Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts

The Dangers Of Teen's Dating Apps And How To Protect Them With Monitoring Apps

The digital age has changed the realm of dating. Online dating sites used to be focused on engaging an older audience, usually 18 and over. Now there are multiple apps available for teens to arrange meetups with others online.

According to research from the Pew Research Centre, a quarter of teens surveyed had dated someone they met online. Moreover, 50% of teens reportedly showed they liked someone by sending a friend request over Facebook or another social site, and then liked and commented on their content.

While it's fun and exciting for teens to connect online via apps and hook up in person, some risks need to be covered and talked about with the teens living in your care. Moreover, parental monitoring apps can also help to keep your teens safe while dating online.

Grooming

teen

The NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) recorded in 2019 that 200,000 secondary school students may have been groomed online.

It's a fact that not everyone on teen dating apps is in the right age bracket, or frame of mind, to be on the app talking to other teens. And, predators can pose as a younger person online, to lure in teens to meet them in real-life.

By using a parental monitoring app, you'll have full access to your son or daughters online activity 24/7, from text messages to WhatsApp pictures. You'll be able to see if someone is grooming your child, and if so, you can alert the police.

Sexting

Teens on dating apps have the intention of meeting someone romantically. With the digital sphere being the centre of most teens' interactions with one another, it's common for teenage girls and boys to ask for, and send selecting images to one another. For instance, according to a recent study, 40% of teenagers have sent messages of a sexual nature.

The risks of sexting are plenty. Sexting makes the sender vulnerable and opens them up to serious consequences. For instance, the receiver might share the image online with their friends without the sender's consent.

With a parental monitoring app, you can monitor your teen's conversations and content. And take action if they have been prompted to send across a private image.

Validation

Teens may try to seek approval by using online dating websites, to feel attractive and confident. This can lead teens to become impressionable and do things asked by other online daters, to gain approval.

As with sexting, a parental monitoring app will help you prevent your son or daughter from responding to online advances, such as sharing the content of a sexual nature.

Harassment 

teenager

As mentioned above, not everyone on teen dating apps is there with good intentions. Some teenagers experience harassment on dating websites in the form of unwelcome, rude messages, and sexually explicit pictures.

Monitoring apps allow you to see whether your teen could be sharing too much personal info online. With this knowledge in mind, you can educate your teen on how harassment can extend beyond online interaction. For instance, if a teen has innocently disclosed their address. Or their social media page, for instance, reveals their most recent location. It could cause an online harasser to appear in-person.

Alongside alerting youngsters about the dangers of online dating apps for teens. As an additional layer of protection for your loved ones, using a parental monitoring app from Family Orbit allows you to observe your child's activity online. In turn, preventing and protecting your children from being targeted by groomers or harassment.

*Collaborative post
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Advantages Of Using A Virtual Private Network (VPN)

If you use the internet on the go, you may have heard of a VPN and the benefits of using one but you may not know what it is, so, what is a VPN and, should you get one?


A VPN is a Virtual Private Network and is a useful solution to providing you with secure internet from anywhere in the world. It is especially useful for keeping your information safe and secure.  In this article, I will go into more detail on the main advantages of using a Virtual Private Network or VPN.

 Security

 A VPN allows you to create a secure network due to the encryption it uses. This means that bank details will be safe and your information and passwords will be secure. This is especially important if you have to use your computer whilst travelling, perhaps accessing your Paypal or bank accounts on the go. All data is encrypted from prying eyes, and a VPN helps keep your bank details out of the hand of criminals. It also keeps sensitive and personal information safe.

 Anonymity

With a VPN you can browse the web anonymously. Now even if you are not doing anything scandalous, this has distinct advantages. Firstly, because you are anonymous then your information will be secure. 

Secondly, you can browse the internet in private. Normally your web browser tracks your cookies so that nothing is completely secret, tracking what sites you go to. This can then affect adverts you are shown as well as potentially pushing up prices of hotels and holidays when booking them, based on past browsing experiences. A VPN keeps your browsing history anonymous and secure and doesn't allow browsers to track you. So it's easier to grab a holiday bargain for one!

