Technology plays a major role in today’s society and generation, which means young children are exposed to cell pones, computers and tablets at an early age.
Caroline Knorr, a Senior Parenting Editor at Common Sense Media, said, “It’s important for parents to be aware of what types of programs-for example, apps, social media, and games-their kids use, how much time kids are spending on devices, and who they’re interacting with.”
For parents who are wondering how to help their children and filter out what apps and content they are exposed to, here are some ways to set some ‘parental controls’ on devices.
For PCs, there is a Family Features option, which can filter out websites and apps, set time limits and some devices can even track where your child is if they are logged into Windows.
When using a Mac, the Parental Controls option is the way to go and very easy to work with. Along with monitoring and limiting what your child can see and do, parents can actually ‘specify’ what apps their child can or cannot use and also make the apps store completely inaccessible.
On devices such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, parents can go to Restrictions in settings and choose what apps their child can use using a passcode.
Android devices allow more than one user but parents can still but restrictions on a specific user.
Parents can also place parental controls through game consoles. Parents, for example, can allow children to only access ‘E’ for everyone games and nothing else. A passcode is also required.
See the full story on USAToday.com.
Google Docs Scam
A new phishing scheme using Google Docs has affected many users.
What looks like a simple Google Doc edit invite is actually a hack in the process. The invite looks like it is from someone the person might already know and then takes them to a sign-in screen.
This allows hackers access to an email and also address book. The hack isn’t easy to detect because it works inside Google’s system to start up a fake web app.
If someone has already fallen prey to the scheme, spam messages probably have been sent out to those in the address book that has also been hacked.
Luckily, this can be halted by going to the page titled ‘Connected Apps and Sites.’
Gmail is aware of the problem and is working diligently to solving the issue.
See the full story on TheVerge.com.
Facebook hires employees to check videos for violence
Acts of violence including murder and suicide posted on Facebook have prompted the CEO of the company, Mark Zuckerberg, to hire an additional 3,000 employees starting next year to check and review videos.
Already, a total of 4,500 employees work to specifically look closely at reports on videos posted up onto the social media outlet.
“We’re working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner-whether that’s responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down,” said Zuckerberg.
Most recently, there was a video posted onto Facebook showing the murder of Robert Godwin Sr., a 74-year-old man living in Cleveland. Steve Stephens posted a video showing himself killing Godwin and then confessing to the crime.
Taking this issue very seriously, Zuckerberg also plans to create ‘simpler’ and easier ways to report problems and have monitors spot bad videos quickly.
See the full story on USAToday.com.
Robot 3D-printed a building in 14 hours
The power of technology continues to grow each day. Researchers have developed a robot that created a 3D structure of a building within the span of 14 hours.
The robot is known as the ‘Digital Construction Platform.' The group of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created the robot so that it has two arms, one that can reach while the other is used for ‘dexterity.’
The structure of the building came out as a ‘dome-like structure’ that is 12 feet in height and a whopping 50 feet in diameter.
This robot is a stepping stone in starting easier and swifter construction in the future.
Besides better construction, the researchers also see the system being used in parts of the world affected by disaster and in need of shelter. On an even larger scale, the researchers also want to place it in Antarctica and even the moon.
See the full story on CNN.com.