Bsecure - Ultimate Online Family Protection

Although we may not know you personally, we do take the job of making the Internet safer for your use to heart. We want to help you protect your family, not just with our software, but through sharing our knowledge as well. Please read through our helpful articles and feel free to send us any comments or questions through our Contact Us page. We would love to hear from you!

Facebook’s Read app

Tuesday, September 27, 2011
posted by admin

Great, now everyone will know I read about porn all day.

With the impending launch of Facebook’s “Read, Watch, Listen” media sharing apps, your Friends will soon be able to see your media choices without you clicking the “like” button. Once these apps are installed your media choices within those apps will automatically show up in your news feed. The apps use a one time permission that covers all future uses, so you have no options after the initial installation.

Yes, I read about porn, a lot. My job involves staying up to date with all the worst things on the web. Bsecure Online is an internet filter that blocks out all the bad stuff. We have to know what that bad stuff is in order to block it. But for my Facebook Friends who don’t really know what my job is, they are just going to see articles about porn popping up in my news feed.

The more invasive Facebook becomes, the less I enjoy using it. Especially now that all my Friends will think I’m a pervert.

Who’s at Fault?

Thursday, September 22, 2011
posted by admin

A dad in Ireland is suing Facebook after his 12 year old daughter posted inappropriate photos of herself on the site. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook does not do enough to verify the age of its users, therefor many kids under the age of 13 (Facebook’s minimum age to join) are able to sign up for the social networking site.

So is Facebook’s at fault or the dad?

I personally know many young children, under the age of 13, who have a Facebook profile with a fake birthday. I know parents who allow their children to have a profile as long as the parent monitors the page and has the login information. However, kids are also very tech savvy these days and can easily figure out that by lying about their birth date they can have a profile without Mom and Dad ever knowing. I do not know if the father involved in the lawsuit knew about his daughter’s Facebook page or how he found out about the photos. But it is possible that his daughter could have set up the account without him ever knowing.

As parents we hope that our children are honest with us and follow the guidelines that we set for them. And it is vitally important to set up guidelines for internet usage. Most kids don’t realize the dangers of having these online profiles with personal information. Social networks, like Facebook, can be a great tool for kids to stay connected with peers and family. But it is also a place where pedophiles lurk and cyberbullies run rampant.

Since we can’t control everything our children do, it is important to begin educating them in age appropriate ways as soon as they begin to use a computer. (For tips and more info on this you can visit out Resources page.) Internet monitoring software is also an excellent tool to keep tabs on what your kids are doing online. Bsecure Online allows you to monitor all social networking pages and profiles, even those your child may have “forgotten” to tell you about. This trusted software also alerts you to any inappropriate messages or posts that are on your child’s page.

We all want to believe our kids will do the right thing. But so often they don’t understand why something is wrong or inappropriate. As parents it is our job to protect and educate our kids. We all hope for the best, but we need to be prepared for the worst.

More Facebook Changes

Wednesday, September 21, 2011
posted by admin

Today, Facebook rolled out changes to the way users view their News Feeds. Now, when you login to your Facebook account your News Feed will show Top Stories. The Top Stories are chosen based on your relationship with the other user, the number of comments and likes the post has and a variety of other factors. These posts will be identified with a blue corner in the upper left of the post. The News Feed will also show Recent Posts in the same feed.

Another new feature is the Lists options on the left side of the News Feed page. Users can add friends to a certain List and then only view the News Feed for that particular List or only post content that friends from a particular List see. Facebook has default List titles set up for Family, Close Friends, Acquaintances and Restricted. Users can also add their own Lists to create a more customized experience. The Lists feature is very similar to the Circles feature in Google+.

Below is an example of the Lists.facebook-lists

Below is an example of selecting a specific List to view your status update.status-updates-for-list

I have seen mixed reactions from Facebook users on these new changes. I personally like having the Lists feature, but I am still not sure about the Top Stories. It seems that Facebook is attempting to give users more control and for a user with hundreds of friends I think these changes could be very helpful.

Illegal Music Downloads

Tuesday, September 20, 2011
posted by admin

In 1999, Napster, a music file sharing service, began operating a peer-to-peer based sharing system that led to massive copyright infringements and lawsuits. The service didn’t last long and ceased the free sharing operation in 2001. Napster was the first site I can remember doing this type of music file sharing and I knew a lot of people who used it when it was popular. Ten years later Napster has grown into a legit business model, but it seems that others haven’t learned that same lesson.

