Today marks the launch of “What’s Your Story?”, a campaign designed to help educate kids, parents, and teachers about staying safe online. We are inviting anyone over the age of 13 in the U.S. or Canada* to submit a short video and impart some Internet safety advice to friends, family, and fellow online citizens.

The campaign’s name comes from the acknowledgement that anyone who has spent a lot of time online has a story (or knows of someone else’s): a time when you posted something that later embarrassed you, clicked on something that wrecked your PC (or made it sluggish of all of a sudden), or accepted a friend request you later wish you hadn’t.  We hope to provide a voice for kids, their parents, and their teachers to raise awareness by showing what they’ve learned (directly or indirectly) and how they do things differently as a result.

Internet safety for kids is reaching a critical point in many parts of the world.  Media headlines are becoming increasingly occupied by stories about kids bullying each other online, sending inappropriate photos of themselves through cell phones, or developing online relationships with strangers who have bad intentions.

As the Internet becomes more tightly woven into the lives of younger and younger generations, we cannot continue to let kids run around the Internet freely without guidance and rules about what’s ok and what’s not.  Most kids are wise enough to know the basic rules of online etiquette and behavior – be respectful, don’t do anything you’d regret later, keep your private life private – by simply extending what they do everyday to what they do online.

But even for these kids, there are hidden risks (security and legal issues, for example) that can only be avoided if they are made aware of them.   Some risks can simply be avoided by the use of technology that exists today.  It just needs to be employed, but parents and schools, too, need to be made aware of it.

The “What’s Your Story?” campaign is intended to be a step in that direction.

Contestants are encouraged to create meaningful, relevant content and to promote their videos to their online communities that will vote on their work.  This effort, combined with the input of an objective panel of judges from Trend Micro, Common Sense Media, Connectsafely, and the Identity Theft Resource Center, will determine the winners.  The wining entry will receive $10,000 and four runners-up will be awarded $500 for their entries in 1 of 4 categories:  keeping a good reputation, staying away from unwanted contact, sticking to (legal) age-appropriate content, and keeping cybercriminals away.

So, if you’re eligible, go ahead and enter the contest.  And tell everyone you know to view and vote.

For more information about the “What’s Your Story?” campaign, visit whatsyourstory.trendmicro.com

*excludes Quebec

You may not have noticed, but earlier this month YouTube made available a new feature that is intended to help users block others from viewing videos that might be inappropriate for them.  It doesn’t remove any content from their site, it just keeps it off the page whenever this feature is on.  Introducing, Safety Mode.

In theory, a parent or teacher who wants to restrict kids from viewing age-inappropriate videos on YouTube from a shared browser should love Safety Mode.  It is supposed to act much like a parental control filter like those you can find in computer security software, such as Trend Micro Internet Security.

According to the instructional video that describes how to use it, you can lock Safety Mode (by logging into your account), prevent any videos from being displayed if certain words are entered into the search box, and by default prevent comments from being displayed with any videos.

So I tried it.  On the home page, I noticed that some videos were not being displayed any longer, probably because of the content they contained.  I selected a video and saw that the comments field had been collapsed.  So far, so good.

I then proceeded to test the blocking function based on search terms.  I tried the ones shown in the video, and it worked as advertised.  However, I tried other terms that might be associated with age-inappropriate content and was disappointed that it still returned search results for videos that appeared to be inappropriate (based on the still frames being displayed in the results).

YouTube acknowledges that no filtering capability is perfect and requires that users still abide by their community guidelines for any content or comments posted.  However, they might benefit from taking a cue from the companies who have been doing parental control filtering for a while and providing some control over what search terms (or categories) they might want to add to the blocking function.

Safety Mode is also browser-specific, so you need to turn it on for any browser in your home that your kids might use.  Note: it doesn’t currently work on mobile devices with internet access.

YouTube’s terms of service does require you to be over the age of 13 to use their site, and recommends that you do not use it if you are younger than that.   Kudos to YouTube for making this a requirement and acknowledging that there is a lot of content on their site that some people are just not old enough to see.

But there is also a lot of good, harmless, educational and entertaining content on there, too. (My kids love the toddler who does the cover of the Beatles’ song “Hey Jude”.)  So, given YouTube’s age restrictions and the current capabilities of its Safety Mode, it might be best for some parents to simply block access to YouTube through your security software’s parental control feature or only let your kids watch YouTube under your supervision.

