New Tools and Resources for Parents and Teens in VR and on Instagram

"We now have meaningful progress with today's release of some Meta Quest supervision tools. Parents can now disapprove downloads, block certain VR apps, view their child's Friends list & headset screentime, and disable PC content access." Meta

Read more: 
https://about.fb.com/news/2022/06/tools-for-parents-teens-vr-and-instagram/

The Uvalde Shooter Posted Threats on Yubo. What to Know About the App and Others Like It

Until last month, many adults who work in schools had probably never heard of an app nicknamed “Tinder for teens.”

But chilling interactions on that social networking platform—called Yubo—have surfaced between kids around the world and the 18-year-old who killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last week.

Read more:

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/the-uvalde-shooter-posted-threats-on-yubo-what-to-know-about-the-app-and-others-like-it/2022/06

Learn more about the app at Common Sense Media
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/yubo

Taking a One-Week Break from Social Media Improves Well-Being, Depression, and Anxiety

Taking a One-Week Break from Social Media Improves Well-Being, Depression, and Anxiety: A Randomized Controlled Trial | Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/cyber.2021.0324

How to Kick Your Kids Off the Wi-Fi | PCMag

Were you one of those kids who secretly stayed up late, watching TV or reading comic books under your covers after bedtime? Kids today are no different—except they have the internet. If you need to give your children a forced break from the web, or just need them to stop hogging all your bandwidth during the day, a few router settings can help make that happen.

Read the article:
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-kick-your-kids-off-the-wi-fi

3 tech experts share how they monitor their own kids online

 

Apps that track

Parenting in a high-tech world

Some terrific videos to watch here from a parenting perspective!
Sarah E. Werle Kimmel | Your family technology coach https://sarahkimmel.com/

Three Instagram updates to protect people from racism and abuse on Instagram.

 

Today we’re announcing three updates to protect people from racism and abuse on Instagram. We don’t allow hate speech or bullying on our platform, and we hope these new tools will help protect people from having to experience abuse.

— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) August 11, 2021

Twitter Lets Users Retroactively Change Who Can Reply to Tweets

Building on a 2020 feature that lets users choose who can reply when composing a message, this update could prove especially useful for folks whose posts receive unexpected attention or unwanted responses. Simply tap on the three-dot menu in the upper right corner of a tweet to modify the "Change who can reply" option. The function, according to Mashable, is rolling out globally on iOS, Android, and the web.

Learn more: 

https://www.pcmag.com/news/twitter-lets-users-retroactively-change-who-can-reply-to-tweets

Apps Stirring Up Trouble in Schools

This year's hottest social media can fill the school day with drama and distraction.
By Caroline Knorr 8/9/2018

Ask any middle or high school teacher what their biggest classroom challenge is, and it's pretty much guaranteed they'll say "cellphones." Makes sense. Today, 95 percent of teens have access to a cellphone, and nearly half say they're on them "constantly." Putting aside for a moment the need to find solutions to this problem, inquiring minds want to know: What the heck is on kids' phones that they can't go an entire class without them?

See more: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/apps-stirring-up-trouble-in-schools

Video game addiction

The World Health Organization made it official. Video game addiction is a disease and should be classified the same as a gambling addiction.

Watch the video here:
http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/2018/06/19/gaming-disorder-doctor-explains-what-parents-need-to-know/

What Is Sarahah?

Sarahah is a social media messaging app that's popular with teens. Find out why and what to watch out for.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLT2e3qjwW8

tbh - See who likes you

tbh - See who likes you

https://tbhtime.com/

tbh is an app for giving anonymous feedback to friends. Unlike other anonymous apps, all the feedback is positive.

Sarahah ...

Sarahah is the latest social media application to create a stir. Simply put, Sarahah is a one-way, many-to-one anonymous messaging system that allows people to send messages to a particular person without the recipient knowing who sent them. These can come from people you know (from those in your phone contacts, for example) or from practically anyone, depending on how you have distributed your unique link (more on that below).

Read more: https://cyberbullying.org/sarahah

A Parent’s Guide to Kik from ConnectSafely

Kik is a community chat app that allows users to connect with brands or chat one-on-one or in groups, with text, emojis, memes, videos and photos. Teens love Kik because it’s an “in the moment” experience, without the profile curation fatigue they can feel on other apps, where their photos, videos or status updates are “judged” in the form of likes, shares or comments, and “live on” until removed. Teens worry less about creating a “permanent record” of posts and pictures that can affect them later in life. Teens also like that they can be anonymous on Kik.

Read more:
A Parent’s Guide to Kik from ConnectSafely
http://www.connectsafely.org/kik/

Factitious Game: Can you spot the not?

Be Internet Awesome!

With school out and summer break giving kids more time to spend on the Internet, it’s a great time to introduce Be Internet Awesome: a new way to encourage digital safety and citizenship.

https://blog.google/topics/families/be-internet-awesome-helping-kids-make-smart-decisions-online/

YouTube Kids App

The official YouTube Kids app is designed for curious little minds. This is a delightfully simple (and free!) app, where kids can discover videos, channels and playlists they love.