This week, I was visited by a very distressed client. Her 11yo daughter was an avid user of an app on her school iPad - an app that so many of her friends are also using. The app is called Musical.ly. Apparently its use is spreading like wildfire among young children, especially girls. It is an app that allows kids to records videos of themselves singing, lip sync'ing and dancing. They then share these videos on Musical.ly - so that their 'followers' (who you would hope are just their friends) can see their work. In turn, the kids follow others who post their own videos. They can post comments on the videos they watch. In allowing their daughter to install this app, the parents had checked the age rating (12+) and decided to allow the download. After all, 12+ seems like a very safe rating for an app - so it must be designed for kids (one would think). After creating the child's account, they had gone into the settings for their daughter's Musical.ly account and set it to 'Private' - meaning that only 'friends' could view the videos their daughter would post. They thought this would be enough to protect their daughter while using this app - that this would mean that the girl's videos. They also discussed with the child the importance of only following and being followed by true friends - people she knew is real life! The trouble with apps like Musical.ly The trouble with Musical.ly is that you cannot stop a child's profile photo, name and 'bio' appearing for the whole world to see! So, anyone scanning the list of Musical.ly users would easily see which users are young kids. As can occur with many apps like this one, this child received a 'follow' request from someone that she did not know - someone who appeared to be a cute young boy who was, co-incidentally (!), exactly the same age as the girl. She had accepted his invitation, despite her parents' warnings. This meant that this 'boy' could see the various videos the child had recorded - sometimes in her school uniform, sometimes in PJ's, and sometimes with her little sister. Direct messaging in apps like this What the parents also did not realise is that the Musical.ly app has a 'messaging' feature built into the app - one that allows Musical.ly users to chat with each other in 'private' conversations. So this 11yo girl had been chatting with this 'boy' over a period of time - during which time, the boy had provided his iCloud email address and suggested that they continue their online conversation via the Messages app instead of Musical.ly. The girl agreed and initiated an Messages conversation - meaning the 'boy' now had the young girl's email address. It was only when a teacher noticed the child using Messages during a class - and then noticed the tone of the Messages conversation - that alarm bells went off and the parents were alerted. The school was that concerned that they contacted the police. It's frightening how far this could have gone In the Messages communications, this 'boy' had been trying to get the 11yo girl to Facetime (ie video chat) with him. He was trying to help her work out why she could not seem to find the Facetime app on her device. Luckily, this girl's parents were very proactive in 'locking down' features such as Facetime on their children's i-Devices, so that the children have to ask for permission to use this app. At other times, the app is completely inaccessible. This may have saved this child from an experience that doesn't really bear thinking about. While this 'boy' may have actually have been an 11yo 'boy', it is highly likely this was an online predator. Do your kids use Musical.ly? Musical.ly is supposed to be restricted to 13+ users, and users aged 13-18 are supposed to require parental approval. However, this all means nothing - since anyone can set up a Musical.ly account, and no birthdate is requested. If you do allow your kids to use Musical.ly, be aware that making the account 'Private' is not enough. Make sure in settings that the 'hide location info' and 'only friends can direct.ly me' settings are On (green). Their photo should not be included, and any name/bio information should not identify their sex or provide an indication of their age. Unfortunately, there is no way of stopping kids from changing these settings to become less 'private' - since there is no 'parental control' aspect to this app. Personally, I would not allow any child under 13 to use this app. For young teenagers, I would suggest close monitoring of any use of the app and any 'followers' in their list that are not real friends. Want to read more about Musical.ly? Here is an article containing similar warnings to above, which I found while assisting this iTandCoffee Client. As this article states, make sure you download and familiarise yourself with any app like this. It is critical to ensure you fully understand what the app involves, and the risks to which you may be exposing your child - both in terms of content and potential predators. Do you need help or adviceiTandCoffee can help. We offer classes and private appointments, to help parents navigate the tricky area of how to keep their kids safe online. We can also help you with issues around setting up iPad and iPhones in a family environment (including sorting out issues with iCloud!). Email enquiries@itandcoffee.com.au or call 1300 885 420 for further details. Related articles
