This number makes me sick. The FBI says 90% of sexual advances against kids happen in chatrooms or on instant messaging platforms. Now more than ever, it’s important to talk to your kids about online predators.
The thing is these creeps have all kinds of tactics. Today, I’m sharing a few stories you can pass along to your family. If this keeps one person safe, I did my job.
This past week in Glendale, Arizona, a 37-year-old man asked a 14-year-old girl walking home from school for her phone number. She was clever: She gave him her mom’s number instead.
Later that day, he started texting. The girl’s mother answered, and then the police took over as he requested naked pics and asked her to keep their convo a secret. They set up a meeting, and the pervert was arrested.
Arm them with info. Discuss with your kids how to refuse when a stranger asks for their phone number, email address or social media handle. If they don’t feel safe saying no, tell them to give the requestor your info instead.
A 26-year-old used Snapchat and Instagram to groom teen girls. Alexander McCartney pretended to be their age, then he spent a lot of time and energy becoming a close “friend.” Eventually, he’d request explicit images.
Tragically, a 12-year-old victim took her life after McCartney coerced her and her sister into sending him adult photos. Eighteen months later, the victim’s father took his life, as well. Heartbreaking.
McCartney was found guilty of a staggering 185 charges, including online child sexual abuse, blackmail and manslaughter.
Warn your kids about catfishing. Online, it’s easy for predators to pretend to be just about anyone to get what they want. When my son, Ian, was younger (and to this day), I made sure he knew he’d never, ever be in trouble if he told me someone asked him to do something that made him feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
When my son Ian was 3, I bought him a cellphone. It had three buttons: Call Mom, call Dad and call Grandma. He was young, but it helped us all feel better that he could reach us.
There may be situations where your child, partner or parent can’t make a phone call … or worse. They could have someone looking over their shoulder when they text. That’s when a secret emoji could save the day.
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The couple is back with a new plan to protect kids from social media — but is it just an attention grab? Here’s the scoop.
👶 Nature had other plans: A pregnant California woman’s water broke on her front porch, forcing her to give birth right then and there. Her Ring doorbell cam captured everything, from her squatting down to finally pushing out her baby girl. Luckily, her husband was by her side. Mom and baby are both doing great.
Let’s grow our minds with this brainteaser going viral on social media: “7 men have 7 wives. Each man and each wife have 7 children. What’s the total number of people?”
Will be nearsighted by 2050. Blame less time spent outside and more screen time for youngsters. An estimated four in 10 kids will need prescription glasses. Girls are more likely than boys to develop myopia (the fancy name for objects far away looking blurry).
In the not-so-distant future, you could walk in on a teddy bear reading a bedtime story to your child. And it wouldn’t be just any story — it’d be a saga tailored to everything the toy knows about your child, including likes, dislikes and even their deepest secrets.
As many as 23% of American children live without at least one parent. The good news: in our internet world, finding them is easier than it would have been in the past.
Depending on your circumstances, you might be able to set out on an investigative journey yourself. Where should you begin when searching for estranged or missing family members? Here are the steps to finding long-lost relatives.
🔒 They’ll thank you later: Identity theft for kids under 19 is skyrocketing. Parents, create and lock or freeze your children’s credit ASAP so thieves can’t use their info for loans or credit cards. When they’re older, you can help them unfreeze it.
You think the internet is a scary place for kids? It’s about to get worse. Big Tech’s latest “solution” to protect children could be even more dangerous than the problem.
Kids love playing Roblox online with their friends — it’s crazy popular. But now, adults with bad intentions are targeting children through it.
When a Superhost is super creepy: Airbnb Superhosts have high ratings and low cancellation rates. One in Texas recorded over 2,000 images using security cameras of adults and children sleeping and undressing. He got a year in jail for it.
Spy versus spy: mSpy is a surveillance app used to track children, relatives and romantic partners without their consent. Hackers just exposed the identities of millions of customers, and the list includes senior U.S. military personnel, a U.S. federal judge and a government watchdog. Juicy stuff.
Not exactly K-pop going viral: “Friendly Father” is a North Korean propaganda tune praising dictator Kim Jong Un. The video features, uh, heartwarming scenes, like a military officer crying in Kim’s arms while children sing along. Gen Zers are dancing to Communist remixes for views and likes, but not everyone gets it. Here’s the full vid.
Don’t leave the baby in the car: Each year, about 40 children die in car-heat-related deaths. Temps inside locked cars can easily reach 150 degrees, and advocates now want all automakers to put tech in cars to prevent these types of deaths. Some Hyundais have an advanced rear-occupant alert system that sends warnings if a baby is left in the car.
Every year, about 37 young children tragically die from heat-related incidents in cars. Some parents are placing the blame on car manufacturers.
More than 70 million people play Roblox daily. Find out why some are fraudsters targeting children.
What started as a fun way to keep in touch with friends and family has devolved into a hotbed of fake news, scams, data breaches cyberbullying and little to no privacy.
Social media has come a long way from its roots, and most news is bad. But it’s one thing to put yourself out there and another to post information about your children. Social media on its own is harmful to children without your involvement. Don’t make it worse. Consider this your tech etiquette lesson of the day.
Thanks to TikTok’s invasive spying and private data collection, the U.S. government has already started plans to ban it. Here’s what you need to know and how to protect your privacy from the Chinese spy app.
TikTok has over 100 million users in the U.S. alone, many of whom are children. Now, you can watch the videos without creating an account, but does that make you safe? Here’s what you need to know.
