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 of and are becoming members of… Toss them on the radar and take a looksee…

The Internet Safety Podcast is a non-profit weekly program to educate parents, teachers, and teens about the benefits and risks of technology. The program helps make technical issues and solutions accessible in an educational, entertaining, and useful way.

The show is hosted by Dr. Charles D. Knutson (Ph D. in computer science), an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University, and Joe Brockbank, who holds a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.B.A. from Brigham Young. The two have been hanging out in the technology space for 20 years or so, and have been friends since the mid-‘80s.

All parents should listen to this weekly podcast. Also, their newly set-up wiki should be bookmarked for good reference. It’s a growing online community with safety in mind… much like our friends at the CyberHood Watch. Check out the wiki and listen to the podcasts.

Then there is Scott Hendison, an Internet consultant that runs Web Safe Kid. Don’t know why it took me over a year to discover his blog, but he’s been bringing issues to light and writing original (and very well-written, I should add) articles on Internet safety. Check out what he has to say.

And of course, don’t forget to peruse our pcpandora.com site for some tips and a direct link to download, try and buy the best most awesome parental aid you can get – PC Pandora version 5.0 monitoring software!

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 Friday to meet a youngster he met online, in hopes of sex. Of course, it was an undercover cop and Quinones was arrested and charged with three felonies for using a computer to lure, solicit and travel to meet a child. It was the payoff to more than three months of chatting online.

The story is available online as a video (story by Adam Freeman) and also serves as a character profile of Detective Scott Rapisarda of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, who spends his days posing as an 11-year old girl online.

Rapisarda also offered some tips for parents. He says parents should always ask questions and should always keep an eye on who your children are chatting with and what chat rooms they go into.

Couldn’t have said it better… it’s the bottom line hard truth to the whole issue. Fortunately, tools like PC Pandora monitoring software can help you gain that knowledge…

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 a registered sex offender convicted of certain crimes involving children from knowingly using social networking web sites, instant messaging programs or chat room programs that the offender knows include children. It also requires them to submit their email addresses and usernames to the Registry and to notify the Registry if they obtain new or revised addresses or usernames within 72 hours of the change.

Failure to provide updated information will be a Class D felony.
Indiana is just one of a handful of states that require the email and username for the Registry. These provisions were authored by State Representative Shelli VanDenburgh (D-Crown Point) and were originally contained in HB 1134 before being added to SB 258 in conference committee.

SB 258 also addressed other issues relating to criminal offenders and Internet usage, and it was authored by State Senator John Waterman (R-Shelburn) and sponsored by State Representative Vernon Smith (D-Gary). The law will take effect July 1, 2008.

Basically, predators have to register their online lives as well as their real-life lives… It’s a great step in the right direction, but not an answer or the end of the issue. Parents still need to be involved and know what their child is doing. Monitoring computer activity of minors is essential for 21st century parents. Fortunately, you have PC Pandora monitoring software to help!

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 keep their children safe online.

The video contains a lot of great info in very basic and easy-to-understand language. I almost feel it’s a bit two long and they could have made a few vignettes – but then again, there is no assurance that parents will keep clicking to watch, so all-in-1 can be better sometimes.

Either way, video is here – please watch! And also, please remember that tips and education is only part of the battle… monitoring your kids (with PC Pandora version 5) and actually knowing that they are doing is essential for 21st century parents raising their kids in a tech-saturated world.

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 12 years old. The browser is subscription based and builds a special Internet for kids from the ground up. So rather than filtering the vast adult Internet, this one starts with nothing, and a staff of teachers and parents, running 24/7, selects, adds and approves content every day. If the content is not added – your child will never see it.

The site is starting with about 500,000 Web sites, pictures and videos, and access to their favorite games or the best sites for kids. KidZui was created in such a way that the experience will be easy for children, and in ways that will help them personalize it.

While that may not sound like such a big web compared to the adult net, this is certainly a good start for pre-pubescent children, whom many feel shouldn’t be on the Net at all. This, at least, is a good practice area for the technology enthusiast families.

Built for both PCs and Macs, KidZui is available for a free 30-day trial period. Parents who sign up following that trial can take advantage of a special subscription rate of $4.95 per month, or $49.95 per year, which is a 50% reduction over the usual monthly and annual rates of $9.95 and $99.95.

I applaud the program’s ideas and the service it is providing. But I must say that a normal price of $100 per year seems a bit high. Effectively, if you start a 5 year old on this and keep them on for 5 years, that its $500 you are spending to let them access the Internet. While you can’t put a price on child safety, the $50/year they are offering now is more like it…

Either way, this is a great way to start kids getting involved with the Internet. Then, later on, you can use PC Pandora monitoring software to monitor their dabblings on the adult Internet.

