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Warning: new Facebook scams may be bigger lures for parents
I’ve been in the internet for 15 years, worked in data security at Visa, and most recently at Yahoo!, and still I was “phished” by a Yahoo! ID scam a few weeks ago. It was pretty tame stuff. The scammers sent an email with another phishing link to my entire address book, but did not appear to do any other damage before I changed my password.
With all the data we all keep, not to mention the data of our “friends,” it’s best to always stay guarded when tempted to enter your password online.
Here’s the new ones going around, courtesy of Mashable:
The first one contains the message: “OMG!! Guys, you have to see this: This mother went to jail for taking this pic of her son,” with a link to a page that tricks you into sharing the story with your Facebook buddies. Once you’ve done that, the page will take you to a survey designed to take your personal info.
The other scam is also spreading through Facebook status updates. This time the message says, “OMG!! McDonalds might soon shut down because of this, you have to see this,” followed by a link that roughly duplicates the process above.
Stay safe out there!
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Be a dad hero – make a Word Search puzzle using your child’s name
You used to have to buy special software to makes puzzles like Word Search, or worse, tediously type out letters in rows to hide key words. DiscoveryEducation.com, however, has an easy-to-use Puzzle Maker where you type in your words and it spits this out with a list of the words you chose for him or her. So much better than the self-serving ones you get on the restaurant kids menu. Here, you can hide his name, key events, and lots of subliminal power or mommy and daddy.
This brightened my son’s morning today. He can’t read yet, but he was able to recognize Wii and his name.
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Sorry about our broken header on GreatDad.com/GreatDadBlog
It’s been out of order for 3 days after I tried to “automatically” update the WordPress software. If anyone has a quick fix, let me know. Otherwise, we’ll try to get it back to normal tomorrow.
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Top internet searches for kids identified – “Sex” and “Porn” near the top of lists
What were kids most interested in and curious about in 2009? Parents can tell a lot from monitoring internet searches, which may also alert them to possible topics they may need to discuss with their kids. On a more macro level, Norton has identified the top searches conducted by kids in 2009 through data from OnlineFamily.Norton, a free family safety service that parents can use to protect kids online.
Do You Know What Your Kids Are Looking For Online?
Norton looked at the top 100 searches conducted by kids age 18 and under and also broke down results by age and gender. Some of the top terms may surprise parents. “Sex” and “Porn” made it to the top overall search terms for both Teens group and “Sex” for the Tweens group. These terms should raise a red flag to parents if they haven’t had “The Talk” with their children about content that may not be appropriate for kids. Kids’ top three overall search terms in 2009 were YouTube, Google, and Facebook. While these sites can be entertaining and educational for kids under supervision, parents need to monitor usage and talk to kids about appropriate and inappropriate things they may find on-line.
Teens’ Top 25
1. YouTube 2. Facebook 3. Google 4. Sex
5. MySpace 6. Porn 7. Yahoo 8. Youtube.com 9. eBay
10. Wikipedia
Tweens’ Top 25
1. YouTube 2. Google 3. Facebook 4. Sex
5. Club Penguin 6. Youtube.com 7. You Tube 8. Miniclip
9. Yahoo 10. eBay
7 & Under Top 25
1. YouTube 2. Google 3. Facebook 4. Porn
5. Club Penguin 6. Yahoo 7. Webkinz 8. You Tube
9. Games 10. Miniclip
We use Safari installed on a Mac in our family room that the kids use periodically to play games. When they are logged into their account, Safari only allows them to surf to sites we’ve approved. We don’t allow them to look at YouTube and other sites without us being there to control the buttons. Our kids are still only 5 and 9 so that is bound to change soon.
Norton offers the basic OnlineFamily.Norton at no charge, but plans to launch a premium subscription version later in 2010.
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Newest info the H1N1 flu and availability of shots for Swine flu and seasonal flu
Google recently launched a flu shot locator, which uses Google Maps to show you nearby locations offering seasonal and/or H1N1 flu vaccine: http://www.google.com/flushot
You can find this information on a standalone page as well as in Google search results when you search for terms like [flu], [flu shot], [h1n1 shot] and [flu vaccine].
Also, make sure to check out flu news and how to stay healthy at http://flu.gov.
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