Sextortion is a type of child sexual exploitation where minors are blackmailed with the threat of public sharing of nude or sexual images of them by a person who demands more images, sexual activity or money from the child. This can happen when a child has shared an image [...]
Childhood development experts understand that children develop their central social and political opinions during their formative years. This means that the online worlds our kids play in are having a huge role in our children’s future lives. Like the adage, "you are what you eat," our children are in [...]
Most teens get their news as visual sources of information like videos and images from social media sites and YouTube. This means that social media, personalized news feeds and algorithms – the same tools that prioritize sensational content and play big roles in spreading misinformation and disinformation, are actually [...]
By Allie Hunter, Mothers Against Cyber Crime Sending intimate images is a common part of modern relationships for some, but it comes with risks. Despite new technology claiming to make sharing nudes safer, no app can truly protect you from the dangers of image-based abuse. Linq, a new app designed [...]
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer to learn so that it can perform tasks that are typically done by people. AI is already deeply integrated into our modern lives. You interact with it every day, using voice assistants on smartphones, receiving personalized recommendations on streaming platforms, [...]
FACT: Our kids are susceptible to being victims of sextortion. This dangerous crime happens when young people accept requests to send revealing pictures or videos; then they are bribed because of the pictures/videos. Kids get to know criminals over time, believing that they are communicating with someone their own [...]
Call us humans superficial, but how things look matters a great deal to us. We form opinions based on how good we think something looks – not focusing on whether it’s safe or kind or smart – or even true. Steve Jobs was right, design matters. In fact, design [...]
The digital playground is not safe, and our kids need to understand the very real dangers targeting their wellbeing and futures. Sextortion predators are very convincing; they use real, and fake, profiles to build relationships with kids online and then they convince them to send an intimate photo, which [...]
It’s not easy to spot truth from fiction these days. Just like us, our teens also have trouble assessing the credibility of online information. In a Stanford University study involving nearly 8,000 U.S. students, researchers found that: More than 80 percent of middle schoolers believed that an advertisement labeled [...]
By Ellie Halpert Have you ever wondered about your biological makeup? Our DNA can tell us many things: our ancestry, predisposition to genetic diseases, intolerances, and more. Companies like 23andMe, AncestoryDNA, and MyHeritage offer genetic testing kits with great promises. Spit into a tube, ship it off, and they'll [...]
