Pandora's Blog

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 – [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Didn’t have much news to post over the last few days that was worth noting – but today I found a couple things… Hailing from the Connecticut State government (courtesy of Jennifer Abel at the Hartford Advocate), looks at a new law that would require computer sex criminals to be monitored by the state for [...]

As much as I criticize and personally loathe MySpace and social networking, as a student of journalism, I try to be as objective as possible and will continue to report the on-goings of both sides of the coin. In this case, today I will applaud MySpace for (at least publicly) taking a step forward.   [...]

The number of lives tragically brought to an end with the word “MySpace” attached to their story has increased. This story from Arizona (Police: Teen Killed Dad For Banning MySpace) is the manifestation of a premise I have eluded to, but never thinking it could ever go this far: the current teenage generation’s mental and physical [...]

I was just about out of luck for today’s post (I am trying to do 1 per day) and I found this excellent blog: fraudarena… and more so, this excellent post that also questions the overall tone and validity of the recent study “debunking” predator myths. In fact, I liked what they had to say [...]

Amy Tiemann at cNet wrote on her blog about a New York Times article that surfaced last week by tech columnist David Pogue. How Dangerous Is the Internet for Children? (Pogue’s column) is a good look into and case against the media’s over-hyping of online threats. While I am not going to rush in and [...]

Please know that I don’t write these posts to be overly malicious. I’m not an old fuddy duddy… I’m not asking to ignore technology or smash your computer and run to a bunker or live in fear of a “Cybernet.” I post these to remind parents that these guys ARE out there, the threat IS [...]