Jgd3zJyaEHZEwldPMVV2keo4ZpxE6XMoUJ1twN45Anh1rHBH7sgvMIG2qgbhg07RJERcBtoS5FXqtmnp1vxTHt3AKToLHy6Y4KtkZuLbjWenc9DuHosHXZx5sDzgXX2M/s640/facebook+peng.jpg" width="436" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;">I briefly touched upon this subject in one of my previous posts (<a href="http://socialnetresearch.blogspot.com/2011/11/lizmundo-cyber-security-officer.html">link here</a>), where I mentioned a new “language” kids use online today. From time to time, slang words will come back in fashion (even though they'll think they're new) and other times, like “peng” they'll make them up. This can be extremely infuriating when you're talking to a younger person and you haven't got a clue what they're wittering on about. The website <b><span style="color: #000033;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com) keeps a current record of slang words and can often include acronyms too. Users rate descriptions of words up or down depending on how relevant they are at the time. As of October 2011, the website had over 6 million definitions and it's still rising, so it's worth a quick browse at the least! </span></span></span></b> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #000033;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Another way people (mainly kids and teens) communicate online is with the use of acronyms. To try and learn all the different ones would be pointless but here is a list of the top 15 terms for parents to watch out for if they have kids using the internet. </span></span></span></b> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ol style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">AITR = Adult In The Room</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">P911 = Parent Emergency</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">PAW = Parents Are Watching</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">PIR = Parent In Room</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">POS = Parent Over Shoulder</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">PLOS = Parents Looking Over shoulder</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">PRW = Parents Are Watching</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">MOS = Mom/Mam/Mum Over Shoulder</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">MIRL = Meet In Real Life</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">S2R = Send To Receive (pictures)</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">LMIRL = (Lets) Meet In Real Life</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">CD9 = Code 9 - (means parents are around)</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">E or X = Ecstasy (the drug)</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">ASL(R P) = Age Sex Location (Race / Picture)</span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">TDTM = Talk Dirty To Me</span></div></li>
</ol><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you happen to notice your kids using any of the above terms online, if you are able to, it would be a good idea to check their chat history as sometimes, kids could tell you that the acronyms they're using will mean other things, for example, PAW (Parents Are Watching) could also mean “People Are Weird” or something else, so if you notice in their chat history that after the mention of the word “PAW” the conversation suddenly changes then it's likely they were talking or looking at something they shouldn't have. </span> </div><div style="border: medium none; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="border: medium none; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="color: #000033;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I hope this quick post has provided some good info for you if you didn't already know these things. I'm going to try and get back to looking at more kids sites soon so if anyone has any suggestions then let me know!</span></span></span></b></span></div><div style="border: medium none; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0.79cm; padding: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="border: medium none; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0.79cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="color: #000033;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Thank You</span></span></span></b></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="border: medium none; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0.79cm; padding: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="border: medium none; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0.79cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="color: #000033;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">@Lizmundo</span></span></span></b></span></div><div style="border: medium none; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0.79cm; padding: 0cm;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-80120948795428070442011-11-22T11:37:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:35:35.791+01:00Why Do People Bully?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyIR2V9qzx_Fe6Xq7yH6JrvDutHhAJ8Dvs84Boo8cVZvVxrStyYwZ33r2o2iH40H6VSgnNDGUXXrMHdMvrc9C-CtZANkHwrBzXgFbD8q-vDq3E6pENe1B97KV6MLvww57mExaOuY1Q8Tw/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyIR2V9qzx_Fe6Xq7yH6JrvDutHhAJ8Dvs84Boo8cVZvVxrStyYwZ33r2o2iH40H6VSgnNDGUXXrMHdMvrc9C-CtZANkHwrBzXgFbD8q-vDq3E6pENe1B97KV6MLvww57mExaOuY1Q8Tw/s200/images.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"> As the title suggests, in this post I will be looking into the reasons why people bully. At some point in everyone's life, they have probably bullied someone, whether they meant to or not. An example of this is my best friend, who is one of the sweetest people you could ever meet, told me that when we were younger, (i'd say about 6/7ish) she used to “bully” another girl in our class, by saying she wouldn't play with her unless she could have her bottle of Sunny Delight (her mother wouldn't buy any for her at home). At the time, she didn't realise this was bullying as she just wanted the bottle of Sunny Delight, and feels terrible about it now. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">One of my other childhood friends was guilty of bullying too. He would exclude people from his group of “friends” based upon who he liked that week. If you weren’t his chosen flavour, or if you <i>asked</i> you would <b>NEVER</b> be allowed to have a crisp or a sweet from him. He had to offer you one. I have no idea why we all kept falling for this every week, but looking back it's quite laughable to think what you'll put up with as a youngster. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Bullying can stem from many different reasons, in the examples above it can create a feeling of superiority or just the fact that you can gain “gifts”. It can also be to fit in with peers, jealousy, to prevent embarrassment if they're not particularly good at something or it can be a result of a poor family background.