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In an effort to protect children and teenagers online, Vanden Corporation, based in California and dedicated to youth safety is proud to introduce CyberBully Alert a ground-breaking software designed to help the thousands of young people who every day are the victim of the growing crime of cyberbullying. CyberBully Alert is a web-based solution that simplifies the notification and documentation of cyberbullying. It lets children instantly notify predetermined, caring adults of bullying or online harassment - in a communication style used by today's tech-savvy, young people.

A warning from the head of a prominent cancer research institute has rekindled fears about the possible health risks associated with extensive cell-phone use, especially among children--and it comes as a growing number of children are using cell phones to communicate.

Dizzywood, a virtual world and online game for children ages 8-12, today announced that it has been selected by the YMCA of San Francisco to enhance the youth program's technology curriculum. The YMCA is using Dizzywood's virtual environment to reinforce its program emphasis on activities that promote values such as caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. Children also learn about important issues relating to virtual worlds, such as digital citizenship and online safety, as well as complete storytelling and team-building exercises that emphasize creativity, writing and reading skills, and working together to achieve goals. The YMCA program is similar to the elementary school program that Dizzywood recently completed with the Reed Union School District (Marin County, CA). The highly interactive workshop, which ran from April through June, used virtual activities to reinforce the school's character pillars, which include caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness, among other core values.

Topping the list of tough issues children say they face are teasing and bullying, The Nickelodeon/Talking with Kids National Survey of Parents and Kids showed. To children ages 8-15, bullying ranks higher than violence, discrimination or pressure to have sex.

Sexual predators are using gaming consoles such as the Wii, PlayStation and Xbox to meet children online. "Child predators are migrating from traditional methods to alternate media," says Detective Lt. Thomas Kish of the Michigan State Police. "They are going to places where children are." Predators view games that allow kids to access the Internet and text message other players as a "foot in the door," he says.

Fighting cyberbullying isn't just a technical problem. We need to educate children and young people to anticipate, recognize and deal with risks and problems as and when they arise. Children and young people will continue to give out their personal details so they need to be taught more about the management of personal information, both their own and other people's. More importantly they must be encouraged to become emotionally resilient in all areas of their daily lives.

MISSING, from Web Wise Kids, is designed to SHOW rather than TELL children about online safety. It's a fun and positive way to teach children how to avoid danger on the Internet. The interactive software adventure tells the story of Zack, a kid in Vancouver, Canada who forms an online friendship with Fantasma. This guy is so cool - he has an online magazine about beach life in California and he sends Zack great stuff, like graphic arts and software. Little does Zack know that he is a predator. After Zach agrees to go to San Diego to be with Fantasma, players work with a detective to find and rescue Zack and arrest Fantasma. Available both as a home edition and a school edition. [Windows and Mac OSX versions available]. Note: Local middle school science teachers have successfully worked this program into their science curriculum since solving the game involves researching and collecting clues.

Media technology is an integral part of children's lives in the twenty-first century. The world of electronic media, however, is changing dramatically. Television, until recently the dominant media source, has been joined by cell phones, iPods, video games, instant messaging, social networks on the Internet, and e-mail.This volume examines the best available evidence on whether and how exposure to different media forms is linked to child well-being. Contributors to the volume consider evidence for both children and adolescents and consider the quality of the available studies.

The company will provide content blockers that allow parents to prevent their children from accessing certain content, application filters to keep children from using software and will empower parents with time limiting tools to control time spent on various Internet activities.

Department Hopes to Protect Children Online by Making 'Top Friends' of Them. Police are hoping that children who use MySpace will add the department to their lists of "top friends" to discourage sexual predators from contacting them. The police consider this a "beware of the dog" kind of friendship. But I wonder how many kids would actually do this.

Written by attorney/educator, Nancy Willard and tailored for parents.Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens is primarily a parenting book - parenting for the Information Age. Generally, parents do a good job of raising their children to make safe and responsible choices in the Real World. But now, children and teens have the ability to interact with people from throughout the world and to access a wide range of material that may or may not be appropriate for them. So what is a caring parent to do?

David Pogue write in The New York Times, "As my own children approach middle school, my own fears align with the documentary's findings in another way: that cyber-bullying is a far more realistic threat. "

Panwapa, which means "here on this earth" in the Tshiluba language, aims to foster the foundation for global citizenship and community activism in young children, ages 4 to 7. Featuring an entirely new group of Muppet characters, Panwapa consists of an interactive website, a DVD, and print materials that are available to children around the world in five languages -Arabic, English, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish. Sponsored by Sesame Street & Merrill Lynch.

Hector's World® is a free interactive learning resource from New Zealand for children 2-9 years of age. Hector and his friends live in the magical world of Silicon Deep where their whole community is learning about the digital world. Children can be entertained and have fun as they learn about serious and complex topics like online privacy and safety. The site includes resources for parents and teachers.

Task force recommendations for best practices for child online safety. Divided into three categories of children's online experiences: 1. Before children go online 2. During online activities of children 3. When problems arise

iKeepSafe partnered with Woogi World to reach children and educators directly. Children will learn more effectively about digital citizenship including cybersafety, security, and ethics through the moderated kid to kid interaction, the online challenges or "episodes", and parental/educator involvement. Marsali Hancock, iKeepSafe Coalition President, says, "Woogi World allows us to create content which organically combines cybercitzenship education, play, and academic learning in a way that is exciting for kids."

It would be wonderful if parents could simply purchase a set of "controls" that would instruct children in online safety and screen out dangers. While of course no piece of software can do all of this, parental controls combined with online safety education and some common sense rules for Internet use are a parent's best strategy for keeping children safe online.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez is proposing a federal grant program to research and educate children about Internet safety. Menedez, D-N.J., said he is hopeful that educating teenagers, teachers and parents will stop children from sending explicit photos of themselves over cell phones and the Internet. The grant proposal would authorize $25 million to $35 million each year for Internet safety programs. The grants would be awarded on a two-year basis and administered by the Department of Justice.

THERE is a gap between what parents think their children are doing online and what their kids are actually doing in real life. For instance, adults think kids are online for 10 hours a week. In reality, children are spending an average of 18 hours online weekly. The results were part of the Norton Online Living Family Survey, commissioned globally by Internet security firm Symantec, as well as in Singapore, between April and May.

A new study shows that many children in grades 6 through 10 have either bullied classmates or been bullied by them, sometimes online or through cell phones. The study by the National Institutes of Health, released online June 29 in the Journal of Adolescent Medicine, analyzed data from the World Health Organization's 2005/2006 survey of human behavior in school-aged children.