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  • The Hooked App is as Addictive as it Sounds

    The Hooked App is as Addictive as it Sounds

    We all want our kids to read more so an app that claims to have had users reading for over 500,000 hours sounds like a godsend. It is, in fact, a great idea and a pretty original way to get it’s users to read. The Hooked app isn’t new, having launched in 2014, but it’s rating number 6 in the iOS app store today. It’s popularity is growing fast.

    Hooked is an app that tells stories in the form of text messaging conversations. The story topics include comedy, horror, fantasy, and sci fi. Each story has a title page photo, many of which feature a pretty girl or couple in a romantic or suggestive pose. When you’ve made your choice the story unfolds one text message at a time, usually in the form of a conversation between a couple of people. You can tap the screen to reveal the next message and you may find yourself in a tapping frenzy to reach the next plot twist. Then, however, you’ll suddenly be halted by the Hooked Owl asking you to pay for more “Hoots.” A “Hoot” is a click/tap and you only have a certain amount of them every hour. Once you’ve used them up you’ll be prompted to buy more or sign up for a weekly or monthly subscription to get unlimited “Hoots.” If you’re like me and not ready to invest fiscally in finding out the next line of the story you can just wait until the next hour begins.

    The Hooked app cashes in on the obvious popularity of texting by using it as a storytelling venue. This makes it very appealing to the younger aged adults and teenagers. The target audience for the Hooked app is ages 13-24 but I wouldn’t just look over the app if I saw it on my teen’s phone.

    What Parents Should Know

    The Hooked app consists of some very mature themed stories but is targeting younger teens.  The stories are delivered in a way that your teens and tweens will definitely find appealing. I found myself anxious to find read the next message as the story progressed. Obviously the story really started to climax right before I ran out of “Hoots” so I would have to wait a while to continue reading. While this did get me to close the app for a while, the $7.99 per month for unlimited “Hoots” is a low price tag for being able to sit all day long and click through these stories.

    My issue isn’t really with the way the stories are delivered, it’s actually a creative way to tell these tales. The “one post at a time” method lends itself to a lot of suspense and a pretty entertaining read. The problem I have is the addictive nature of this app, if you can tap an unlimited number of times and go from story to story you’d very easily find yourself reading through a hundred of these stories in just a few days. Also, these stories can be pretty mature, dramatic, and suspenseful. The categories feature love and thriller options and the stories get quite intense at times. The texting storytelling method also makes them a bit more eerie. Users can also write stories which makes for a completely new potential problem there. Any time you’re dealing with User Generated Content it’s hard to be sure what your kids may read.

    My advice is to know your child and their maturity level well before you let them use Hooked. I wouldn’t go by the 9+ rating it has in the app store, I would assume your child should be a bit older. Keep in mind that many of these stories are written by users of the app. Since the content can’t be guaranteed to be safe for any age group, you should help your teen or tween by involving yourself in their decision to use Hooked. If they do read on the app, I recommend asking them what the stories are about and what they like about them. Keep yourself in the loop and informed as much as possible.

  • PODCAST: Date Night Monkey Business

    PODCAST: Date Night Monkey Business

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    Amazon is changing the parental controls game, Instagram has 200 mil users, and MONKEY is a hotbed for predators.

    FAMILY TECH WEEKLY EPISODE 3

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  • Everyone You Know Uses Instagram Stories

    Everyone You Know Uses Instagram Stories

    There are those who made fun of Instagram for copying the Snapchat stories feature. Some of us saw it as a step towards saving Instagram from going the way of MySpace. Today, they’ve announced that the stories feature has 200 million daily users. That’s 40 million more than Snapchat announced this winter when they took their company public. To celebrate this momentous occasion they’ve added a few more features that Snapchat has had for a while. You can now add more stickers to your stories and even pin them to something in your video so they’ll move with you. They’ve also included Geostickers for several new cities.

