Social media has become an integral part of teen’s daily lives, but it can lead to addiction, mental illness, eating disorders, and various other dangerous behaviors. As a parent, you need to know how social media can affect your teen’s life. By knowing about its impacts, you can prepare to be more capable of helping your teen overcome and avoid the negative effects. Learn more about the effects of social media on US teens in this infographic.
One of the most decisive aspects of managing employees entails monitoring. However, some might feel that it as an intrusive act that could strain an employee/employer relationship. But in the present era, with last year having the highest number of data breaches, it has become necessary to take necessary steps to ensure that you have hired the right people and your confidential data is not at risk at the hands of a disloyal employee who could supply your secrets to your rival company. When a company offers its employees with gadgets such as laptop and smartphones for work, so technically they are a company’s property. And employers can monitor these devices within legal boundaries. There are certain conditions you are required to follow regarding employee monitoring. You can never encounter a problem if you follow ethical monitoring practices. With the help of these practices, not only would you get the most out of your workers without jeopardizing your trust with them, but ensure more productivity and job commitment as well. When employees know that you are monitoring them, they will concentrate more on their work than wasting time. Also, if you offer them incentives or some reward for being the most productive, they are bound to exhibit increased job commitment. Here are the important employee monitoring practices you can adopt for ethical monitoring of employees: 1. Ensure Transparency Be transparent. This is the first step. Be upright about the employee monitoring practices you are going to adopt and what they will involve. When you have a transparent employee monitoring program in place, it is a respectful approach towards the employees. Your employees should know that you respect them and their privacy. If you are using a cell phone monitoring app on the company-give phones, tell them that it is not to spy on their private matters. An employee will not trust his manager if he finds out that his boss has been monitoring their behavior secretly. If you want to monitor your employees while maintaining a trusting and respectful relationship, be transparent. Inform them about the tools and techniques you are going to use for tracking their productivity and progress. 2. Establish Rules Before you begin monitoring employees, create an employee monitoring policy. This would help you in mapping out the necessary expectations and guidelines both for the managers and employees. Everyone would know what to expect this way. You can easily transition into a new employee monitoring software while creating a transparent monitoring process. Your employee monitoring plan would turn out to be easier and much effective to manage with you creating an employee monitoring policy before implementing it. 3. Reasonable and Achievable Expectations You must have reasonable expectations from your employees. This is an integral component of all the operative employee monitoring processes. Employees are human, and you cannot expect them to perform beyond their capacity or perform at maximum capacity every single day like a machine. Be considerate of this fact when you spell out your expectations for productivity. See that you are setting reasonable expectations for the workers when you are implementing new systems for tracking employee performance. If a worker takes five-minute breaks a couple of times, let them. It could help them unwind and be more productive. Also, it can help in creating a pleasant work environment free from the stress that boosts employee satisfaction. 4. Be Respectful of Employee Privacy It is important to create boundaries to establish an efficient employee monitoring program. Also, make sure that you don’t end up intruding on your employees’ privacy while monitoring them. You must monitor their activities within the work-related capacity only. Every piece of information you collect should have a purpose. You should not collect personal/sensitive data. It is within ethical boundaries to monitor and store data of an employee’s work email account. But you cannot monitor personal email addresses. When you respect your employee’s privacy, you are in a better position to create an ethical employee monitoring plan for your team. 5. Go for Customizable Tools Go for such employee monitoring tools which you can customize according to your business and employee needs. With the right employee monitoring software, you can have a flexible monitoring system for employees. You don’t want to monitor your employees and their behaviors unnecessarily that borders on the invasion of privacy. Using a top employee monitoring software enables you to customize features and tools and ensures that you get only relevant data. Managers can also experiment with different employee monitoring strategies with customizable tools, optimizing the employee monitoring method to be as effective and efficient. Also, help the managers in implementing respectful employee monitoring plan. Without mutual trust, it becomes complicated to manage and monitor employees. Implementing the right monitoring solution is essential, so you do not up to cross the line and damage the employer/employee relationship. Managers should consider these guidelines before implementing employee monitoring technologies for measuring employee productivity. This way, you could be a great manager who has his employees’ trust and has the records to support any decision put forward by the management.
