Alison Rhodes, also known as The Safety Mom, has exploded onto the national scene as the preeminent voice on kid’s safety, wellness and healthy living. She is always on the lookout for the issues facing all children – newborns to teens as well as the entire family.

While Alison’s career began as a response to the death of her first child, over the years Alison has expanded her career platform to include the gamut of issues  facing children today from the importance of healthy eating and an active lifestyle to cyber bullying and toy safety. Alison believes that a child’s parents are their greatest safety advocate and coaches parents that when it comes to dealing with their children, it’s important to be parents first and friends second. 

Mary Kay Hoal
Founder, President, COO

A proud wife and mother of five children (both biological and adopted, ranging in age from 5-18 years old), Mary Kay faces the same challenges every parent does: keeping her kids safe; raising them to be good, happy and well-balanced people; and providing them with the tools and support to create their own future.

While Mary Kay readily admits that she didn’t “get” the whole online social networking phenomenon at first, she quickly recognized its importance in her kids’ lives. After researching the disturbing landscape of social networking sites—including endless inappropriate content and thousands of predators targeting youth—Mary Kay’s mission became clear: raise the bar.

Conceived and founded by Mary Kay, Yoursphere is the first social networking service for youth that parents can embrace. Drawing on her corporate entrepreneurial experience as a media strategist, advertising, marketing and publishing VP formerly with CMP Media LLC, Mary Kay built the Yoursphere team. (See “Cool Sites” for more about Yoursphere)

Disney has teamed with Common Sense Media to help kids and tweens safely navigate the internet and other digital platforms and to get parents thinking about how media and technology fit into their family’s life. The initiative includes a PSA and website which feature the characters from Disney’s animated series “Phineas and Ferb” and supports Common Sense Media’s “Rules of the Road” for smart and safe use of digital media. The tips include guarding privacy and protecting one’s identity while online, balancing time spent in cyberspace and thinking before texting or posting material online.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to deliver information to kids about online safety – using their favorite characters as spokespeople. Simultaneously, the tools we’re providing – the PSA and the website – also serve as useful conversation starters for parents.”

The PSA premiered 1/27 (8:00 p.m., ET/PT) on Disney Channel and Disney XD and will air in daily rotation on both channels. The companion website created by Disney Online, www.disney.com/commonsense, includes the PSA and a guide for parents to teach responsible online behavior. The website invites kids to test their parents’ familiarity with the Rules of the Road and leads to additional information on internet and digital platform safety for both kids and parents.

Gary Marsh, president, Entertainment and Chief Creative Officer, Disney Channels Worldwide, said: “We have a tremendous opportunity to deliver information to kids about online safety – using their favorite characters as spokespeople. Simultaneously, the tools we’re providing – the PSA and the website – also serve as useful conversation starters for parents.” He continued, “Beyond these immediate tools, we’re committed to encouraging the writers of our series and movies to include the subject matter in their scripts, and to support the Rules of the Road messaging through positive role modeling in our programs.”

Created and executive-produced by Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, the series is a production of Disney Television Animation. The voice cast include: Vincent Martella, Thomas Sangster, Ashley Tisdale, Mitchel Musso, Caroline Rhea, Richard O’Brien, Dee Bradley Baker and Alyson Stoner.

 reprinted from Radio Business Report.com

Ten Safety Tips for Online Shopping  (not just at the holidays)

USA TODAY’s Tech Holiday Shopping Guide  (what’s new, what’s hot, what’s not and tips – updated daily until 12/24)

FAQ: Recognizing Phishing Emails  (from cnet news – watch out for weird offers, fraud alerts, etc – don’t get so busy shopping that you drop your guard)

And most importantly of all – HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Here is what they say:  

Since the great success of Club Penguin, more virtual worlds for kids get introduced to the market every single year.

How do you know which ones to go to for the best value in terms of education and fun factor?

VW for Kids was set up for the very purpose of providing up-to-date information and non-biased reviews of virtual worlds for kids.  Check it Out.

Liz Perle/Editor- in- Chief

Since all media has an impact — both positive and not so positive — it helps to consider the pros and cons before letting your youngest children loose with your $200 dollar piece of electronics (OK, $99 if you let them have your old one…). Here are a few recommendations:

1. There are better teething devices than electronics. If your kids start to put your phone in their mouth, they’re too young to use it. Find something else for them to chew, shake, or throw.

2. Pay attention to what they’re doing. Make sure you download age-appropriate apps — there are lots of them. Check out the apps before your kids do to make sure the subject matter is right for their age. Can they understand the words? Can they manipulate the game? Really young kids are still developing their fine motor skills, so unless you want a frustrated child on your hands, make sure that a game doesn’t require lots of coordination to play.

3. Don’t make phones a habit. Remember that kids quickly develop routines. If they associate going to restaurants or driving in a car with playing games on your phone, it will be difficult to transition out of the behavior.

4. Balance coping skills. Ultimately, we want kids who can amuse themselves without batteries. Make sure that your kids are equally comfortable with board books, music, and that old faithful — the crayon.

5. Keep an eye on the phone. They can get dropped — on the floor, in a toilet — wedged in a seat, left in a seat pocket, etc. These things are expensive!

See the comments for this article, sign up for their newsletter, read more!

Using your laptop in a public area, Internet Café or coffee shop…

1Pay attention to those around you; be sure you don’t have sensitive information on your screen that anyone could read over your shoulder.