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 Saratoga County [New York], and then brought them back to his Green Island home, where both stayed the night. Brenton allegedly the girls enough alcohol to get drunk. A parent of one of the children informed police of the incident. Police are still investigating and say more charges could come.

Aurora man arrested in child-sex sting

An Aurora [Colorado] man has been arrested in Corpus Christi, Texas, on suspicion of Internet luring of a child after a sting operation by undercover officers of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

The man — identified as 43-year-old Joe Camacho — is currently in Corpus Christi awaiting extradition to Colorado, said Deputy Cocha Heyden, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.

Camacho came to the attention of the sheriff’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit in early December after he began an online conversation with what he believed to be an underage female, according to authorities.

In fact, the person Camacho was chatting with on an almost daily basis was an undercover ICAC officer, said Heyden.

In the conversations, Camacho said that although he lived in Aurora, he was working out of state.

Detectives were able to determine that the suspect was in Texas and believed he was about to leave the country.

With the assistance of the Corpus Christi Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, detectives located Camacho, who was arrested on a Douglas County warrant.

Heyden said Camacho was arrested Friday for investigation of one count of Internet luring of child, a Class 3 felony; 11 counts of Internet sexual exploitation of child, a Class 4 felony; and 22 counts of promotion of obscenity of a minor, a Class 6 felony.

Heyden said officers of the Douglas County ICAC unit go online posing as underage juveniles to see whether any sexual predators hit on the online messages. She said authorities can act against predators if they ask the “children” to perform certain sexual acts or if the predators send pornography to the child or ask the child to send pornography to them.

Douglas County Sheriff Dave Weaver said he appreciated the work of the ICAC unit.

“I am very impressed with the extra time the ICAC unit put into this when they learned that the suspect may be leaving the country,” said Weaver. “This type of dedication to the protection of our youth should be commended, and I am proud that these deputies work for me.”

Two more reasons to watch what your child is doing online. Thankfully the parents of one of the two 16-year-old girls caught on fast and the second incident involved no real kids (as far as we know – who knows who else he was chatting with…). But the second case also involves traveling hundreds of miles for the chance to have sex with a child, and the first scumbag is at the very least crossing counties lines and travelling to other towns… The first case also involves what appears to be consent on the teenage girls’ behalf. That should not be overlooked.

Point is, yes it’s a reality. You can either take steps to monitor and protect your kids (with PC Pandora) – or you can just cross your fingers and hope for the best.

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, CyberHood Watch. From keeping your kids safe online to personal protection from ID theft to simplicity of using the right antivirus program, the CyberHood Watch is a place for people to discuss and get answers.

We’re very proud to partner with them. We’ll be doing radio interviews from time to time and will be an active part of their community.

For starters, you can go to the CyberHood Watch blog and read about the interview I did. I have added their home page to the Blogroll. You can also download this .pdf which is a series of 8 questios I answered for the guys…

You should also visit and mark their BlogTalkRadio page, which I have also dropped into the Blogroll.

But the best part, this is the direct link to the page that contains the 75-minute interview I did with Dave, Bill and “Jewel.” Jewel is a mom who used PC Pandora to save her teenager from a very dangerous lifestyle. We can’t thank her enough for co-guesting the interview with me and sharing her story. It is certainly one that should make parents think twice before letting their kids have free reign on the Internet.

You can also listen to it below in the player.

I don’t know what else to add other than we are so excited to be a part of this new community. And again, our thanks to Jewel for sharing her story with listeners and other parents!

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 the parts that I especially agree with and emphasize (notice how much is highlighted!). This makes so much sense and it’s what I’ve been trying to say, or even directly saying, for months… Harlan, if you are reading this blog post – job well done!

The Undercover Parent
By Harlan Coben, NY Times Op-Ed contributor

NOT long ago, friends of mine confessed over dinner that they had put spyware on their 15-year-old son’s computer so they could monitor all he did online. At first I was repelled at this invasion of privacy. Now, after doing a fair amount of research, I get it.

Make no mistake: If you put spyware on your computer, you have the ability to log every keystroke your child makes and thus a good portion of his or her private world. That’s what spyware is — at least the parental monitoring kind. You don’t have to be an expert to put it on your computer. You just download the software from a vendor and you will receive reports — weekly, daily, whatever — showing you everything your child is doing on the machine.

