It's no secret that many schools block social networking sites. What is a mystery to most educators is how to block sites from teens that they shouldn't be able to get to and how to allow sites that they should be able to get to easily and economically.

This article from YourSphere talks about this very problem, but poses a different solution. Instead of blocking them - use them as tools in teaching. This is a solution that I've suggested before - and I still believe in it.

When I hear from teachers, they say that if they can't get to a web site they need to use for teaching, there is always a student on hand who can help them get there. This is suggesting that we are preventing access to these sites for the wrong group. Why wouldn't we want to harness the good things social networks have to offer and include them in the curriculum, instead of pretending they are these dark caves that should be avoided?

What do you think about including social networking in the classroom?

We've talked about Twitter on this blog and it is mentioned with some regularity in the traditional media. But what IS it?

The answer (in exactly 140 characters) is:
Twitter is a micro-blogging site that is asking you to share what you are doing right now with your friends and the world in 140 characters.

Why? This video from Common Craft answers this question:

The tragic earthquake in Haiti this week has effected an already poor area of the world. According to CBS News, only 10% of the population had access to the Internet. Of those people who do have access to the Internet (including access via cell phones), they are communicating in ways that has never been possible before.

The people on the ground in Haiti are communicating via Facebook status messages, Twitter and other social networking sites. They are reporting where they are, the status of those around them and asking for specific needs (food, water, medicine).

I think this is a powerful example of how the Internet and social networks have made a very positive difference in the world. Another example is that you can donate to the Red Cross online to help the victims.

Do you have any stories like this?

I read on InfoWorld that there may be a new hacking target for 2010.

Viruses are spread through programs and platforms that are most commonly used because of the law of numbers. Cybercriminals know that the more chances you have to spread the virus, the higher the impact it will have. So they attack things that "everyone" uses. This is a big reason why Windows PC's have a higher rate of viruses over the Mac. Does this mean you should toss your PC? Not at all! It does mean that we should take everything said online with an extra grain of salt.

McAfee, a popular antivirus software company, said: "Cybercriminals have long picked on Microsoft products due to their popularity. In 2010, we anticipate Adobe software, especially Acrobat Reader and Flash, will take the top spot." in its report (PDF).

Many of the apps and games found on social networking sites are created using Flash. The popularity of those apps and games combined with the popularity of social networking sites makes it a perfect place to target, if you were a hacker.

How can you protect yourself?

• -- Make sure your virus software is up to date. Most software that is available has regular updates available from the company's website. All of the virus protection software that I am familiar with has an option to automatically update the software every time there is an update. I like this option - takes out an extra step for me to do. If you think you may have downloaded a virus, run a virus scan.
• -- Don't trust everything you read online - even if it looks like it is from your friend. If you get a random request from a friend asking to do something unusual on your profile (or email, or anywhere else), question your friend. It is possible your friend's profile was compromised and the hacker sent the request (in hopes you will help further disburse the virus they are spreading)
• -- Report things that are viruses or you think might be a virus. Most social networking sites have a way to report violations. The companies normally work to get the viruses added to virus databases which, in turn, protect future people from that virus.
• -- Many companies offer similar things, but AOL does have a good product suite for safety and security, including free parental controls, free spam control, and free to paying members and discounted to everyone else, there is McAffee security suite.

What are some other tips you have for preventing a virus on your computer?

It's hard to believe that the past 10 years have flown by so quickly.

When looking at the Internet's road from 2000 to 2010, it is amazing how much has changed. In 2000...

• -- Google existed (it started in 1996), but was hardly a verb in the American lexicon.
• -- If you wanted to share your home videos, YouTube wasn't an option until 2005.
• -- Social Networking was happening via profiles, online chat rooms and message boards, but "Social Networking" didn't happen until the middle of the decade. Now people have multiple social networking sites.
• -- In 2000, media was defined as the newspapers, broadcast news and other forms of "news" we always knew. During this decade there was a new media created, Blogs. There are several blogs that are considered equals to the traditional media. There is even a woman named 26th most influential woman in media, who got there by blogging. That's it. Blogging. According to Wikipedia, as of 2007 there were 112,000,000 blogs.
• -- Speaking of Wikipedia - it didn't exist until 2001. It is a free encyclopedia that is created by anyone who wants to contribute to it. Because anyone can contribute or edit any article, it is hard to use it as a soul source of information - but it is generally a good place to start. In my circle of friends it is considered enough of a source to settle an argument.