0 Comments
23/3/2016 0 Comments Worried about your young teen's online safety? Here's a book they (and you) MUST read.Last Saturday saw iTandCoffee present an iPad information session in the north-west Victorian town of Hopetoun, at the annual Women On Farms Gathering - a wonderful event where farming women gather from all over Victoria. One of the keynote speakers at this event was an amazing women and author who hails from a small town in that region - Fleur Ferris. She has written a novel, titled Risk, which is targeted at teen girls. It is about the dangers of the online world - how a young girl can be so easily 'groomed' by online predators and, potentially, put herself at risk. She spoke at Saturday's gathering about how the book culminated from her own experiences as a police officer, paramedic, and neighbour of someone whose daughter was directly impacted by this dangerous world. She has three young daughters, and wanted to find a way to educate and protect them from harm. The book is now a best-seller in the teen category, and is being translated into several different languages. It is also appearing on the English curriculum in some schools. I would highly recommend buying this book for your teenage daughter (and perhaps son) - and even reading it yourself, so that you too are aware of the dangers our kids face. 26/2/2016 0 Comments Why parental controls did not stop inappropriate content on my child's iPad. Beware!As the control-freak mother that I am, I like to do the occasional 'audit' of my 12yo son's school iPad. In particular, I want to ensure that there has been no inappropriate content accessed from Safari or downloaded to his iPad. (I know. He is so unlucky to have me as a mother!) Did 'Limiting Adult Content' really do the trick? I have already set up his iPad to 'Limit Adult Content' in Safari and set him up as a 'child' in my iCloud Family, who has to 'Ask to Buy' when he downloads any apps from the App Store. Restrictions are in place to limit any apps he sees in the App Store to 'age appropriate' apps only. With all this, I was fairly confident that nothing too bad would be found when I did this audit this week. I had a look through his web browsing history to see what sort of sites he had been accessing. There were a LOT of YouTube pages accessed in Safari. I had not put the YouTube app on his iPad, so Safari was his only way of accessing YouTube content. Most of what I saw fairly tame - some fairly crude 'boy-stuff', but not too bad. But I have to say that I was very shocked at a couple that I saw. One was an animation, first showing a male having genetalia hacked off (with lots of animated blood), and then a woman being mutilated (again with lots of animated blood). While it was only an animation, it really was very sickening to watch. Now, I don't know if he actually watched the full video, and I don't know if he only accidentally stumbled across it. But it made me realise just how much inappropriate content and appalling language is still able to be accessed on YouTube - even when you have the 'Limit Adult Content' control in place. Restricting a particular website is sometimes also necessary So, I added an extra restriction to his iPad, to cut off access to the YouTube website in Safari - at least until we could have a conversation and work on some rules and expectations (again) around future YouTube use. I was surprised that, for the few days that he had no YouTube access, I had heard no complaints! When we finally had our 'mother/son' chat last night, I found out why. 