Regardless of your IQ remembering your personal collection of passwords is hard work. With experts telling us we need a different password for each site and that we then need to change them every 6 months, well – it all becomes too hard!! There is absolutely no doubt that a strong and complex password is Read more…
As a parent, you may have mixed view about social media. You may LOVE it when checking out fashion or recipe boards on Pinterest but HATE it when your teen refuses to get off Facebook at 10pm on a school night. But regardless of your opinion – there is no denying that social media is Read more…
Have you been bullied lately? Probably not, but to get you in the right mindset, think about your commute this morning, and that car that cut you off… Feel it now? That’s what it feels like for your kids when they get bullied, online, anonymously. Imagine that driver posts online about cutting you off, mocking Read more…
My four boys detest cleaning up. The groans, grunts and comments come thick and fast: “No-one else’s mother makes them clean up like you do”. “I’m sure the UN would consider this illegal – it’s forced child labour”. Well, too bad boys – clean-ups are here to stay!! But with school holidays just a few Read more…
When Online Safety Expert Taylor Tompkins and I speak with parents about how to keep their kids safe online we encounter these four types of parents. Which one are you? Type 1: Hopeless hapless OMFG we are doomed!!!!! Defining traits: Overrun, intimidated “My kid has found out how to stream illegal movies from our home Read more…
It’s a familiar story. 7th grader has a birthday party, can only invite 5 friends, pictures of said birthday party are posted on Instagram, the next thing you know, anyone not invited to the party is upset, parents are calling, asking why their child wasn’t invited, groups are formed at school, each one taking a Read more…
We call it ‘The Wave of Regret’. This term, coined by my Online Safety for Kids partner, Peter Andrada, defines a movement we predict will happen in the near future where content shared by kids on social media applications will come to life and change their future permanently. We’ve all done things in our youth Read more…
The #1 question asked by parents when I present for McAfee’s Online Safety for Kids program, is “Where do I go to find out information about what my kids are doing online?” It’s no secret that kids (especially teenagers) can be less than forthcoming about their online behavior. That’s where I come in. I have Read more…
Some days my children make me proud and other days, well – let’s just say they give me palpitations! But after 16 years in the job, I have resigned myself to the fact that the big highs and big lows are just part of the parenting rollercoaster ride. But as far as lows go – Read more…
A woman is special. She is a bundle of emotions, wisdom, love, strength, tears, courage and fear. She is at once prudent and innocent; loving and trusting; wishful and pragmatic. A woman may be erudite, brave and worldly-wise but still that inherent womanliness of hers, that quality which makes her offer her trust & love, Read more…