    These stickers, no matter what social media platform they’re on, are causing a term to enter the conversation that may have some parents scratching their heads. AR. AR stands for augmented reality which is exactly what it sounds like. Using your camera, these apps view the real world and then change it in whatever way you choose. Whether it’s a dog mask that pants when you open your mouth or stickers of bunny ears to celebrate easter, AR allows you to apply animation or illustrations to your images and videos. This is a popular feature that folks have been using for a while and it’s now been spotted by advertisers as a major opportunity for promotions. That’s why you’ll see masks featuring the latest movie release or a filter that has the logo of a make up product or beverage in the corner. AR is the new Television commercial but people are actually paying attention to it. Instagram’s celebration of these numbers with more AR features is guaranteed to bring in more users and more advertisers.

     

    What Parents Should Know

    Your kids and teens love nothing more than making silly faces in their selfies and sharing them with their friends. It’s good fun and usually not a big deal. Obviously advertising is everywhere and it was only a matter of time (it’s already been happening for a while) until marketing companies caught on that this was the best way to gain access to young people. I would expect more and more advertisers to jump on this bandwagon in the near future. The thing for parents to keep in mind is that these social media options allow marketers to identify their niche audience more easily and reach them more frequently. They can target age groups, locations, and even specific likes and dislikes to cater their marketing for that audience. 

    AR is just where entertainment is right now for our young people. Advertisers have always looked to target them in the cheapest and most direct way possible. My advice is simply to be aware of the amount of time your kid is spending on social media. There are always dangers that we want to keep them from but, while I wouldn’t call it dangerous, the constant barrage of advertising can become worrisome for some kids. My strongest advice is for you to get an account on the social media services your children use and get to know them a little bit. At worst you’ll have to see some dumb ads and lots of dog faces, at best you could have something in common to talk with your teenager about.

  • This Bot Predicts Your Photo’s Awesomeness

    This Bot Predicts Your Photo’s Awesomeness

    The selfie is this generation’s business card. We use these photos to say who we are and what we’re all about. We try to put our best face forward and represent ourselves as what we’d like others to think about us. Everypixel Aesthetics uses artificial intelligence to tell you whether or not humans will think your photo is awesome. Its created to scan your stock photos to help you choose what to use for your designs but is it a stepping stone to using AI to define beauty?

     

     

     

     

    While this photo of me scored 100% on the awesomeness scale (and labeled me a Young Adult) I don’t feel as if most of us would put a lot of credit on an AI and it’s opinion of our photo. I do, however, wonder about our young teens. As discussed in an earlier post about the adolescent brain and another post about the narcism of the Instagram selfie taker, our young people can sometimes have poor judgement when it comes to self esteem. With apps like Tinder, After School, and Wishbone our kids are letting their photos or photos of what they love be judged and voted on by a simple tap of a screen or swipe. This level of constant scrutiny can give our kids some very serious identity issues. What feelings could the opinion of an artificially intelligent bot cause to rise up in our kids?

    What Parents Should Know

    (The opinion is strong in this one.)

    Everypixel Aesthetics is in beta. It’s not a widely known service and it’s intended to rate stock photos, not to judge your looks. My apprehension is about what can result from giving AI the ability to rate someone’s photo. What about sites/apps like PrettyScale that will tell you if you’re pretty or not based on some pre-designated programing? What will something like that do to our kids’ self image? While that sort of app is always intended for entertainment it’s important to know our children and give them the confidence that can only come from knowing truly who they are. Helping our sons and daughters know that their beauty is based on more than their outside appearance is a major job of the parent. 

    I recommend learning all you can about what your child may consider beautiful or ugly. Keep them from using silly image rating apps and websites until you know they can truly see it as entertainment and laugh off a potential negative result. Everypixel Aesthetics gave some pretty interesting looking photos very low scores. I don’t know why or what institutes an “awesome” picture but imagine your daughter uploading a picture of herself and getting a low score. How could that make her feel? I think we should take an active role in helping our children develop a high self esteem while protecting them from influences on the outside that will hinder that progress. What do you think?

     

  • Amazon is Changing the Parental Controls Game

    Amazon is Changing the Parental Controls Game

    Many parents purchase their children a tablet without taking built in parental controls into consideration. Amazon’s addition of the Parent Dashboard should cause most parents to lead towards a Kindle Fire tablet. Amazon FreeTime has been available for a little while and allows parents to set child profiles, manage content, set time limits and bedtimes, and feature’s curated content. The Parent Dashboard, launching today, takes FreeTime to the next level by giving parents a breakdown of their kids digital habits. The app will allow parents who have set up FreeTime to see the time your kids have spent on certain apps. You can see what they’ve been reading and watching and it even suggests discussion starters for the content your children have been consuming.

