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Author: Michael
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The FamilyTechBlog Uninstall List for Spring 2018
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Instagram Letting Users Change Privacy Settings on More Sensitive Messages
Instagram has made an update that will let users set privacy settings on their private messages. With the options to “See once, Replay Once, or Show in Chat,” these settings provide a sense of safety when sending that “sensitive” message to someone. Until now, users could replay any message they got on Instagram, but the new Direct Camera settings will allow the sender to make the rules.
Many are seeing this change as an obvious attempt to combat Snapchat in the disappearing-message department. There is still no way to change settings on your Snapchat private messages. Instagram and Snapchat have been competing back and forth for more than a year now and it seems Instagram is looking to take on the secret message market.
What Parents Should Know
As sexting becomes more common, the last thing parents need is another one of our kids’ favorite social media services featuring disappearing messages. The problem with sexting is that kids think there aren’t consequences for the messages they send. Something like a “See Once” feature is exactly what would cause your 14-year-old to give in to that pressure to send an inappropriate picture. Since they can’t see it more than once, nothing can go wrong, right?
I’m not the only one saying that these features are meant for naughty images. It’s pretty much a given that when you don’t think these messages can be screen captured or saved, you’ll send whatever pops into your mind at the time. I’m adding Instagram to my uninstall list because of the addition of the see once and replay once feature. You’ll do whatever you think is best for your own kids but I’m going to call Instagram an 18+ social media app.
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Snapmap Featured User Sourced Videos of the Florida School Shooting
Snapchat’s “Snapmap” feature highlights news stories that are curated by their team of news editors. The team chose to feature posts from the school shooting in Parkland Florida on their map yesterday. It was comprised of Snaps from students in the school, news outlets, and passersby whom the editors thought had posted something that contributed to the viewers understanding of what was going on during the shooting. You can see that editing was done before the Snaps were put on the map because a “Warning Graphic Content” posts start the slideshow, followed by a video of what seems to be the inside of a classroom in which you can hear the gunshots from nearby. Language is bleeped out and there are no actual victims shown but you do see a couple of students who are talking about watching their friends be killed right next to them.
Snapchat hired a former CNN exec to lead their team of news editors and they say their news team is doing their best to follow the right journalism practices. They are working to remove overly sensitive content and choosing to only feature Snaps that contribute properly to the story they are covering. Snapchat’s main audience is under 18 which likely contributed to the fact that they had so much content to use to cover the shooting in a High School. This also means though that our kids who use Snapchat, and anyone else using their map in a browser, can have access to on the scene footage of what is happening during events like this. A school shooting is a national tragedy and social media is becoming one of the most common ways that people learn about what is happening or has happened. Snapchat is attempting to provide a curated look at this news, but is that what we want our kids to see when they look at their phones?
What Parents Should Know
As mentioned above, posts from Snapchat are not automatically sent to the map. These posts are curated and especially selected and edited before being added. While I’m grateful for some oversite from Snapchat when it comes to sharing this news, I have to question whether or not I would want my 13 or 14-year-old to have access to some of the images seen during the shooting on Wednesday. Just seeing something so dangerous portrayed in such a real way can be damaging and cause fear in our kids. We have to look out for this and know if this is something our child can handle or not. For some of them it may be fine but for others, they aren’t mature enough to deal with that much realism.
(Opinion warning!) I can’t tell you what’s right for your kids, I will, however, give credit to Snapchat for trying to bring some truth to the news by using information from people who are actually there. I will also keep this info from my kids for a while. There are enough things that cause fear in our lives, I wouldn’t want added influences like their social media accounts to increase that fear. Snapchat is on my uninstall list for a lot of reasons, I’m grateful they aren’t just putting every public post from one of these tragic events onto a feed that your and my kids could see but I will think long and hard before allowing my child access to this source of news.
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Facebook’s “Messenger Kids” App Launches on Android
Today, Facebook released the Android version of their Messenger Kids app. This means it’s available on iOS, Android, and Kindle now. That should pretty much cover most families. Facebook Messenger Kids puts the control in the parent’s hands, making it easy by building it into the Facebook App and Messenger App that you likely already use. You can decide who they are allowed to chat with and approve or deny friend requests.
CHECK OUT: Facebook Messenger for Kids! for even more info about the app.
My family uses Messenger Kids, albeit with some strict time limits (1hr per day) which we enforce through Circle (all devices) and unGlue (our older child.) It is a great way to help them get a feel for chatting through a messenger without strangers, bullies, or the constant notifications or FOM0 (Fear of Missing Out) that can accompany tech addiction. Facebook built in a lot of the controls and made the app kid-friendly by not allowing gifs that don’t originate in the Kids Messenger app and not allowing messages to be sent to unapproved friends.