Planning a trip can be challenging, but it is 2019, and you have all the necessary tools for making your vacation a breeze. With more than one million apps available on both the App Store and Google Play Store, filtering the good from the bad isn’t easy. This is true that some apps will improve your vacation and are worth downloading before planning your next trip. If you have got a trip coming up, you don’t need to waste a week of your life downloading junk. Here are ten travel apps worth their place on your phone. All these apps are available for both iOS and Android devices. SAS Survival Guide Know how to start a fire? Well, you need to download this guide to survive any situation. Written by a former SAS soldier John Wiseman, the app contains hundreds of survival skills that will help you at home and away; therefore, it is a must-have. FlightAware Now you don’t have to download specific airline apps for individual flights. FlightAware can make this task easier by enabling you to track any flight in real-time. Also, you can receive alerts about flight delays, cancellations, and more. If you travel a lot and have a lot of bookings you need to organize, this is the best app to have. Kindle Carrying a Kindle is way easier than lugging ten hardbacks around you. With this app, you don’t even have to carry the Kindle. No doubt it is the most practical app that you need to download for your next trip. You can browse and download your favorite book within a minute. Duolingo Covering more than 27 languages, Duolingo is your travel buddy that can teach you how to read, write, listen, and speak a language. You can learn new words every day by starting with basic verbs and phrases. So if you have booked your trip months ahead of time, try to learn some basics of the country’s native language. This app also offers live chat feature with a bot so that you can practice the phrases you are likely to use the most abroad. Google Translate Duolingo, not your thing? Try Google Translate. If you are traveling and you are not well-familiar with the native language, you will find the free translation app of Google very convenient. You just have to type the words you want to translate, pick your target language, and there you go. Thanks to machine learning, now this app offers you the feasibility to take a photo, use handwriting, or even speak a phrase to translate. Also, you can star a word or phrase for offline access. XE Like most of us, if you are not good with numbers, use the currency exchange app, XE, to figure out what 1,241,300 Euro is in US dollars. Enter a figure, and the equivalent in all other currencies will show on one screen. What makes it remarkable is that it can store the most recent rates so you can access them if your device is offline. This app is quick and easy, and it can save you a lot of money when dealing with unfamiliar exchange rates. Xnspy Don’t forget to get an Xnspy subscription before boarding for your next trip abroad. Traveling alone or with a family, Xnspy is a must-have app to deal with your parental woes and epiphanies. It is a reliable location tracking app that can help you to connect with your family. With real-time location tracking, you or your family can monitor each other’s location within a minute. As a parent, you can keep your backpacker teen safe from the unknown you fear. AroundMe AroundMe identifies your exact location and lists the nearby bank, bar, gas station, hospital, hotel, movie theater, restaurant, supermarket, theatre, and taxi. By choosing your required category, you can get a list of nearby spots along with their service ratings and accurate distance from your location. Further, you can get an easy path to reach a destination easily. WiFi Map Have you ever been traveling and looking for free Wi-Fi? WiFi Map can keep you online with a snowballing list of Wi-Fi networks and passwords updated by the app’s seven million users. With this app, you can track the nearest wireless connection. You can download entire city Wi-Fi maps ahead of time to use while offline. CityMapper This app combines all the transport modes available in each city so that you can compare your options to get the best. The Citymapper app includes all of the options, such as buses, cycle, taxi, train, ferry, and a few more. The app is simple and easy to use. The app saves your recent search results so you can find them again — particularly useful when offline. All installed? Now you are all set to get out there and explore!
