'Tis the Season

Need help with choosing those digital media gifts, making the Christmas season meaningful, or managing the stress? Common Sense Media is there to assist you. Check out their Holiday Hub for tips on all your holiday needs.

When all else fails remember this: daylight time starts increasing on December 22nd!

Are your kids into digital media?

I just discovered a website called Kidscreen that looks interesting and one of the articles they posted is about a free Kids Media app that was recently released by Common Sense Media. If you would like help evaluating media to get for your kids, either this holiday season or all through the year, you may want to check this out.

Kidscreen website

Kids Media app article

Digital Gift-giving Tips

Common Sense Media provides a gift guide for parents. Below is the promo I just received. Check it out if you are considering any sort of digital entertainment gifts this holiday season. Just click on the words "gift guide" in the first sentence.

You probably have heard this before, but . . .

. . . sleep is important for all of us for a variety of reasons. It's not just for "beauty." It is especially crucial for brain development during the teen years. More research findings were highlighted in a recent CTV news report that I found in MediaSmarts News.

Sleepiness from round-the-clock texting hurting teens, doctors say

How Safe is Your Password?

We often get reminders about password security such as,  "Don't share your password with anyone," or, "Don't use the same password for all your accounts." Even though we may feel these are too much work we really should be heeding the warnings. My recent newsfeed from the Common Sense Media people included an updated reminder about secure passwords. It contains a reminder of four things to remember when trying to create a foolproof password:
                                                    (provided by Microsoft's Safety and Security Center)

• length (at least 8 characters long)
• complexity (not just letters and numbers)
• variation (changing the password often)
• variety (Don't use the same password for everything. Have you heard this before?)

In addition there are links to interesting background stories, humorous takes on the struggle to create secure passwords, sites for help in both creating good passwords and managing your passwords.

If you're like me you have a multitude of accounts of various types and attempting to have a multitude of safe passwords is mind-boggling at best. For some very interesting suggestions and just some fun reading check out the "rest of the story" at the links below.

How Safe is Your Password? - from Common Sense Educators

sublinks in the above article
     (in case something looks interesting and you don't have time to check out the entire article):
          Young, in Love and Sharing Everything, Including a Password - from the New York Times
          PIN analysis - from the DataGenetics blog
          How I'd Hack Your Weak Passwords - from lifehacker.com
          If you're using 'Password1,' change it. Now. - from CNN Money
          Password Strength - from the webcomic xkcd
          xkcd Password Generator - from preshing on programming
          The Usability of Passwords - more on multi-word passwords from Thomas Baekdal
          Why Multi-word Phrases Make for More Secure Passwords Than Incomprehensible Gibberish
                     - a post to lifehacker.com by Adam Dachis  
          How Secure Is My Password? - site for, you guessed it, checking out your password

A note to teachers: check the Teaching Tools tab for some lessons from Common Sense Media on passwords.

October - Cyber Security Awareness Month

STOP/THINK/CONNECT (www.stopthinkconnect.org) is an organization focused on "keeping the web a safer place for everyone." Connected with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, they provide resource materials and promote programs to educate us all about safety and security on the internet.

This and other organizations are promoting National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). More information is available at the stop.think.connect site as well as at StaySafeOnline.org.

Among the resources on the StaySafeOnline page are a couple safety tips documents, one for all computers, the other for use with mobile devices.  Links to these files are provided below.

STOP.THINK.CONNECT.Tip Sheet

STOP.THINK.CONNECT. Mobile Tip Sheet

They are both PDF files which you can download and save to your computer if you wish.

Social Media and Sexting

There are many organizations that have ongoing campaigns around the theme of online safety and security and share resources online to help us all. One website I came across recently is that of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The particular article that grabbed my attention is

Talking to Kids and Teens About Social Media and Sexting

Check out their web site, www.aap.org, for more information on internet safety and other helpful topics.