SafeSearch 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.

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:

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:

Not too bad, but on page 8:

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:

I also tried the same search settings with the word “melons”:

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.

There is an option to report the inappropriate pictures which is demonstrated in this video:

 However not all images are guaranteed to be removed.

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:

• 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.
• Turn the internet off when everyone should be in bed.
• 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.
• Use pop-up blockers for your browser to stop children being able to click through to other sites.
• 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.  
• Check your child’s internet history frequently – if it is being deleted often then question why
• 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.

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!

@Lizmundo

Twitter Privacy Settings – A “How-To” Guide

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.

As a lot of these users are preteens and teenagers I wanted to show you a way of making them safer.

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.

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. 

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:

 

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:

 

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!

Thanks For Reading

@Lizmundo

Privacy Settings On Google+ - A "How-To" Guide

I know that not that 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.

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:

 

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:

 

Next you can click “Google+” on the left hand menu which will show how people can connect with you:

 

I would suggest changing all these options to “friends only” if the account belongs to your child.

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!

@Lizmundo

Privacy Settings On Facebook – A “How To” Guide

Hi 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.

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.

To change the privacy settings for your account you will need to select them in the top right hand corner of the screen:

 

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.

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:

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:

 Again, here you can customise these options if you wish.

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 tagee 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.

 

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.

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.

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!

Thanks For Reading

@Lizmundo

The Safety Of Christmas Presents

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!

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.

I just wanted to make a “quick” blog before Christmas to 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:

Mobiles

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.

Problems:- 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.

Solutions:- 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.

Gaming

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.

Problems:- 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.

Solutions:- 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.

Social Networking

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.

Problems:- 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.

The following is a case study taken from the CEOP's thinkuknow website:

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

Solution:- 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.

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. 

 

Sorry for the LOOOONG post, but I hope you found it useful!

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

@Lizmundo

Lizmundo's Research Into Teen Website: VampireFreaks.com

Well, 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: https://www.greatbritishkids.com/aboutus.php

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.

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.

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?

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:

“Q. help, somebody is being mean to me, they hurt my feelings.”“A. 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 admin inbox.”

nice.

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 http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=765b7ad8-e00a-49a1-9d72-d3d35e5c2627.

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.

I hope this post has provided some valuable info for you, thanks for reading!

@Lizmundo

Why Do People Bully?

 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.

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 asked you would NEVER 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.

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.

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.

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.

It is the responsibility of parents to spot signals of your child bullying someone. Some of these signs include:

• Have a positive views towards violence and may love to watch fight scenes etc.
• Often become aggressive towards adults – including teachers or parents
• May tend to try and dominate situations and others in a group.
• Boy bullies tend to be physically stronger than their peers
• Can be hot tempered, impulsive, and can get easily frustrated
• Often test limits or break rules
• Good at talking their way out of difficult situations
• Show little sympathy toward others who are bullied, may say things like “they deserved it”

How To Intervine If Your Child Is A Bully

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:

If you suspect your child may be bullying you have an absolute responsibility to step in and put an end to the behaviour.

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.

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.

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.

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:

• Do not make excuses for your child.
• Make it clear to your child that you take the bullying seriously and you will not tolerate this type of behaviour.
• 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).
• 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.
• Encourage your child to channel their energy into more positive activities, such as sports, clubs, or music lessons.
• If the above steps do not result in noticeable, positive changes in your child’s behaviour, consult with a mental health professional.”

I hope you found this information useful and you keep the warning signs in mind. If your child is being 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.

Below I have included some resources for parents of bullies or bullies themselves that may be useful:

http://www.kidscape.org.uk/assets/downloads/kschildrenwhobully.pdf – PDF file which includes information on how you can stop bullying behaviour and can also help you understand it a little bit more.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/no_bullying.html – Link to a website with more information on how you can help stop your child from bullying.

http://www.childline.org.uk / 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.

http://www.supportline.org.uk – 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.

Thank You,

@Lizmundo

Thoughts & Experiences Of Lizmundo On Internet Safety

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.

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.

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?

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".

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.

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.

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!

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.

Let me know if you like my blog, I'm getting back into this and want to continue writing about my experiences.

@Lizmundo

*I've made the names up to protect the identity of the innocents lol.

Lizmundo's Research Into Kids' Websites: Club Penguin

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.

“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.

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.

The only downside to these safety features are when they backfire. I found out from this page: http://leladavidson.hubpages.com/hub/All_About_Kids_Website_Club_Penguin 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.

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!)

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!

@Lizmundo

Club Penguin's playable characters

Lizmundo's Research Into Kids' Websites: Moshi Monsters

Hi again, I've been working in my new role at GreatBritishKids.com for about a week now and so far it's been fantastic! I've been helping to monitor the site and researching into childrens' websites. Following on from my last post with regards to the safety of other websites for children including Social Networking sites that children may use (even though they're underage), I've been asked to review “Moshi Monsters” by a user on one of my other blogs.

This is a little background info on Moshi Monsters that I have pulled from their site:

“Moshi Monsters is a free online game for kids, where they may adopt a monster and look after it. Kids whose parents give us their approval can become 'users' on our site, and can adopt a Moshi Monster. Kids care for their monster by solving puzzle games, which earn their monster virtual rewards called Rox. Kids can spend Rox on virtual items like food, furniture and other treats and toys for their monster. Over time their monster will increase in level, be able to visit new locations in Monstro City, and earn all kinds of in-game rewards for playing. Monster owners will also be able to make friends with other owners and leave messages on their pages. “

I created an account with Moshi Monsters (which I have since deleted) to have a look around the site to see what sort of features they have, all I had to do was enter a username, an email address and my age (I even entered my age as 22). Next I had to click an activation link in my email address which gave me access to the website. Once activated, you can create a virtual monster (called a Moshi) to “adopt” and look after.