    FreeTime features tens of thousands of apps, books, websites, and videos. The built in web browser only allows pre-approved content and features age appropriate Amazon prime videos. All of this content is curated by an actual editorial team. They watch videos through to the end and read every page of every book to be sure it’s suitable for the age group it’s listed under. This is not filtering based on algorithms, it’s work done by live people to help you protect your kids. They’re keeping in mind that you don’t want your kids to run in to something online that they’re not ready to see. In factKurt Beidler, director and general manager of Amazon FreeTime, told Digital Trends: “We take a conservative approach.” 

    What Parents Should Know

    It seems like the internet safety market is always trying to play catch-up with the latest online and social media trends. The stuff we don’t want our kids to see always seems to creep its way onto every platform. The only true way to keep inappropriate content away from our kids is for human eyes to make the distinction between what is suitable and what is not. The human editorial team for Amazon FreeTime is one of the first of its kind, surveying content with a conservative, kid’s health comes first mindset that we can hopefully take comfort in.

    I don’t usually recommend getting devices for our young children but I understand that many parents or grandparents will insist. If that is you or someone you love, may I suggest the Kindle Fire Kid Edition. This thing comes pre-loaded with the kid friendly content and a 12 month subscription to FreeTime. Yes, FreeTime is a pay subscription based service. It’s $2.99 per child or $6.99 per family. That’s not a lot to pay for your own team of content curators working to help your children be safer online. No, I don’t have an affiliate link to promote. I just think this is a great option for families.

    I do recommend, as always, talking to your children about what is appropriate online and what is not. I recommend they know that you are the safe place to come to if they see something that they shouldn’t see. Obviously the goal is to keep this from happening and using Amazon FreeTime with the Parent Dashboard is a great step in that direction.

  • The Monkey App will be a Hotbed for Predators

    The Monkey App will be a Hotbed for Predators

    You can often tell a lot about an app or product by their logo. (See Instagram or YouTube) They often use the small icon to entice you into using their app based on the style or the creative way the image can explain what the app is used for. Sometimes, though, you can be lured into a false sense of security by the playfulness of an app’s logo or icon. Monkey is a perfect example of this. When I saw Monkey listed as number 51 on the app store’s top downloads I was expecting to see some kid’s social media platform that would allow you to chat privately or play games or something. That’s not at all what I found.

    In reality Monkey is a chat roulette type of video chatting app. Once you’ve downloaded the app it will ask you your age. You set your age to whatever you’d like it to be, provide your phone number and your snapchat username and you’re in. It immediately begins connecting you with someone to video chat with. While it’s connecting it shows your face dimly in the background and says who it’s connecting you to. You have the option to skip the connection or accept. If you accept you’ll be shown their video feed and they’ll see yours. In the short time I tested the app I was connected with all males ranging from ages 22-45.

    Once you have connected with someone a countdown clock begins. You can tap the clock to add time and keep talking but if they don’t tap their clock you’ll be disconnected. This is another “swipe right” concept that gives each user the option to continue the connection with a simple gesture on their smartphone. To be honest I never accepted a connection. I still just don’t get a good feeling about the gamble of finding random video chatting partners. I don’t know what I”ll see when I connect. You also don’t know what your kids might see.

     

     

    What Parents Should Know

    The dangers of a roulette style video chat app should be pretty obvious. The potential for unwanted material and contact with dangerous people is real. While there is a report button to flag any inappropriate content, that method takes the “after the damage is done” approach to keeping their app free from pornography and bullying. The app is rated for users aged twelve and over and the terms and agreements explain how the company takes no responsibility for the content that may be displayed on the app.

    YOU FURTHER UNDERSTAND AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT, WHILE THE SERVICES ARE NOT PROVIDED FOR PORNOGRAPHIC PURPOSES OR FOR MAKING SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CONTENT AVAILABLE, YOU MAY BE EXPOSED TO CONTENT THAT YOU DEEM TO BE OFFENSIVE, INDECENT, OBJECTIONABLE, OR SEXUALLY EXPLICIT, AND YOU AGREE TO WAIVE, AND HEREBY DO WAIVE, ANY LEGAL OR EQUITABLE RIGHTS OR REMEDIES YOU HAVE OR MAY HAVE AGAINST MONKEYSQUAD WITH RESPECT THERETO. – Monkey Terms of Use (All caps theirs.)