Labor Day is one of the least recognized holidays of the year – one that we seem to appreciate only after realizing it gets us a three-day weekend come September. Unlike most U.S. holidays, it is a strange celebration without rituals, except for shopping and barbecuing. Here are six interesting facts you probably didn’t know about this holiday. Fact #1: Who came up with the idea first? The credit for the idea behind Labor Day goes to one of two people. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, some records infer Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, first suggested a day celebrating workers. Though, some historians believe the credit goes to a machinist named Matthew Maguire, who reportedly proposed the idea while he was secretary of the Central Labor Union. Fact #2: The First Labor Day was September 5, 1882 Yes, it was celebrated on September 5, 1882, in New York City planned by the Central Labor Union. On that Tuesday, around 10,000 citizens marched for labor rights down the streets of Manhattan. At that time, the average American worked for 12 hours a day, six days a week. On September 3, 1916, the Adamson Act was passed that established our modern eight-hour workday law. Fact #3: Oregon was the first to declare Labor Day an official holiday in 1887 It made Labor Day a legal holiday on February 21, 1887. That same year, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York also legally adopted the holiday. Fact #4: The holiday is often confused with “May Day” Most other countries commemorate International Workers’ Day, or “May Day,” instead of Labor Day. The concept is the same, but it is celebrated on May 1 around the globe. Fact #5: Why can’t we wear white after Labor Day? Well, there are three theories about the origin of the “no white after labor day” directive. The first hypothesis goes back to the end of the Civil War in the early 1900s. White clothing was an upper-class luxury, but after the Civil War, it became difficult to distinguish women coming from old money and new money. The jealous old regime invented a new rule that anyone who showed up to an autumn dinner party in a white dress, for example, would be instantly outed as a nouveau riche newbie. The second theory addresses a practical approach by pointing out that the summer season is over. So there is no need for white-summery clothes. The last theory has to do with popular fashion magazines, who may have begun promoting fall clothing after Labor Day, and the trend was picked up. The good news is, most fashion experts believe that there is no need to follow this rule today. Fact #6: It is a dangerous holiday, too According to the CBS News, Labor Day is the second-deadliest holiday for car accidents. According to the reports, there was an average of 308 car accidents on that holiday every year, depending on the data from 2011 to 2015. Of course, more people will be traveling, which implies more people will make silly mistakes on the road. So be safe and pay attention out there. Happy Labor Day!
Nowadays, parents are gravely concerned about how to take care of their children online in current digital-age. As the difference between digital reality and physical reality is fading out, you cannot think that your children are safe within the confines of their house. According to a December 2017 CNN article, over 45% of the U.S. children, ages 10 to 12, own a smartphone. Judging by the stats, you can say that the number has now grown over the past year as there are companies who specifically design tablets for children and their demand is increasing in the market. With such an exposure, you need to make sure that your kids understand certain security risks that revolve around them while they carelessly use the internet. To bring their children under the light of cybersecurity, people should write down a strategy to reach out to their little ones without sounding too complex or disorientated because explaining technical stuff can make it difficult for them to understand. So keep it more demonstrative and less verbal. Be creative with the analogies and use which minors can understand. Another important thing is to be honest. Be honest about your intentions; tell them that you care about their personal information being exploited in the hands of cybercriminals. You may share this horrifying cyberbullying incident to be at a safe side. Talk about things you may not be comfortable with because it is important to teach your kids that some online activities are not safe for them. As parents would tell their kids to not talk to the strangers in real world, they should have the same attitude towards their children’s behavior in digital world. While talking to your own kids can be difficult at times, they may have a habit of assuming things out of you which may totally negate your intention such as they might consider your interest in their cybersecurity as you trying to spy on them. Therefore, it is important that you reassure them that your intention is to keep them safe from cyberattacks and that if they get a virus or click anything inappropriate, with no intention of doing so, then you will not hold them responsible, rather assure them that if anything suspicious or problematic happens, they should come to you before doing anything that may cause any more damage. Take time out to go online with your child and surf the internet while showing them what sort of content they should avoid and how to safely move around the web. Sharing information is also another issue with minors. They will share information that you may think should not be shared and kept private. Thus, people should talk about good and bad sharing practices with their children. Another problem for the parents to deal with is anonymous sharing. There are applications such as Whisper which lets users share information anonymously. Parents find it unsafe for kids to share information anonymously as they may use it to overshare information or find themselves as a victim of cyberbullying or could become a cyberbully. It is important to keep your children aware about sharing appropriate information and respect other’s privacy as much as your child would want for themselves. Here is a complete parent’s guide on what to to if your child is being Cyberbullied. Teach them to take care of their social media accounts, not leave them logged in on random browsers, share limited personal information, turn