Once you have created your monster, you are then taken to your “house” where you can keep items you may buy in the online gift shop or bring your virtual friends around. You can meet friends by using the map on the side of the screen to navigate around the site. Navigating around the site was quite easy, you can enter places to meet other users (Moshi's) and request to add them as a friend. Once you have friends on the site you can send them messages on the pin board in their “houses”. (These messages are supposed to be filtered through their system, however users can choose to report anything they don't like to the moderating team who will review the message). Users can also post on forums and respond to each others posts. These also go though a review before being posted.

Disadvantages (in my opinion) of Moshi Monsters were:

• The site is very childlike, this may be what younger children are looking for generally, but children who like to act a little more grown up will end up going in search of other websites that older relatives or friends may be on.
• The website is supposed to only be available to a new user once parents have activated the link in their own email account, however if a child has their own account or has access to their parent's then they could easily gain access themselves without consulting anyone that they're signing up.
• Only basic features of the site are free. If a child wants to have the full features of the site, e.g. customising your character, having the ability to have more than 16 friends then they have to pay a fee (£4.95 one month subscription, 6 months £23.95 or yearly £29.95). This may not be suitable for households on low income or with more than one child.
• I saw a post on the forum from a user that was titled: “i havent eaten 4 17hrs!!!!!!!” and then commented on the post saying “i dont eat anything frm 5pm”, later on in the post after being questioned why they were posting that information, the user simply said “i jsut fink im fat but im thin thats the reason y i dont eat and im starving now but i wont eat”. Although I reported this comment to the “Moshi Monsters Team”, I do wonder what support that child will have, if their parents know about the problem, and what impact it will have on the other users on the site.

Advantages (in my opinion) of Moshi Monsters were:

• Moshi Monsters currently has 50 m users worldwide – and UK based Mind Candy is estimated to pull in over US$100m
• The colours & the fact children can look after a “pet” on the site will keep them entertained while possibly teaching them responsibility & educating them at the same time.
• The cheapest subscription to Moshi Monsters is only £4.95 a month & you can also buy game cards so kids could buy these out of their pocket money if they wanted to.
• Possibly a good way of introducing very small children how to use the computer/internet in a safe way.

How I think this site compares to GreatBritishKids.com:

• The GBK.com site has a more grown up feel to it, similar to other big social networking sites.
• Anyone under 18 can have access to the website for free however nobody will be able to communicate until the members have been verified (checked to see if they are who they say they are) via a third party, like a school/club leader or via a webcam. NOT by a parent.
• All users will have access to a panic button, so even though the site is moderated, if a child did feel unsafe, they could report their concerns to CEOP, The Samaritans or Childline. In the instance of the child above, they probably could have spoken to Childline to get help or contacted a Cyber Mentor on the website (Cyber Mentors are trained members of the site that have been given guidance on counselling and how to help other users that want to speak to someone).

A big thanks to those who have already been in touch and asked questions. I'm interested in your thoughts or opinions you may have on the site and also recommendations of other websites your kids may use, so I can review them next time too. Thanks!

@Lizmundo

Characters players can name & look after on the site.

 

Lizmundo Asks - "How Safe Are Social Networking Sites For Kids?"

This is possibly my third attempt at a blog now. I've always promised myself I'll keep on top of them & up-to-date but it's never happened, so I'm starting again! Anyway my name is Liz, I'm 22 years old, still living at home with my two dogs & my cat (my babies). I'm engaged & have been in a relationship for 5 years but sadly we can't afford a place of our own yet. I've just started working for an under 18's social networking site called GreatBritishKids.com which has made me think about kids (particularly those under 13 that have lied about their age to get an account) using sites such as Facebook & Bebo.

I'm finding it a bit disturbing at the amount of kids (even ones I know of!) that are using sites like these. I know parents can look at their kid's profile etc but are they really that safe? I suppose I can't really blame the parents though, I know there is a lot of peer pressure on kids to “fit in” with their school friends and act more grown up and I guess that some parents may not even know their kids have an account if they're not very computer literate. They may even think that their child could be perfectly safe as long as their account is checked every so often, however I know from personal experience that if a child wants to hide something, delete messages, change passwords etc then they know exactly how to do it.

After doing a little bit of personal research (with the help of my nieces & nephew!) I've found that the only other sites I think are appropriate for under 18's have quite a few drawbacks too, so maybe this is why they have resorted to using Facebook.

As I've mentioned above though, the website I'm currently working for is a FREE social networking site for under 18s. It has a more grown up appearance and it is much safer as the site is monitored closely and you can only get full access to the site  if you have been verified. Members can be verified by an appointed member of staff that has been CRB checked in a school or club e.g. Guides or football club, or via webcam video verification by a GBK Cyber Security Officer so even if someone lied about their age to get access into the site, they wouldn't be able to communicate with other members until we confirm they are who they say they are. There are a load of other benefits to the website but I don't want this to sound like I'm selling it, I'm just very excited about my new job. For anyone reading this that may be interested in this site, you can visit www.greabritishkids.com or have a look at this article to get a bit more information: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/south-wales-news/pontypridd-llantrisant/2011/03/31/dad-sets-up-safe-social-networking-site-for-children-91466-28425624/

I'd love to hear what everyone thinks of greatbritishkids.com and what other sites your children use so I can try and do a little more research on them & how they compare to GBK site, and then I’ll repost my findings in the near future. I look forward to hearing any opinions or thoughts you may have. Thanks for taking the time to read my post too!

@Lizmundo

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