Ad4dcss/Digital Citizenship

On today's Tekzilla Daily, Veronica shows you how to make the most of Vista's built-in tools to help make sure your offspring don't veer too far off track in their computing habits

The social Web has given users great power: the ability to create and share content with people around the world - easily and quickly. The problem of course, is that power is often not compatible with effective and clear thinking. The thought that germinated in an instant can be immortalized in perpetuity on the Web.

More parents are looking to cell phones to help keep their children safe. But mom and dad should be aware: Kids who talk on a cell phone may be more likely to step into traffic, a new study shows.

Videos From the National Teenage Dating Abuse Helpline targeting teens and covering topics such as electronic harrassment through excessive text messaging, badgering to send nude pictures and hacking the private spaces of others. Can be used as a springboard for discussion among kids.

A kid-safe search engine powered by Google custom search. It uses a combination of Googles safe search mode and their own database of restricted elements. It also has a site removal request form if something does get past the filters

Teaching literacy-reading and writing-is a core mission for schools, but today's young people increasingly "read" 3-D computer simulations and "write" via social networks such as Facebook. A growing chorus of experts say schools should add these forms of communication to their literacy mission as "technology literacy."

A new study finds that 54 percent of teens talk about behaviors such as sex, alcohol use, and violence on the social networking giant MySpace -- presenting potential risks even if all they're doing is talking, researchers said Monday.

This month, three teenage girls, students at Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pa., were charged with disseminating child pornography. They had sent nude pictures of themselves by cellphone to their teenage boyfriends, who were charged with possessing child pornography.\n\nThe legal consequences in this case may have been unique, but the behavior is not. About 20 percent of teenagers have posted or sent nude cellphone pictures of themselves, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a nonprofit group.

MySpace says about 90,000 sex offenders have been identified and removed from its huge social networking website. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said Tuesday the new figure is nearly double what MySpace officials originally announced last year.

New book by Mike Ribble (Author of Digital Citizenship in the Schools). You want your children to enjoy all the benefits a technological society has to offer, but at the same time, you want them to stay safe and act as responsible members of society. Raising a Digital Child is your guide. Inside, you will learn about many of the newest and most popular technologies, in parent-friendly language, along with discussions of the risks each might harbor and the types of behaviors that every child should learn in order to become a good citizen in this new digital world.

Based on the integral role technology played in President-elect Barack Obama's campaign, as well as recent announcements that he will be creating a chief technology officer in the federal government for the first time, ed-tech experts suggest that the new administration could revolutionize the way technology is viewed in the United States, and, it is hoped, in education. President-elect Obama is doing for the Internet what John F. Kennedy did for television, says Hirsch, by making it a common and essential staple of American life.

Without his input, Bryan Rutberg's Facebook status update -- the way friends track each other -- suddenly changed on January 21 to this frightening alert, "Bryan NEEDS HELP URGENTLY!!!"

CyberSmart! Education has released a free, research-based cyber bullying curriculum for K-12 schools.

Katherine Evans said she was frustrated with her English teacher for ignoring her pleas for help with assignments and a brusque reproach when she missed class to attend a school blood drive. So Ms. Evans, who was then a high school senior and honor student, logged onto the networking site Facebook and wrote a rant against the teacher, Sarah Phelps.

The cellphone industry has a suggestion for improving the math skills of American students: spend more time on cellphones in the classroom.