Trend Micro shared the above stats with me as part of my participation in the year long Digital Joneses family study. I have learned so much about internet safety in the past months but every time they share statistics with … Continue reading
I like shopping at Walgreens because it’s easy to get in and get out. I’d been hearing about the new Balance Rewards program at Walgreens and finally got a chance to check it out when Sinisa told me he needed … Continue reading
Do you see Jacob and Sinisa in the above picture with the characters from Marvel’s The Avengers? How cool is that?! While we didn’t actually meet any of the above characters we posed with them at Walmart using a smartphone … Continue reading
The experts at the Toy Industry Association– the nonprofit trade association representing all businesses involved in creating and bringing toys and youth entertainment products to kids of all ages – have released their list of the best products to help … Continue reading
Having a hotspot to connect wireless devices to is great. I used mine at a blog event to connect a blogger’s smartphone to the internet so she could tweet when she didn’t have cell service. It’s also convenient to have … Continue reading
Think about all of the things you do online. You email, you save and share pictures, you connect with family and friends on social networks, you bookmark recipes and ideas you want to do in the future…now imagine if one … Continue reading
A recent Trend Micro Digital Joneses survey found that 41 percent of homes with kids five and under have internet connected game consoles and that more kids access the internet through game consoles than through a computer, so keeping kids … Continue reading
As a family in the Digital Joneses campaign for Trend Micro we have a challenge to complete every month. This month’s challenge was focused on mobile security and staying safe while on the go. To complete the challenge we received … Continue reading
Not Yo Mama’s Mama – a Digital Mom Infographic by Internet Exposure
We have teamed up with So Lo La Deals to bring you this Awesome iPod Shuffle Giveaway. So Lo La Deals is a Brand new Daily Deal site which is launching in June. We are super excited to see what … Continue reading
I shared previously that my family is part of a year long study with Trend Micro called The Digital Joneses. Each month we are given internet security related challenges. Last month Sinisa and I had to take a quiz to see how technologically savvy we were and this month we have to have “the talk” with our kids {no, not the one about the birds and the bees… the other important talk- the one about internet safety}.
Out of the seven bloggers in the study, I have the youngest children so I wasn’t sure how to approach the subject of online safety since Jacob is not on social networks and he doesn’t go online without my supervision. One thing he does do though is go on YouTube to watch videos. He is three so he is watching video clips from kid shows but occasionally a video will come up that was made by an adult. A lot of times it’s just the same clip of the cartoon with inappropriate music playing in the background but it’s still something I don’t want him watching. And if something like that can show up in search results for his favorite shows, it makes me wonder what other things can pop up.
In preparing for “the talk” I checked out the Trend Micro website and looked over the questions they had put together for parents to use as conversation starters. {You can find the questionnaire with questions for children of all ages here.} I knew that I would have to keep the questions really basic but they gave me good ideas on what to talk about.
The first question that I asked my preschooler was what he liked to do on daddy’s phone. {We don’t call it the internet and he usually uses his dad’s phone to go on the internet so that’s why I worded it the way I did.}
Jacob’s reply- “Watch Videos. Thomas game. Cars game.”
The next question I asked him was what he would do if something came up on the screen that wasn’t Cars or Thomas?
His reply- “Click it.”
Umm. That’s a problem. I explained to him that if something came up on the screen that wasn’t Cars or Thomas or anything he watches on television it was important that he show it to mommy or daddy right away. I also told him he should not click on anything but one of his shows.
The last question I asked him was why he thought that mommy and daddy needed to watch him while he watched his movies and played his games on daddy’s phone.
His reply- “Cause I want dad be happy.”
Well that was a good answer. I also added that there could be bad things on there so mommy and daddy needed to watch him so he didn’t see bad things.
He said- “bad things?”, paused for a second, and then said “I go upstairs now?” I breathed a sigh of relief that further explanation of all the bad things he could find online was a conversation that could wait till he was older. And honestly? It’s one that I wish I never had to have in the first place!
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Keep up with the Digital Joneses here.
(Disclosure: I am receiving technology and software as a member of the Digital Joneses blogger study but all thoughts are my own.)
Making Time For Mommy 