What Parents Should Know
Since settings are controlled through your Facebook account, parents don’t have to have the same type of device as their child. You can set up your kids’ messenger app on his Android through your iPhone, for example. Keep in mind how addicting it can be to message your friends. Remember not to give them access to approve or disapprove of their friends on Messenger, this defeats the entire purpose. I know it can get tiresome to always have to sign off on everything they want to do online but Facebook makes it pretty easy with notifications on your own app.
Use something to manage their time, like unGlue. Talk to your kids about only messaging people they know in person and let them know what to do if someone asks them something they aren’t comfortable with. They should know that they can come to you when there is trouble. Messenger Kids is a good idea from Facebook and they did a lot of work to learn what parents would want out of a messaging app for their kids. Now the app is available on all devices so, if your kids have people they want to talk with, use this as a way to keep them in touch safely.
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![Family Tech Update: “The Time Well Spent Movement” {podcast]](https://safe.becausefamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/familytechupdatetimewellspent.png)
Family Tech Update: “The Time Well Spent Movement” {podcast]
Podcast: Play in new window
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS
There’s a movement to take back our time and curb our tech addictions. What does it mean for families and how can we take charge of tech addictions? Plus: Snaps can be embedded on any site, and coding is king, but not on a screen!
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Two Ways Your Snaps Can End Up Anywhere On the Web
One of my initial internet safety tips for parents is to turn off location data for their camera. Many of them do this immediately upon hearing my advice. The problem, however, is that they then jump over to Facebook and Snapchat to use that camera and their location settings are as public as can be. Today’s news gives us even more information about how your location data is used by Snapchat and Snapmap.
Embedding
Snap has opened up the ability to “embed” a snap into a website. This means that if your snap is public, a code can be copied and pasted so that your post shows up on the site that contains the embed code. It’s easy to do and really isn’t a new concept since public Facebook videos and photos can be embedded by default as well. I’ve embedded a snap from Disney on Ice in Des Plaines, Illinois:
SnapMap
Snapmap went into browsers today. This means that you don’t have to have the Snapchat app to see public posts overlayed onto a map of anywhere in the world. Concentrations of Snaps show up as colored dots that range from light blue (few Snaps) to bright red (high concentration of Snaps.) When you click on these colors you see the Snaps in a slideshow style format. They appear as most recent first and move to the past as you click or watch until the end of each post.
Most of the Snap-map posts highlight breaking news (i.e. the recent ice storm in my area or a basketball game or concert) but it will sometimes feature posts from the general user if their posts are relevant and set to public. Posts are curated by a team of news editors. The idea is that Snapchat wants news organizations and sites to use their map to highlight current events and breaking news in real time. This offers a real opportunity to see real news, as it happens. It could also be dangerous if your kids aren’t setting their Snapchat settings to private or friends only.
What Parents Should Know
Location privacy is a major concern for parents. We post more of our private lives online than ever before and a map that highlights where we are and what we are up to can be considered a privacy disaster. Especially when it comes to our kids. Users of Snapchat are meant to be 13 years old or older. Some kids under than 13 spend a lot of time on the app, though, and their snaps are, therefore, available to be used as news coverage on this public map. I consider this a real problem for parents.
I would recommend that if your kids use Snapchat, you ensure that they have their profiles set to private or friends only. Disable the Snapmap (put it in Ghost Mode) so that what they are posting won’t show up. Not taking these precautions could lead to your home address being featured on Snapchat’s map and even someone else’s website. Take location privacy serious. Talk to your kids about staying private, encourage them to never post anything they wouldn’t be comfortable being seen by anyone in the world. The internet isn’t private and social media is growing increasingly more public. Your kids need to understand that.
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Connectivity IS NOT Connection
Our society has more connectivity than ever. At CES 2018 the conversation was all about how we’ve transitioned from the “digital age” to the connected age. Psychologists, however, warn that connectivity isn’t the same thing as being connected. Here’s what they mean.
Connectivity
We carry supercomputers around in our pockets and instead of using them to solve complex arithmetic or learn new information we watch videos of cats, read fake news, and gossip publicly about our friends. All of our devices are united on the same network, sharing data (intentionally or otherwise,) and building our digital identities.
The algorithms that run our favorite social media and search engines have learned how to continuously feed us the same versions of the information we want to see. When we search for a news story we will immediately see stories from the same source we always see it from, when our kids search for videos on a topic for school they will always get regurgitated versions of the same information. “This doesn’t broaden their horizons.” Dr. Jenny Radesky, developmental-behavioral pediatrician, American Academy of Pediatrics at yesterday’s “Truth About Tech” summit in Washington. While we think that screens and tech are the way of the future and critical for our kids’ education, we have to continue to balance the benefits of digital tools with evergrowing entertainment uses.