Child identity theft is on the rise.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, child identity theft occurs when a child’s personal information is used by someone for that imposter’s own gain, such as to obtain financial benefits or to clear a criminal record.  When I first heard about child identity theft, I frankly didn’t think it existed.  Who would bother to steal money from a 5-year old?

Since July of 2009, the ITRC confirmed just under 4000 cases of identity theft, of which almost 10% involved the identity theft of children.  Granted, in a world where millions of cases of identity theft happen, this might seem a relatively small number.

But for a crime that I didn’t think existed and as a parent, the number is bigger than I would have ever thought.

Usually, child identity theft is perpetrated by an adult who has a relationship with the child victim: a parent, aunt/uncle, cousin, family friend, etc.  But the ITRC has noted a rise in child identity theft cases that were done by people unknown to the child or parents of the child.

In the U.S., if you have been assigned a social security number, you can do a number of things such as open a new line of credit or apply for a job or unemployment benefits.  Kids are usually assigned a social security number within days of birth.  The number is printed on a card and sent home to the parents a few weeks later.

But someone doesn’t need to steal your social security number to get your social security number.  According to Lynda Foley, co-founder of the ITRC, “All they need to know is your date of birth and place of birth, and they can figure it out from there.” 

Often times, child victims of identity theft are unaware they are victims until they are closer to adult age, when they apply for financial aid or try to open their first line of credit.  By then, their credit history could not only have been developed by someone else, it could be ruined.

So what can a parent, teacher, or concerned person do?  There are lots of things both kids and adults can do to help prevent child identity theft from happening:

1. Think before you post.  Kids need to be guided to share only the information that they wouldn’t mind sharing with strangers as well as friends, but they should also be made aware of identity theft so they think before sharing nuggets of information that might be useful to an i.d. thief.  And how many of us grown-ups post things about our kids, our nieces/nephews or neighbors online?  Before you go announcing your sister’s new baby on your social networking site, in email, on a blog, etc. consider the information you might be readily making available for an i.d. thief.  (Remember: place of birth and date of birth is all they need.)

2. Don’t use your kids’ names.  Wherever possible, adults should enforce the use of code names or nick names instead of a child’s real name online, such as for establishing an email address, registering your child on a kid-friendly website (to use the games, for example), or setting up a profile on a social networking site.

3. Use privacy settings.  For social networking fanatics, make sure only the people you know and trust can see what you’re posting and doing.

4. Use reputable, up-to-date security software.  While identity theft can happen through offline sources as well as online, having good, updated security software will help prevent information-stealing software from getting onto your computers or smart phones in the first place.  Use security software on any device that you store personal information on.

5. Shred and lock.  The ITRC recommends that you shred all documents that contain personal information about your kids (and yourself), and lock your mailbox if you can. 

If you are resident of the U.S. and believe you or your child has become a victim of identity theft, contact the Identity Theft Resource Center for free assistance at:

(888) 400-5530

You can also find additional resources and prevention tips at www.idtheftcenter.org

As the end of 2009 draws near, many of us are consumed by the preparations needed to close out one year and open another.  Kids are excited by an impending lengthy school break (some parents less so!); shopping, cooking, cleaning, hosting, and shoveling for some of us, take all of our attention and energy.  But every so often, something happens to interrupt that flow and for a brief moment, we pause to look at what has just happened.

This week saw another tragic celebrity story unfold before us in the news.  The death of actor Brittany Murphy at age 32 reminds us that life can bring unexpected turns, and some of us are saddened when a young person leaves this world, particularly this time of year.

As a young star in movies that were highly popular with a younger audience, Brittany may currently be the search engine topic of choice among your own children.  Regardless of whether or not you knew who she was or how much talent you thought she had, many people are crowding on the internet to find out more about her and what lead to her death.

The time between a public event and the availability of complete information surrounding that event becomes ever wider as publishing a thought to a mass audience is almost instantaneous.  And in that gap, a curious public fills it with theories, accusations, predictions, and facts – all of which become difficult to separate and recognize.  The public, your kids, and even you want to know: what happened?   Tiger Woods’ personal life, a hotly contested presidential election, a major sporting event – no matter the topic, we need to know.