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">There is a young boy that lives in my neighbourhood, I'll call him Joe, but I don't know his real name. He's quite “weedy”, has buck teeth and is usually described as “that little git”. I've seen him on quite a few occasions standing behind a bigger boy, using him as a human shield to hurl insults at other kids. I've also seen him stood in my next door neighbours garden, ripping up their elephant grass and leaving it strewn all over the pavement outside my house, just before jumping off a grit bin and diving into an old man's hedge that he had proudly finished pruning earlier that day. However i've also witnessed him wandering the streets alone in all weathers too, with a pot noodle or a cone of chips. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I'm not condoning his actions, but I do think that his home life has a huge part to play in how he acts, so can he ultimately be to blame if he doesn't have anyone there to teach him right from wrong? The sad thing is that behaviour like this is likely to carry on into his teens and possibly into his adulthood, where he'll learn that it will be acceptable to act like this to get what he wants and won't accept authority figures<span style="font-style: normal;">. </span> </div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">It is the responsibility of parents to spot signals of your child bullying someone. Some of these signs include:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Have a positive views towards violence and may love to watch fight scenes etc.</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Often become aggressive towards adults – including teachers or parents </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">May tend to try and dominate situations and others in a group.</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Boy bullies tend to be physically stronger than their peers </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Can be hot tempered, impulsive, and can get easily frustrated </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Often test limits or break rules </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Good at talking their way out of difficult situations </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Show little sympathy toward others who are bullied, may say things like “they deserved it”</div></li>
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</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><u><b>How To Intervine If Your Child Is A Bully</b></u></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I have taken the next piece of information from a website called mychildsafety.net. It explains how parents can intervene if their child is a bully:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you suspect your child may be bullying you have an absolute responsibility to step in and put an end to the behaviour.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you are approached by your child’s school or another child’s family about a situation in which your child is bullying another child, be careful to not be too defensive, but at the same time, do not jump to any conclusions until you have an opportunity to discuss the situation with your child – remember there are always two sides to every story.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If after an open and honest conversation with your child, in which you must make clear the severity of the situation, you do not feel your child is truly the aggressor in the situation, work with a school counsellor or social worker to come to an appropriate conclusion to the situation.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If however, it does appear that your child has engaged in bullying behaviour it may be very difficult to accept, but you must face the situation head on.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">It is in the best interest of your child and the victim to put an end to the bullying right away. Here are some guiding principles to help you with the situation: </div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Do not make excuses for your child. </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Make it clear to your child that you take the bullying seriously and you will not tolerate this type of behaviour. </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Maintain and consistently enforce family rules. Utilize positive reinforcement when your child follows the rules and appropriate negative consequences for breaking the rules (such as the withholding of benefits or privileges). </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Stay involved and supportive of your child’s school and extra-curricular activities. Stay informed of what they are doing and whom they are spending time with. </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Encourage your child to channel their energy into more positive activities, such as sports, clubs, or music lessons. </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If the above steps do not result in noticeable, positive changes in your child’s behaviour, consult with a mental health professional.”</div></li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I hope you found this information useful and you keep the warning signs in mind. If your child is <b>being</b> bullied though, I know it will be difficult to keep a level head, but try and keep the other child in mind too, as they may be going through something themselves and don't know how to handle the situation or realise they're causing upset. If you are not able to resolve the issue with the child's parents then ask the school to get involved to try and remedy a problem. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Below I have included some resources for parents of bullies or bullies themselves that may be useful:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://www.kidscape.org.uk/assets/downloads/kschildrenwhobully.pdf">http://www.kidscape.org.uk/assets/downloads/kschildrenwhobully.pdf</a> – PDF file which includes information on how you can stop bullying behaviour and can also help you understand it a little bit more.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/no_bullying.html">http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/no_bullying.html</a> – Link to a website with more information on how you can help stop your child from bullying. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://www.childline.org.uk/">http://www.childline.org.uk</a> / 0800 1111 - Children can also contact childline themselves for free if they would like to speak to someone else about their problems and they won't be judged.