With the good comes the bad. Before 2000, there was never a report of cyberbullying nor sexting. These are relatively new terms that brought online worlds crashing into our "offline" lives. We, as parents, have learned that our children don't see the distinct difference between online and offline like we do. This has changed the focus of parents slightly. Luckily the basics of parenting are still true.

Everything Internet related changed so quickly in this decade that I wonder what the world will be like in another 10 years. Do you have any predictions?

Hope Witsell was a seemingly average seventh grader. According to the St. Petersburg Times, she was a good student , loved the 'Twilight' series, and was vying for a boy's attention.

At the end of the school year, she sent a nude picture of herself to a boy she liked. Sadly, it found its way around not only her school, but another as well. The school officials found out and her parents found out. Her school suspended her for the first week of the following school year, and her parents grounded her for the summer. But the worst punishment came in the form of continued tormenting from other students. Eventually, she felt the only option was to end her life.

This kind of story is tragic, but can also serve as a conversation starter between teens and parents. Just asking teens what they think about the story and unintended consequences can be a good way to open the dialog on what might be a difficult discussion to have with teens.

How have you started conversations about sexting?

Each year, the Oxford dictionary updates the list of words used in the English language and includes a "word of the year". For 2009, the word of the year is "unfriend", beating out "netbook", "hashtag" and "sexting ".

The Internet has introduced a myriad of new words, phrases and even acronyms into the lexicon; LOL, OMG, social network, tweet. I am not surprised that this year's word references social networking and the act of removing someone from your list of friends on your social networking profile. I am constantly surprised at how much the Internet has infiltrated society.

The act of unfriending is one way you can help prevent cyberbullying. If your social networking profile is private (only visible to friends), taking away the ability to be taunted via your social network certainly aids in the removal of the bullying online. You can also block communications by blocking email from either that user or from all unknown users. You can block Instant Messages from a single, multiple or all unknown users. If the cyberbully doesn't have a way to communicate with you, it is pretty hard to be abused.

Have you ever unfriended someone? Why? What other methods have you used to curtail cyberbullying?

I recently came back from a conference with the Family Online Safety Institute. This was the third annual conference and each year I am impressed at how many people gather to work toward a common goal of online safety.

For example, there were people from the Girl Scouts, Attorneys General, the Chief Technology Officer from the White House, a Member of U.K.'s Parliament, representatives from all the major Internet companies, the non profit groups working toward online safety in many ways, child psychologists and pediatricians, and so many more.

I will be posting a lot about what I learned there, but one thing struck me and I had to share it. During one of the presentations, we were introduced to YouTube's Safety Center, including this video. I love the simple message and how it was done using keyboard characters.

Which safety campaigns have you loved in the past?

Later this week, if you are registered as an adult on your Xbox LIVE, you will be able to boast about your latest high score via Facebook or Twitter straight from the gaming system. My prediction is that this feature will be welcomed by Xbox gamers.

For those who are under 18, you will have to wait for Microsoft to finalize the parental controls to allow you to do the same. They say it will be a few weeks.

The Xbox (and many other gaming systems) have had the ability to connect to the Internet for a while. It now seems the online world and offline world are blurring that much more. What do you think about this functionality?

Getting new technology in your life generally means an "upgrade" from what you had before. If you get a new cell phone, it is probably going to come with a camera (whether or not you want one). Recently I had to replace my laptop and realized that in order to get the features I wanted, I had to get one with a web cam built in.

When I read this article saying that 1/3 of students in the UK aged 12 – 15 years old have a web cam in their bedrooms – this made sense to me. Assuming the technology is basically the same in the US vs. the UK, parents are getting their school aged students a laptop to do their homework and it is very likely going to include a web cam.

I am a long time supporter of having the computer in a common area of the home, not in a bedroom where the door can be closed. Admittedly, most teens are not going to do anything too terrible or talk to people they shouldn't using a web cam, but even fewer will if they have to do it with parents or siblings around (even if the family is just in sight and not close to the computer).

Now that our family has this new web cam, we got one for Grandma and Grandpa too. Every couple of weeks they can see their grandchild as she is growing up. I guess this forced technology isn't all bad – just unplanned.