Scary. But a good idea. Most parents won’t even consider it.

Maybe it’s the word: spyware. It brings up associations of Dick Cheney sitting in a dark room, rubbing his hands together and reading your most private thoughts. But this isn’t the government we are talking about — this is your family. It’s a mistake to confuse the two. Loving parents are doing the surveillance here, not faceless bureaucrats. And most parents already monitor their children, watching over their home environment, their school.

Today’s overprotective parents fight their kids’ battles on the playground, berate coaches about playing time and fill out college applications [NOTE: This is commonly referred to as "helicopter parenting," and is associated with the 'self-esteem' movement.] — yet when it comes to chatting with pedophiles or watching beheadings or gambling away their entire life savings, then… then their children deserve independence?

Some will say that you should simply trust your child, that if he is old enough to go on the Internet he is old enough to know the dangers. Trust is one thing, but surrendering parental responsibility to a machine that allows the entire world access to your home borders on negligence.

Some will say that it’s better just to use parental blocks that deny access to risky sites. I have found that they don’t work. Children know how to get around them. But more than that — and this is where it gets tough — I want to know what’s being said in e-mail and instant messages and in chat rooms.

There are two reasons for this. First, we’ve all read about the young boy unknowingly conversing with a pedophile or the girl who was cyberbullied to the point where she committed suicide. Would a watchful eye have helped? We rely in the real world on teachers and parents to guard against bullies — do we just dismiss bullying on the Internet and all it entails because we are entering difficult ethical ground?

Second, everything your child types can already be seen by the world — teachers, potential employers, friends, neighbors, future dates. Shouldn’t he learn now that the Internet is not a haven of privacy?

One of the most popular arguments against spyware is the claim that you are reading your teenager’s every thought, that in today’s world, a computer is the little key-locked diary of the past. But posting thoughts on the Internet isn’t the same thing as hiding them under your mattress. Maybe you should buy your children one of those little key-locked diaries so that they too can understand the difference.

Am I suggesting eavesdropping on every conversation? No. With new technology comes new responsibility. That works both ways. There is a fine line between being responsibly protective and irresponsibly nosy. You shouldn’t monitor to find out if your daughter’s friend has a crush on Kevin next door or that Mrs. Peterson gives too much homework or what schoolmate snubbed your son. You are there to start conversations and to be a safety net. To borrow from the national intelligence lexicon — and yes, that’s uncomfortable — you’re listening for dangerous chatter.

Will your teenagers find other ways of communicating to their friends when they realize you may be watching? Yes. But text messages and cellphones don’t offer the anonymity and danger of the Internet. They are usually one-on-one with someone you know. It is far easier for a predator to troll chat rooms and MySpace and Facebook.

There will be tough calls. If your 16-year-old son, for example, is visiting hardcore pornography sites, what do you do? When I was 16, we looked at Playboy centerfolds and read Penthouse Forum. You may argue that’s not the same thing, that Internet pornography makes that stuff seem about as harmful as “SpongeBob.”

And you’re probably right. But in my day, that’s all you could get. If something more graphic had been out there, we probably would have gone for it. Interest in those, um, topics is natural. So start a dialogue based on that knowledge. You should have that talk anyway, but now you can have it with some kind of context.

Parenting has never been for the faint of heart. One friend of mine, using spyware to monitor his college-bound, straight-A daughter, found out that not only was she using drugs but she was sleeping with her dealer. He wisely took a deep breath before confronting her. Then he decided to come clean, to let her know how he had found out, to speak with her about the dangers inherent in her behavior. He’d had these conversations before, of course, but this time he had context. She listened. There was no anger. Things seem better now.

Our knee-jerk reaction as freedom-loving Americans is to be suspicious of anything that hints at invasion of privacy. That’s a good and noble thing. But it’s not an absolute, particularly in the face of the new and evolving challenges presented by the Internet. And particularly when it comes to our children.

Do you tell your children that the spyware is on the computer? I side with yes, but it might be enough to show them this article, have a discussion about your concerns and let them know the possibility is there.

Harlan Coben is the author of the forthcoming novel “Hold Tight.”

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 of MySpace, now AOL eats Bebo. eMarketer predicts that by 2011, $4.1 billion will be spent worldwide for social network advertising – a dramatic increase from the $480 million spent in 2006.

The blatant and most-ignored fact is that kids don’t want to be pitched to. Just because 40 million people are a part of the party, doesn’t mean they all want to hear the forced-upon guest speakers or read the names of people who donated in the brochure.