on two-factor authentication and come up with strong, complex passwords. Parents can also set up parental controls on their children’s device which can block access to inappropriate content. Since, most malwares come through inappropriate content, parental controls help in keeping the cybersecurity intact. But, unfortunately, malwares can find their way through different links that are generally sent into direct messages and emails. Tell your child to be careful while checking their emails and DMs as many random people would send them random messages as a bait to convince them to click the links attached. Tell them to only click links from sources that are authentic. Similarly, there are video streaming websites, such as YouTube, where the content may be authentic but the comment section under certain videos offer something intriguing to the users if they click the links attached. That is how attackers shoot their malware and makes understanding of the cybersecurity crucial. Online video gaming websites also have such risk which is why tell your child to be mindful of what sort of games they play and forbid themselves from clicking any links from the comment section on any YouTube video. Parents should also learn how much digital privacy for kids is good enough. With the cases of identity theft increasing, as a parent, you should know that your children are as vulnerable to such attacks as you are. The online data that your child might provide without your knowledge may put them at risk of being a victim of identity theft which can seriously damage their credit. Such an attack will make them unable to get student loans, thus, leaving their future in disarray. With numerous cybersecurity risks hovering over, tell your children about cybersecurity programs that offer to protect your data and keep your device clean from malware. These programs provide safety net from cyberattacks which at times users cannot figure out has infected their system. Another important thing to be discussed with your child is that they should always be careful about keeping their device updated to the latest OS. Getting all this important cybersecurity related stuff across your child’s head, will relieve you of the concern that your child maybe under potential risk of cybersecurity attack. And while you monitor their online activities, it is important to keep them in the loop and assure them that you will respect their privacy.
One might think that only romantic relationships can be toxic, but they also include relationships with toxic parents, too. Toxic parents don’t respect their children as individuals with their own separate identity. They don’t take responsibility for their behavior nor would they ever apologize for being wrong. These parents sometimes, suffer from some mental conditions as well. In some cases, they are not even aware of what their parenting habits could be doing to their children. When toxic parents don’t heal, they can pose serious damage to their children that makes it difficult for them to grow as a mentally-healthy individual. The recovery is equally difficult. Children who grow up in such kind of parenting environment might not realize the damage and are in denial even when they are older. Here are some toxic parenting habits which parents might be engaging in without realizing its harmful effects: Lack of Encouragement: A large number of parents still believe that parenting should involve plenty of strict rules and harsh discipline. These parents basically think of punishment as the only way to keep their kids disciplined. Although this works for making them obedient but does not necessarily lead to a healthy long-term parent-child relationship. Children need encouragement alongside correction. They become insecure and unhappy when they don’t get the praise and appreciation they deserve for accomplishing something. As a result, they feel that they would always have to try to win their parents’ approval. Also, they feel they wouldn’t be able to reach their goal. It is important that parents learn to differentiate between rebellious behavior and genuine little mistakes. And then, decide which act is worthy of punishment. If a child makes a foolish mistake, teach them gently and encourage them to do better next time. Do praise them when they succeed or achieve something. Your words of appreciation could do wonders for their self-esteem. No Regard for Personal Space: Not showing or expecting any respect for personal space is another problematic situation. Some parents don’t expect their children to respect a parent’s personal space while some don’t show any respect for personal space for children. On the other hand, some parents fail entirely in both of these areas. It is important to consider that both of the extremes are unhealthy. These actions don’t necessarily teach children what they need to know regarding boundaries. You cannot walk into a child’s room at any time unannounced or allow them to do the same to you. It is crucial to teach the kids that they have to knock and ask for permission before going into anyone’s room. You can have areas in the house the kids are not allowed to enter and there is nothing wrong with that. At the same time, also let them know that they have a right to their own personal space. It is not necessary to constantly breathe down their necks in the name of supervision. You cannot possibly be with them at all times. Be the best example yourself and teach them about healthy boundaries and respect as well. A Critical Attitude at all times: This resonates with our first point. Parents who withhold any kind of praise or encouragement fall into the habit of criticism. And they do it excessively. They naturally become overly critical of their children and whatever they do. As a result, kids end up feeling defeated. They lose their confidence and grow up thinking that they will never be able to get your approval and please their parents. So, next time you find yourself being overly critical and jumping all over them because of a small mistake that they made, take a pause and think. Is it necessary? Can’t you do without crushing their spirit like this? It is good to teach children the right way to do things but sometimes even if they don’t follow your way, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are wrong. Smothering your children: It is great to be one of those parents who love to spend