We also need to say what we think.  When you search for information on Brittany Murphy’s death the results will show you related stories from news sites as well as opinions on blogs, condolence messages on social networking profiles, tweets on Twitter accounts, and video tributes on YouTube.

In that mass and that mess, what we don’t see and don’t look for is anything that can hurt us.  But very often, there are unseen criminals who take advantage of our curiosity.

This week, alongside the stories about Brittany in a Google search, researchers at Trend Micro found links to hoax websites purporting to offer information about her death.  Instead, for the unaware, if you clicked on these links you would see a pop-up message telling you that your computer has been infected with a virus and you need to scan it immediately.  (See Figure 1)

If you selected ‘ok’ you would then be lead to a screen telling you that your system is being scanned (which looks very legitimate), when in fact it is not. (See Figure 2.) 

And after the fake scanning session, you are then prompted to download fake security software to protect your system. (See Figure 3.)

This is a common tactic used by cybercriminals to get people to download malicious software that is designed to open up a door to their systems so they can access personal information or use your system for other purposes (such as delivering spam or secretly storing files).

You, your kids, your family and friends don’t have to be fooled by this.  

1. Only visit well-known, reputable websites for news/information.

2. Use security software from a reputable company and keep it updated.

3. Supplement this with a free website reputation service like TrendProtect.  This service will highlight links in search results and tell you if they are safe to click on or not.  Download it here.

4. Do not click on links in emails from anyone you do not know (Or if someone you know has forwarded an email from someone you don’t know.)

5. Teach your kids to think critically about what they see online.  Not everything they see on the screen is as it seems. 

The New Year will certainly bring its share of highly publicized events.  As we rush online to satisfy our curiosity about them, consider making a resolution to remind ourselves and our kids to use the Internet wisely.

For more information on surfing safely, go to www.trendmicro.com/go/safety

I know several parents who within the last year became frequent users and heavy recommenders of social networking sites.  Most use it as a way to stay in touch with far flung friends and relatives (to share photos and updates of their kids much of the time) and to feed their curiosity about old classmates or previous co-workers.  To a lesser extent or almost never do they use it to meet people unfamiliar to them.  According to research from the Pew Research Center, 89% of the more than 2200 adults surveyed use online social networks to connect with people they already know.   

But social networking sites are in essence a web of concentric circles, where your sphere of connections overlaps others’ to varying degrees but not completely.  For this reason, considering the implications of privacy for you and for anyone in your circle or your circle’s circle is an important issue.   Your definition of privacy may not be the same as others.

Last month, two teenage girls sued their high school for punishing them after they posted suggestive photos on their MySpace pages last summer, despite using the highest level of privacy settings for their profiles.  They assumed only those they allowed on the site could see it.  A reasonable assumption.

What led to the girls’ ultimate demise was a breach in trust.  Someone in their circle of ‘friends’ connected to their profile had access to the photos.  In turn, they showed them to others outside the circle, and eventually the pictures ended up in front of their high school principal. 

The school responded by preventing the girls, both student-athletes, from participating in extracurricular activities in the fall and made them apologize to the Athletics board and attend counseling sessions.  The school’s student handbook cites that student-athletes can be excluded from representing the school if their conduct in or out of school discredits the school in any way or is a disruptive influence to its environment.  In the lawsuit filed by the girls, the issue of civil liberties (freedom of speech/expression, specifically) is now in play.  Schools are questioning how to better define codes of conduct to include online activities.  And friends are reconsidering the barometers of trust they use to measure their relationships with others.

Regardless of how this case ends and which side you may take, there are many lessons to be learned immediately:  