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.supportline.org.uk/">http://www.supportline.org.uk</a> – This is a support website for children and adults to use which has contact numbers for different organisations dealing with problems such as anger management through to other problems such as offenders & family support. </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER">Thank You,</div><div align="CENTER">@Lizmundo</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-5436908808145659092011-11-17T11:25:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:35:18.888+01:00Anti Bullying Week 14th-18th November 2011<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hi again, I thought i'd type another blog about bullying as it's Anti Bullying Week this week, so it's a little late but we've still got a few days left!</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This year the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) is focusing on verbal bullying, using the slogan “stop and think – words can hurt”. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">ABA defines bullying as “the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person by another, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. Bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological. It can happen face-to-face or through cyberspace.”</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Bullying occurs everyday and it is becoming increasingly common for people, including younger children in primary school to say things like “that's gay”, call each-other “retards”, or use racial slurs in a flippant manner, without realising the meaning of the words and the hurt it can cause someone else. Remarks may not be directly aimed at someone, but it can affect them indirectly, for example, if someone used a racial slur, they might be offending someone's relative of that racial origin etc. </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This sort of bullying can take place inside and outside of school. It can even occur on the internet where many people who would never bully anyone face-to-face can get involved with bullying online, whether intentional or not. Everyone needs to understand that whatever they post online is just as important as whatever they say offline and can, in some instances become a criminal offence. </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Some key signs to look for if you think your child is being bullied are:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ul><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">signs of emotional distress during or after using the internet.</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">withdrawal from friends and activities.</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">avoidance of school or social group gatherings. </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">poor grades at school and "acting out" in anger at home.</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">changes in mood, behaviour, sleep, or appetite.</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">your child may spend long periods of time at the computer, even after their bedtime, as they may not feel they are able to take themselves away from the situation.</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">if your child closes their browser or mail windows suddenly when you come near the computer. This may not be cyber bullying (it should encourage you to check your computer's internet safety settings though!), but it is worth looking out for.</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">if your child complains about aches & pains frequently. Emotional stress can in some cases result in physical disturbances, so it's worth bearing this in mind and encouraging your child to speak about any problems they're having. </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">paranoia, particularly when friends are brought up, as any kind of friendships can be become difficult to sustain if your child is being bullied.</div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">your child may become emotionally distant. They may lose their drive to make friends and socialise and also have an extreme fear of humiliation or rejection. You will need to encourage your child an<span style="font-size: small;">d be supportive of them.</span></div></li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Children should always be able to speak to their parent or a teacher if they feel they are being bullied, unfortunately they don't always feel this is possible. A recent survey by Stonewall, a charity for gay, lesbian and bisexual people, has discovered that over half of the 150,000 gay pupils they surveyed said that they had experienced homophobic remarks, not from other pupils, but from teachers. One pupil said: <span style="font-style: normal;">“The teacher was laughing at the fact that there are homosexual people and all the other pupils were taking the mick and my twitch started up and I had to leave.” </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">So, it is worth noting that there are places where children can speak to someone if they are being bullied, online or offline, I will include links to some of the many organisations that are available to help young people or parents with issues of bullying at the bottom of this post</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I think it's also worth pointing out what is available on GreatBritishKids.com to combat bullying and also what help and support we offer. Not only do our Cyber Security Officers (one of whom is me!) monitor the site , but we also have an alert button on every page where we can be contacted by the members, they also have links to ChildLine, Samaritans and CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection).</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Part of my job is to monitor the site for bullying including subtle or passive bullying, e.g. one of our members created a poll entitled "who do you dislike the most" and listed all the people in her class at school. I took the poll off the site as it could only cause offence to the people who were voted for. I sent the member a message telling her that we had taken it down, and the reasons why. She was very apologetic and (in my opinion) genuinely did not think that it would upset anybody as it was meant to just be a bit of fun. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>What can <span style="font-style: normal;"><b>you</b></span> do if your child or another young person is being bullied?</u></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">ABA's website has some useful information on what you can do if a young person comes to you saying they have been bullied:</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><ul style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Your key role is listening, calming and reassuring that the situation can get better when action is taken.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Provide a quiet, calm, safe place where they can talk about what is happening.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Make sure they know that your first concern is for their health and well-being.