October 14, 2013

Watch Out SnapChat Users! SnapHack App Can Now View & Save Photos & Videos Forever
SnapChat has always, in my opinion, been a controversial app. It has a very simple model, you can take pictures and photos and send them to friends and these multimedia files only are visible for a few seconds. Once the time passes, the videos or photos can no longer been seen. Teens and tweens view this app as a lot…
Read more →
October 4, 2013

Is K-12 the Appropriate Place to Teach Children about Copyright Infringement? Huffington Post Live Interview
I remember back in the 1980's (ok I'm dating myself) when my friends and I used to make mix-tapes and music compilations and shared them amongst ourselves. It was a multi-hour process and we poured our creativity and thoughts into making the perfect tape. There was no thought in our minds about whether what we were doing was "legal" or…
Read more →
June 5, 2013

Parents Be Warned! Ask.fm is a Dangerous & Deadly Social Site for Teens & Tweens
Back in 2012, I wrote about some potential dangers surrounding the Instagram and Kik Messenger combination. By now, hopefully many parents know what to look for and how to combat this social danger. Recently, I started to investigate a new social danger for kids, specifically Ask.fm which actually has a few documented teen suicides attributed to the service. Interestingly, it…
Read more →
May 31, 2013

Staples Provides Tools for the Next Great American Novel
A few weeks ago, I was asked if I wanted to get some products from Staples to write about. Sure, I said, thinking it would be a box of paper or a crate of paper clips or an assortment of binders. Traditionally, when I thought about Staples, visions of boring office supplies came to mind. How wrong I was. While…
Read more →
April 17, 2013

Remember the Evil. Embrace the Good. Talk with your Kids.
Take a bucket full of water. Pour some oil into it, not too much, but enough so that is forms a small blob floating on the surface. Now find a large rock and drop it into the water and oil. What happens? Obviously there is a splash. And if you look down in the bucket, you see lots of smaller…
Read more →
April 10, 2013

Social Media Policy for Families
Quite a few years ago, I came up with some Social Media Guidelines, primarily geared towards businesses. I realized I also seem to write a lot of tips and recommendations for parents on how they can help their kids with social media. That got me thinking. Perhaps, I should come up with a social media policy for families (kids and…
Read more →
March 25, 2013

5 Reasons Why Social Media Might Actually Be Good for your Child
WARNING: The repeated use of Social Media can be dangerous to your child's well-being. Should we have a Surgeon General’s warning label slapped onto each and every social media site out there? What about some sort of age rating system like we have for movies, music and video games? No, of course not. The Internet is all about freedom of…
Read more →
December 21, 2012

Reacting To and Remembering the Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary – Cast of Dads Podcast #55
A week ago today, innocent children, students and educators were horrifically gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I don't believe that anyone will fully understand the "why" but all of us have been struggling to comprehend it as well as be able to talk about this event with other adults as well as our children. The Sunday after this…
Read more →
December 14, 2012

The Loss of Innocence
Innocence was lost today, not just in Connecticut but across the world. Our future was tragically and horrifically gunned down in yet another act of senseless violence. After 9/11, our nation changed. We became paranoid, more careful and we thought, safer. Today's events prove otherwise. Violence can come from anywhere, from strangers or from people that we know. It can…
Read more →
November 12, 2012

Get Your Game On with the PlayMG, an Android-based Gaming Device (#Giveaway Too!)
I would be surprised to find a kid that doesn't play games on some sort of an hand-held device. They are either borrowing their parents smartphones or tablets and playing game apps there, have their own smartphone or hand-held gaming device devoted purely to gaming, or using some sort of other gaming outlet like a gaming console or a computer.…
Read more →
October 25, 2012

Huffington Post Launches “Screen Sense” – A Site for Parenting & Tech
Yesterday, the Huffington Post launched a new property called "Screen Sense" which is a new resource designed to help parents understand and learn how to work with technology in their lives as well as their children's. As part of the launch event, I was invited to participate in discussing this exact topic on Huffington Post Live (a live video stream…
Read more →
September 19, 2012

Why It’s Important to Teach your Kids How to Cook and Use Social Media
A recent post of mine which focused on an informal and potentially dangerous marriage between Instagram and Kik Messenger seems to have gotten quite a bit of attention lately. I'm always excited when I can share my ideas, opinions, insights and personal recommendations when it comes to educating kids about the evolution of social media of many legs. And what…
Read more →