Streaming

Some online streaming channels are location specific. A VPN can allow you to watch your favourite local channels abroad. For example, did you know that the BBC Iplayer is not available outside of the UK?  A VPN can mask your location and make your location-specific to the country you want. That means in practice you can set your computer's location to be from the UK, even if you are in another country and then BBC Iplayer will work. This is great if you want to catch up with a TV programme or event or if you are an Ex-Pat and you want to watch the channel you loved in the UK. 

Netflix is also different in various countries, so a VPN will allow you to access content in a different location, perhaps if you are on holiday, giving you more choice of programmes.

Business use

A VPN is great for sharing data with a group securely, as well as keeping sensitive information secure. This is particularly great for businesses. Data breaches can lead to fines and compensation claims so using a VPN makes good business sense. 

VPNs also give businesses the security to share their resources with employees and partners that are not based in the office at all times, allowing for flexibility of staff and remote working.

It's also cheaper to set up a VPN than a physical private network so this can save a business money, and what business doesn't want to save money?!

So as you can see there are a number of advantages of getting a Virtual Private Network or VPN. If you want the reassurance of a secure network, can you really afford not to get one in this day and age?

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How To Keep You And Your Devices Safe When Travelling

We are a family that loves to travel. In the last year, I personally have taken 23 flights, that's a lot of flights for someone who really doesn't like flying! I know, silly isn't it? Yet it doesn't stop me travelling the world, whether I am travelling with my husband or with my son as well who is in university. We have had some great adventures recently including a trip to Iceland, where we hiked a glacier and a press trip with a group of bloggers to the Castellon area of Spain.  

Now to keep up-to-date with emails and social media on the go, I rely on my devices, mainly my iPhone and my MacBook Air, as I am an Apple girl through and through. It's also important to me to keep busy on the plane, and here is where my iPhone is invaluable, I download relaxing music or films when I have no access to them on the journey. This keeps my mind occupied and helps relax me. 

My son Jake, who is 20, loves his iPod. He uses it to keep in touch with mates on Facebook and Twitter, to watch YouTube and Netflix. I must admit he's a worse addict than me!


Mr W is a blogger and vlogger too, and although he's not as social as me (think grunt once for yes), he does like his iPhone apps, namely Instagram and Facebook. 

Although I am not especially proud of this, you can see we are device addicts, so there are some things we have had to consider in the last few years to keep us healthy and our devices safe when travelling the world.

Limit your time



Talk to the whole family before the holiday and set expectations and limitations on device and internet use. Rather than spend all your time on your devices and online, try to limit this. Turn off your mobile data unless absolutely necessary and any alerts on emails and encourage the rest of the family to do the same. Think, do you really have to document everything on social media as you go? Why not just take some time and enjoy the beautiful beaches, amazing cities and fantastic attractions without living it through a lens.

Perhaps allow a time period every day, to catch up with friends or emails, then make an effort and get off. If the kids (or adults) are finding this especially difficult, consider a small reward as an incentive. Or swap it around. If the kids are well behaved in a restaurant then allow time on their devices when they get back to the hotel or apartment.  

If your trip includes a lot of driving, ensure you plan rest stops along the way where you do something active. When you get to a town take time to explore, perhaps find a park and let the kids let off steam running around before lunch. Exercise boosts mood and self-esteem so they will feel better for it and will hopefully be relaxed on their return to the car. Limiting your time online can also help social skills 'in real life' and don't forget you are on holiday so enjoy the different surroundings and activities you don't get every day.

Device Safety



Be aware of open networks when you travel. Many Internet networks aren't secure, which could let your personal details including passwords, and card details get into the wrong hands. One simple thing to do is to check for the padlock symbol on your browser and ensure you log out properly on shared computers.   But is this enough? 

Travel and Leisure magazine offers some excellent advice, such as updating all your software before you go especially your operating system and treating all networks as hostile. They recommend HTTPS Everywhere which is an extension to your browser to encrypt your details. 

Another thing to consider is to use a product like Kaspersky Security Cloud. This product is especially clever as it is an adaptive digital security service which can give online protection to the whole family. 

It's a fast cloud-based security service that won't slow down your devices yet helps defend them from Internet nasties such as Trojans, worms, and phishing across Macbooks, Android and Windows Device.  It can also alert parents to your kids' Internet usage, handy to avoid potentially inappropriate sites.  

