I’ve given talks at local schools about online privacy and about issues related to oversharing with teens, and one thing that I hear back with some regularity is “no, things really do delete” after I remind them that nothing is ever really deleted on the Internet. Given some of the things that kids today are posting (not to mention adults!) it’s no surprise that these highly digital teens are really hoping that what the developers…Read More

A recent article in the Denver Post piqued my interest: Instagram Beauty Contests Worry Parents, Child Privacy Advocates. In the article (that originally appeared in the Washington Post), the writer explains: “Any of Instagram’s 30 million users can vote on the appearance of the girls in a comments section of the post. Once a girl’s photo receives a certain number of negative remarks, the pageant host, who can remain anonymous, can update it with a…Read More

I may be old school, but I like talking with people. I like social settings, and I even like overhearing other people’s conversations. It might be the writer in me, but us humans are actually pretty interesting. And my kids? They’re 10x interesting to me, with their chatter, their dreams, their interpretation of current events, and even their own conversations amongst themselves. What are they thinking? The tension comes in because we live in a…Read More

I think this goes into the “you can’t make this stuff up” file: A 13yo boy in England ran up more than $5000 USD (£3700) in online purchases through the App Store through in-app purchases from within iPad games. So what did his father, a police constable do? When he couldn’t get Apple to void the charges, he turned his son in for fraud. Nice. Their claim is that the boy had no idea that…Read More

A friend of mine sent me the following question about her kids: I saw your posting about 13-year-olds and R-rated movies and realized you might be the right person to help solve a (minor) problem. We’ve been been so “good” about sheltering our kids from violent movies that now they are sort of scaredy-cats about it. We worry that they won’t fit in when their friends invite them to birthday parties where G or PG…Read More

A few days ago I wrote about giving my son an old Panasonic travel razor on his request, even though he’s only 12 and really doesn’t need to shave. In fact, as a blonde, he probably won’t need to shave for years. Still, I trim my goatee daily and it’s no surprise he wants to join the “dude club” with a razor of his own. While the little Panasonic razor I gave him has the…Read More

Ah, the fun of the holidays. My son G-, 12, has been enamored of the GoPro Hero3 action video camera system, dreaming about being able to attach it to his helmet when bike jumping, skiing on the slopes or even just skateboarding around the neighborhood. Great fun, but darn expensive: the GoPro runs almost $199 without mounting kit, and if you want the top end unit it’s $399 plus whatever mounting accessories you’d want. That’s…Read More

When a great opportunity falls in my lap, I’m not one to say no, so when we were asked if we’d like to give the new video game Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two a whirl, my kids and I remembered how we’d spent many hours exploring the dark Disneyland doppleganger Wasteland in the first Epic Mickey adventure and said “you bet!” The game — for the Xbox 360 — arrived a few days…Read More