time with their child, but this bonding has to be up to a certain limit. When taken to an unhealthy level, this converts into smothering and no child wants to be smothered by their parents at all times. When children are young they follow you everywhere and it is quite normal for them to spend time with their parents. As they grow up, they need to have their own space for their personal growth and personality development. You have to allow them to have more independence. There is nothing wrong to let them spend time with their age fellows and hang out with them. Always make an effort to know your children’s friends as well. This way, your children will learn important social skills on their own which are needed to grow into responsible adults. You cannot and should not hover over their shoulder 24/7. You cannot expect them to be with you at all times. If you are with them constantly, their personality would not blossom on its own. In the long run, you wouldn’t want to have a teen at your hands who cannot think for himself or figure out the simplest of things on their own without your supervision or intervention. Bullying your Children: Yes, it does exist. It may sound hard to believe but some parents bully their own children. For some, the only way to get their kids to do something is to bully them or make them afraid. These parents actually resort to screaming, violence and even threatening behavior to intimidate their children and force them into compliance. The results are no less than disastrous in the long run. (https://www.controleng.com/) Those parents who bully their kids fail to have a good long-term relationship with their children as they grow into adults. The children keep themselves at a distance and are afraid to come and talk to them about their problems, fearing humiliation or ridicule. Parents who opt for this bullying style of parenting need to
According to cybersecurity experts, if you are worried about protecting your personal data online, you are pretty much out of luck. Yes, you heard that right! The Cambridge Analytica controversy and other incidents related to data breaches have jeopardized the personal information of millions of Americans. Starting from names, contact information to even sensitive data like social security numbers have been stolen. Things are getting out of hands—it seems! A security technologist Bruce Schneier was asked what one can do to prevent their personal data from being harvested without their knowledge. His response was cold and straightforward i.e. “You can’t really do anything about it.” He is not the only cybersecurity expert to have this opinion. A handful of experts say that people have little to no power over their personal information once it goes into the hands of a third party. However, that does not mean you shouldn’t follow cybersecurity best practices like using two-factor authentication or complex passwords. Why is it so hard to protect your data online? Unfortunately, there are no laws in the United States that regulate data brokerage companies and surveillance capitalism, which is a new type of business model in which corporations sell your personal data to earn something in return. The only real way a user can take control of his personal information and prevent it from being used by third-party firms is to demand change at the legal and regulatory level and it’s a long shot. Anyone can buy and sell your data without your knowledge and consent and you can’t regulate that. Another unfortunate thing is that surveillance capitalism is a legal business model. As you sign up for services like Facebook, Uber and Tinder, you actually accept to the terms and conditions of the company by checking off the “I have read and agreed” box. You literally sign away the rights to your own information to engage with the product without even knowing about it. Once you sign that check-box, it’s completely legal for the company to do anything it wants with your data. A lot of people have actually given up trying to protect their personal data assuming there is nothing they can do to control their personal information. A prime example of such a business model is the Equifax hack of 2017. It exposed the data of approximately 148 million Americans. Equifax is not just a credit reporting agency, it is also a data broker and a lot of people don’t know about that. It is part of their business model and that’s where they earn the most revenue. The company collects information about its users, analyzes it, and sells it. Data brokers like these collect demographic information such as names, telephone numbers, addresses, professional, marital status, income etc. of the user. They also gather information on the list of items purchased by the user and how he paid for them. Furthermore, they keep track of the diseases, deaths, and divorces in the families of their users. They even collect information about everything we do on the internet. Who is safe from such data collection? The answer to this is “No one.” It’s mostly because there are no laws preventing companies from using consumer data the way they want. The real disappointment is that regulatory changes that would help safeguard the personal information of consumers are not on the horizon anytime soon. Companies like Equifax are not facing any consequences after such a huge data breach even though it became public. Let’s suppose somehow giants like these are penalized, it wouldn’t be much of a problem for them since it’s still cheaper than paying the attorney’s fee, right? Is there anything we can do to protect our information? Even though we have little to no control over how third-party companies use our data, there are a few things we can do to have a bit control over our financial information at least. For instance, experts recommend getting regular copies of your credit report to see if there is something there that should be reported. Long story short, there is not one action people can take to prevent companies from collecting their information. Hopefully, the blockchain technology will give consumers better control over their financial lives by putting data brokers and credit bureaus out of business; but again, it’s farfetched. Despite all this, people need to be careful about the information they give away when signing up on social networks or taking surveys with marketing firms. Whatever information you give out is used to profile you.
