Family Tech Blog

Tag: safeonline

  • Facebook and Snapchat Join the “Time Well Spent” Movement

    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. 

     

  • Instagram Update Could Open the Door for Porn and Predators

    Instagram Update Could Open the Door for Porn and Predators

    Instagram has just released an update that adds the ability to follow hashtags. This feature allows you to keep tabs on interests or events that you’re interested in without having to search for the tag every few minutes. It’s easy to follow a hashtag. Just search for the tag and then a follow button appears with the results. Or you can click on a hashtag in a post or story and then click follow when that result appears. From then on the hashtag will show up in your instagram timeline just like the people you follow. When you are done seeing everything posted under that tag appear in your Instagram feed, you can just go back to the hashtag search result and tap “Unfollow.”

    What Parents Should Know

    Being able to follow hashtags has been a “thing” for a while now on Twitter. It has long been a way for events or products to feature themselves and allow attendees or fans to keep up with what’s going on. The problem with our kids blindly following hashtags is the potential for other users to abuse the tag and use it to get attention on their content. Some of that content may not be very wholesome. Pornography is fairly easy to access on Instagram if your kids know where to look. The potential for these adult-oriented posts to add a non-related hashtag so that followers will see their content is cause for concern.

    Imagine your teen follows #pokemon on Instagram. All someone would have to do is put the #pokemon tag on their innapropriate photo and it would, likely, show up on your his Instagram feed.

    Also, sharing the hashtag for an event you’re currently attending is, in essence, the same as sharing your location information. If you kids are sharing a Prom Night hashtag, then whoever wants to can follow that hashtag and see all the activity and who knows what plans could come from that. Unfortunately, with every great new feature, there seems to be a new danger that accompanies it. My advice is to encourage your kids to post with hashtags after an event has ended. Kind of like posting the memories of the event instead of live-photo-blogging every little thing they’re currently doing. Including where they’re headed next. You don’t have to have too big of an imagination to think of some ways that could be dangerous.

  • Tumblr App Installs “Adult Content On Switch”

    Tumblr App Installs “Adult Content On Switch”

    Tumblr has lost some traction over recent years. It’s not so much a social media platform as a blog host and not really even that. It’s more used for GIF (animated images) posting than anything nowadays. Apple has always had a pretty strict standard on adult content in the apps in their app store. They require developers to have adult content disabled by default. This usually means that image searches on your browser should be without any blatant pornography unless your search is specifically for that. Tumblr has updated their iOS app with a workaround for this rule. There is now a switch that will allow users to turn adult content back on in Tumblr. It’s actually a “safesearch switch” and it’s set to on by default, thus following the rules set up by Apple. All it takes, however, is for someone to go to the settings page of the app and turn the safesearch option off. This will unleash the cacophony of adult content that is available on Tumblr (many say that pornographic images and gifs have become it’s main purpose) on the user.

    What Parents Should Know

    The Tumblr app is basically a browser in which anyone with an account can see any of the user generated blog content posted on the site. As mentioned above, the app has become inundated with adult content and is not safe for anyone you’d like to keep from those sort of images or videos. The safe search switch isn’t located in the restrictions settings on your iPhone. It is just in the settings for the app. This means safesearch changes can be made without a password. This app is an easy way for your child who has been looking at inappropriate images or videos to access more of that. Now that the safesearch can be turned off, you’ll want to add this app to the uninstall list.

    Our children can be greatly harmed by pornography. Studies are showing it’s addictive nature and the ability it has to alter a person’s sexuality and preferences, creating what they call an “arousal template.” This causes kids to be attracted only what they’ve seen online and can create serious problems for them in the future. They also say that kids who view pornography are six times more likely to force others into sexual behavior. Many in our culture view online adult content as only entertainment but it’s being proven that it’s detrimental to the mental health of our kids. If there is anything you can do to protect your children from adult online content, you must take steps to do so. Uninstalling Tumblr just became one of those steps.

  • 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.