By Lynette Owens
Week of January 13, 2014
To help you keep up with what’s going on with kids, families, schools, and technology, we’ve compiled a list of stories, tips, and insights, we’ve found most useful over the past week. What have you been reading? Tell us below or Tweet @TrendISKF.
ONLINE SAFETY STARTS OFFLINE: In light of the recent Snapchat breach, our friend and colleague, Anne Collier, provides suggestions on the Modern Parenthood blog on how to help kids handle whatever threats come their way, online or off. She recommends internet safetyguards, including monitoring and filtering, along with empowerment and general respect for who we come in contact with on a daily basis.
NEW GOOGLE+ FEATURE OPENS DOOR TO YOUR INBOX: Last week, Google decided to allow by default anyone on Google+ to email you on Gmail without having your email address. This has serious privacy implications and is 100% annoying (although it’s pitched as a way to connect easily with others.) Here’s how you can turn off this feature, or at least modify it so the whole world can’t get to you uninvited.
BIGGER TARGET DATA BREACH: Recently reported data breaches among U.S. retailers appear to be further-reaching than we thought. Target upped the number of potentially impacted accounts from 40 million to 70 million, and Neiman-Marcus is now reporting they have been hacked, too. If you shop at Target and are worried or have been impacted, here are some great tips on what to do.
SNAPCHAT APOLOGIZES: More than a week after 4.6 million Snapchat accounts were hacked, the company has decided to apologize. “We are sorry for any problems this issue may have caused you and we really appreciate your patience and support,” “Team Snapchat” wrote in a company blog post Thursday. Is this sufficient to you? Tweet us your reaction to the apology @TrendISKF
WHERE THE TEENS ARE: Believe it or not, teens are not hanging out on Facebook like we like to believe. A recent study found usage by teens dropped 56% in Q3 of 2013. So where are they? WeChat, Instagram, Vine, Flickr, Snapchat, and What’sApp are the favorites of today.
NEW YAHOO! TECH MAG: The who’s who of the tech industry gathered last week to see the best new gadgets to hit store shelves and latest innovations. Making headlines at the show was an announcement by Yahoo! of a new magazine-like site called Yahoo! Tech. With David Pogue (formerly of the New York Times) at the helm, we anticipate it to be a go-to destination for tech news.
See you next week!
Lynette Owens is Vice President of Global Consumer Education & Marketing at Trend Micro and Founder of the Internet Safety for Kids and Families program. With 25+ years in the tech industry, Lynette speaks and blogs regularly on how to help kids become great digital citizens. She works with communities and 1:1 school districts across the U.S. and around the world to support online safety, digital and media literacy and digital citizenship education. She is a board member of the National Association for Media Literacy Education, an advisory committee member of the Digital Wellness Lab, and serves on the advisory boards of INHOPE and U.S. Safer Internet Day.
Follow her on Twitter @lynettetowens.