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Ask what it is that the young person wants to happen.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Help identify the skills the young person has at their disposal to solve the problems.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Discuss it with your child’s school.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">They may worry what you think of them or think you may be angry with them, so listen carefully and show that you are hearing by ‘playing back’ to them what you hear.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Assure them that the bullying is not their fault and that you are there to support them.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Remind them of the support they can have from family and friends.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Help them to identify choices available to them and the next steps to take.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Make clear how much you value and love them.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Remember that you may feel pressure to take action, sometimes any action, but this may be</span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">unhelpful if you do not have a clear and full view of the facts – or what your child wants.</span></div></li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Above all they need to know you are there if they need you.</span></div></li>
</ul><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></span> <br />
<div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><u><b>Useful Links & Contact Info </b></u></span> </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><i><b>ChildLine</b></i></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://<a href="http://www.childline.org.uk/">www.childline.org.uk</a></span></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span> </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Counselling service for young people and children. </span> </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">TEL: (UK) 0800 1111. Calls are free and confidential. </span> </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><i><u><b>Samaritians</b></u></i></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.samaritans.org/"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://www.samaritans.org/</span></span></span></a></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Counselling service for anyone in distress or at risk of committing suicide. </span> </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">TEL: (UK) </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">08457 90 90 90</span></span></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><i><u><b>Kidscape</b></u></i></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.kidscape.org.uk/">http://www.kidscape.org.uk/</a></span><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span> </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">This is an organisation for help and advice for parents of bullied children. </span> </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">TEL: (UK) </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">08451 205 204</span></span></b><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span> </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><u><b>BullyingUK</b></u></i></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.bullying.co.uk/">http://www.bullying.co.uk/</a></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">Charity organisation which provides help and support for anyone being bullied. You can have access to online support, call them on Skype and also contact them on their helpline.</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">TEL:</span></span></span> 0808 800 2222. Calls are free and confidential</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><u><b>BeatBullying</b></u></i></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://www.beatbullying.org/">http://www.beatbullying.org/</a></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Charity dedicated to help stop bullying. They also have another site to speak to Cyber Mentors (just like GreatBritishKids.com) where kids can speak to kids about their problems.</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><u><b>BullyingOnline.Org</b></u></i></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://www.bullyonline.org/schoolbully/links.htm">http://www.bullyonline.org/schoolbully/links.htm</a></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Website which provides more helpful information and resources on bullying and links to other websites.</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><u><b>Stop Bullying</b></u></i></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://www.stopbullying.gov/">http://www.stopbullying.gov/</a></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Online website to provide information regarding bullying. </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><u><b>GreatBritishKids.com</b></u></i></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">https://w</span></span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.greatbritishkids.com/"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">ww.greatbritishkids.com</span></u></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></span> </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">social networking website for under 18s only. Members can ask to be trained to become Cyber Mentors to provide support for other members on the site.</span></span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><u><b>Anti-Bullying Alliance</b></u></i></span></span></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><a href="http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/</span></a></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></span> </div><div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Anti Bullying Alliance's website. Contains useful information for parents and resources for schools/clubs.</span></span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I hope you've found this information useful and you are able to put everything into practice.