Mom Central Technology

Free Realms: summer camp virtual style!

Growing up, I had a great time at summer camp. I have fond memories of cheesy three-legged races, bonfires and camp friendships.

With today’s economy leaving wallets a little slim, some parents aren’t able to afford the cost of sending one or more children away to camp. While nothing can replace the actual experience of summer camp, kids can attend virtual summer camp on their computers.

Free Realms is hosting a fun, virtual, camp-like experience with a different theme each week. Free Realms is a 3D “virtual world” type gaming site for kids over ten. It boasts the “Everyone 10+” ESRB rating due to crude humor and fantasy violence (you can participate in battles).

Kids can create their own fantasy character and play any number of games. The summer camp themes change each week. Last week’s theme was sports and featured things like a soccer challenge and hover board races. The week before, the theme was fashion, showing that there are a wide range of ideas behind their program and that it’s not just targeted at one specific gender.

Outside of the summer camp theme, there are other fun things like building your home area (to which you can now add a pool!), obstacle courses and even have your own pets!

Free Realm’s cost and parental controls

What’s best about Free Realms? It’s FREE! If you’re okay with the fantasy battles and you don’t mind managing a few parental controls, this might be a fun project for your child to take on this summer.

Chat and other forum-like things are automatically restricted for those under 13. You, as a parent, can set up some controls for your child no matter his age. Perhaps this game would be a fun, cost-affordable way to keep your kid busy on days when it’s not possible to go outside.

What online gaming sites do your children enjoy playing?

Jenna Hatfield, aka @FireMom on Twitter, also writes at Stop, Drop & Blog and The Chronicles of Munchkin Land. She works as a freelance writer and newspaper photographer.

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Photo courtesy Free Realms, Sony.

When should you get your teen a cellphone?

Every where I look, I see a cellphone. While we were at a small carnival last week, a group of young teen girls walked past me. All four of them had their cellphones out, fingers clicking away at a text message. They didn't look very old at all. It got me to thinking: what is the right age to give your teen a cellphone?

Is your teen ready for a cellphone?

1. Responsibility. Does your teen take care of the things that he already has? Have you already been through three MP3 players? Does she lose jewelry? Are you constantly having to replace things? If your teen regularly takes care of what he already has, he might be showing signs of readiness.

2. Knowledge of money. Does your teen understand how money works more than just handing it over at the cashier? Does he save a bit or does he spend it all as soon as he gets it? Does she think that credit cards are the answer? An understanding of bills and why you can't let things go unpaid would also be good to have before handing over a cellphone.

3. Test driving your phone. Has your teen taken your phone when they've been out and about and returned it in a fully-functional state? You wouldn't buy a car without test driving it. Do the same with the phone.

Setting rules with your teen about cellphone usage

1. I strongly suggest the no talking or texting while driving rule. Driving as a teen is hard enough. You're learning the road, trying to remember rules and generally taking your life in your own hands. As such, stating the rule from the very beginning might be the safest bet. If your city or state has a law about cellphone usage, teach your child about it as well as the consequences of breaking said law.

2. Set limits. With those limits, set consequences. If your teen sends 3,000 texts per month on your 500 text per month plan, who will pay the overages? Will she lose her phone privileges? If he talks for 500 minutes over his plan, who will pay the difference? How many apps can be downloaded per month and who will pay for those?

3. Discuss sexting. Now. Before it happens. Enough said.

4. Make the phone a privilege, not a right. If your teen does something horrific, will you take away the phone? Under what circumstances? When will the phone be returned? How can the privilege be earned or lost? Having these discussions before a problem arises might keep your teen in line a bit more!

Picking the best rate plan for your family

Lastly, you need to research what plans are going to work best for you. Depending on your cell provider, you might get the best deal by going with a family plan. It might also be beneficial to pay for the insurance that some providers offer on some (not all) phones. Accidents do happen. Remind your teen that just because the phone is under your name doesn't mean that they can take advantage of you.

Here are some bloggers who have been through the cellphone decision. They might have some more insight for you!

• SueMac on The Run discussed the ideas of peer pressure and cellphones for teens.
• The Crab Chronicles talks about having no sympathy for her teen daughter when she's tired from texting all night!
• And, as a warning, read about the teen with the $21K cellphone bill over at MomLogic. Eep.

Jenna Hatfield, aka @FireMom on Twitter, also writes at Stop, Drop & Blog and The Chronicles of Munchkin Land. She works as a freelance writer and newspaper photographer.
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Photo credit by Librarianguish on Flickr.

Should You Send Your Child to Technology Camp?

When I think of summer camp, I think of tents, three-legged races and campfires. I think of a tech-free week with kids enduring the same fate. Turns out I'm antiquated. Who knew? Summer camps are evolving, like our children. As this is the technology blog, it's not surprising that I'm about to tell you about the existence of technology camps.

Then again, maybe I'm not antiquated. Maybe I'm just not "in the know." Emagination Computer Camps formed in 1982. Children's Technology Workshop's iCamp was formed in 1997. iD Tech Camps was launched in 1999 and they tout that they're the biggest national computer camp. Regional and university based camps can also be found throughout the country as well. Who knew? You know, other than all of the kids and teens that have been attending said camps over the past decade (plus).

