Are you inadvertently using social networking sites to let people know when you’re not at home? If so, you are in the business of advertising “Rob me! Please!”.

A new Website called www.pleaserobme.com recently launched and has gained a ton of attention. The sub heading of this web site says “listing all those empty homes out there”, then shows a live roll of “Recent Empty Homes” and the # of “new opportunities”.

Before you get too upset thinking this site is hacking information, it actually isn’t. It’s using regular search engines that anyone can use to find Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Google Buzz posts that contain location information.

The founders of the site note that they are attempting to raise awareness of the privacy issues out there and to get people to think before they post.

Let’s face it. Many of us see the fun and excitement in our social media tools, but don’t really think sometimes how the information we post might affect things. Take some time today to think about how you and your family use social media. Decide what safe practices your family should put into effect to protect your home and your loved ones.

by Mary Kay Hoal
Technology is great.  It makes our lives easier, more manageable, and more fun.  However, bullies have found a way to take that same technology and turn it into a medium of harassment.  If your child has a cell phone, a laptop, a Facebook page, or even a blog, he/she is susceptible to cyberbullying–a form of bullying that lately, has overshadowed “traditional bullying”.

Cyberbullying has all the same side-effects that traditional bullying has, and more.  As I’m sure you know, consistent bullying of any kind can create serious emotional damage to a child.  Their life can be turned into a nightmare.  Among other things, their reputation at school can be destroyed because of humiliating videos on YouTube or snide comments on Facebook/MySpace being exposed for their other friends to see on the internet.

The purpose of this blog post is to leave you and your child with some tips and tools to aid you in case cyberbullying happens in your family.  There are multiple ways to handle the situation, some are better than others.  Read on and see which methods I feel are the most productive:

For E-mails
Always keep hard copies and digital copies of cyberbullying emails, don’t reply to the email as it will only add gasoline to the fire.  In extreme cases where you or your child feels your lives are being threatened, call the police.

How To:  Don’t delete the email, keep it in an email sub-folder so it stays organized. (See image below)

G-mail settings

Yahoo! settings

Children emails: Make sure to give them or tell them to create gender neutral email addresses so that random bullies don’t know if the email recipent is male or female.

Always create strong passwords: do not use your/your child’s first or last name anywhere in their email password.  Refrain from using easy passwords such as pet names or best friends’ names.  Make sure there’s a good mix of numbers and letters as well.  For a great-password-making tool, check out: http://www.passwordmeter.com/

For Text Messages:
Don’t delete the text message, and just like emails, don’t respond to the text.

Keep it in your phone and if the bullying gets too serious file a formal complaint with your cell phone provider, or again, in serious instances, call the police.

Any internet related cyberbullying: (social networks, emails, chat rooms, YouTube, etc)

Below I will show you how to take screenshots.  This is one of the best ways to keep digital copies of any type of harassment.  On the other hand, most big sites like YouTube, Facebook, and AOL have some sort of service that allows you to file a complaint.  When you do this, they will most likely ask you if you have evidence of the harassment–this is where the screenshot comes in handy.

Windows based:

On any Windows based PC, you can take a screenshot by pressing the “Prt Sc” key on your keyboard.

This will create an image file of exactly what you see on your computer screen.  After pressing the “Prt sc” button, go to an image program such as Paint (comes with any Windows based computer) and once you have the program open, just click on “paste” or press Ctrl + V.

Now save the file somewhere on your computer where you can easily find it.

Mac OSX based:

If you have an Apple Mac, press the Command key + shift + 3 to send an image file straight to your Desktop.

Make sure you save the image to a folder that you’ll remember (maybe make a new folder titled “cyberbullying”) that way you can easily find the proof that you need when things get too serious and you decide to report it.

Free screenshot software:

In a previous blog, I gave some advice to one of my friends when her daughter was being cyberbullied on Facebook.  I told her about a great application called Jing.  With Jing you can easily document screenshots or video recordings from website activity–this is a great way to generate some evidence of cyberbullying.  Check it out at http://www.jingproject.com/download/

This video will show you how to capture video:

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Mary Kay Hoal is the founder of YourSphere, the first social networking service for youth that parents can embrace. 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. Mary Kay and husband Ted live in Davis, CA.

Want to become the Mayor of your favorite café or your favorite clothing store? With foursquare, you can! Foursquare is a location-based social networking tool that allows you to not only tell your friends what type of latte you are drinking, but exactly where you are drinking that latte. Foursquare calls this “checking-in” and uses GPS coordinates from your mobile phone to show others where you are.

Foursquare is similar to MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter through the use of “friends”. Let’s face it; it would be pretty boring to check-in where you are if you didn’t have anyone participating with you. Sharing the experience with your friends allows you to see where everyone is, meet up, surprise someone at a restaurant, or see what others have recommended at various points of interest.

Ever wonder which of your friends really frequents a particular coffee shop the most? Foursquare tracks it. In fact, you really can become the “Mayor” of your favorite store by having the highest check-ins of all foursquare users at that store. Businesses are starting to take advantage of this as a way to track and reward their frequent customers with freebies and discounts. You can also earn points with foursquare to earn “badges”. The concept is the more “interesting” your life, the higher your score.

The danger lies in who you allow to be your friend. If you allow someone that you don’t know as your friend because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings or are excited to have a lot of friends, you could be allowing dangerous people access to your exact location. Err on the side of being very choosy and allowing only close friends to follow you.

Parents, I’d like to challenge you to learn more about Foursquare, the pros and the cons, and be proactive in talking to your children about it. Discuss if the tool will be allowed, how to properly use it, and who they are allowed to add as friends. Be sure and set up your own account and add yourself as your child’s friend  to see where they are and who is on their friends list.