1. Using the highest privacy level settings in your social networking profile does not prevent people you have given privilege to see your posts from making them public. So always think before posting anything. Parents should advise their children of the dangers of posting personal things on the Web. They can use this case to show how managing privacy is first about making good choices and second about using technology to support those choices.  Parents should also set good examples.  Do not post photos or content that you or any of your friends or relatives would not want to be widely known or seen. 
2. Privacy means different things to different people.  I was once asked permission by someone to post a picture of my kids online.  Given the context of the posting, I declined (it was too public in my opinion), but I appreciated being asked in the first place.  Schools require parents to complete a release form allowing them (or not) to take photographs of our kids for the purposes of promoting the school in various publicity materials.  Some parents have no issues with this, some parents do.  It is a matter of choice, and it should never be assumed that everyone feels the same about what is private and what is not.  Show kids how you value privacy and how to respect the privacy of others.
3. Kids’ online safety and digital citizenship is the ultimate responsibility of the parents but they must guide their kids with the help of their school. In this case, while the teens made a poor choice of posting the photos in the first place, the incident may not have occurred if their parents and their school had warned them about the consequences of doing so.  It is unclear where the boundaries are or should be between parent and school, and what jurisdiction they each have over ensuring kids’ acceptable use of the Internet.  But rather than tackle it in isolation, a collaborative model would help address this more efficiently.  The case of the girls from Indiana highlights how the Internet is deeply woven into kids’ lives and why teaching digital citizenship needs to be a high priority for schools and parents. 

There are of course legal definitions and protections for you and your kids’ personal privacy, such as when you share health records with the school.  But privacy on social networking sites is a different matter.  The good news is that protecting your privacy is largely in yours and your kids’ own control.   Despite all the heat that social networking sites receive for improving their privacy control capabilities, technology can never be a replacement for good judgment.

by Lynette T. Owens

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to search my daughter’s name on Google.  I was curious to see what the results might be for someone who has not yet established an online presence.  I was amazed, worried, and amused all at once.  She shared her namesake with the owner of an arts and crafts company, a dating service professional, and someone who spent 7 years in jail.  Some of these people had profiles on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook.  Some wanted to make the world a better place, others wanted the world to know everything about them. 

I did the search after I read about the term ‘cybertwin’: someone who shares your name and possibly other characteristics like age, place of residence, or career, but is in fact not you.  The article advised people to find out if you have any cybertwins so you can explain if you ever needed to.

My kids’ reputation, and that of anyone under 18, will be partly defined by what they do online.  Managing their online personal information deftly and knowing how they might be perceived online is an important life skill.  Kids should be given basic guidance on sharing personal information online, for their safety and their reputation.   And perhaps some of the best advice comes from the generation that was born with the Internet already in their lives.

“On Facebook and other sites, I do not share significant personal information like my address,” says Aaron Schild, a senior at The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, CA and a volunteer at Teen-Senior Connect, a community-based volunteer high school group which assists seniors with computer and technology needs.  “I set the privacy settings almost as high as possible to make sure that no one who doesn’t know me can find any of my personal information.” 

Schild says that he has seen instances of people posting inappropriate photos or comments, which can be a reputation spoiler.  There are technologies that can block the world from seeing or knowing too much about you, but learning to think before posting is the best skill to avoiding future harm or embarrassment.  Even if kids use the highest privacy settings, someone whom they allow to have access to their information could still share it with others.

Additionally, university admission officers are increasingly looking at social networking profiles in their consideration of potential students.  A recent study by Kaplan, the industry leader in the U.S. of test preparation services and materials for college-bound students, showed that 21% (up from 16% a year ago) of universities are now considering policies to guide how they will use an applicant’s online profile in the admissions process.   

Schild says that the college counselors at his school have advised students to minimize their online presence for the purposes of college admission, unless they have done anything truly significant online to highlight. 

His advice to kids starting to build an online presence?  “Don’t spend too much time on social networking sites, as there are many more productive things to do online and in the real world. Also, make sure that you set the privacy settings so that no person outside of your inner circle can access your personal information.”

Here are a few basic things you can do to make sure your kids are sharing only the things they need to share online: 

1. Do as you say.  What better way to advise kids then to have a profile yourself?  Understand what you can post and where, how privacy settings can be used to carefully control access, and pass on best practices and advice to kids.
2. Choose real estate wisely.  Limit the number of sites you or your kids use, and understand what they are designed for.  Some sites are designed for personal sharing, others for professional networking, others for sharing common interests such as an online gaming.  Each time you use one of these, you are putting more of yourself online, so be selective.
3. Understand permanence and privacy.  Advise your kids to be cautious about what they post.  After that, make sure they use settings to limit who sees the information they want them to see.  Once they post something, it is out there forever and anyone they gave the privilege to see it could share it.
4. Ask your kids to connect.  If necessary, ask your kids to add you as a contact to their social networking sites.  For younger kids, this can be especially helpful for both of you to ensure they are using the sites safely and smartly.
5. Use reputable, up-to-date security software.  Hackers and cyber-criminals are very attracted to social networking sites because of the sheer number of people using them.  And their tactics for fooling people into divulging personal information or downloading malicious software have become increasingly sophisticated, so be sure to have a good security program on any device you or your kids use to manage your online information.