While researching tech camps for this post, I kind of decided that I want to go to one myself. If the teens would ignore my wrinkles and mommy-hips, I could totally get into the schedule and course offerings. Game design, website design, robotics and digital photography are just a few of the many course offerings at various camps. Interestingly, only Children's Technology Workshop provides a strict non-violence policy. While one of the other camps has a class specifically about World of Warcraft, I'm assuming you wouldn't find that at iCamp due to that policy. Parents who are passionate about keeping violent games out of the home might find that encouraging. All of the camps had a wide and varied course list that seems to encompass all things tech which is pretty important. Just because you're a tech-loving kid doesn't mean you want to program a game or build a robot. As technology is such an all-encompassing thing, there are many interests within the umbrella of tech!

But, wait. Isn't it summer? Shouldn't our children be outside, enjoying the warm weather while it's here and running off all of that energy that they stored up during the school year? Most of the tech camps that I investigated touted the importance of balance and instilling that idea in the kids. Talk of outdoor play, "retro" games (like my above mentioned three-legged race), board games and even down time. I found that to be encouraging. As much as I love my children to learn year round, I also want them to have fun and get outside year round. Finding that balance, even in our everyday life, can be a battle. I'm glad to see that camps are encouraging children to find that balance even without their moms breathing down their backs!

I guess I'm not overly surprised at the existence of technology camps for kids and teens. Other specialized camps exist: music, dance, horse, photography, theater, and any sport you can think of! I think that having a wide range of camps available for our kids could be a great way to either introduce them to a new concept or help them hone their skills in a fun setting with their peers. If you have a child or a teenager who expresses a desire or shows great skill in something tech-based, you might consider researching the various tech camps available to you.

Would you consider sending your child to a tech camp? Would you have loved a tech camp when you were a kid?

Photo Credit. 

Jenna Hatfield, aka @FireMom on twitter, also writes at Stop, Drop & Blog and The Chronicles of Munchkin Land. When she is not wishing she was young enough to go to summer camp, she works as a freelance writer and newspaper photographer.

Have You Checked Your Teen's Facebook Privacy Settings?

Facebook has been making changes to privacy settings over the past few months. Things that were once totally private are now automatically public and viewable to anyone who comes across your profile. Or, more importantly, those things are viewable to anyone who comes across your teen's profile. It can be hard to keep up with what you can be doing to best help keep your child's online profile as safe as possible. The good news is that Facebook now addresses the topic of teen safety on the site in a great FAQ.

While I think the idea of a principal telling parents to get their kids completely off Facebook (and every other social networking site) is taking it too far, I do think that you need to know what your child is posting online and how that is being viewed by the Internet-browsing public. The truth of the matter is that college admissions offices, employers and potential partners are making a regular habit of Googling people before offering them a spot in their class, their office or their heart. Whether this is good or bad practice is hardly the argument. It's happening and as a parent you need to make sure your teens are aware of it and what the consequences might be if they are not properly protecting their information (and embarrassing photos).

Do the following for me. Log out of your Facebook account. Now visit your child's Facebook account. What is viewable to the public at large? Is it much more than you thought? Are you kind of freaked out? (Are you now going over to your profile address to see what you are unknowingly sharing as well? Good idea. Potential/current employers and even your kids' friends' parents Google you, too!)

Facebook now makes certain information available automatically. (Your friends and any page you have ever "liked" is now public material.) What you can control, however, is how far your photos can be viewed. You can limit how far pictures and your status updates go by visiting Account > Privacy Settings > Friends, Tags and Connections. You should have everything you don't want to be public consumption listed as Only Friends. Even making something viewable to Friends of Friends puts you at risk as if someone likes your photo, one of their friends can click through to that photo even if they are not on your friends' list. Go through all of the options on that particular tab, Contact Information and Personal Information and Posts and set the majority to the Only Friends option.

The good news is that if your child is under 18, they don't automatically show up in public search engines if someone Googles your child's name. However, their profiles are still accessible via Facebook search to anyone who is a friend of a friend or within your child's network. If you would prefer that your teen avoid any searches, visit Account > Privacy Settings > Search. Make the Facebook Search Results "Only Friends" in the pull down menu. Deselect the check box next to Public Search Results.

Two important settings would be the ones related to photos. Even pictures that your child may think are harmless could be used against him or for other, not-so-great purposes. As such, make sure that your teen's photos that he/she uploads are viewable to friends only (Account > Privacy Settings > Personal Information and Posts > Photos and then set each album individually) and make sure that photos in which another Facebook user tags your teen are friends only, too (Account > Privacy Settings > Friends, Tags and Connections and then set Photos and Videos of Me to Only Friends). I have found that my most embarrassing photos were not the ones that I added of myself but ones that my friends from college uploaded in a fit of scanning humor. Also teach your child that if they are tagged in a picture that they do not like, they can simply click on Remove Tag to get the offending picture off of their own profile. The picture will still exist but it won't be linked directly to your teen's profile!

