Archive for March, 2008

A Couple of Good Resources from the Well of Online Safety

Monday, March 31st, 2008

It’s the end of the day on Monday and I am sitting here ashamed of myself for not blogging these last few days… To make up for it, I’m going to share some sites that I think readers of the Pandora’s Blog will find interesting… These are some interactive online safety communities that we approve [...]

Florida Man Arrested for Trying to Set Up Sex with 11-Year-Old

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

This type of post is my guilty-as-charged go-to topic when I don’t have much else for the day…
WBBH/ NBC-2 in Ft. Myers FL reported about another sicko who traveled “more than 100 miles to meet [a] girl who he thought was 11-years-old.”
22-year-old Alexander Quinones traveled from Miami to a shopping center in East Naples on [...]

Parents in Indiana Can Feel A Bit Safer in ‘08

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

This blog headline page (which I think is a great idea) basically highlights the top stories from the Journal Gazette in Indiana. Anne Gregory is the author and today she wrote a good post about a recently passed state law that helps protect kids from online predators:
New law protects children from predators
Senate Enrolled Act 258 prohibits [...]

Common Sense Internet Safety

Monday, March 24th, 2008

Happy Monday everyone. To start the week off right, I want to share this video I found which is a PSA of sorts between the folks at Common Sense Media and Google video.
President of CSM and mom of two boys, Anne Zehren, narrates this video of common sense tips and rules for families to help [...]

KidZui – Internet with Training Wheels

Friday, March 21st, 2008

What a great idea. Normally, I wouldn’t tout another product or piece of software, but this one just seems to make sense. You may have heard of it – it’s called KidZui and it’s like a special Internet with training wheels.
Here’s the gist: KidZui is a new web browser designed for kids ages 3 to [...]

Two More Reasons to Use Monitoring Software

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

Couple of stories I’ve read about recently involving sickos on the Net… this is for all the skeptics that just keep saying “Oh, please. The Internet is safe… fears are overblown.”
Army recruiter accused of meeting teens on MySpace
22-year old Richard Brenton met two 16-year-old girls in February on MySpace. He arranged to meet them in [...]

PC Pandora Joins the CyberHood Watch

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

A bit of self and cross-promotion here today on the blog. I am very pleased to announce the first event I what we expect to be a long and fruitful relationship with the guys at CyberHood Watch.
Dave Ballard and Bill Wardell have started an online community that serves as an Internet neighborhood watch – hence, [...]

Undercover Parents

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

My wonderful mother-in-law pointed this article out to me over the weekend. I loved it so much that I am going to use parts of it in an interview today on BlogTalkRadio with our new friends at CyberHood Watch, AND I’m posting the WHOLE THING here. I’ve also linked the original article and I’ve highlighted [...]

“AOL to Buy Bebo” or “Hope You Like Ads”

Monday, March 17th, 2008

I’m sure you’ve heard the news that AOL has entered into an agreement to acquire leading global social media network Bebo for $850 million. Let’s all point at and call out the elephant in the room: obviously this is nothing more than an acquirement of space to advertise and pollute with commercials.
Much like Murdoch’s consuming [...]

New Hampshire Bill Tries to Tackle Internet Predators

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

As I did yesterday, here is one state’s movement on nabbing Internet predators and purveyors of child pornography. Kevin Landrigan of the Nashua Telegraph wrote a lengthy piece on Bill No. SB 495: Court deals a blow to sex-predator bill.
Here’s a short summary of his piece, though I do highly encourage reading it…
BILL AT [...]