When your teenager gets behind the wheel, you can't always go along with them. That means that you can't perfectly prevent distracted driving behavior—and unfortunately, teenagers are guilty of distracted behavior behind the wheel all too often. Up to a quarter of teenagers admit to receiving and responding to text messages every time they're behind the wheel. More than 10% of drivers under the age of twenty who were involved in fatal crashes were driving distracted when the accident occurred.Read More »
In the past few years, iPhone and iPad usage with kids has expanded tenfold. In order to keep up with these changes, uKnowKids is launching a new product specifically designed to help parents whose kids are using iPhone, iPads, iTouches and Macs. It is called the uKnowKids for Apple, and we plan to launch it into public beta in April.
Big iPhone and iPad News
Note... We are still working on a final name the product, so "uKnowKids for Apple" may go through a name change in the next few weeks or months, but you get the idea :)
With the uKnowKids for Apple, parents can gain dramatically better transparency into your child's iPhone activities than any other solution on the market today. Let's take a look at some of the new features.
View iMessages (Text Messages & Picture Messages):
We all know that keeping tabs on text and picture messages is helpful for parents who are trying to educate and coach their kids on how to use technology safely and responsibly. With the uKnowKids for Apple, parents are able to view their teen's incoming and outgoing iOS text messages (SMS) and picture messages (MMS)... iMessages... via their iPhones, iPads, iTouches, and Mac computers. Additionally, the feature enables uKnowKids customers to review stored photos. Keeping an eye on these interactions can help parents ensure that new phone users aren't getting involved in peer pressure, sexting or other digital dangers.Read More »
uKnowKids was highlighted in an on air interview with WTOP as well as on their website covering the Washington, DC metro area. The piece is an in-depth look into uKnowKids including how it is not a spying tool for parents, the analyzing of information it obtains, and its ability to crunch data to find dangerous patterns and trends. Read the full piece below.
WASHINGTON -- With the days of teenagers having to call the family phone to get in touch with your child long past, cyberparents are looking for new ways to unobtrusively monitor what their children are doing, and with whom.Read More »
Northern Virginia Magazine interviewed our CEO Steve Woda for a great piece on family safety in the digital age. Check it out here!
A parent’s worst fear is having their child in danger. And in the age of digital communities, keeping track of who a child is socializing with becomes an overwhelming task.Read More »
uKnowKids was featured prominently in Yahoo! Tech and we are thrilled. Check out part one of the article below and share with friends and family!
How to Monitor Your Kids Without Turning into the NSA
Should you spy on your kids? The technology to do it is certainly cheap and plentiful. If you want to, you can install software on their computers that copies you on everything they type and everything they look at. You can turn their phones into digital bloodhounds that map everywhere they go. You can install cameras in your home and watch your kids from any Internet device.
All of that is perfectly legal. Parents are within their rights to monitor their minor children on any device they use, notes Tatiana Melnik, a data privacy and security attorney in Tampa, Fla. Practically speaking, however, it’s not as simple as it sounds, especially as your little darlings morph into surly adolescents. Do it badly, and it can backfire on you in a big way.
Whether you choose to use tech to monitor your kids is something is only you can decide. But if you do, here are a few simple rules.
uKnowKids has realeased another SlideShare! View below to get a great list of the top 10 resolutions that every digital family should make in 2014. Don't worry, these are easy and attainable resolutions that will make this year the safest year yet for you and your children online and on the mobile phone. If you haven't made any resolutions (or even if you have and need some you can definitely keep) this SlideShare is for you!
uKnow is having a new product launch party, and you are invited! If you are in the Washington, DC area come see for yourself how we are changing the way families connect and protect one another online and via mobile phones. Beer, wine, hors d'oeuvres and great networking opportunities will be served!
Join us at our Twitter Party tomorrow at 1pm EDT to discuss the ins and outs, good and bad, of Digital Parenting! We will be talking about the advantages and drawbacks of parenting with technology and we will share tips on how we all keep sane as parents in this digital world. We will be joined by digital parenting expert Steve Woda who will answer any questions and weigh in on these hot topics.