One of the most important conversations to have with your child, whatever their privacy settings on any social networking site is this: don't put anything online that you don't want discovered. The truth is that privacy settings can change (as they have changed frequently at Facebook as of late) or hacked and information that you have shared online could suddenly be public. Remind them to be smart about what they share, photo or information wise. Discuss what you do and do not want them to share (address, phone number, a play-by-play of where they will be at any given time). Tell them to come to you if they experience something that makes them uncomfortable online (or off), whether that's a picture of them that has surfaced or someone scary contacting them via messaging or in person. 

For other great posts on Facebook privacy settings and your teens, read:

• Facebook Privacy Settings to Keep Teens Safe.
• Facebook offers security tips for teens, parents.
• Social Networking Tips for Teens.

Do you have any advice about keeping your teen's profile safe? Do you have any Facebook privacy questions for me? Feel free to ask!

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Jenna Hatfield, aka @FireMom on twitter, also writes at Stop, Drop & Blog and The Chronicles of Munchkin Land. When she's not wasting time on Facebook, she works as a freelance writer and editor. She also works as a newspaper photographer.

Facebook, sexting, and keeping kids safe online with Yahoo!

My friend, Marcy, recently found out that her 12-year-old daughter had a Facebook account (now deleted) even though she was expressly forbidden to have one. Marcy found out by checking her daughter’s email account when the filters on her home computers blocked access to Gmail. (She was helping her daughter get permission to use Gmail on the family laptop, and saw the emails coming in from Facebook.) Now Marcy is looking into programs that will email reports of her daughter’s online activity while she’s at work.

We’ve all heard about “sexting” in the news, the hysteria around it and what kids think about it, too. This leads me to wonder what parents are doing to teach their kids how to be safe – and smart – online. Do you tell your older kids not to put questionable pictures of themselves on Facebook? Have you friended your kids online to monitor them and their friends? (I have several friends who do this.)

What are you telling your children about online safety? At what age should you start the discussion? What rules are you putting in place to protect your children? 

Here at Mom Central Technology, we try to let you know about the latest programs to monitor your children’s online behavior from PGKey to Safe Eyes Mobile. Another cyber safety resource is Yahoo!

Here are Yahoo!’s top 10 links for keeping your child safe online:

1. Yahoo! Safely - a complete resource for all things cyber correct.

2. Create a family pledge for Online Safety.

3. Applying a filter to your child’s Yahoo! Mail account is simple by creating a family account to monitor your child’s use of Yahoo! and edit and maintain their account settings.

4. Yahoo! Mail uses the latest technology to combat spam and to help protect you from phishing and viruses. Yahoo!’s spam guard will filter out 97% of all things bad, so your child won’t accidentally click on something.

5. You can flag photos on Flickr for abuse via the “Report Abuse” link that’s available in the footer of every page.

6. Four things to know before your child goes online: info.yahoo.com/safely/us/yahoo.

7. Report abuse on any Yahoo! property at abuse.yahoo.com.

8. Keep private things private. Manage your online profile.

9. Yahoo!'s SafeSearch feature is designed to filter out explicit, adult-oriented content from Yahoo! Search results.

10. Keep up to date with our safety experts blogs.

Face-to-Face with Facebook

Today’s post is by Sharon Cindrich.

A while back I had the opportunity to present a workshop on Internet safety to a small town in Vermont whose parents were concerned, like many, about allowing their children to participate in social networking sites, like MySpace and Facebook. So, instead of just talking about these sites, the nuances and pitfalls and safety features, we learned about social networking in the best possible way. We created our own.

Arrangements to use the computer lab were made so that approximately a dozen parents could venture online, and together I walked these digital immigrants through the Facebook sign up process, pointing out security features, answering questions about privacy and demonstrating how this easy it was to connect with others in town...and out. One parent even discovered her daughter’s profile - one she did not know was on the site.

We visited other sites too, and I was able to show parents how to search for their child’s MySpace, point out the Parent Care center and use some of the amazing, family-friendly resources and tools available online to teach kids solid tech skills and connect with their interests and activities.

Hours later, back at my bead and breakfast, it was long past midnight before I finally stopping fiddling around with my own Facebook profile and messaging a friend that I ended up on a video chat with. I should have gotten to bed earlier, but I’m chalking it up to research.

It is easy to understand why kids can’t get enough. Especially easy when you’re there yourself - when you see it, and touch it, and fiddle around with your own privacy settings. It’s easy to understand why kids want to post photos when you try to decide which picture you would post on your own profile and end up spending way too long in front of the screen mesmerized and addicted to a conversation.

It’s easier to understand - and then monitor and manage and have a conversation about - when you’ve tried it out for yourself. Understand?

Sharon Miller Cindrich is an author, columnist and mother of two tech-savvy kids. Her work has appeared in magazines and newspapers across the country including The Chicago Tribune, Parents Magazine and FamilyFun Magazine, where she is a contributing editor. Her self-syndicated column Plugged In Parent is published in parenting magazines around the country, and her book E-Parenting: Keeping Up with Your Tech-Savvy Kids is available on Amazon.com.