Twitch is one of the newest platforms that has taken over the gaming community by storm. If you or your children are associated with gaming or the Internet at all, you might have heard of it! It is an online video service and has become the world’s most popular live broadcasting platforms for things like personal streams to video-game streams to major videogame tournaments. Twitch is a great platform to discover new game titles and new and upcoming contenders in the gaming tournaments. However as with any major online platform, there are still some precautions one has to bear in mind to ensure your child is using it safely. Twitch Twitch is a platform where you can watch other people’s live streams, of them playing video-games, talking or just hanging out. Twitch can be accessed through desktop, iOS or Android apps and even gaming consoles such as the Xbox One or Playstation 4. Anyone can stream on twitch, which means that your kid might have had a go at streaming themselves playing a videogame. The service has over 100 million monthly viewers with more than 1 million broadcasters who have twitch streaming into a viable source of income. (https://mgtrailer.com) Who Are My Kids Watching on Twitch? Twitch is house to many users who have gained popularity over the years and have become the site’s top streamers. Many people who go on Twitch watch streamers for their personalities much like YouTube but Twitch is a more direct way to connect with your favorite personality. The Twitch community interacts with the streamer through the Twitch chat, which is a live feed of comments. With streamers who have millions of subscribers, the chat might as well be pointless since the chat stream is going by so fast. But streamers with not so many subscribers the twitch chat is a huge part of the community for that particular streamers. Twitch isn’t all video games though. Even though the video games category might be the most popular, other categories in the dedicated Creative hub exists where you can watch people paint, play music, cook or even catch up on Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting. Twitch has another category known as the ‘irl’ or in real life section where streamers will stream their lives, they don’t have a particular ‘act’ so to speak, it’s just them doing normal everyday things. Sounds boring but one of the most popular twitch streamers are ‘IRL’ streamers. How Kid Friendly is Twitch? Twitch doesn’t really have a family filter so there isn’t a real way to filter out popular streamers however most of the popular streamers make an effort to keep it family friendly as they are aware of their audience demographic and will refrain from obscene language or acts. That doesn’t really mean that they won’t ever, they might slip up here and there because it is a live broadcast but most mainstream streamers try to keep it family friendly. If your kid is into Minecraft or Fortnite and watches a lot of content related to it, streamers will most definitely be kid friendly. Their favorite content creators from YouTube might be on Twitch too so there is a crossover. Does it cost anything to use Twitch? An essential part of Twitch and its community is donating to streamers. Whether it be a dollar or a hundred dollars, viewers are able to donate to their favorite streamer. It is absolutely up to the viewer to donate. You might have to consider keeping an eye on your kid who impulse might donate to someone. You can watch any streamer you like for free however you subscriber to individual channels for $5 each. The benefits of subscribing to a channel is determined by the channel itself, it is usually exclusive emoticons and being included in subscriber only giveaways or to be a part of the live stream itself. Other than that, users can purchase Twitch Turbo, an $8.99 monthly subscription which gets you ad free videos, exclusive emoticons, a Turbo badge next to your username in the chat and extra video storage for streamers. How Does A Normal Stream Go? A normal stream will start by, first the streamer announcing on other social media platforms that they’re about to stream, or they will usually follow a schedule. If they have a schedule, that will also determine how long a stream might go, the usual time can range from half an hour to an hour. During the stream, viewers interact with one another and the streamer, and usually it is pretty laid back. It gets pretty exciting when something noteworthy is happening and it’s fun to react to a particular situation together. But one has to first see and get a vibe of the community of that streamer and the chat itself. The chat might expose your child to some foul behavior. There aren’t any universal chat filters for viewers however the people doing the broadcast have the ability to filter words and hyperlinks from their chats. The bigger channels should have absolutely no foul language in their chats. Chats are moderated by moderators chosen by the streamer and it is their responsibility to keep things in order. Other viewers can interact with you personally by using the Whisper feature, which is basically a personal message feature. The streamer can send you a Whisper too and it’s a good way to talk to someone in an actual conversation when the chat is going by fast. Just be vary of malicious content that might be sent through the Whisper feature. And if you want, you can hide the chat altogether. Blocking on Twitch You can easily block out and filter other people and unwanted on Twitch. Simply go to Setting>Security & Privacy. There, you will see an option to block messages, users, Whispers and group chat invites. If there’s just one party pooper in the chat, you have the option to mute them by hovering over their username and selecting the