We are extremely excited to announce our first annual Parenting Blog of the Year winners. We listened to our readers recommendations and scoured the web for the 25 best mommy/daddy bloggers and then we left it up to you to vote and decide who wins from there! Readers voted like crazy from mid-June to the first week of July, and the top 5 winners went home with some great prizes including gift cards, free uKnowKids accounts, press opportunities, and more!
June was Internet Safety Month
uKnowKids created and released a lot of unique content to help keep kids safe online and on their mobile phone during the month of June and into the summer. Download our latest eBook “Internet Safety and Strategies for the Lazy Days of Summer” now and then check out our infographic that features exclusive safety tips from leaders in the industry.
Foster children are especially vulnerable to various ID theft types, because their Social Security Number and other personal data is accessed by many so many people at various stages of the foster care process, the Huffington Post reports. This results in credit problems that often go unnoticed until the child reaches adulthood and tries to establish credit for him- or herself.
Did you know Congress has declared June as National Internet safety month? While we believe every month should be Internet safety month, we are excited about the awareness that this will hopefully cause! Because of this, we are running a contest throught the month of June where you can enter to win a year-long free Premier uKnowKids account featuring enhanced social, mobile and location monitoring valued at $120. All you have to do is enter and you will have a chance to win one of 10 prizes! No purchase necessary!
Has it ever occured to you that your child's favorite sites and apps might have unseen dangers? When they say they have been on Instagram or Vine or Keek, do you understand the risks involved? While these sites have boomed in popularity in recent months, the shocking reality is that they are home to some of the most dangerous risks on the Internet.
We have released our newest eBook, and this one is most definitely worth a read! Do you need some help laying down the law when it comes to digital safety rules in your household? Are you looking for some useful tips to keep your family safe on all of their gadgets? Then our eBook "15 Digital Safety Rules Every Household Should Follow" is perfect for you! Here are just a few of the 15 rules that we think every digital parent should enforce:
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, over 800,000 people under the age of 18 go missing on an annual basis. Some of these are simple incidents of the child getting lost and reappearing later, surprised that everyone was so concerned. However, approximately 258,000 of these cares are outright abductions in some shape or form.
Put into perspective, ChildStats.gov notes that for the year the study used by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was conducted, there were roughly 71.9 million children in the United States. By these numbers, over a full percent of them would go missing each year. Looking at it another way, the average elementary school (476 students) would probably see one and a half of those students actually abducted sometime during the year, and several more simply not show up for reasons other than skipping.
uKnowKids is pleased to announce that we have released our eBook and SlideShare, both entitled "11 Digital Services Every Military Family Needs", for our Military Appreciation Month. Everyone knows how important technology is to our servicemembers and their families, and since uKnow.com is a tech and internet safety company, we are fortunate enough to be able to give a little something back to our servicemen.
Good news uKnowKids fans! We have partnered with SocialToaster to create an Ambassador program for people like you who really love our company, mission, and educational content!
SocialToaster is an online sharing tool that will give fans like you super powers -- the ability to share the content that you already love and earn rewards for doing so! The more content you share and the more traffic you generate on your social networks, the more points you will gain. And as an added fun factor, you are competing against other uKnowKids lovers. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone!
When Dr. J and I talk about our core values Service, Safety, or Sustainability on air or off air; we are looking for the authorities and true experts on these subjects so we can help others. That is when I discovered Dr. Logan, an expert on cyberbullying, and invited her on www.TheSocialNetworkShow.com where she talks about this serious topic and how to help kids.
You can listen to Dr. Logan by visiting the archives on our website listed above.
Doesn't it seem that new smartphones appear all the time? If the media isn't touting the latest and greatest new phone, your teenager certainly is! While teenagers around the country started to drool over the new features, parents face the same dilemma they have faced since the origianal smart hones started appearing on kids' birthday and holiday gift lists. How do I keep my child safe?