</span></span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thank you,</span></span></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">@Lizmundo</span></span></span></div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-89887703540653982792011-11-15T13:09:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:09:19.538+01:00Accepted at Mumsnet & Cyber Bullying<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hi again, excellent news, Mumsnet has accepted me as a featured blogger! I'm so pleased! The only other time I've ever had anything “published” was when I was in school in year 9. We had to write a poem on any subject and it would possibly have been featured in a young poets book. I'm not very good at poems, so I scribbled something down at the last minute and it was rejected – probably because my facts about space were all wrong and made up. I can't remember what I wrote, but I think I may have made some planet names up and said something about another planet having a million moons? I re-entered the poem the year after, as I'd been studying the solar system in physics, so I was able to use actual facts and it was accepted. Although, I cringe looking at it now as it's awful, it's not really a poem, it's just a mash-up of facts (although at least they're true and I got a B in physics so I suppose it was good revision!). </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">A new radio volunteer joined us last week too for some work experience with our GBK Radio team to help with the production side of things. I'm not entirely sure of everything the radio team do at the moment, as they lock themselves away in their little radio production booth, but I know that they are currently working on recording new jingles for the upcoming radio shows. I'm sure whatever it is is WAY too complicated for me. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I've also been able to create a Google+ Business page for GreatBritishKids so more people can be updated on future news & press releases. Link to the page can be found here: <a href="https://plus.google.com/109528989796422524847/posts">https://plus.google.com/109528989796422524847/posts</a> or alternatively by clicking on the Google+ badge on the menu on the right hand side of this page. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Google+ announced in August that they were rolling out a new verification badge program, making it so celebrities, public figures and those who have amassed vast quantities of people in their circles can verify their identities with a check mark and a small banner that rolls out next to their names. This sounds like an excellent idea (sounds slightly familiar too!), but as they're only offering this to extremely popular people, it's only protecting people from following fake celebrities, it doesn't necessarily protect the individuals themselves (the followers), or everyday people like you and me from speaking to normal people that claim to be someone else. However, this could be a valuable stepping stone in making the internet a safer place, as it stops the anonymity of some people which can help prevent cyber bullying. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">A definition of Cyber Bullying is “the use of the Internet and related technologies to harm other people, in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner”. Unlike regular bullying, cyber bullying has the advantage (for the bully) of the ability to remain anonymous through the use of fake email account names, nicknames in chatrooms etc. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">For someone at the receiving end of this torment, it can feel as though they have no other options left but to end their lives as they don't have anywhere safe to hide any more. I came across this article yesterday: <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8885876/Cyberbullying-victims-speak-out-they-were-anonymous-so-they-thought-they-could-get-away-with-it.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8885876/Cyberbullying-victims-speak-out-they-were-anonymous-so-they-thought-they-could-get-away-with-it.html</a> which talks about a girl whom was bullied over the internet to the point where she was self harming after users of the site Formspring told her that she should kill herself. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">For those of you who don't know what Formspring is, it is a website where users can sign up and post under an account name or remain anonymous and post questions to other users on any topic. There is an option where users can block anonymous questions from being asked of them, however as most young people see this site as a bit of fun initially, or a test of character, they usually prefer to accept all comments. There has been a lot of controversy around this site due to the amount of suicides in which cyber bulling on websites such as Formspring is believed to be the root cause. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">There is also an option to link a Formspring account up to a Facebook or Twitter account where you can invite your friends or followers to ask you anything. I have seen in the past that this gives people who you may even be friends with on Facebook, the opportunity to post nasty, anonymous questions to you. Again, like Facebook, Formspring requires new members to be 13 years or older to sign up to their services, however I also believe that like Facebook, there are many that will lie about their age to gain access. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Although Formspring itself participated in a White House Conference on Bullying Prevention. I think they need to look more at stopping bulling on their website, for both younger and older members, by moderating all comments posted on the site before allowing them to be posted to members, removing personal attacks and being more responsible for their members' safety and well-being. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Thanks for coming back again to read my posts. See you all soon! </div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">@Lizmundo</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-26346694993696542592011-11-14T12:15:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:06:49.499+01:00The Ramblings Of Lizmundo - Office Plants, Jingles And More Kids Sites!<div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hello again, take a seat and I shall tell you what has been happening in the world of Lizmundo. Well, last week was pretty eventful, Thursday I had the wonderful experience of one of my bosses singing a jingle to me. We've been trying to think of jingles to use on GBK radio which is a lot harder than you might think. So here is what I had to listen to: (you need to read the next bit with the jungle book tune in mind) "I'm the king of the sign ups, Yeah! the Cyber VIP, I spend my days monitoring the site and that makes me happy, keeping kids safe on GBK is what I'm here to do, I check their face by webcam, so I know who is who.........doo..be...doo I want to verify you whoo whoo, I want to check and see, who you be, it's freee eee............" I best not make comment on my boss's efforts, incase he reads this, but I'm going to try and get my creative juices going and think of a better one, but it's hard, especially when you keep thinking about other company's jingles in the process! Like this one for a skip company "Just call A Lewis Skip Hire, skip skip skip hooray, just skip the rest and try the best, and call us up today!". It has definitely been fun though, even if my boss a little cringe worthy :-)</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Said boss has also given me a peace lily. I haven't named it yet. </span> </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD25-9HkiPpGa6I3qhk5i6AeMKAZi_NpsiwawJzjU8ywdw-8F2PbTeiwBbmUfTSt-Bt9OqRt55MV_-YHiVVT60Azj0xPyIaWNKHPiWwnFgYVsqETQPD3sY8221y5FQRbfAD7oeue5-ID4/s1600/peace+lily.