Insurance



So first thing's first, only take your devices you will definitely need with you. Can you cope with your tablet and not your laptop for example? If you take fewer devices than a theft will have fewer opportunities to steal from you. 

Going on holiday is a great time to sort out your devices. Take anything off your device you will not need and consider deleting your cookies and also passwords if you can remember them. Empty your trash bin on your laptop as you will be surprised about the amount of potentially sensitive information that can be there. Backup any important files you need on a security drive or the I-Cloud.

Ensure you take out travel insurance, and also check your policy, to see what your insurance covers. This is so important as you want to check your insurance will cover the devices and also what the excess is if you do have a theft. I always keep a copy of our families insurance document with us for easy access on holiday. 

So these are some considerations to keep your devices safe whilst travelling the world. Do you use any of these tips? Tell me what do you and your family do to keep your devices safe on holiday

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The Upside Of The Internet

A guest post from my good friend Lucy Dorrington from The Parent Game blog.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about online friendships. It’s a difficult subject, because for some people it conjures images of sinister predators, hiding behind faked images of sweet teenagers. This image is very real and cannot be underestimated. The internet is a dangerous place and it is becoming more and more relevant to educate our young people about the dangers. Actually, not just our young people. It is a habit we all need to get into, where we don’t assume that the picture we are seeing actually represents the person we are talking to. It is natural to associate the face with the voice, as it were, and I think a lot of the time, this is where the danger lies. We have to remember that you can be anyone you like with the shield of anonymity the World Wide Web offers and this is particularly relevant where children are concerned. Additionally, anonymity can give rise to some nasty cases of bullying and ‘keyboard warriors’ and I think it’s vitally important to educate children from an early age in the appropriate way to behave online. If you wouldn’t say it in a real-life situation, don’t say it at all. 


Copywrite Stuart Miles - Shutterstock

However, I did want to talk a little about some of the benefits of being able to reach out to people online. There are many examples of people being offered support and generosity in times of need, through online initiatives. The most famous recently was probably the case of Alan Barnes, a pensioner who was viciously attacked and robbed. He made a friend for life in Katie, a lady he had never met, who raised £330,000 with an online campaign that captured the hearts of the nation. Just yesterday, Ali Campbell and Astro, from UB40, were lucky enough to get to meet the amazingly brave and beautiful Nicola Moore, through a Facebook campaign which was seen by 2.5 million people in just 24 hours. 
Even my own blog saw some success, when I launched what was meant to be a small charity venture back in 2013. I still haven’t met the lady I started the campaign for, but it all started when she lost her baby very suddenly when he arrived too early. We were both in the same Facebook group, just a group of like-minded people who liked to chat. People from all over the country, with different lifestyles and interests, but a shared love of chatting and being silly and, in many cases, a reason for not being able to go out often to socialise in the ‘normal’ way. You can read more about what happened here but, basically, I started a Facebook page to give Lisa’s friends and family an opportunity to do something to try to help her in her grief. The idea was to raise £100 to give to her for the hospital where her son was treated. Within the week, we had raised £300 and we went on to raise £2,000 which she recently presented to Addenbrookes for their neonatal ward. It just brought out the best in so many people, there were donations offered from companies and small businesses of items to sell, lovely messages of support, gifts of cash from strangers who had been through something similar. 


Copywrite Beerkoff - Shutterstock

The point I’m trying to make is, what a wonderful place the internet can be. Be safe, in the same way you would be anywhere else. You wouldn’t get chatting to a stranger in a café and tell him where you lived, you wouldn’t give your bank details to a stranger on the phone, so have some common sense and always let your brain give it the once-over before you commit to anything that might be a risk. NEVER give out personal details, NEVER give out your address, unless you are 100% confident you know the person and don’t hand over cash unless you can be sure you know where it’s going. Without doing any of those things, though, people all over the world are throwing off the shackles of distance, illness or money constraints and finding ways to make friends and enjoy some good company and enjoying a new kind of social freedom that has possibly been denied them for a very long time. How amazing is that? It’s about time we celebrated all that is good about Social Media and its online communities. Every situation will have its negative side, but let’s not forget the good it can do. 
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