It has been quite a long time since we have talked about this topic. I feel as if the time is exactly right to once again talk about online predators. You might have heard of the Facebook data leak. Over 87 million users have had their personal details and data leaked by Facebook and the research company Cambridge Analytica. The research company were hired to collect data for private buyers and that they accomplished quite well. But when the time came to delete the data, well it seems their might have been some slip ups and the data was leaked. This data was extremely personal information such as phone numbers and addresses. Anything you would want to put up on your Facebook profile without giving it a second thought. (jillszeder.com) Think to yourself, what have you uploaded to Facebook that might be used to hack into your personal life? The answer is pretty much literally everything. We upload to social media sites without a single thought of how it might be used against us. Facebook promised that it would never share your data with anyone ever yet it has continued to do so over the years. As such we cannot trust what we put online to be safe. Now, you do all of this as adults! Your kids have Facebook profiles too and the data that has leaked might be your child’s data as well. Usually what happens with data like this is that it is sold to the highest bidder. Unfortunately people who engage in this selling of data usually do it under the nose of the law. Transactions like this take place over the dark web. If you have any clue about what the dark web is, you will know that it is a hive of pedophiles, drugs, child porn, hitmen and so much more. Now just imagine, your children’s data could have ended up in the hands of one of these people. How You Can Protect Your Child So now, getting back to the main point of this piece: have your kids already been in contact with online predators? Data moves fast in the dark web and it is not unwise to suppose that someone might have already purchased data and put it to their own use Why this is dangerous for your child is because we seem to put everything from our addresses to our phone numbers on Facebook. A predator could be in contact with your child and grooming them as we speak. First things first, look over your child’s phone/device for any suspicious activity. If you seem like they have some apps, calls, texts or history hidden from you, install XNSPY parental monitoring app. This app will allow you to monitor conversations in every popular messaging app, as well as let you look at internet history, emails, and much more. You will have to use XNSPY’s location tracking feature to look at your child’s movements when they are not at home with you. This allows to monitor their normal movements and see if they are not headed for some suspicious locations. Since if the data stolen from Facebook had your address on it, you can never be too careful. Just to be safe, you can even restrict your child from going to certain locations and receive alerts on your phone if they do so. Take Every Precaution Necessary It should not surprise that your child might be already in contact with someone suspicious regardless of the Facebook leak. If not, this leak will make it almost certain that they are.As such you can make sure by analyzing the incoming and outgoing calls on your child’s phone and flag the ones you feel are suspicious. This allows to narrow down any possible predators that might be contacting your child without them being none the wiser. This then increases the chances of them getting caught by authorities. Whatever the outcome, you have to be sure that you are prepared for anything and keep your child’s safety in mind always. How to Safeguard against any Future Leaks It is not stupid to assume that leaks might happen again in the future and they might be even larger than the one we just faced. As such we have to take precautionary measures against it. Number one of which should be being careful about the personal information we post online to social media websites. It has become increasingly clear that these social media websites are not protecting our data and as such we have to do everything we can to protect ourselves and our children. Children can be protective of their privacy online especially from their parents. As a parent you might not even see your child’s profile since they might have blocked you from viewing it. As such you may need to use the help of parental monitoring apps like XNSPY to monitor what they are posting online, who they are contacting and what they are doing. As much as you would like, your children will not open up to you about what they do online. It is a safe haven for them, a place where they can do whatever without supervision. As you can imagine, this can lead to some disastrous results. Unsupervised internet usage has led to many deaths for kids. It is wise—in any capacity—to monitor your child’s internet usage. You could ward off many potential threats by doing so. Remember to stay vigilant, stay active and monitor your kids. The internet is a big scary place and a lot can happen if one allows. You, as the parent must step in as the mediator of the chaos of the internet and your child’s safety. It is only the parents that can totally protect their kids from harm- one can never always rely on the authorities to do that. They have enough on their plate and are not prepared for what might happen when such data leaks as the one with Facebook occur.