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD25-9HkiPpGa6I3qhk5i6AeMKAZi_NpsiwawJzjU8ywdw-8F2PbTeiwBbmUfTSt-Bt9OqRt55MV_-YHiVVT60Azj0xPyIaWNKHPiWwnFgYVsqETQPD3sY8221y5FQRbfAD7oeue5-ID4/s320/peace+lily.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The pretty addition to my desk</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">As you can see, it's very pretty but I am concerned that I'll accidently kill it. I'm hopeless with plants. I always buy them with the best intentions but they never last, just ask my venus fly trap! Hopefully it'll be different on this occasion and I might be like this with it:</span> </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJQgYqE2iDQ2QgdBAdoKanVUBEg0VuFj0B5dVfE9OUT_uOrblE7VtrAevta99ZMt9AHYIIxkWeASIw4MvYG2110afglgrjRrOeZGVlj27fiIRiXJ-O4wgcLQq00MnXPTden4h_ky7vC6A/s1600/tumblr_kynwssH2b61qat0bfo1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJQgYqE2iDQ2QgdBAdoKanVUBEg0VuFj0B5dVfE9OUT_uOrblE7VtrAevta99ZMt9AHYIIxkWeASIw4MvYG2110afglgrjRrOeZGVlj27fiIRiXJ-O4wgcLQq00MnXPTden4h_ky7vC6A/s320/tumblr_kynwssH2b61qat0bfo1_500.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Simon Pegg in Hot Fuzz with his Peace Lily</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">I've been feeling quite old, and learning that kids don't just use acronyms like “LOL” (laugh out loud) anymore like I used to when I was younger. I've been keeping an eye on the blogs published on our website, which is one of the features that seems to be quite popular amongst the members. They blog about typical kid things you'd expect – boys, girls, football and Justin Bieber (One Direction are also really popular), but they also use a language I'm not familiar with - mostly acronyms. One member has talked about her “BBFAL” on her blog. Now I know that “BFF” stands for Best Friends Forever, but BFFAL??? Luckily, on this occasion she's included what her acronym stood for (it stands for Best Friends Forever And Life just incase you were wondering). Normally I have to search our list we keep for these sorts of things but i have to add to it by searching online as they seem to make new ones up all the time! I have to check they're not outsmarting us! I could list a huge amount of acronyms for you to refer to but they'd only make new ones up again!</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Phoebe (not her real name) has also named some other site she uses in her blog – Quizzaz. I had never heard of this before in my life so I had to Google this too! </span> </div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Quizzaz as the name suggests, (well, after you see the website, it's head slappingly obvious what it is) is a website where members can create quizzes for anyone to answer. I came across one which was titled:</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">“</span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Don't take this quiz or you'll be scared”</i>. So I clicked on it.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Question one: </span> </div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">“</span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>why didn't you listen!!!!!!”</i></span></div><ul style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Because my mommy told me I could</i></span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>I like fear</i></span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Because I LOVE your quizzes</i></span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Because I'm ugly –</i><i> </i><b>hmmmm....</b></span></div></li>
</ul><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Question three:</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">“</span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>What's your fear?”</i></span></div><ul style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The Dark</i></span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Gay People –</i><i> </i><b>charming! </b></span> </div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>*</b><i>is off*</i></span></div></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>NOTHING</i></span></div></li>
</ul><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">After you click through the answers, the quiz will give you a result. Mine was <i>“Gustav Shafer -</i><br />
<i>It's Ok But You Should Be Scared Anyway”</i>. </span> </div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">I don't know what this means. I don't even know who Gustav Shafer is, anyway, there are lots of other quizzes on there, most of them contain swearing and other subjects which can in-bed themselves inside childrens' minds, things that they shouldn't need to worry about. For example, another quiz was titled - <i>“what weight are you?”</i>, the results would tell you if you were super skinny, skinny, perfect, quite fat or obese. </span> </div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">These quizzes are created by the members of the website so could potentially contain anything, and it doesn't seem as though these quizzes are checked to see if they're appropriate for their audiences before they are posted on the site. I joined the website to see what sort of filters they use but there were no restrictions on age to join and there weren’t any visible guidelines as to what you could/couldn't post.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">What sort of message is this sending to the youth of today? That you should be scared of gay people? and you will be called fat based upon your answers to a quiz? Lovely :-(</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, that's my thoughts on Quizzaz anyway, and what I've been up to lately. I hope you also have a good week too. I will be looking into more websites this week and I will share with you what i find out.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">As you can tell, I'm a bit disconnected with today's kids so I want to try and stay in the loop!</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mumsnet soon, they have a good filter in place to check bloggers before they get posted, so fingers crossed they'll like my posts! </span> </div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div align="CENTER" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thanks for reading, be back soon!</span></div><div align="CENTER" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div align="CENTER" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">@Lizmundo</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-48284266679533847632011-11-07T16:18:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:05:32.605+01:00Social Networking Sites - What Makes Them So Appealing?