Poogling Makes KEYT Headlines!

Cyber-bullying, “sexting,” online predators… These were a few of the important topics that were covered last week in the Santa Barbara community-wide Poogling Internet Safety Seminar hosted by Make It Work. The seminar focused on providing parents with a platform for Awareness, Education and Sharing.

The event was a huge success, garnering coverage from local news station KEYT Channel 3. Click here to watch the segment.

Make It Work, with the support of Verizon’s Velocity program, is currently producing a video of the Poogling seminar. If you would like to be notified when it the video becomes available, please send an email to poogling@makeitwork.com. Be sure to include your name and “Poogling video” in the subject line.

You love your children and would protect them from anything harmful, right? Well, even the best parents can be unaware what a dangerous place the internet can be.  Most people see the internet as a great tool and a place where the potential for learning knows no bounds.  Make It Work loves to promote what a wonderful place the internet can be.  But, as with most things, we also warn our community of the potential dangers.  One perfect example is the story of Jessica Leonard.

Jessica Leonard became an internet celebrity for the wrong reasons.

Jessica Leonard known as “Jesse Slaughter” online, is an 11-year-old, self-proclaimed “scene queen” who once enjoyed posting her own videos on YouTube.  Most of her posts were very rude and incredibly unsavory.  The infamous 4chan forum soon learned about this girl and started provoking her via their massive discussion boards. In response to this perfect case of cyber bullying, Jesse posted a video where she rants how her haters were just cowards. Her statement was an expletive filled rant, ending in a threat to her attackers.

When 4chan discussion boards saw this video response, they set their focus immediately on her.  She was raided, and participants in the 4chan forum soon had all of her personal information. They knew her real name, address, phone number, school, and birthday. Soon they started ordering pizza’s to her house, prank-calling her, and doing many other things that this family-oriented blog is unwilling to say.

Jesse’s life was ruined by these 4chan bullies; this was obvious when she posted her breakdown on YouTube. Her father is seen in the background, yelling that he, “Back-traced all the haters” and they, “Dun goof’d up!” And that the, “Cyber-police” would come arrest them.

But who really goof’d up here?

First and foremost a child should never get to the point that Jessica did. The deep hole that Jessica fell into could have been caught way before it got nearly this bad.  Jessica’s parents did not monitor their child’s internet use before the situation became so bad.  Rather than create boundaries and monitor Jessica’s internet use they aggravated an already bad situation by becoming a part of it.

This is definitely an extreme example. There is no question of that.  Jessica’s situation was clearly terrible, but it could have gotten worse. Most children have the self-restraint and the proper upbringing to understand that what Jessica did was hazardous to her own well being.  But just because your child is not a foul-mouthed brat doesn’t mean your child might not be targeted by a powerful internet presence like the 4chan community or any other praying person.

So be cautious, but know that the internet is a great thing, there is much more potential for good than bad, but there will always be that darker side.  We at Make It Work encourage you to take all things into consideration; don’t allow this post to scare you into cutting your child off completely.  Become informed and teach your child about proper internet behavior, with these quick tips!

1. BE AWARE!
• Take time to educate yourself. Information is constantly changing.
• Pat yourself on the back for coming tonight!

2. THE INTERNET IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF YOUR CHILD’S LIFE
• Necessary for school work, etc
• It is not going away.

3. EASY ACCESS – THE INTERNET IS EVERYWHERE
• Accessible through cell phones, iPod Touch
• Video games now integrate online social networking, chat, etc.

4. THE INTERNET IS PERMANENT
• Once content is posted on the Internet (i.e. photos, videos, text), anyone that goes online has access to it, as well as the ability to save it for personal use.

5. ESTABLISH RULES & LIMITATIONS
• Discuss hours of use, supervision expectations
• Sample ‘Internet Usage Contract’ found at www.poogling.com

6. CONSIDER INSTALLING HARDWARE/SOFTWARE
• Blocking/Filtering software : Prevents users from accessing inappropriate websites
• Moinitoring software: Records every key stroke made on computer

7. SOCIAL NETWORKING – EVERYONE IS DOING IT
• FACEBOOK – 350 million active users; TWITTER – 75 million users
• 425 million total active users combined!

8. PEOPLE NOT NECESSARILY “FRIENDS” WITH YOUR CHILD MAY STILL HAVE ACCESS TO THEIR ONLINE ACCOUNTS
• This includes photos, personal profile information
• Look into the security settings on your child’s online profiles and make necessary changes.

9. CYBER-BULLYING IS REAL
• It takes less courage and energy to participate in cyber-bullying when users are anonymous.
• Can cause real and extreme emotional distress

10. BE ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN YOUR CHILD’S ONLINE LIFE
• Show your children fun and educational ways to use the Internet – knowledge is power!
• Join Facebook, etc. add your child as a “friend” and monitor their account activity.

Interested in getting some one on one help from a certified Make It Work Technician? Give us a call at (877) 625-3489. We’re in the neighborhood, we’ll be right over.

poogling
Children and teens of all ages anonymously browsing sensitive subjects (e.g. “poo”, sexuality, bullying, eating disorders, suicide) that could lead to dangerously exposing oneself on the internet out of curiosity and the intimidation to ask others (e.g. family, friends, teachers or peers)

Facebook has recently come under fire for security lapses and questionable practices regarding subtle changes to their privacy policies and what that means for user security.

Make It Work is very concerned with Internet Safety, and we’re committed to helping our customers stay safe on the internet. Check out our Poogling page for more information. If you’re concerned, as we are, with keeping yourself and your children safe online, take a moment to be our Facebook friend, and stay up to date with up-to-the-minute security information and tips, like this one. This article comes to us from CNET.