An article I read recently points out some of the unwritten rules of Facebook status updates. Your status update should be something of interest, it suggests. "Interesting" means different things to different people.

In looking at my own Facebook page, here are some ways my contacts, or "friends" use Facebook status updates.

One friend updates to say where he is working for the day. (He works remotely some days, some days in one office, some days in another office.) His status serves as a notice to colleagues where he can be found.

Another friend constantly updates everything he does. Every day. All day. It is annoying.

* Tip: You can hide status updates from a specific person, but still be connected to them on Facebook. To do this, click on "Hide" and choose "Hide (friend's name)"

Some use their status updates to promote what they are working on. A new article published, a new song written, or an upcoming show.

Invitations to play games, join causes, etc. Some people love them. Some people hate them. Either way, if you are on Facebook, you probably have your fair share of invitations about various games and causes.

* Tip: You can hide each game, cause, etc. To do this, click on "hide" next to one of them and choose "Hide (name of game, etc.). You will still get updates from that friend, but will no longer see that game on your updates.

A few people I know quote movies or song lyrics to express how they feel that day.

Using tools to tie together several social networking tools, some people update their Facebook status and Twitter profile every time they post to their blog (a social networking trifecta). Some of the tool options to post to both at once are Tweet Deck and LifeStream.

Many people I know use Facebook to share pictures of their family. When there is a new picture posted, it normally shows up as a status update.

How do you use your Facebook or Twitter updates? What do you love or hate about them?

Switched.com recently had an article giving some good (and cheeky) advice about being friends with family members on social networking sites such as Facebook.

This has been talked about on the SafetyClicks Blog It speaks to a common theme – behave online as you would offline. Understand that privacy is not synonymous with social networking. And lastly – if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

What advice do you have regarding social networking, friending family members, and online behavior?

According to this article from examiner.com, the top five social networking sites (based on number of users) are:
MySpace (263 Million users)
Facebook (250 Million users)
Friendster (90 Million users)
Tagged (70 Million users)
Bebo ( 40 Million users)

Do you know all of these sites? Do your teens? Do they have profiles on any or all of them?

In the spirit of National Cyber Security Month, take some time to learn about the top social networking sites you don't already know about. Then talk about what you find with the whole family.

I've posted before about where education about online safety comes from, saying that it comes from all sources including schools, online, friends and parents. Here are some tips about discussing the topic of online safety with your kids.

Twitter, the 140 character long blog site, has some new tools that you might or might not know about. The one that caught my eye is Where.com's GPS Twitter. This is part of where.com, not twitter.com. When it is used, it tells you from where (via GPS in the cell phone) a tweet was posted. For use by adults, this could be useful. If your teen is likely to try something new like this, be sure they are aware what it means to be able to be found.

Having friends and family know where you are is one thing, but quite another if it is someone you don't know or don't want to know. Hopefully this is good information for you to know what is out there. Since teens aren't using Twitter as much as adults, so this may not be anything to worry about for your family. But as the Internet evolves, new functionality like this gets shared over many sites.

What do you think about this feature? Could it help your family keep track of where everyone is?

The Internet is a source of many great things. Great educational opportunities, great organizing and time saving things, but also a great waste of time.

A recent study by the Pew Institute suggests that no matter how much time is wasted on Social Networks, even more time is being spent watching videos.

I am as guilty as the next person of wasting time on Social Networks (don't tell my boss). I check my Facebook page almost every morning. I catch up on Twitter from time to time. But I have never spent much time on videos. That is, until today.

As luck would have it, while researching for this post, a friend sent me a video from You Tube. It was a Las Vegas commercial, talking about celebrating Chinchilli Day. Then I got it. The Internet has taken the way to kill time from before (the television), made the shows a minute or so long and put it online (the current time-suck). There are even many sites that post entire TV shows online.

While I don't think Social Networking is going away any time soon, you can rest assured that kids are getting all the TV and videos they need online. Maybe this is another great reason to have the computer in a family room instead of a bedroom. What a better place to share the videos found (and know they are on when homework is scheduled).

To help, many parental control products have online timers (blocking or allowing usage at specified times set up by the parent) and filter content that isn't appropriate for your child.

What do you think about this phenomenon? Do you like watching videos or TV shows online? Do you think it is appropriate for kids to do so?