<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hi there! Monday again and the start of another new week. I caught the bus into work again this morning and due to the driver's erratic driving skills, we almost crashed. Twice. However I arrived at work in one piece. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I logged into my homepage this morning and I noticed that there had been quite a few signups over the weekend, quite a few have also been verified too. One was even verified through webcam on Skype! We are averaging at around 4 – 5000 page views a day now so the word of greatbritishkids.com must be catching on (I'm just glad it's not “the bird” anymore). Hooray!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I've been looking at some news articles over the last few days and found this one from the Daily Mail which is pretty alarming: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2056913/A-million-British-13s-use-Facebook-day.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2056913/A-million-British-13s-use-Facebook-day.html?ito=feeds-newsxml</a> .</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">For anyone that's reading this that thought “I'm not clicking that link, it's a long, boring news article!” It basically says that there are a million under 13s in Britain that uses facebook everyday. That's one in four pre-teens accessing it every single day. One user, lunepremiere from London has commented on the article and said “Notice they said a million use at least daily.. so yes, the real figure is probably higher!”. This statement is more than likely very true as most parents probably don't even realise that their child has signed up to the service. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuHfE58rI6OJx8a2UgWBRXzYP7MXW2xr4uRJoQo9QQi24wBOai9Ol28A60DFyYtNUcNYOukhlhOMNnsccqxFIqLQr-imJshXqyLIP_R3aAHDmF5b5GjbGehcJCWhGUpgJAvnO0JmpNsUo/s1600/poppy+facebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i>So what makes sites such as facebook so appealing to these preteens?</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Shy people like myself (although I'm not as bad now as I used to be), can bring out their extrovert personalities online e.g. by creating a blog or a page about their interests. They might speak to people from their school online that they would never have the courage to approach in real life for whatever reason. They don't have to be so afraid of being themselves as they can also go in search of other people on the internet for people with the same interests and problems as them. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The problem is, it's who they end up speaking to is the real issue. Just as it's easy for someone to reveal their true personality online, it's just as easy for someone else to hide theirs, and trick a vulnerable person into thinking that they are someone they can talk to. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">There is no way of checking people's real identities on facebook, and just to prove a point, my dog even has an account! <i>She</i> has 42 friends and constantly gets new requests from strangers, even children sometimes. Although <i>she</i> has never accepted strangers onto <i>her </i>account, you can get my meaning of how easy it can be to get into contact with the wrong people. If you have a picture of a cute cuddly dog, people will want to speak to you and be your friend. Go figure! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuHfE58rI6OJx8a2UgWBRXzYP7MXW2xr4uRJoQo9QQi24wBOai9Ol28A60DFyYtNUcNYOukhlhOMNnsccqxFIqLQr-imJshXqyLIP_R3aAHDmF5b5GjbGehcJCWhGUpgJAvnO0JmpNsUo/s1600/poppy+facebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuHfE58rI6OJx8a2UgWBRXzYP7MXW2xr4uRJoQo9QQi24wBOai9Ol28A60DFyYtNUcNYOukhlhOMNnsccqxFIqLQr-imJshXqyLIP_R3aAHDmF5b5GjbGehcJCWhGUpgJAvnO0JmpNsUo/s400/poppy+facebook.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">It is up to everyone to try and promote other alternative websites for pretreens and young teens to visit. Obviously I'd prefer it if they checked out greatbritishkids.com as I know from first hand experience how safe it is, but as long as they are kept safe is the main priority. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">Thanks for coming back to read my posts! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">@Lizmundo</div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-62650356880954812302011-11-04T13:49:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:04:22.255+01:00Thoughts & Experiences Of Lizmundo On Internet Safety<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">When I was about 12/13 years old, I started using the internet at home, my parents obviously knew a lot less than I did too, as neither of them had even turned a computer on until a few years ago. We didn't have anything in the house before then and in school we could only use Microsoft Encarta – brilliant fun! When we finally got broadband at home, I used to use sites like Yahoo! Chat and spoke to quite a few dodgy characters at the time, even a few paedophiles actually, although I didn't find out who they were until a few years later.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Internet safety, and reporting suspicious people online wasn't as well heard of back then so I didn't realise I could have reported them. The Government set up CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) to deal with this and is a great source of safety material and help for all age groups. Knowing what I know now about what goes on, It's very scary to think that kids could be in the same situation today that I was 10 years ago. </span></span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">I worry about my nieces & nephew using the internet as people can be so deceiving. It's so easy for kids to chat to complete strangers over the internet these days. Does your child have a Wii, an Xbox or a Playstation? All of these have chat functions, where the kids can play games with anyone around the world. They can chat to each other in real time and now even speak over headsets. Teaming up to play games is not only fun but teaches kids how to work together as a group to win a task. So I get the attraction, but all parents need to take an interest when their kids are playing online and ensure they are only playing with their true friends that they know personally. They would not ask a stranger in the street to come into their house to play a game! so why would you let them on the internet?