Who our kids are online is a reflection of who they are.  Who they are is a reflection of us.   Don’t just tell them but show them how they can use the Internet in a positive and safe way.  And if you haven’t looked up your cybertwin yet, perhaps you should.

For more information on how to keep your kids safe online, go to www.trendmicro.com/go/safety.

This past July, on my way to meet with the IT Director of a local school district, I walked the halls of the high-school where his office was located.  The building, like so many public schools, appeared structurally fatigued, bearing the signs and scars of decades of students passing through.  Anyone who viewed it from the street would have been bothered by its condition and the fact that kids spent 7-8 hours a day in it, 10 months out of the year.

I had expected to react similarly when the IT Director and I sat down to discuss the school’s technology infrastructure.  I assumed that whatever was in place would be a mixed bag of old and new systems and software of various brands, purchased in waves, whenever enough money could be freed up.  I also assumed some kind of security software would be in place, but that it would be minimal. 

What prompted me to schedule the meeting was an article in the Washington Post this past June, asserting that security technology – primarily those that prevent kids from accessing inappropriate sites – have failed in our schools.  The writer argued that such filtering technology was ineffective as kids had figured out ways to bypass it in school, while teachers were prevented from accessing sites needed for teaching purposes in the classroom.  I decided to find out how big of a problem this really was.

My assumptions going into the meeting were only partially right.  The director had taken on the job 4 years ago and had made a number of changes – both in equipment and in policies for its use.  Media labs were being put together for one of the elementary schools in the district, hundreds of teachers were armed with new laptops, wiring and cabling was cleaned up in the high-school, and air conditioning was added to the room where all the back-end infrastructure was housed.

We then discussed the issue of kids accessing inappropriate things online in the schools.  He did not seem overly concerned and did not indicate there were any rampant problems.  This was good to hear.

He did feel, however, they needed to ramp up education for teachers and kids about internet use and safety and security issues.  He believed technology alone would not solve all problems he might face with regard to use and abuse of the Internet in schools.  He also felt strongly that parents needed to be both educated and educating their kids about appropriate use of the Internet.

If our kids access the Internet at school, then the same rules apply for their safety as they do at home.  But you are not there to supervise them.  If you are a concerned parent that wants to be sure your kids are safe online while they are at school, and that their information being put online is secure from anyone but you, here are 5 things you can do immediately with your children’s schools: 

1 – Engage the school administration.  Ask your principal or superintendent what the overall safety and security polices are for keeping the kids’, teachers’ and school’s internet access safe and secure.  Most schools have codes of conduct for technology use.  How are teachers and kids trained on this?  Make sure such policies and procedures are also communicated and available for parents to refer to.

2 – Understand what the disciplinary actions are when rules are broken.  What happens if a teacher shows questionable Internet content in the classroom?  How will your child’s school records be impacted if they access inappropriate content on a school computer?  What if your child is bullied online by a group of kids?  How is this handled?

3 – Know how your child’s personal information is kept secure.  Many schools are now hosting and posting a lot of personal information about your child online – and making that accessible to you over the Internet.  This creates lots of efficiencies for everyone, but a strong privacy and security policy and infrastructure should be in place to support it.  Unlike previous generations, children today have so much personal information stored in digital form that parents need to be aware of where it is and how it’s protected. 

4 – Discuss it with other parents. Bring the topic up at a future PTO/PTA meeting.  Make sure other parents are educated and engaged in this discussion as well.

5 – Ask to be briefed regularly.  Technologies change, new applications and uses for it evolve all the time.  And where they can improve the education process, they should be used.  How is the school assessing new technologies in the name of safety and security for your kids?  Make this at least a yearly topic of discussion with your school administration and with parent organizations associated with the schools.