From Tools to Entertainment
Everything on the Internet has potential to be an awesome tool. Social media is no exception. However, when the information we use to connect is sold to the highest bidder as marketing data and our means of connection turns into entertainment it’s actual usefulness comes into question. Social media is great when we use it to keep in contact with friends and family but when we use the tech as a replacement for actual learning or time with our kids we have missed the point of connection entirely.
Connection
Social Media executives boast that they are connecting the world like never before but we aren’t seeing true connections. We are seeing these companies treat our information like a product to be sold. This results in a click/share/comment model of connectivity that doesn’t build meaningful relationships. Scientists have found that face to face conversations create empathy. When your brain sees the expressions on someone’s face it triggers chemical’s reactions that you to feel what they are feeling.
Neuroscience is teaching us that constantly communicating through text and simulated video chat isn’t actually connection. Our bodies physically lack the response we’re supposed to have when interacting with other human beings. Studies have shown that people admit to caring less in general. Especially, though, about the things they see on social media. When a friend loses a job, a simple “thoughts and prayers” post on Facebook makes us feel better but we are less stirred into any form of beneficial action. Sure, we have connectivity like never before, but we are increasingly less connected.
What Parents Should Know
“Make media a shared family activity and play your kids’ apps with them.” – Dr. Jenny Radesky, developmental-behavioral pediatrician, American Academy of Pediatrics
I can’t say it enough. We have to model healthy tech habits for our kids. If they see us caring less and less because of the increased connectivity without true connection, they’ll follow directly in our footsteps. Teaching them to manage the amount of time they spend on social media will go a long way to increase their desire and ability to truly connect with people. Spending time with them on and off of our screens and having critical, face to face conversations with them will encourage them to do the same thing.
Our favorite online activities are designed to cater to our own preferences and can create a selfishness that we don’t even recognize. Our teens don’t need any help being selfish, their brain development makes it hard enough for them to empathize, overuse of technology and social media just exacerbates that problem. Parents are the first line of defense to make a change in your kids’ lives. You have to do something. Here’s what I would suggest.
Use unGlue to monitor their time and let them set limits. Subscribe so you can see what they are doing online and help them make good choices. Maybe your kids are younger. Use Circle to limit certain types of sites that decrease empathy in young kids like social media and gaming. Talk to your kids frequently about the dangers of having serious conversations over text or chat. Remind them how important face to face conversation is and that a face on a screen doesn’t count. Model that behavior for your kids and help them make decisions that strengthen their concern and care about others instead of diminishing it. We can all agree that in the world we live in, we should all be caring more, not less. The first place kids will learn these traits is in their homes, from family.
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Facebook and Snapchat Join the “Time Well Spent” Movement
What is “Time Well Spent?”
The Time Well Spent movement is a project of the Center for Humane Technology who exists to “Reverse the Digital Attention Crisis and Realign Technology with Humanity’s Best Interest.” The idea is that we have been trained to focus so much on social media and technology that we are missing out on the quality time we’re meant to have in our lives. The CHT works to educate parents, teachers, and industry leaders on the dangers of our addiction to technology and what we can do to overcome that addiction.
Taking time to enjoy nature and have real face to face conversations are things we’ve taken for granted and the Time Well Spent movement is trying to get us back to those beneficial offline activities. We have begun to see some major social networks take notice of the desire for healthier tech use. As you’ll read below, awareness of these problems has lead to some actual changes for some of the most popular social media networks.
Snapchat Redesign
Not long ago Snapchat redesigned their app to be more user-friendly. They’ve also quietly added features that allow you to silence conversations for a while and added new styles of text to your snaps. The silencing feature is an obvious attempt to join the “Time Well Spent” movement.
The do not disturb feature allows you to silence groups or individuals so that you don’t get notifications from them but don’t have to leave the conversation completely this allows you to keep a streak going while taking some time off of Snapchat, it also allows you to silent someone for a bit without making them feel like you’re ignoring them. Being able to silence conversations on Snapchat can make it easier to take a break without completely silencing your phone. Sure, you want to be accessible but you may not want to be as accessible as we can be these days with social media. I say good on Snapchat for adding this new do not disturb feature.
Facebook Timeline Changes
Facebook has been taking strides to encourage their users to use the platform in a more healthy way. From notifying you when you’re reading fake news to lowering the frequency of viral video content in your timeline or removing reasons to just blindly scroll Facebook without purpose. These changes seem to have led to a decrease in time spent on Facebook to the tune of 50 million hours per day.