'Ask to Buy' may not stop unexpected apps appearing your child's i-Device To my surprise, I discovered that, when he found he didn't have access to YouTube through Safari, he simply downloaded the YouTube App. How could this have been allowed? Hadn't I had set him up as a 'child' Family member when I set up this iPad, so that he would have to ask permission for any purchases/downloads? I checked - and yes, I still had in place the 'Ask to Buy' setting in Settings ->iCloud->Family. How was he able to download the YouTube app without me giving any permission? He told me that he found the YouTube in the list of Apps that have been purchased or downloaded by me. Here's the trick. As a family member of our iCloud Family, he could download any of my (or other family member) Apps without asking permission, and with no notification to me as the 'parent' in the iCloud Family. This morning I have looked into this further and realised that, if he had bothered to try, he could download many other apps that are registered as 'purchased' against my iTunes account - including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik Messenger, etc etc - all the apps that I specifically DON'T want him using at this stage, especially not on his school iPad. In the App Store, these apps are all rated as 12+ or 4+ apps, so fit within the 'age restriction' I have set up in Restrictions. Oops. Drat. The iCloud Family was not working the way I intended, especially when the family member is a fairly tech-savvy 12yo boy. An extra 'restriction' to apply when you set up iCloud Family for a child The good news is that there is a solution for this. The apps that you have purchased/downloaded previously, but don't want your child Family member to download, can be 'hidden' so that they are no longer able to be seen in the list of your previous purchases. This will prevent your child from downloading them without your permission or knowledge. Apps can be 'unhidden' again if this is ever needed (for example, if you should need to re-download to your own or another device). So, today I will be going through the list of Apps listed against my iTunes account - and against other family member accounts - and 'hiding' those that I don't want appearing on my son's iPad. A 'handy hint' on the topic of 'hiding' and 'unhiding' apps will be published soon, so keep an eye out for it in the iTandCoffee Newsletter. Have you set up any Parental Controls on your own child's i-Device? iTandCoffee can help. The topic of how to set up 'Parental Controls' on an iPad (or iPhone, iPod Touch) will be covered on Friday March 4th at 9am at an information session being held for Glen Iris Primary School parents (in the school library). We will also look at this issue of 'hiding' and 'unhiding' Apps. Glen Iris Primary School parents can book here to attend this session. If you would like a similar session run at your own school, or are interested in attending a class on this topic at iTandCoffee, call 1300 885 420 or email enquiry@itandcoffee.com.au. One-on-one assistance is also available if you need it. It is not easy to understand all the setup that is required. 7/2/2016 0 Comments Read this article - then make sure you block adult content on your child's (and your own) iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and computerI saw this article in The Age today (Sunday Feb 7th) that really made me think about how much more easily kids today can gain easy access to damaging material - perhaps causing lifelong damage, as described in this article. The SMH.com.au article talks about how just one early contact with pornographic material (through the Playboy magazine) opened a child's eyes - far to early - to adult concepts and sexuality. This was at a point where the child was too young to understand that what she saw was not representative of healthy male/female relationships. Back then, it was not quite so easy for a child to gain access to pornographic material, so less came in contact with such damaging material at an early age. These days, it can be as simple as opening their Safari app on an iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone - or perhaps on mum and dad's computer - and typing in some words. Perhaps these words have been heard and not understood at school. Our kids are tech savvy at a young age, and can easily Google to gain the answers to questions they don't want to ask someone else. What has been seen cannot be unseen. This article really rams home this reality and the potential lifelong impacts of what has been seen at a too-young age. At iTandCoffee, we are passionate about educating parents about how to keep kids safe on Apple technology - iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches and Macs. We want to close that 'adult content' gate before the horse bolts - because it is too late then. The 'Keeping kids safe on iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches' class is run on a regular basis at iTandCoffee (at 34 High St Glen Iris, Vic) and is next scheduled for Wednesday February 10th, 10am-12pm. If you have not set up parental controls on your child's device, please come along and find out how easy it is to protect your own child, and any other children that might also use your family's device/s. Bring this iTandCoffee class to your schoolIf you are interested in bringing this class to parents at your child's school, call iTandCoffee on 1300 885 420 or email enquiry@itandcoffee.com.au.
