Family Tech Blog

Tag: private

  • YouTube Adding Private Messaging

    YouTube Adding Private Messaging

    I spoke to a mother just a few days ago who was lamenting the idea of her son having his own YouTube channel. He didn’t post much but she was concerned about people finding him or learning about him through his videos. She was also concerned about bullying in the comments of his videos which is a real concern since YouTube commenters are notoriously ruthless. YouTube’s most recent update is going to either help solve or intensify these problems.

    YouTube begins rolling out a new update today that will bring private messaging to the video streaming app. The feature is an attempt to keep people on the YouTube app to discuss and share videos they’re viewing on YouTube. Currently, these videos are shared on other social media sites and discussed there but YouTube wants to play a larger role in the social game. Private sharing and chat will allow users to discuss videos and respond with more comments and even reply with another video. The biggest concern with this feature is that you can’t block users who try to contact you. You can, however, deny their requests to chat.

    What Parents Should Know

    Any app that allows private messaging should be taken seriously by parents. Kids of all ages love YouTube and the dangers of allowing them unsupervised access to user uploaded internet videos have been well documented. Adding the ability to send and receive private messages, while it can allow them to discuss videos with people they know without the risk of comment trolls bullying them, provides an opportunity for strangers or who knows who to contact our kids through YouTube. Since predators use social media to learn about and groom their victims, YouTube’s private messages could be a way for those ill meaning individuals to do their work.

    I advise that you allow your kids to watch YouTube on YouTube Kids only. If the videos they like aren’t available there then only let them watch on a browser on a computer. The other option is to share the YouTube account with your children and install the app on your own device. This way you can see who they’re messaging, what they’re talking about, and even be alerted when they receive a new message. I don’t ever recommend spying on your kids. My advice is that you discuss your parental control and monitoring methods with them so they know you’re there to look out for them. You’re supposed to be the safe place.

  • Firefox “Focus” Private Browsing Poses a New Risk for Your Kids

    Firefox “Focus” Private Browsing Poses a New Risk for Your Kids

     

    Private browsing has been around for a long while now.

    Whether incognito mode, private mode, or InPrivate, there has long been a way to visit whatever sites you’d like without worrying about being tracked or accumulating a history of sites visited. Mozilla has released a new browser called “Focus” that is designed to allow users to browse privately. The idea is to keep advertisers from storing information on your computer or phone and using it to target their ads while you surf the internet. This can be a good thing, but it’s important to understand some risks involved with private browsing.

    Focus is designed to block ad trackers, analytics, social trackers, and can seek out and block other trackers as well. It can also integrate into Safari on ios (the ios standard browser) and Firefox on your computer. After downloading the app you just open it and begin browsing, searching (on Yahoo,) or surfing as needed. There are no extra tabs or any bells and whistles at all but when you are done you just close the window with the “Erase” button and start again at the first screen. All the data is gone at that point. Like you were never there.

    What Parents Should Know

    focussettingsWhile I am all for the battle for internet privacy and freedom from being tracked by marketers, private browsing presents a major problem when trying to protect our kids from inappropriate online content. Keep in mind that a popular name for private browsing is “Porn Mode.” The ability to view sites without anything being stored on your computer, including a history of your surfing habits, is, of course, a way for our kids to view adult content without us knowing.

    Part of setting protections for your kids on their smartphone or tablet is turning off the ability to install a different browser. If you have installed an accountability or filtered browser then a new way to surf the web will completely undermine your attempts to protect them. While on the computer, filters like NetNanny will continue to block sites and accountability software such as Accountable2You will continue to report (though, with less detail) inappropriate activity. Even in private mode. While on mobile devices, however, especially ios devices, the accountability and filter app should be the only browser available to our kids.

    Learn more about privacy and security from our Mobile Device Vocabulary Series.