La Piazza

Published by Ana Etxebarria, 31st May 2012

Perhaps the perfect children’s bedtime book, Goodnight Moon is a short poem of goodnight wishes from a young rabbit preparing for his own slumber:

“Goodnight room. Goodnight moon.
Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.
Goodnight light, and the red balloon,
Goodnight bears, goodnight chairs,
Goodnight kittens, goodnight mittens,
Goodnight clocks and goodnight socks…”

It is an American classic that has been told by parents to their children for more than 60 years ago. But… lately the story has changed, a bit

Goodnight iPad is a witty parody picture book for the gadget-crazy kid in all of us.

GoodnightIPad

Where Margaret Wise Brown’s 1947 story ends with the peaceful wish, “Goodnight stars, Goodnight air, Goodnight noises everywhere”, Milgrim’s (Ann Droyd’s), instead bids goodnight to a host of modern technological appliances. “Goodnight remotes and Netflix streams, Androids, apps and glowing screens,” he writes, ending, “Goodnight MacBook Air, goodnight gadgets everywhere.”

As the authors say, “Goodnight iPad is a gentle reminder to power down at the end of the day. It will make you smile, and it will also help you wrest yourself away from your gadgets and put yourself — and your machines — to sleep. Don’t worry, though. Your gadgets will be waiting for you, fully charged, in the morning.”

Luckily one character understands the need for calm. While bidding goodnight to each gadget, the mother rabbit pulls them one by one from her reluctant bunnies (and husband) and throws them out the window. She then settles in bed next to a cat and reads “Goodnight Moon”. Check out the video and enjoy!

Published by Leyre Velasco, 25th May 2012

In La Piazza, we insist that it is important to keep an eye on your teenager’s online practices despite how difficult it is sometimes to strike a balance between trust and authority, as explained in Mom, were you spying on me?

Well, sometimes, even the most cautious parents and kids get unpleasant surprises when simply searching for information on the Internet. Usually, search engines crawl for websites and then use advanced techniques to determine search results. The fact is that no human categorisation or intervention is involved, as web spidering is bot-based.

Safe search

Therefore when you are searching pages or images, for example, the most innocent keywords could return results related to explicit sexual matters, pornography, violence, drug use, gambling etc..

A friend of mine recently told me that this type of situation happened to her once when her 13 year-old daughter was doing her homework. She had to do a project on the food pyramid. In order to illustrate the subject, she decided to prepare a Power Point presentation containing images of the different types of foods. There she was googling words like cereal, vegetables, bread, fish, etc.. Fair enough, the basic nutrients.

However, when she went looking for specifics and typed in certain type of vegetables or fruits, the returned results were not, let’s say, as expected. Luckily, my friend was sitting next to her daughter and was quick to press the Back button. Although my friend told me she had the feeling this could have happened, deep down she was hoping for a filter of some kind to be applied by default. Wrong!! As far as I know, you do have to change the default configuration of the search engine or else opt for other alternatives, so here go some of them:

• Apply child filters in your usual search engine. If you use Google, check the SafeSearch Filtering section.
• Get your child to use search engines which offer child-friendly content only. They achieve this by filtering out inappropriate content which you, as a parent, would find offensive for your child. In general, this is done by using human beings to filter out the unsuitable sites. Check out article Which Search Engines are Safe for Kids? for further information.
• Install Parental Control applications on your computer. The 2012 Panda Security products which feature this type of protection.

And keep an eye on the Internet history, and temporary Internet files to ensure that only what you want seen is viewed on your home computer.

Please share your comments with us and tell us if you found this article useful!

Published by Leyre Velasco, 17th May 2012

If you don’t have the foggiest idea about what today’s title post means, all the more reason for reading it.

We recently published Kids and technology: 6 basic rules to bear in mind in order to emphasize how important it is to encourage your teen to trust you and to share with you who his online friends are, what personal data he has facilitated on his Internet profiles as well as various other safety tips.

But .. what good is it that your child shares with you his WhatsApp, Messenger, or Skype conversations if you do not understand half the things he or others write?