    This app was developed by two sixteen year old kids from Australia. They said that they designed the app to allow teens to build more random online relationships. Ben Pasternak and Isaiah Turner told Mashable “…Snapchat is for your real life friends and Monkey is for your internet friends.” These teenagers saw a line between their real world relationships and the ones they could make with people all over the world through the internet. This is exactly what parents need to consider. While living in a more globalized world has many positives there are also very real risks to exposing our young teens and kids to the entire globe. 

    My advice is to put this app on your uninstall list. Never trust an app based on their branding or icon. Have a real conversation with your teen about the potential of seeing body parts or other unsightly things on this app. Remind them of the problem of connecting with random people online. There are always people who will lie about their age or their gender in order to connect with someone they’d like to prey on. Even if they know they’re only going to be connected for a few seconds. Sometimes a few seconds is enough to cause major problems for our young kids. Don’t let the cute monkey emoji logo fool you. Uninstall on sight!

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  • Minecraft Update will Add a Marketplace and Virtual Currency

    Minecraft Update will Add a Marketplace and Virtual Currency

    Minecraft is still one of the most popular video games on any platform. What started as a small building game has become a National phenomenon with billions of dollars (2.5 billion in 2016) made every year on downloads and merchandise. Microsoft is soon launching another avenue for profit and an opportunity for Minecraft content creators to split that profit. Later this month they will be launching the Minecraft Marketplace.

    The Minecraft Marketplace will feature user made products such as maps, skins, and textures. The items in the store will be curated so it won’t be filled with tons of useless products made by just anybody. In fact, they aren’t allowing random users to upload content, just creators with an established and registered business. Products in the store will be purchased with a virtual currency called Minecraft Coins that can be bought with real money. This currency will be purchased through your XBox Live account. There is no way to earn these coins in the game. Microsoft is launching the store on Android public beta (a test version) this month with several content packs already available. These packs include pirate, fairy tale, and stone age map packs and some pastel textures among other items. The full public release is coming later this spring to pc and mobile platforms. It isn’t clear if and when the Marketplace will be available on console platforms.

    What Parents Should Know

    Obviously it’s important to know any time the apps your children use have an in-game way to spend money. Minecraft adding a Marketplace will undoubtedly lead to more of kids asking parents if they can buy something on their computer or mobile device. Since true money will only be spent on purchasing coins it is likely that a message will pop up when you tap an item to purchase that will lead you to a way to buy coins. If in app purchases are disabled on your device it shouldn’t be much of a problem. If they are not disabled then you’ll want to be sure that a password is required to make purchases.

    The fact that the content on the marketplace will be curated is a good thing. This means that your child won’t be spending money on something that isn’t guaranteed to work in-game. It also means that they should keep any adult themed or inappropriate content from making it’s way into the store. While I’m sure that’s a goal, it’s still important for parents to look at the store every now and then to see what kind of content is available. If there’s something you wouldn’t want your kid to see then you should consider disabling the marketplace if and when that feature is available.

    The Minecraft Marketplace won’t be available to everyone right away but a public beta means that it’s coming soon. Be sure to be talking to your children about the time they spend on Minecraft, explain to them what virtual currency is and that purchasing those coins costs real actual money. Also, be sure that if your kid wants to download a new skin or texture pack that they know how to implement it so they won’t be buying something they don’t even know how to use. Start the conversation now so you’ll have a head start when the Marketplace launches to everyone.

  • Fake News and Selfie Smiles

    Fake News and Selfie Smiles

    Podcast: Play in new window

    Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

    Your kids’ brains are developing, you MUST learn to tell fake news from real news, your pictures need more sprinkles, and SURPRISE!! Instagram is full of narcissists.

    FAMILY TECH WEEKLY EPISODE 2

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    Music by Kevin MacLeod at http://Incompetech.com

  • Fake News and Your Family

    Fake News and Your Family

    I’ve been hesitant to write about the fake news issue. While there have been plenty of stories come out about how the tech world is battling the fake news problem I have yet to be able separate the issue from people’s political feelings and so I’ve left it alone. Today, tech news sites are talking about the latest shot fired in the fake news war and it centers around the most popular site on the internet, Google.