The schools that I have been in contact with are very open and eager to engage with concerned parents on the topic of Internet safety.  And while they bear an enormous responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids while they are under their care, parents need to be actively aware and involved in their safety at all times.  You may have done everything possible to keep them safe and secure online while they are home, but they are not home for much of their waking hours.  This is a topic well worth a small investment of your time.

As a parent of 2 young kids, I tend to measure the passing of time and major milestones in my kids’ lives (and my own) based on when school begins, ends, and how it ebbs and flows in between.  While summer has ended, a lot has just begun.  My kids will have new experiences, meet new people, learn new things this school year.

In the midst of all this transition, it’s natural to want your kids to be safe and enjoy the experience.  I am attentive to my kids’ safety from the moment they wake up, get dressed, get into the car and get to school.  My kids’ schools do a great job of informing parents of their policies, procedures, responsibilities and expectations of parents to ensure that our kids are always safe when they’re there, and will be in an environment where they will learn and have fun doing it.

For the most part, safety is very naturally at the top of our minds wherever our kids are concerned.

Yet there is one area of a child’s safety that continues to fall beneath the radar of many people.  In my discussions with many parents and grandparents, school administrators, neighbors, and friends around the world, it is clear to me that we do not take the issue of our kids’ Internet safety as seriously as we do with other aspects of their well-being.

Internet safety is a topic that is not as well-understood as it should be in many communities.  Ask a parent with a 10-year old boy, and they might tell you “I don’t want my son seeing inappropriate things online.”   Ask another with 2 teenagers, and they may say “I’m worried because I have no idea who they are chatting with or what they may be saying about themselves.”   But everyone does know there are risks – they just don’t have a common answer as to what they should be worried about, much less what to do about it.

Also, most kids around the world between the ages of 5 and 18 spend about half of their waking hours in school or somewhere not at home.  Some of that time is spent online in the classroom or at a friend’s house or using their cell phones as they move from place to place.

So what is a parent who cares about all other aspects of their children’s safety to do?

Here are four things a parent can do right away:

1 – Understand how your kids spend their time online. How do they get onto the internet (computer, phone, etc.)?  Will they use social networking sites like Facebook or Club Penguin?  Be aware of any sites’ Privacy Policies and Terms of Use.  You can avoid a damaged reputation or even identity theft by simply using some of the privacy controls already available on many sites.

2 – Know the risks that being online might bring to your children. There are tons of great resources out there, some of which you can find at www.trendmicro.com/go/safety.   You may have already read or heard about sexual predators trying to groom kids online and kids’ viewing inappropriate content or posting inappropriate photos of themselves, but there is much more to online safety than the few topics that make the news headlines.  Being aware of these risks is the first step to making sure they are safe.

3 – Put some ground rules in place and use technology as you see fit. Once you understand the risks, decide how you want to let your kids use technology in their lives.  Some of that will be driven by their needs for school, but decide how you want them to use it for learning, socializing, and entertainment.  Agree on where, when, and with whom they can use it.  And know there are great technologies out there that can help you manage their time online safely.  Parental control features in security software is a great foundation to help manage some of the more basic issues such as blocking inappropriate sites, limiting their time, and monitoring where they go – and you get the benefits of keeping your system secure in case anyone – including your kids – isn’t clicking as carefully as they should.  Again, there are tons of resources to get you started from some great organizations:

• www.connectsafely.org – ask an expert for advice or download lots of great safety tips
• www.childnet.com and www.idtheftcenter.org – download tips and find helpful resources
• www.commonsensemedia.org – find out if a site is even age-appropriate for your kids

4 – Teach your kids how to be a good and safe citizen of the internet. You teach them to say please and thank you, not talk to strangers, wear a seatbelt , and treat others with respect.  The same rules apply online.  There are some things to watch out for that are unique online (e.g., don’t fall for a free offer scam that came from your ‘friend’), but like any life-skill, it just takes practice to navigate safely in the online world.

Sounds easier said than done?  Maybe, but when it comes to the safety of my kids, I have always made that investment.  I have probably spent more (in dollars, for sure) on car seats, safety gates, outlet plugs, and table corner guards to protect my kids than I have invested to keep my kids safe online.   Online safety is first about educating yourself as a parent and second about investing in technology to keep them safe.  My kids have outgrown most of the safety gear I’ve researched and paid for, but the investment I make to teach my kids good online habits will last them a lifetime.