For example, a music fan in Boston is being held liable for a $675,000 judgement against him, because he illegally shared 31 music files (not on Napster). He was contacted in 2005 by several major music labels who then filed suit in 2007. Just last week a US Circuit court upheld the original ruling of $675,000.

That means each song cost $21,774.

That’s some expensive music.

Do you know what your kids are downloading online? Most children don’t understand copyright infringement laws and probably don’t even realize they might be downloading something illegal. However as a parent you are responsible for what is downloaded using your internet connection. It is important to explain to kids and teens the difference between legitimate music downloading sites and those that share music illegally. It is also a good idea to install a trusted internet filter to block illegal file sharing sites altogether. It is much less stressful and cost effective to block those sites to begin with, rather than paying huge fines and spending years in a legal battle.

Images in the Media

Thursday, September 15, 2011
posted by admin

I often see articles online about “scandalous” photos of celebrities without their makeup, or an image of a celebrity that gets posted online before it has been altered. When I ran across an article about Lady Gaga being “stripped down” to an “almost bare” face as opposed to her usual costumes, it made me realize that very few images we see in the media are real. Even the “real” photos of Lady Gaga were obviously retouched and her “almost bare” face had been carefully made up by a professional makeup artist to look “almost bare.” As someone who uses Photoshop on a daily basis, I know how easy it is to take ten years and ten pounds off a person’s photo in five minutes. I get a surprising amount of requests to do so. With increasingly advanced photo editing software we are becoming consumers of increasingly unrealistic media.

As adults we (for the most part) know that the images we see in the media have been altered to make the women fit an “ideal” that is completely unrealistic for the average person. These images are everywhere we look: TV, magazines, movies, pornography, billboards, etc. As a culture we are inundated with the idea that women have to look and act a certain way to be of any value, and that value is based on being sexy and beautiful.
These images have led to overwhelming issues of low self-esteem and eating disorders. According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, “80% of 13-year-olds have attempted to lose weight.” That means 80% of little girls are trying to look like a celebrity photo that is so altered, even the celebrity doesn’t really look that way. According to the same set of statistics “the mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15 – 24 years old.” So not only are these young girls trying to achieve an unrealistic perfection, they are dying for it.

As parents what can we possibly do to fight something that seems so much bigger than us? We can lead by example. Don’t complain about your own appearance or degrade the appearance of others in front of your daughter. Remember that every image we can keep her from seeing is one less image that leaves a negative impression on her. An easy way to do this is to start filtering out the sites she can look at online. Absolutely block out porn sites because they completely misrepresent real women. But also consider blocking certain beauty magazine websites, online shows, and any sites offering eating disorder “how tos” (and yes, those really do exist). Kids spend a lot of time online and we can keep them from seeing thousands of negative images, just by installing a trusted internet software filter to block inappropriate content. You can have a lot of control by filtering online content. When your daughter does see these unrealistic images in other forms of media that you have less control over, talk to her about what she is seeing. Let her know what you feel her worth is truly based on.

I would never want my daughter to feel that her worth is based solely on her body. Would you want your daughter to feel that way?

Internet Safety a Top 10 Health Concern

Friday, August 19, 2011
posted by admin

In recent poll by the University of Michigan adults rated their biggest health concerns for children in their communities. Internet safety and sexting were two of the top ten health concerns. According to a WebMD article about the study:

“Overall, here is the top 10 health concerns of all adults polled:

  1. Childhood obesity, 33%
  2. Drug abuse, 33%
  3. Smoking and tobacco use, 23%
  4. Teen pregnancy, 24%
  5. Bullying, 24%
  6. Internet safety, 23%
  7. Stress, 22%
  8. Alcohol abuse, 20%
  9. Driving accidents, 20%
  10. Sexting, 20%”

According to the survey adults feel internet safety is a bigger concern that alcohol abuse and driving accidents. Very few parents would allow their children unlimited access to alcohol or let them drive without guidelines. So why would a parent allow their child unlimited internet access without guidelines? Protecting our children online is just as important as protecting them in the “real” world. Setting online rules, signing an internet safety contract with your child and using a trusted parental control software will help protect your child from dangers online.

A Kingsport, TN police officer has been arrested for being involved a large child pornography ring. Guess how he accessed the child porn? It wasn’t via his home Internet connection. It was via other homes, churches, and businesses in his hometown that had unsecured wireless connections. Now, those homeowners, churches, and business owners are “in the system” for having child porn accessed on their Internet connections.

