Group items tagged

"Social network sites must ensure that children's profiles are visible only to the child's friends and cannot be found on a search engine, the European Commission has said. The Commission adopted its stance after a survey (13-page / 198KB PDF) found that an increasing number of children were flouting social network age limits to set up their accounts. The survey was funded by the Commission and published by the EUKidsOnline network. EUKidsOnline quizzed 25,000 young people across Europe and found that 38% of children aged between 9 and 12 have a social network profile. The figure was 77% for children aged between 13 and 16. Most social networks ban children under the age of 13 from having profiles. "Growing numbers of children are on social networking sites but many are not taking all necessary steps to protect themselves online. These children are placing themselves in harm's way, vulnerable to stalkers and groomers," Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda said."

A read through most online privacy policies is enough to make your stomach acid curdle. And social media companies have more access to personal data than most. Some collect information you expressly give them, like your credit card and telephone numbers. Others gather data based on how and where you use their services. This might include anything from device and browser information to location intel. And some of it gets really specific - think about your last search query or ad click. It's probably all "fair" game. Depending on the type gathered, social networks use data to enhance location services and target advertising (now you know why that sunglasses website you visited three months ago follows you all over the web). A few social sites even share certain information with marketers and/or third-party partners - in that case, you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with those other companies' policies as they apply to you and your information.

The device in your purse or jeans that you think is a cellphone - guess again. It is a tracking device that happens to make calls. Let's stop calling them phones. They are trackers.

"Do you act correctly when using social networks? Check out the video and get valuable safety tips . Get full list of do's and don'ts at http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/generic/toshiba-mcafee-news..."

"New research from the ACMA is casting a clear light on what Aussie teens are involved in, online. It shows that kids from 14 - 17 years are, unsurprisingly, active players in Australia's digital economy, who are online more often than ever before, use the internet and mobiles for everything from entertainment to shopping, research, banking and sharing with friends."

" Students ARE being influenced by multiple channels of information every day, and as adults we need to both be aware of the content/messages in those channels and find opportunities to have conversations about them with young people... Particularly when the stakes are high. "

"Typing your own name into Google may be an eye-opening experience. Even if your personal information isn't easily accessible, your computer may be sharing information about habits, preferences and activities that you'd prefer to keep private. Here's how to keep a lid on what your computer shares about you with strangers."

Some advice from Duck, Duck Go on how to restrict tracking that can occur when browsing the web.

People are trading their privacy for influence! This irreversible global trend is shaping a communication battleground that will impact on every aspect of our future. The concept of relinquishing privacy is a scary proposition for many people, generally in loose correlation to their age. Similarly the idea of a profound change in societal influence is generating resistance and fear in traditional power centres and institutional mediators of meaning. Governments, corporations, media empires and a host of heritage institutions and their practices will change dramatically as contemporary forces shift the nature of influence.

"Whether you realize it or not, dozens - if not hundreds - of apps and services have access to your social accounts and can see everything you're doing online. Tweets, Likes, your location, are all there for the taking. What's worse, there's a pretty good chance you unwittingly gave them permission."

I have added this resource as it is relevant to the identity of a learner. In some cases the mindset of a learner needs to be reset when talking about digital literacy.

"This website is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The Safe Schools Toolkit explores the detailed characteristics of the National Safe Schools Framework, providing case studies and an online audit tool to pinpoint the areas of priority."

Over the past couple of years, I've been trying to collect every good piece of writing and advice about verifying social media content and other types of information that flow across networks. This form of verification involves some new tools and techniques, and requires a basic understanding of the way networks operate and how people use them. It also requires many of the so-called old school values and techniques that have been around for a while: being skeptical, asking questions, tracking down high quality sources, exercising restraint, collaborating and communicating with team members. Post also contains a great Slideshare.

It's not just educators who are exploring the potential of social media. View the segment or read the transcript and learn why social media is important to connecting with young people, including (somewhat surprisingly) young males. The discussion also includes digital identity, digital footprint and the use of twitter. Quite revealing.

"Our students need adults to stop being afraid, and stop hiding, so education can get out of the shadows and into the light of the world in which our children live."

"Privacy issues are a very hot topic for anyone using social media. As educators, I believe it is our responsibility to teach our students the ins and outs of how to responsibly use social media. ...... I believe social media is important for educators and students. But I also believe it must be used responsibly and that cannot be accomplished without knowing the intricacies of social media privacy. Take a look at this infographic from MDG about the sad state of social media privacy."

"We recently helped a 17-year-old get a topless photo and fake profile removed from a social networking site. But even though content was deleted, the picture and fake profile lived on as "cached" or archived content in the Google Search index. So the content removal process didn't end with the social networking site. The next step was to submit a request to remove the cached content from Google, called a "content removal request." It's important to note that the picture and fake profile would have naturally dropped out of Google the next time its Web crawler indexed the updated page. But if you want to expedite the removal process, the way the user above did, here's how:"

"A study last year revealed that nearly half of parents believe their teens tell them everything they do online, while 70 percent of teens revealed they have ways to avoid parental monitoring. In this fact lies the irony. Teens trick their parents in the following ways:"

"Companies who want to know more about prospective employees can learn a lot by checking their Facebook profiles, according to a new study. Jennifer Golbeck and colleagues at the University of Maryland surveyed the public profiles of nearly 300 Facebook users for information about their favourite activities, TV shows, movies, music, books, quotes, and membership in political or other organisations. They also looked at the "About Me" and "blurb" sections. The work did not include status updates or other data that is only available to users' online friends."