Posts Tagged ‘parents’
FBI: Child ID New Safety App For Parents Cell Phones
Monday, August 8th, 2011
Photo courtsey of the FBI, www.fbi.gov
For now, the app can only be downloaded to iPhones from iTunes. In the coming months the program will be available to all cell phones. For more information, please visit the FBI website.
NOTE FROM THE FBI: The FBI (and iTunes for that matter) is not collecting or storing any photos or information that you enter in the app. All data resides solely on your mobile device unless you need to send it to authorities. Please read your mobile provider’s terms of service for information about the security of applications stored on your device.
MISSING IN INDIANA: Update on The Search For Lauren Spierer
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
Investigators say Lauren Spierer was last seen at 4:30 a.m. and was in the Bloomington, Indiana area near the corner of 11th Street and College Avenue on June 3. Since then, hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officials have donated their time to help find the missing student. Now, 61 days into the investigation, authorities are turning their focus to an area landfill.
The site is 55 miles from where Lauren was last seen, and it could hold evidence or clues to where she could be. It is unclear at this point when the search will begin. Peg Mulloy, Republic Services spokesperson said they have had, “discussions with the FBI and Bloomington police regarding the Sycamore Ridge Landfill.” Mulloy said out of the 200 landfills they oversee, this would not be the first time they’ve corporate with law enforcement on the recovery of a body or evidence. Republic Services also opened up another site to find a missing child known as Baby Gabrielle.
“Who Is Your Teen Friending On Facebook?” Free Application Helps Parents Monitor Pages
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
If your child is on Facebook and other social networking sites, you may want to check out a free parental control that monitors what they are doing.
GoGoStat is an application you can use right inside your own Facebook. Have you seen those Geico commercials, “It’s so easy a caveman can do it”? Seriously, this application really is that easy.
You will receive notifications if your child posts foul language, vulgarities, anything pertaining to drugs and cyber-bullying, sexual or otherwise unsafe activity. You will also receive notifications if your child is posting embarrassing or personal information about themselves or their families, and when they are connected to a new “friend.” The Parental Guidance will show you an in-depth chart on the age, location and information about the new friend.
GoGoStat also allows parents to print out up to the minute information about their child if they go missing. You will be able to pass over the latest photos, messages to friends, status updates and anything else your child was doing online before they vanished.
National Center For Missing and Exploited Children’s New Internet Program
Monday, August 1st, 2011
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) says 73% of teens between the ages of 12 to 17 have social networking profiles and around 86% of teens comment on the pages and walls of their friends. A new game launched by NCMEC called, “Tad’s Profile Panic” is a way to educate children before they reach their teen years of safe practices on social networking sites. Tad’s Profile Panic targets children between the ages of 8 and 12 and players are able to teach Tad clean up his profile by collecting the information that should be kept private.
“Today, children rely more on the Internet than ever before in history. The majority of households today have at least one computer, and we know that most teens access the Internet from multiple locations,” said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC.
Tad’s Profile Panic was created by the NSTeens.org and is an extension of the popular NetSmartz workshop program.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: NSTeens for Tweens
Thursday, July 7th, 2011
1 in 7 kids are solicited for sex online. This alarming statistic was recently released from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The survey says 1 in 33 kids receive aggressive online solicitations to meet in person and 34% of kids say they’ve had communication with people they don’t know. NCMEC maintains a proactive approach to protect children and teens and now they have two brand new items for children between the ages of 8 and 12. The NSTeen site now has animated video and educational games for children in this age range. “Cyberbully Zombies Attack” and “Mike-tosis” both target information about technology, safety and cyber bullying prevention. Although these sites are for “tweens,” parents and teachers are encouraged to log on and educate themselves on the dangers lurking online for kids. The content is available in English and in Spanish. NSTeen is an entity of the main hub of NetSmartz.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says its CyberTipline has handled more than 903,240 calls of child sexual exploitation. According to a press release on their site, the Child Victim Identification Program has reviewed and analyzed more than 34 million pornographic images.
MISSING: Search Continues For Missing Fashion Student, Lauren Spierer
Friday, June 10th, 2011
It has been one week since Lauren Spierer disappeared as she walked home from a night out with friends. Lauren was last seen at 4:30 a.m. She was heading back to her apartment complex, but never made it. Lauren was last seen in Bloomington, Indiana near the corner of 11th Street and College Avenue and investigators feel she is a victim of foul play.
Lauren is a fashion student at Indiana University and was scheduled to start an internship this summer at a Manhattan Anthropologie. Large groups and volunteers have come together in recent days to help with organized search efforts, but so far, there’s been no sign of Lauren.
Lauren’s roommate, Blair Wallach told us that they’ve known one another since they were 9-years-old. Blair and Lauren met at summer camp in Pennsylvania and have been fast friends ever since. The pair, along with two other girls, were living in the Smallwood Apartment complex over the last year and they just signed another lease for the upcoming semesters. Blair says she left to go home to New Jersey and Lauren stayed to take summer courses for a few weeks. Lauren has had a boyfriend for two years, but he was not out with her the night she went missing. Blair said the guy she was with last week, prior to her disappearance, is not someone she had ever met. She thinks Lauren and the unknown male met during summer semester.
“Forget Me Not” MORGAN HARRINGTON UNSOLVED MURDER
Monday, June 6th, 2011
Police sketch
Morgan Harrington was only 20-years-old when she vanished from a concert outside the John Paul Jones arena in Charlottesville, VA. It was October 17, 2009 when she was separated from friends around 8:30 p.m. They say she walked out of the front entrance of the Metallica concert. Authorities say Morgan called her friends inside and told them she was finding a ride home, and that they shouldn’t wait for her.
State police officials report Morgan was last seen by the ticket office on the University Hall side of the building and witnesses report seeing her hitchhicking close to the arena exit road. An intese search of the area yielded no new clues until three months later.
In January 2010, tMorgan’s body was found on a farm in Albemarle County, Virginia. Investigators said her body could have been on the land as many as 100 days. Last summer, investigators released shocking information. They said the man who may have killed Morgan could be the same suspect that committed a sexual assault against another female in 2005. Virginia State Police officials confirm there is a forensic link between the 2005 assault and the murder.
NETSMARTZ: Unique Safety Resources For Parents and Children
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
NetSmartz is a unique resource provided by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The safety approach this program offers is one-of-a-kind. The goal of the NetSmartz program is to team up with law enforcement, educators and parents to educate the safest practices on the web.
NetSmartz411 is a page specifically designed for parents. You can send detailed questions to experts, and get all the answers needed about the newest lingo used by kids or technology. You can even call 1-888-NETS411 and ask an expert a question over the phone. Parents and teachers, this resource is FREE and it is something you can actively be involved with. If you take the time to learn the latest trends of the virtual like gaming, social networking, sexting, video sharing, photo sharing and blogging it may prevent a potentially negative situation in your child’s life.
If you have questions, or need more resources, please visit the RESOURCE section of this site or if you have a specific question you would like to ask, please visit the ASKMICHELLE section.
By: Michelle Sigona