</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">That's why I love working for greatbritishkids.com so much, It's only week 3, but I’m really getting stuck in. My job role is Office Supervisor, so I get to do all the normal stuff, like dealing with the mail and making sure the office filing is all in order, but I also get to monitor the site. This is where I get to check that the content of the site is appropriate for our members. The other day a member uploaded a pop song for everybody to hear, but when I listened to it, it was uncensored, the dreaded F word was being used again in a pointless fashion, so I had to take the tune down and tell the member why. I know that this website is much safer than the others because I'm doing the "keeping safe". </span></span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yesterday the website had a huge boom of activity from new users (a local school had gotten wind of us and had handed out leaflets to every kid.) I had a pop up message from a new member, Ben*, that had logged in for the first time. He said that he loved the website as it was just like facebook. He also wanted me to play games with him. Since new members can't contact anyone on the website until they're verified, he could only contact me, so I accepted the game and he beat me. I'm no good at pool in real life either. </span></span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">I also had another new member contact me to ask if she could be instantly verified by webcam. Now this was my first time with a live member, as my training had been done just using other members of staff, so this was it, I cleared my throat, checked my hair was looking good (not much I could have done with it anyway, it's always fuzzy from the dreadlocks!) and I pressed the button to launch the webcam. My face popped up in a box, then the box expanded to show a black screen, nothing just black! So I sent Alice* a text chat message, asking if she had turned on her webcam, she replied "w8, am doin it now, i'm 10. Then as if by magic, her little face appeared on my screen! amazing! I said hi Alice, what's your date of birth? she told me and I wrote it down, then I asked her one more question and that was it! in under 20 seconds little 10 year old Alice had been checked to make sure she was under 18 and was a real kid. I had a flash back to when I was first using the internet and all the horrible experiences I had with paedos pretending to be other kids, I came over all warm and felt really good about myself, that by me checking Alice was Alice, I had made her safer and all of the other members on the site. I know that when Ben gets verified and wants to talk to Alice, that they will both know that they are kids and feel safer.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">So that was it, My first webcam with a member! I changed her status from 'restricted ' to 'unrestricted' and hey presto Alice was able to use the whole site!</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm just glad I'm playing my small part now by making sure kids have positive experiences with the internet where they can be themselves, be creative and make new friends.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Let me know if you like my blog, I'm getting back into this and want to continue writing about my experiences.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">@Lizmundo</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I've made the names up to protect the identity of the innocents lol.</span></span></div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62952701086996146.post-75059818990876802962011-10-31T14:32:00.001+00:002012-04-04T15:03:58.099+01:00Lizmundo's Research Into Kids' Websites: Club Penguin<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Me again! Today I've been looking into the Club Penguin site from Disney which is aimed at 6-14 year olds, although any age can join.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">“Club Penguin is a snow-covered, virtual world where children play games and interact with friends in the guise of colourful penguin avatars. “ - Club Penguin Website.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The main features of the Club Penguin site are similar to that of other childrens' sites such as Moshi Monsters in the sense that users can create an avatar to walk around the virtual world and communicate with others. One of the differences I noticed with Club Penguin was that they offer a “standard safe chat” and an “ultimate safe chat”. Ultimate chat prevents users from engaging in ANY chat with other players apart from sending set phrases and emoticons to each other. As well as these two options, the site also filters messages to prevent telephone numbers & other personal info from being revealed to other players. However users can add each other to their friends lists and send private messages. I'm unsure If the private messages are filtered too but after some searching around online – apparently they are, although there has been an odd occasion when the filter system has been down and players have then gone on to swear at eachother just for the sake of it. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The only downside to these safety features are when they backfire. I found out from this page: <a href="http://leladavidson.hubpages.com/hub/All_About_Kids_Website_Club_Penguin">http://leladavidson.hubpages.com/hub/All_About_Kids_Website_Club_Penguin</a> and the comments left from young players of Club Penguin that they have worked their way around the filters, and have learnt how to create their own “games” (some with more adult themes) within Club Penguin, such as having babies with other penguins, entering “slip” (strip) clubs etc. Although these things are banned within the game, the majority of the players seem to know about these things and have also created codes to “swear” e.g. “beach” is supposed to mean b*tch and so on. Using codes like this makes it hard for the moderators to moderate the chat as players aren't technically breaking the rules. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Maybe the reason why players are creating games like this within the world is due to the filter being so strict within Club Penguin in the first place that kids feel they have to come up with other ways to feel grown up? The sad thing about this is, kids are growing up before their years and moving on from sites like Club Penguin onto older social networking sites where they don't have such strict rules (allbeit they may have to lie about their age to get on them!)</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">Thanks for still coming back to read my posts & please let me know if there are any websites for kids/tweens or teens you'd like me to review! </div><div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">@Lizmundo</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz29mAtPy1AHiGR8WP-qOYJj6iF5JHFx3TP6y1yZhxH792hg4mHUYwUoULsgFqg889eqGyHRcpgrDK2ghsdWhI8FdgvcrcXd7k1tq_rvioPizrhqIO3iPzamCh-txxR-V_voT3c3PLyY0/s1600/Club_Penguin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz29mAtPy1AHiGR8WP-qOYJj6iF5JHFx3TP6y1yZhxH792hg4mHUYwUoULsgFqg889eqGyHRcpgrDK2ghsdWhI8FdgvcrcXd7k1tq_rvioPizrhqIO3iPzamCh-txxR-V_voT3c3PLyY0/s320/Club_Penguin.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Club Penguin's playable characters</td></tr>
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>Lizmundohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11126284400173138629noreply@blogger.com3