What is LOL? What do the symbols xD stand for? Why FAIL? Why is your son, who usually gets outstanding marks in English, all of the sudden making atrocious spelling mistakes in Facebook?

Relax, breathe deeply. Your child simply speaks the Internet slang, a language with its own communication rules, plagued by new terms, acronyms and symbols mainly used in forums, chats, blogs and social networks and rapidly spreading to other common places such as the email at the workplace.

LOL

And I am warning you .. the vast majority of users are fluent in it, so please, do learn some basics and please, please, please, do not ask your child to follow the formal written English rules or the BBC standard English rules because this simply is not cool therefore it just won’t happen. It is not about wrecking any language rule possible –Internet users do not appreciate this either – yet there are unwritten and written rules that have become common practice amongst Internet users.

So, if you not only want to belong to the community but also want to understand what is discussed here, you have no other choice but to learn some basic terms. And don’t forget to always use your wit! As a study by the University of Tasmania published by the BBC called Do not be 404, know techslang points out, while the use of Internet slang saves the writer time, it takes the reader twice to understand the message.

The list of terms is endless, but here you will find some of the most used terms. And stop feeling like a fish out of water!

Acronyms:

• AKA: Also Known As. Used to list aliases a person, movie, book, etc.. is known as.
• ASAP: As soon as possible.
• LOL: Acronym for Laughing Out Loud or the Lot Of Laughs, it means noisy or loud laughter.
• IMO / IMHO: Acronym for In My Opinion / In My Humble / Honest Opinion.
• BRB: Be right back.
• BTW: By the way.
• THX: Thanks!
• OMG: Oh my God
• WTF: What the fuck. Rude as it is, excuse us for including it here but it has become common practice.
• FAIL: Or sometimes, Epic Fail. Mistake of huge proportions, very often used to express disappointment at failure.

Symbols:

• xD: Small face representing the expression of a smile with your eyes closed and tight. Used when you want to share a joke.
• o_0: Face with eyes wide open. Indicates confusion.
• ^ ^ ^: Long laugh
• XOXO: If the person you like writes this, it means that they are sending kisses.
• XXX: Kissing.

Do you dare send a funny acronym you learnt with your teen?

Published by Ana Etxebarria, 11th May 2012

You always swore not be a controlling parent, promised not to spy on your children, you set yourself the objective to educate them to be responsible adults and yet, suddenly, one day you find yourself spying your preteen Facebook account … What happened?

To make matters worse, you make an unforgivable mistake. You make an informal comment on his wall, just like that, something about the shirt he is wearing in one of the pictures he has uploaded (you are certain that you have not bought the shirt) and this is where your little boy bursts in anger like a caveman and begins to accuse you of spying, of publicly embarrass him in front of his friends.

Your worry is normal. Yet, do not torture yourself, although your offspring thinks and so he constantly reminds you of it, you have not suddenly become an abominable being.

As much as you trust your children, when they reach a certain age, parents should be very much on top of things. But how can we do so without appearing to distrust or interfere too much on their privacy?

First of all, sit down with your child and let him know the first condition in your home when he uses social networks such as Facebook is that you are one of his “friends”. This conversation should aim to make him understand how important it is for you to be forward and honest, just the opposite of feeling spied on. Unless your relationship with your child is very special, under no circumstance should you comment on his photos or status updates. Do not make him feel ashamed, at this age these things can end up dramatically.

Sit with your child and review with him his profile and the configuration of his privacy policy (the latter is not easy, as they tend to change often and are relatively complex to understand. There is much information on the web, like the Facebook Security Center find out before if you’re not entirely sure).

Teach him to think the same way a cybercriminal would. Teens create web profiles to express themselves. They need to understand their own identities, and tell others. It’s part of growing up. But cyberspace can be dangerous. So make him realise how easily personal information can be shared with strangers and the dangers this entails.

It is much easier to be “permissive”, “tolerant” and “open” if we are confident that our, however much we are reluctant to admit, not-so-children, know the dangers that social networks involve. And of course, nobody better than us to teach them to mature. Demand them to behave in a grown-up way yet lead them by example!

