The Mom Salon | Mom Blog Directory, Mom Blogs + Product Reviews for Moms + Social Network for Mom, Mommy Bloggers

McAfee's Teen/ Mom Internet Safety Survey
Thursday, October 23, 2008

Yesterday I had an amazing conversation with McAfee's Chief Cyber Security Mom, Tracy Mooney, and Family Internet Safety Advisor, Parry Aftab. McAfee has just released a comprehensive study about teen's Net use and it has many people concerned. Of note, here are a few statistics I found particularly troubling:

18% of teens have been stalked or approached by a stranger or someone they don't know and 28% report that this has happened to a friend or someone they know
20% say their friends have been cyberpranked
34% of teen girls have given out personal information online to someone they don't know offline, including one if four (24%) who have shared personal photos and/ or physical descriptions of themselves (2x as many as boys)

As a mom of three, Tracy Mooney, recommends keeping an open dialogue going with your kids about the dangers of using the Internet and also stresses that you should teach your children how to behave on the Internet because, after all, it is a world too. And parents need to pay attention and understand the technology that kids are using these days and have a grasp of the capabilities of the various tech devices kids use each day such a

s if they can connect with others or if they have Internet access.

Parry Aftab stressed that all parents should use the 3Cs approach to new technology: content, contact and cost.

From her McAfee blog she writes:

Content includes things our children can see, access and do online. It might include false information, sexually-explicit graphics, or hate-based material. It also might include fun and entertaining activities for our children.

Contact involves ways that our children can communicate online with others or that others can reach out and communicate with our children.

Cost may encompass commercial risks and abuses, such as data collection; advertising, marketing and promotional online activities; or things you can buy on Amazon.com. It may also involve piracy and our children, and possibly being sued by the music or motion picture industry for illegal downloads. (Source)

To read more mom insights and tips about cyber safety, click here to check out Tracy Mooney's McAfee blog.

And to read expert advice, check out Parry Aftab's McAfee blog.

As the holiday season races full steam ahead, Tracy and Parry will offer more information and quick tips for moms on how to best keep your children safe online and how you can determine the types of tech devices you would like your kids to own.

- Jennifer James, Editor

Labels: parenting, technology

posted by The Mom Salon Editors @ 8:46 AM,

1 Comments:

At October 26, 2008 12:54 AM, Tony Zayas said...: Some frightening stats listed here! I completely agree with opening up the dialog between parents and kids.
I found this short post and thought it would be good pointers to start with - Teen Online Safety No Joke