It is your responsibility to make sure no one can access inappropriate information on your network. If you don’t secure your Internet connection and someone accesses illegal material on it such as child porn, be ready to spend time and resources proving it wasn’t you.

For some basic tips on securing your wireless connection, check out my previous blog called Who’s Surfin’ on Your Internet Connection. In addition to securing your wireless router, be sure to have an Internet filter in place so that you can also block inappropriate and illegal sites. You lock your doors to your house to keep out burglars, so why aren’t’ you locking your Internet connection to keep out those “burglars”?

No Cell Phones Allowed!

Thursday, August 18, 2011
posted by admin

I just finished reading an interesting news article about a restaurant that requires its guests to sign a contract before eating. What is the contract for? It’s so you completely understand that while you are in the dining area of the restaurant, you are not allowed to use your cell phone.

Why would they do this? The restaurant management says that people come to their restaurant and pay hard earned money for a very nice meal with a relaxing atmosphere. If the restaurant is full of ringing cell phones and people talking extremely loud so that the person on the other end can hear them, your nice, relaxing night out is ruined.

Could you last without having your cell phone on during your next meal at a restaurant? I want to put the challenge out there for you and myself. The next time you go out to a restaurant, turn the cell phone off and leave it off. Challenge those with you to do so as well. We all might find a much more relaxing, pleasurable dining experience that our hard earned money is paying for. Let’s be real…. One family dinner out at a restaurant costs 1/2 a week’s worth of groceries, so why not enjoy it?

The iPad in School

Thursday, August 18, 2011
posted by admin

Yesterday was the first day of school for my son this year. I have to admit, I was a nervous wreck all day! New school, new teachers, and catching the bus home for the first time made for a long day for me. I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders when my son texted me that school was over and he was successfully on the right bus home.

Last night, we talked about how his first day of school went. In the conversation about classes, he told me that the school issues iPads for the students to use in Science. The teacher has her students use certain science apps and websites to help them during class. Pretty cool, eh?

When you think about it, I could see school operating 100% off of an iPad. Think about it… Schools probably have to invest a lot of funds into purchasing books for the students that are dated by the time they’re shipped to the school for use in the classrooms. Parents have to spend a lot of money on notebooks, paper, pencils, backpacks, etc. which the child then has to carry around all day from class to class, tugging on his back and shoulders from the weight. Think of the simplicity of a student only having to carry an iPad from class to class with up-to-date curriculum on it and ways to electronically file their homework.

The reality of this is probably not that far off in the distant future. With this technology that provides great benefits, parents (and schools) must also be knowledgeable of how to keep their child/students from access inappropriate sites at school and at home. Just checking the browser history on the device doesn’t cut it anymore. Kids know how to delete that information (and delete it fast). However, if you have a trusted parental controls software package in place that logs the activity in a place that the child cannot get to or erase, then you aren’t being duped by your child and can truly know what they are looking at on their wireless devices.

Don’t be caught off guard. Learn about the technology now so that you are prepared for tomorrow.

Cell Phones and the Americans that Use Them

Wednesday, August 17, 2011
posted by admin

You know you’ve done it…. You’re walking through the Mall and you pull out your cell phone to pretend like your on an important call so that those pesky marketers in the middle kiosks won’t try to pull you over to their station to show you how shiny they can make your nails. Just admit it. I’ve done it! If I don’t, they’ll sometimes run me down to the end of that hallway trying to get to test their product on me. As my co-worker would say, “Holla!”.

According to a new survey published by Pew Internet, 13% of us pretend to use our cell phone to avoid interacting with people and 42% of play on our phones when we’re bored. Yep, it’s hard for us to just be “still” and enjoy the quiet times of life. Instead, we have to start up Mr. Giggles or PacMan on our phones. The majority of us (9 out of 10) seem to be using our cell phones for text messaging and taking photos. Eight in ten of us go online to watch videos, interact on our social networking sites, or just check out various web sites.

We’re all familiar with the phrase “there’s an app for that”. Well, guess what? There’s an app for protecting yourself from inappropriate content online when on your phone! It’s called Bsecure for Mobile.In fact, Bsecure has a free app for iPhone/iTouch/iPad in the iTunes store and a free app for your Android phone in the Android Marketplace. Now, go install that app!

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