Published by Leyre Velasco, 3rd May 2012

Today in La Piazza we present a quick 10-question post for parents to test how safe their teens are online. So, if you are a parent, sit down with your kid and before he/she answers the questions, explain to him/her that this exercise is to be done jointly. The purpose is for both of you to know if he or she is safe when using the Internet and to improve security measures if necessary.

Do stress that, although he/she may not be aware of it, the Internet entails serious dangers such as fraud, sexual harassment, bullying, etc. Do not alarm him but speak firmly. The reason why most teenagers don’t take enough precautions is because they are either misinformed or disinformed.

Finally, ask him/her to be honest about it. The whole point of answering the questions is not for your teen to get a grilling but actually for you as a parent to learn how to protect your most precious treasure: your child.

Because the Internet is just another road you have to teach your children how to cross. And this is a road they love to cross. Plus, they do so every day.

Instructions

Ready? Here go the questions. Ask your kid to write down the answers on a piece of paper. Once the test is completed, add up the points per answer (check section Score points) and finally, check the Results section to see how safe, risky or dangerous your kid’s online practices are.

1. Does your screen name identify you as a boy or a girl?
2. Have you ever posted any personal information of yours or anyone else without explicit consent?
3. Have you ever uploaded your picture or family or friends without your parent’s consent?
4. Have you ever filled out online forms, questionnaires, profile pages without your parent’s consent?
5. Have you ever purchased anything online without permission?
6. Have you ever shared your passwords with someone other than your parents?
7. Have you ever downloaded and installed software without your parent’s knowledge?
8. Have you opened emails from total strangers?
9. Have you ever agreed to meet in person someone you have only met online?
10. Have you ever been involved in chat sessions with people using vulgar expressions or sexually explicit language?

How to calculate your scores

• Add 1 point if you answered YES to questions 1, 2, 3 and 6
• Add 2 points if you answered YES to questions 5 and 7
• Add 3 points if you answered YES to question 4
• Add 5 points if you answered YES to questions 8, 9 and 10

Results

If you scored… 0-2 points

You are SAFE!

Well done!!! You are cautious when you go online to chat with your friends because you are well aware of the dangers the Internet entails. Your passwords are usually strong, mixing alphanumerical characters, you never share them with anyone and you certainly think twice before you download applications. You never, ever chat to strangers and your online friends are not only acquaintances but people you know well. And you frequently talk to your parents about your online habits.

Our advise: Keep it up and teach your fellow students and friends how they can also improve their online experience.

If you scored… 3-4 points

You are at RISK!

OK, you would never meet anyone you don’t know online and you would never share information with strangers. However, you have uploaded pictures of friends or members of your family and have not told them, you don’t think downloading cool apps is dangerous and have done so occasionally. If you get a friend request from someone you don’t know, you do tell your parents.

Our advise: There is certainly room for improvement in the online safety department. You are aware certain security measures have to be taken when going online but you are still dangerously chancing it!  So, overall, you need to make sure you don’t share any personal information at all. Also, choose strong passwords and review your online practises with your parents. Afterwards, do take the test again.

If you scored… 5-26 points

You are in REAL DANGER!!!!

Your online profiles describe you so well that you have included your postal address and school you go to, plus all kinds of pictures of you and your friends, family, pets, etc. You use the Internet pretty much for everything, to download all kinds of applications, meet people online, chat, etc. You are an extrovert and have accepted friend requests from people you don’t even know because you think if he is one of your friend’s friends, it is OK. Sometimes you have chatted with people who used “bad words” but never told your parents because they will probably worry too much.

Our advise: You must RADICALLY change the way you use the Internet. First of all, sit down with your parents and review the personal information you share with others. Also, remove any strangers from your friends lists. Should you ever encounter strangers online, do speak to your parents about it. Change your passwords and choose strong, alphanumerical ones. Finally, take the test again until you get the lowest score (0-2 points – Safe).