    Google is going to be featuring fact check links on many news stories in your search results. The need for more fact checking has become more and more obvious as the internet becomes full of user generated content. The issue with UGC is that you can say whatever you want and, until recently there weren’t a lot of ways to prove your story right or wrong. Links underneath some Google search results will now feature fact check information from sites like Politifact and Snopes. These should help those seeking true news and information to have a better understanding of the sources for the articles they’re using for their research.

     

    What Parents Should Know

    Fake news isn’t a kids and teens problem. Many adults share stories without finding out where the information came from. It isn’t difficult to recognize a satirical news site from a real news site. Fake news sites work to disguise themselves as real news. Satire is an obvious attempt at humor while fake news is usually just created to get clicks and sell advertising. You see, the more clicks a site gets the more money they make from advertisers on their sites. Writers on these sites will write a story based on the number of clicks it will get and not the accuracy of their information. Often these stories will be twists on something that is true while sometimes it’s just a completely made up article with a “clickbait” headline. We can’t continue to share these articles for so many reasons; the biggest reason is that it further confuses our society and divides us.

    Your children deserve a world where news is actual news. No matter your beliefs or political leanings you don’t want your kids to have to function in a society where there is no difference between factual news and an inflated false story written by some kid in a basement in Ohio (no offense to Ohio.) You should learn to fact check. Spend some time on Politifact.com or Snopes.com and dig around for the issues that are most important to you. Teach your kids what it means to site sources and look for the purest form of information or news. Yes, you can read about the latest tech news from me and I’ll related it to parenting and protecting your children online; that’s great, but if want to know more about Google’s fact checking search results you can go read their blog to get the information straight from the source.

  • Instagram Voted Most Narcissistic Social Media Platform

    Instagram Voted Most Narcissistic Social Media Platform

    We’ve all seen that special selfie smile. The one that doesn’t allow your eyes to crinkle since we don’t like how our faces look when we laugh. This smile is most noticeable on the photos in your Instagram feed. As you scroll through you’ll see a version of people’s reality that usually makes their life look incredible. Is it possible that people are just posting to get more likes and comments on their photos? Could, maybe, these posts be a vain attempt to be accepted by your peers online? A large group of young adults were polled and they think that’s exactly what’s going on.

    A recent study by LENDEdu rates the vanity of the users of major social media platforms. Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter users all seem to be equally motivated by getting likes but Instagram users are extremely more driven by that double tap. It’s all about getting the LIKES on Instagram. So much so that more young people voted Instagram as the most narcissistic platform than the other three platforms combined.

     

     

    In fact, likes are so important that many who were polled admitted to taking down a photo or video if it didn’t get enough likes. This strengthens the case for the narcissism of Instagram. Some even use social media to create a different version of themselves. If they aren’t perceived in the way they’d like to be perceived they’ll just remove the evidence like it never happened. They also speak of an unspoken rule in which you like the posts of those who liked yours. This code of conduct allows users to build their desired persona while helping their friends build theirs.

     

    What Parent’s Should Know

    If you use Instagram you would probably answer these questions the same way. It’s obvious that people are only posting what they consider the best version of themselves on social media. When it comes to our teenager and tweens there is a risk involved with wrapping your self worth around the response your posts get online. Our children should be taught how to find their confidence and identity in something other that what others think about them.

    The “narcissism” referred to in this study points to young people in our culture’s desire to be accepted. That desire has always existed but it’s so very volatile in this increasingly global world. While social media may have been invented to allow us to share our experiences with the world, in reality, many are posting a filtered (literally) version of their lives. The quest for likes and approval from those who follow our accounts can easily lead to negative consequences in our children’s lives.

    My advice is to keep your child away from social media as long as possible. When you feel they are mature enough to have the right attitude about their reasons for posting online then let them open an account. If you feel they are merely looking for acceptance from their peers then it may be a good idea to delay access to such obvious criticism. As a parent you are what stands between your kids and some of the emotion that can come with your online activity being commented on, liked, and hated. Step in and take action to protect them from some of those potential negative emotions until they and you feel they are able to handle the load.