What You Can Do
If you are concerned about your children
accessing adult material from their wireless phones/devices,
consider the following:
Monitor how your children are using their
wireless phones or other wireless devices. For example, are they
using them mainly for talking, or are they using them for
messaging, taking photos and downloading applications?
Check with your carrier to see what types
of material it offers and what types can be accessed from your
children’s handsets.
Check with your carrier to see if there are
ways to prevent access to and downloading of content that may
contain inappropriate material and that is available on a
per-use or per-application basis (e.g., games, wall paper
images, songs).
Monitor your bill. Any content purchases
made from a wireless phone should appear on your monthly bill,
so check your bill to see if any purchases have been made from
your children’s phones/devices. The FCC requires that the
descriptions of charges on wireless carrier bills be full,
clear, non-deceptive, and in plain language.
Check with your carrier to see what
handsets are available for your children that are not capable of
accessing advanced applications that may contain adult material.
Check with your carrier to see whether
subscriptions to wireless data or wireless Internet packages
also offer access to adult material on your children’s phone.
Anne Bubnic on 18 Apr 10Here are 8 tips to monitor and protect one's online reputation from the U.S. Government Information Security Blog: Search your name. Type your first and last name within quotation marks into several popular search engines to see where you are mentioned and in what context. Narrow your search and use keywords that apply only to you, such as your city, employer and industry association. Expand your search. Use similar techniques to search for your telephone numbers, home address, e-mail addresses, and personal website domain names. You should also search for your social security and credit card numbers to make sure they don't appear anywhere online. Read blogs. If any of your friends or coworkers have blogs or personal web pages on social networking sites, check them out to see if they are writing about or posting pictures of you. Sign up for alerts. Use the Google alert feature that automatically notifies you of any new mention of your name or other personal information. Limit your personal information. Tweet/chat/discuss regarding business and the emerging trends in your industry, but limit posting information on your personal life, which could be a subject of major scrutiny by recruiters and hiring managers. Also, be sure you know how organizations will use your information before you give it to them. Use privacy settings. Most social networking and photo-sharing sites allow you to determine who can access and respond to your content. If you're using a site that doesn't offer privacy settings, find another site. Choose your photos and language thoughtfully. You need to ensure that information posted online is written professionally without use of swear words and catchy phrases. Also, be very selective in posting photographs, and use your judgment to ensure that these photographs are how you want the world to see you. Take action If you find information about yourself online that is embarrassing or untrue, cont