Zuckerberg has spent quite a bit of time talking about the responsibility Facebook has as the leading social media platform to encourage users to be more responsible with their activity online. It seems that they were willing to take this belief seriously even to the point of temporarily affecting their bottom line. Facebook’s new stats show a decrease in revenue, likely based on the usage decrease. While income was down during the last quarter of 2017, Facebook predicts that their numbers will level off as ad appearances on your timeline decreases but serious/meaningful engagement increases.
What Parents Should Know
I’ve never fully believed that the blame for addiction or overuse of tech and social media falls on developers. Yes, they can create services that encourage healthier use, and it’s good that some of them are beginning to think in that direction. The responsibility, however, falls on users to keep a healthy attitude. If our kids are who we are worried about then the responsibility to teach and model a healthy digital lifestyle falls to parents.
Monitor the time you’re spending on social media. Set limits for yourself using some kind of software, like unGlue. Learn about the clues to whether news articles are fake or reliable, how to report people online that are causing problems, and how to avoid spammers and phishers. You should take the role of educating your kids on “Time Well Spent” seriously enough to model it for them yourself.
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Google Has Proof they’re Finally Taking App Store Security Seriously
The Google Play app store has been known to be a bit of the wild wild west. There were copycat apps, apps with adult content, and apps with malware or spyware. Google now has some proof that they’ve been hard at work putting an end to all of the nonsense. In a recent report, Google said they removed more than 700,000 malicious apps last year. That’s 70% more than they removed in 2016. They say that most of the removed apps were copycats and many contained pornography or extreme violence, both of which are against the Play store policies. Most importantly of all, of the apps that were removed, 90% were rejected before they even made it to the store. This means they were never able to deceive users.
This is very good news for Android users. It means that Google’s algorithms, AI, and “machine learning, techniques are working well and keeping apps that could put your security at risk from ever being installed on your phone. The openness of Google’s play store was always a major reason I wouldn’t own an Android phone. This update, as I said, is proof of how serious Google is taking security. There is still, however, a major risk associated with the use of an Android phone. It is a popular reason some folks prefer Android even though it is against their recommended usage policies. No matter how secure the Google Play store becomes, you aren’t protected if you are downloading apps and other files from other sites and apps. “Sideloading” apps is not recommended by Google and can put your security at risk.
What Parents Should Know
I spoke with a mom of a young teenager a few months ago about some strange stats on her monitoring software on his Android phone. It turns out, while she had turned off app downloads to keep him from installing adult apps or time wasters, he had been finding other ways to install apps on his phone. The Google Play Store removing unsecured and malicious apps can keep your kids safe from some of the dangers out there but if they are installing apps in other ways, you’ve lost all confidence that they’re protected. You should have some sort of monitoring software installed. Use something like unGlue, Accountable2You, or Circle to monitor what your kids are doing on their phones and keep an eye out for apps that don’t seem legit.
A good way to know if they are sideloading apps is by looking for the term “APK Installer” in their recent activity. If you have the phone set to ask for permission or to disallow app installation and you see the “APK Installer” running, they may be sideloading. My advice is to keep an eye out for this and if you see it, ask them about what apps they are using. Maybe even have a look at what is installed on their phone. If you don’t recognize the app, do some research and uninstall it if you don’t approve. Most importantly, talk to your child about the importance of only downloading approved apps from the Google Play store. Let them know is as much about internet privacy and security as it is keeping them away from inappropriate content. Google is doing their part by monitoring and managing their app store, you can do yours as a parent by keeping an eye on what your kids are using on their Android device.
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Bitmoji Selfies Could Lead to Facial Recognition on Snapchat
Snapchat’s new “Bitmoji Deluxe” allows you to take a selfie and place it right next to your Avatar while you create or edit it. This lets you create your Bitmoji to look as much like you as possible. It starts with Snapchat asking if you’d like to take a selfie. Once you do, you will see an image of your actual self in the bottom corner the entire time you are editing your cartoon self. This isn’t a surprising new feature since Snapchat has teased that they may be using selfies to automatically create your Bitmoji in the near future. Facial recognition is becoming a mainstay in mobile technology so it’s only a matter of time before it works its way into social media.
What Parents Should Know
Snapchat is and will remain on my uninstall list. Bitmoji has never really been one of the reasons I don’t like Snapchat but I will admit I don’t “get it.” As parents, we have to keep an eye on our kids’ activity on Snapchat. One of the biggest concerns of educators, psychologists, and tech safety experts alike is the tendency for our young teens to filter their online identity. Even, sometimes, to the point of creating separate or even secret social media accounts for different followers or friends. Using a selfie to better create your Bitmoji avatar isn’t necessarily a sign of unhealthy behavior. I would, however, continue to pay attention to my teen’s conversations across all social media. Once facial recognition becomes a viable part of our social media cameras, that’s when I would consider not allowing my kids to use that service until they’ve reached an even higher level of maturity.