I have no problem with companies buying social networks… Capitalism is the country’s base. But, I do have a problem when the purchase is solely motivated by advertising space, while blatantly ignoring the reality and mindset of the established members you plan on selling your message to.

People do take notice when a sports team’s home field is renamed for a corporation. People do notice when you force them to watch commercials at the movie they paid $10 to see. People do notice when a friend sends them a link to a video, and you have to wait through a 30-second ad for something you will never buy.

TiVo was invented for a reason – but became popular for another. Don’t think for a second that we won’t eventually find a way to tune out, skip or get around your forced advertising.

HAH!

OK, this has nothing to do with Internet safety. File it under “You know what really grinds my gears…” Or you could help prevent your child from falling victim to the mind numbing advertising that many folks are so eager to berate them with.

p.s. If you had PC Pandora 5.0, you could monitor the effects and correlation of where they are going and how they are acting…

Oh yeah, and…

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 A GLANCE
Bill No. SB 495

SPONSOR: Senate Majority Leader Joseph Foster, D-Nashua.

DESCRIPTION: The legislation provides enhanced penalties for those who use the Internet to prey on children and increases punishment for those who disseminate or manufacturer child pornography.

STATUS: The Senate Judiciary Committee hosted the first public hearing on the bill Monday.

A state Supreme Court decision forces Attorney General Kelly Ayotte and Gov. John Lynch to scale back a proposed crackdown on predators who use the Internet to prey on children. The state cannot charge someone with child pornography if the images used were digitally created and did not represent an “actual child,” according to the ruling.

Ayotte told the Senate Judiciary Committee the bill (SB 495) is still badly needed to increase penalties for those who peddle child pornography and close a loophole to make it a crime to expose oneself to a child with the use of a webcam. Right now, these are not mandatory penalties; judges are still left with discretion.

This proposal splits the child pornography law into three separate offenses of possession, distribution and manufacture. Each separate offense would carry enhanced penalties for repeat offenders.

Someone convicted of possessing child pornography can now face up to seven years upon a first offense; this proposal would increase that to as long as 15 years in prison.

Under current law, someone convicted for making child pornography a second time can face up to 15 years in state prison under current law. This plan would have the same person facing up to a life sentence in state prison.

The proposal requires convicted sex offenders to register their e-mail and online identity.

Now, here’s the juicy part – There’s always something. In this case, a criminal defense lawyer defending would-be pedos on the net:

Michael Iacopino, who heads up the New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the measure violates First Amendment rights of defendants and seeks to deny them due process.

Not sure how they would be denied due process. They’d still get a trial – it’s just a stiffer penalty if convicted. Am I missing something?

Then you have the wonderful folks of Hollywood crying about potential “art” being restricted…

A lawyer from the Motion Picture Association of America said without changes, this could lead to prosecution for depiction of child sex scenes such as in The Kite Runner and Juno.

Jeanne Herrick said movie studios typically use adult body doubles in these sex scenes and urged the Senate to remove the word “simulated” from the proposed, child pornography law.

Do we need those scenes anyway? Aren’t they sort of contributing to the problem? (Think about it). I’m not saying you shouldn’t have the right to create it OR that it should be censored – but realize you are fighting for the right to depict child sex… ummm. Doesn’t really matter because Ayotte said she thought the lobby’s fears were unwarranted and said she saw no need for the change in wording.

The bill does have support from several police chief’s and county attorneys.

Same argument I’m going to make as yesterday: legislation aimed at fixing this social malady needs to be properly worded. Everyone should be supporting this, not tearing it apart.

It’s true that we need stiffer laws for those caught, but that is all that should be coming from the side of law enforcement (in terms of use and restrictions). The “policing,” dare I use the term, needs to be with the parents. The government can’t tell ISPs what they must do, nor can you tell someone they aren’t allowed to do what they want to… but the government can say “…but, if you chose to do this particularly nasty thing (trade/sell/create child porn, “groom” a child online and solicit sex, etc), then we will punish you.” We can’t ban them from MySpace, but we can warn them that if they use it to solicit minors, they will be locked up.

There is a difference here and a fine line that needs to be respected. Otherwise, all the well-intended bills will continue to face scrutiny from specific parties committed to fighting infringement of established freedoms. (And again, I am a liberal; I don’t want to lose freedoms – but I recognize the need for a solution to this problem).

Until the government can get it right, and even after – parents must remain vigilant. Do the research and know what your state is doing to protect your kids. But remember, there is no substitute to your own parenting. Be a 21st century parent and know what your kids are doing. Monitoring software like PC Pandora 5.0 can help…