2Don’t leave your computer unattended while you “get coffee” or leave your table for any reason.

3If you need to get up briefly, and you have a password that opens your computer, simply lock your computer while you’re up. Most computers can be locked without losing your place by:

8       Simultaneously press “Control (CTRL), Alt, Delete”

8       This will open “Task Manager”, click on “Lock Computer”

8       When you return, simply press “Ctrl, Alt, Delete” to unlock the computer

8       Enter your password. Your work will be in the same place as when you locked the computer.

4You may want to disable some features: disable the webcam, mute the sound, etc.

Using a public computer in a library or business center…

5Be sure you log all of the way out. It is not enough to close the browser window or type in a separate URL. Log out of the site and in some instances you are urged to close the browser completely afterwards (i.e. when you are accessing financial information like your bank or credit card company; it is always wise to log out of every screen and then close your browser to break the connection completely.)

6Many programs include automatic login features, or will ask if you “want this computer to remember your passwords”. Be sure to disable these or say no.

7To disable the feature that stores passwords, before you start navigating on the Web, turn off the feature by:

8     In Internet Explorer, click “Tools”, and then click “Internet Options”

8     Click the “Content tab” and then click “AutoComplete” – “Settings”

8     Click to clear both check boxes having to do with passwords

8Erase your work. Once you have finished using a public computer, you should delete all temporary files and your history. Most computers will have Internet Explorer and the steps you should take are:

8     Click “Tools”, and then click “Internet Options”

8     On the “General Tab, under “Temporary Internet Files”, click “Delete Files” and then click “Delete Cookies”

8     Under History, click “Clear History”.

9Protect your company. If your company Website allows you to view internal corporate documents remotely, you may be inadvertently storing sensitive documents on the public computer. Avoid this by:

8     Deleting all of the files in the temporary folder of your user account which you can find at: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local settings\Temp.

8     If your company uses Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, empty the temporary folder (My documents\SharePoint Drafts).

10If you can avoid it, do not enter sensitive information like Credit Card numbers into a public computer. Most business centers will let you swipe your credit card to print or use time on the computer. And many hotels will charge your room and/or credit card for daily use in the room. Be sure that you check your bill upon your return home to make sure that the charges are:

8     The amount you were told

8     Not billed to your room and your credit card resulting in double charges

Using your personal laptop in your hotel room…

11Never leave your computer “on” while you are out of the room.

12Remind your children that traveling with a laptop is a privilege and they need to observe all family rules that apply to home computers wherever they “log in”.  

Travel safely online as you travel offline…

A fun site with great videos, blogs and a young approach to parenting today’s teens, understanding their technology and knowing other parents are facing these same issues. Here is who they are – in their own words:

3 Rules We Live By:

(and Wish Our Parents Would Too)

1) There are no ‘perfect parents’, formulas, easy answers or a ‘right’ way to parent.  There is a right way for your family.  We want to help you find your way.

2) Live the You-Them-You Perspective. We promise to share our side, our stories and our secrets, to give you a glimpse into our world.

3) Constantly challenge what we think we know.  ‘Radical’ means to question the status quo and what isn’t working.  This is how we grow as a family and as human beings.

[See our Radical Parenting Principles]

Who are we?

You might be wondering why a 23 year-old and a bunch of teenagers care about parenting, as this blog is written by Vanessa Van Petten and 15 other teen writers.  You can read Vanessa’s Story, but all of us have decided to help other families because of the experiences we have had with our own.  All of our mentors and teen writers have a passion for inspiring and enlightening other parents and kids.

We understand that sharing our story, insight and advice can help others to not suffer or make the same mistakes as we did.

What makes us different:

We are not your typical parenting blog!

-Challenging: We don’t give formulas and easy steps, we push our readers and radical parents to a new kind of family interaction.  Having harmonious families, means having happy teens, which leads to healthy adults.

-Community Parenting: We want to bring together parents and teens, parents and parents and teens and teens to help each other.  We hope that our website can provide many forums and tools to find other readers like you.

-Confessions: Our under 18 year-old writers get to be anonymous and this lets us open up to you, our parent readers, in ways we wish we could open up to our parents.  Our teen trendsetters behind the scenes constantly scour blogs, social networks and schools looking for radical teens willing to share and join our cause.

-Quality: We try very hard to make sure our articles, writers and tribe leaders believe in positive family values and our radical parenting principles.  We promise to politely exclude those who hinder other community’s goals.

Check out the Site -Subscribe to their newsletter – we did!

The Top 50 Lists by Erin Jansen

Erin Jansen writes to educate and entertain people worldwide about the lingo used in the online world. As an author, publisher, and contributing editor, she appears on television programs, radio shows, and in newspapers and magazines.

Editor’s Note: These lists could probably be updated daily. She does a great job of giving explanations and definitions for acronymns and where they came from.

Here’s a samle -    Click here to see Way More!

1. AEAP – As Early As Possible
2. ALAP – As Late As Possible
3. AWGTHTGTTA – Are We Going To Have To Go Through This Again
4. B4YKI – Before You Know It
5. BRB – Be Right Back
6. BRT – Be Right There
7. CWYL – Chat With You Later
8. C-P – Sleepy
9. CYT – See You Tomorrow
10. E123 – Easy as One, Two, Three