We are only too happy to present this class to parent groups in schools or other venues. Special discounted pricing may apply depending on the location and the number of attendees. Talk to us about this. Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours with a friend, helping her set up school iPads for two of her children. There is such a long list of things to do when setting up your child's school iPad, and we both marvelled at how the average parent would be able to complete this list of setup tasks without assistance!. I am waiting on the delivery of my son's school iPad, and will be going through the same list of tasks when it arrives. So I figured it would be worth writing down the list, for myself and for others who need to do the same thing over these next few weeks. (Please note that this is intended as a checklist, and does not include the 'how to' of every step. iTandCoffee can help with this if anyone gets stuck!) Don't forget to do the same setup on their iPhone too (if they are lucky enough to have one). One of the topics discussed amongst the Mums at the iTandWine evening on Friday 6th Nov was how to control what the kids can watch on YouTube. One of the mums bemoaned that, even though she had set up Restrictions on her son's iPad to stop any inappropriate websites in Safari, this did not cover the YouTube app - which was still able to show highly in appropriate content to her 8yo. You can actually utilise a 'parental controls' setting in YouTube to restrict the type of content that can be viewed. Here is the article that was published early September on this very topic, with a link to an article that gives instructions for different types of devices. If you are interested in attending a 'Keeping kids Safe on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch' class, email iTandCoffee at classes@itandcoffee.com.au. One of the topics that came up at recent Keeping Kids Safe on iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone classes with school parents was that of how to ensure place parental controls on YouTube. Many people are not aware that YouTube actually includes a setting that allows you to restrict that YouTube content that kids will see. Check out this article on the topic. If you are really concerned about how to really restrict what your kids can see on YouTube, you may want to consider a 'kid-friendly' YouTube app that replaces the standard YouTube app, and restricting your child's access to the YouTube website in Safari (or even blocking their use of Safari). For more about how to set up Parental Controls on an iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone, why not attend a Keeping Kids Safe on iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone class at iTandCoffee in October and November. Click here for details or to book. 29/8/2015 0 Comments We're going to talk about keeping kids safe on their iPads, iPhones, iPods - at St Dominics PS, CamberwellIt's time again to talk online safety for kids, especially kids on Apple mobile device - iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches. Many kids will soon be getting new devices for school use, or as gifts for Christmas, and it is important parents understand just what they are putting in the hands of their children. Have you considered that these small devices are actually mini-computers? Do you know how to ensure that your child is only able to access age-appropriate websites, apps and content on any i-Devices they access? This applies equally to their own devices, parent devices and grandparents' devices - any devices that they are able to access. St Dominics Primary School Camberwell is hosting two iTandCoffee information sessions for parents (and grandparents), on the topic of "Keeping kids safe on their iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches". We will cover essential information that all parents and grandparents - especially those with primary school aged children - need to know, and look at the steps to take to make devices 'kid-safe'. Parents can attend on either Monday Sept 7th or Friday 11th Sept at 9:30am. Why not join us? See more information and book here. Can't make these dates/times? Email iTandCoffee at bookings@itandcoffee.com.au with details of what days/dates/times suit you, and we will endeavour to arrange a session that suits those who have emailed us. Thanks to all the lovely mums who came along to the free iTandCoffee morning tea today. Another such morning tea will be scheduled in March some time, so keep an eye out for details in an upcoming iTandCoffee newsletter. As promised to those mums, here is the blog article published in January about the dangerous apps that every parent should check for on their childrens' devices. Here are some other articles and a 'handy hint' that have been published by iTandCoffee on the topic of kids and CyberSafety on Apple devices
Why not also check out iTandCoffee's free videos and guide covering parental controls on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Please don't wait until something bad happens to your child to finally take an interest in what they do on their device. Every parent needs to read this article, then check their children's mobile devices to see if they are using the listed apps.
|
What's on at iTandCoffee ?Below is our list of videos, classes and other events that are coming up soon.
Videos shown are offered for eligible members of the iTandCoffee Club. If you have questions, why not join fun and informative 'user group' meetings, held once a month. All iTandCoffee classes are run as online classes (using Zoom), which means you can attend from anywhere. |
27 Sycamore St, Camberwell, Victoria Australia
Call +61 444 532 161 or 1300 885 320
to book an appointment or class, or to enquire about our services and products
SENIORS CARD WELCOME HERE:
Seniors Card holders qualify for a 10% discount on all classes booked and paid for online (excludes PTT sessions and classes already discounted during COVID-19 crisis). To activate the discount at the time of booking, select Redeem Coupon or Gift Certificate and enter 10OFFSEN before selecting Pay Now. |
© 2012-2024 iTandCoffee Pty Ltd. All rights reserved ACN: 606 340 434