This is a question that I think parents ask in countries plagues by war might ask themselves everyday but not a country like the United States. Parents now legitimately are in fear of sending their kids off to school where they might be gunned down by someone who they might have known their entire lives. It is a sad sad situation where as a parent we must only strengthen our resolve and do everything we can to look after our children better. Gun violence in the United States of America is sad state of affairs and whatever the solution may be, the problem still persists. There are more deaths by guns and gun violence in the United States of America than anywhere else in the developed world. There have been over 20 incidents where a firearm has been discharged at a school premises in 2018 alone and bear in mind we are only three months into the year. There has been an average of 1.4 school shooting per year in the United States. The Sandy Hook incident and many others like it before left us shocked, horrified and ashamed that we allowed for such things to happen. The response from the government has not yielded any results. As a parent these circumstances are more than just troublesome. What do we do if the government or any other department cannot keep our children safe? Parents Need to Take Things into their Own Hands If you feel as if though there is no one that will ensure the safety of your kids, start doing it yourselves. Honestly, there is nothing more important you can do as a parent than look after the safety of your own child. But what exactly can you do? Well number one, you start by actually looking after them! Yes, actually look at what they are doing, who they are hanging out with, who they are interacting with etc. You will need to make an active effort to get to know your child’s life and look after them. You might be wondering why it might be important at all to know who they interact with at all. Well you see out of all the school shootings that have occurred, it was almost always an individual that the children knew. There have not been many incidents like these where the culprit was not someone the victims knew of already. Now, your child might not notice the signs of this individual but you- an adult might instantly be able to recognize the telltale signs of a maniac. You can of course accomplish all of this using the features XNSPY. XNSPY has actually been specially catered towards parents worried about the safety of their children. It allows access to messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Kik and more. It is your one stop shop to monitor your children’s interactions and behavior. Speaking of behavior, children and teenagers all display behavior differently. As a parent you are the only one who knows your child’s behavior the best and can identify signs related to aggression etc. But of course, you are not around your child all the time and even more so with the online world- who knows what they might get up to there. But with XNSPY you can know. Some parents might scoff at the idea of their children being at fault. But it is exactly this sort of dismissive attitude that leads to children becoming more and more secretive and even more aggressive. Have you ever considered the idea of your own child becoming the next school shooter? Immediately reading this you would want to close out of this window. I know, it is a natural response. I would too if someone accused my child of being a murderer. But the fact of the matter is that the individuals who gunned down innocent children at schools were in fact also children and teens. They had parents too, they had lives as well. Now this is not some attempt at humanizing these monsters. But it is not interesting to think that these shootings might have been stopped if their parents looked after them? If their parents took a more active part in their lives, monitored them, monitored their behavior. The Florida shooter ‘showed every red flag’ and if his guardians had been more observant things might have gone differently. Are We Doing Everything we can to protect our kids? It is easy to be dismissive of your child’s attitude, it is easy to ignore their many mistakes, it is easy to be lazy but it is not easy to lose their lives of because of this. You will need to take a more active part in your child’s life, I keep repeating that because it is lost on so many parent’s ears. Please for the love of your children’s live take care of them and look at what they are watching, what they are doing, who they are interacting with. It does no good to anyone if you let them be. That is just lazy and you should be ashamed if you do this. You are their parents and you are allowed to take whatever means necessary to ensure their safety. No one is going to do it for you I you do not do it yourself. (https://nuttyscientists.com) Which brings things to my next question. How much exactly are we doing to ensure our children’s safety at home. And by home, I mean their surroundings, their society, their country even. Right now, a child could easily purchase firearms from any private seller without question- as this video demonstrates. This is not safe for anyone around the child, and not safe for the child them self. We have seen government regulations fail time and again and the number of school shooting has increased dramatically instead of decline. Thus, like I said before, we need to do everything as parents to ensure the safety of our kids. ‘We’ as in the
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