Facebook claims that it has 400 million users. But are they well-protected from prying eyes, scammers, and unwanted marketers?

Not according to Joan Goodchild, senior editor of CSO (Chief Security Officer) Online.

She says your privacy may be at far greater risk of being violated than you know, when you log onto the social-networking site, due to security gaffes or marketing efforts by the company.

Facebook came under fire this past week, when 15 privacy and consumer protection organizations filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, charging that the site, among other things, manipulates privacy settings to make users’ personal information available for commercial use. Also, some Facebook users found their private chats accessible to everyone on their contact list–a major security breach that’s left a lot of people wondering just how secure the site is.

In two words, asserts Goodchild: not very.

On “The Early Show on Saturday Morning,” Goodchild spotlighted five dangers she says Facebook users expose themselves to, probably without being aware of them:

1. Your information is being shared with third parties
2. Privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign
3. Facebook ads may contain malware
4. Your real friends unknowingly make you vulnerable
5. Scammers are creating fake profiles

Below is an edited transcript of the interview.

Is Facebook a secure platform to communicate with your friends?
Here’s the thing: Facebook is one of the most popular sites in the world. Security holes are being found on a regular basis. It is not as inherently secure as people think it is, when they log on every day.

Certainly, there are growing pains. Facebook is considered a young company, and it has been around a few years now. It is continuing to figure this out. They are so young, they are still trying to figure out how they are going to make money. It is hard to compare this to others; we have never had this phenomenon before in the way [so many] people are communicating with each other–only e-mail comes close.

The potential for crime is real. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, victims of Internet-related crimes lost $559 million in 2009. That was up 110 percent from the previous year. If you’re not careful using Facebook, you are looking at the potential for identity theft, or possibly even something like assault, if you share information with a dangerous person you think is actually a “friend.” One British police agency recently reported that the number of crimes it has responded to in the last year involving Facebook climbed 346 percent. These are real threats.

Lately, it seems a week doesn’t go by without some news about a Facebook-related security problem. Earlier this week, TechCrunch discovered a security hole that made it possible for users to read their friends’ private chats. Facebook has since patched it, but who knows how long that flaw existed? Some speculate it may have been that way for years.

Last month, researchers at VeriSign’s iDefense group discovered that a hacker was selling Facebook usernames and passwords in an underground hacker forum. It was estimated that he had about 1.5 million accounts–and was selling them for between $25 and $45.

And the site is constantly under attack from hackers trying to spam these 400 million users, or harvest their data, or run other scams. Certainly, there is a lot of criticism in the security community of Facebook’s handling of security. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that the company rarely responds to inquiries.

Do people really have privacy on Facebook?
No. There are all kinds of ways third parties can access information about you. For instance, you may not realize that, when you are playing the popular games on Facebook, such as FarmVille, or take those popular quizzes–every time you do that, you authorize an application to be downloaded to your profile that gives information to third parties about you that you have never signed off on.

Does Facebook share info about users with third parties through things such as Open Graph?
Open Graph is a new concept for Facebook, which unveiled it last month at its F8 conference. It actually is basically a way to share the information in your profile with all kinds of third parties, such as advertisers, so they can have a better idea of your interests and what you are discussing, so Facebook can–as portrayed–”make it a more personal experience.”

Read the rest of this story HERE at CNET.

by CBS Interactive staff

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According to a new survey from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project 93% of teens ages 12-17 use the Internet. So a majority of our teens are online, but what are they doing while they are there?

Results from the study show that 62% of teens use the Internet to access information on news and politics and 17% say they go online to research topics that are awkward to talk about such as drug use and sex. 73% of teens spend time on social networking sites such as Facebook, but only 14% of teens say they blog. Results of the study also show that only 8% of teens ages 12-17 use Twitter.

Do you know what your teen is doing online?

If you are a parent interested in tips on how to keep your children safe online the Poogling Internet Safety Seminar is a presentation dedicated to providing awareness and education about Internet safety for kids and teens. A Poogling video will be available soon at www.poogling.com. If you would like to be informed when it is released please send an email to poogling@makeitwork.com. Be sure to include your name and “poogling video” in the subject line.

Facebook is facing a major backlash right now due to multiple privacy concerns. Privacy lapses, including a bug that revealed private user data to the public, and multiple updates to the Facebook Privacy Policy without proper user notification has left users, well…pretty freaked out.

One major change the social networking giant has made is the amount of profile information made public to everyone on the internet. Check out this image from MoveOn.org that shows exactly what profile information people can see, whether you want them to or not:

Some users have called for a “Quit Facebook Day” on May 31 due to these changes. The site has 11,000+ users pledged to completely delete their account.

Tech bigwigs are also exiting the site at an accelerated rate. Our own Jeremy Anticouni, Chief Technology Officer of Make It Work and host of Make It Work Radio, deleted his Facebook page on May 12. Fellow tech radio host and Make It Work friend, Leo Laporte deleted both his personal and business pages. In an interview with ABC News, Laporte said:

“I realize that there’s a really insidious problem here,” he said. “If I use Facebook at all, as a public persona or a private person, I’m coercing either my public or my friends to use Facebook, because the only way they can interact with me is by joining Facebook and participating. So in way… I’m coercing people I’m in relationship with to do something bad, to do something I know is fundamentally bad. I decided I do not want to be complicit in this, frankly.”

The article also reveals that “delete facebook accounts” has recently been in the top 10 Google Search trends. Read the rest of the article HERE.

If you would like to *permanently* delete your Facebook account, it’s not an easy task, but it can be done. Jeremy breaks down how he did it, step-by-step HERE.

If you have questions about social networking privacy or need assistance customizing your Facebook profile security settings, give us a call at (877)MAKEITWork.