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September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

Cyberbullying Awareness Week in St. Pete

The dangers of cyberbullying will be front and center in St. Petersburg this week as the Florida city hosts Cyberbullying Awareness Week. The five-day event is taking place in Pinellas County just over the bridge from the MamaBear’s Tampa headquarters.

Set to inspire prevention and intervention efforts across schools and homes in Pinellas County, Cyberbullying Awareness Week will include a series of free events and a large celebration on Friday, September 26th at the St. Petersburg Coliseum.

Though the events include fun for all ages (live music, free food, games, contests, and more), everything is centered around one important goal — “bring awareness to cyberbullying and encourage youth and adults to use integrity when using technology devices,” as posted by the organizers Gulf Coast Giving and the Pinellas County Board of Commissioners.

What Is Cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is any online interaction where one party makes the other party feel embarrassed, harassed, or threatened. It occurs through online and digital platforms such as social media, text messages and emails.

Cyberbullying is common (DoSomething.org found that nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online), and victims may experience depression with some extreme cases resulting in an unfortunate suicide.

Gulf Coast Giving, a nonprofit focused on volunteerism and event host, reports that suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people. They hope to change that. By educating adults and youth, they plan to empower the community to take a stand against cyberbullying by knowing how to identify and stop online harassment.

How You Can Help Stop Cyberbullying

Recognize the Signs – According to Gulf Coast Giving’s Cyberbullying Awareness Campaign, there are many signs that someone may exhibit when they are being bullied. A victim of cyberbullying may:

display unusual anger, sadness and depression after using the computer or electronic device
exit or click out of a window on their computer screen when a person walks by
have trouble sleeping or experience other sleeping disturbances
experience a decline in school homework or grades
exhibit unusual mood swings
have headaches and/or an upset stomach
become reclusive and anti-social
begin losing or avoiding friends

Adults and youth need to keep an eye out for these types of behavior and act immediately if they find a youth in a bullying situation.

Stop, Block & Tell – Kids, teens, and adults should all know the best way to handle a situation with an online bully. It’s as simple as stop, block, and tell.

Stop the conversation. Responding can make the situation worse.
Block the user so that communication is cut off.
Tell a trusted adult or parent.

Related: Social Media, Bullying, and What You Can Do to Help

Know Where to Get Help – Reporting cyberbullying is important. Consider contacting local law enforcement, school guidance counselors, youth minister, or any local organizations that work with both victims and bullies.

For more resources, parents and youth can call the Crisis Hotline 1-800-273-TALK.

Continue to Spread Awareness – One of the biggest problems with cyberbullying is the reluctance of its victims to speak up. Through education and awareness, Gulf Coast Giving hopes to continue to encourage both those being bullied and those witnessing bullying to speak up.

Parents also need to be aware of the dangers of online bullying and equip themselves with tools to protect their children. The can use apps like MamaBear Family Safety to connect with their children’s social accounts to make sure they are experiencing healthy and safe online engagement. The app is free for available for iPhone and Andriod devices.

You can learn more about the Pinellas County Cyberbullying Awareness week on the Gulf Coast Giving website.

Image Credit: Gulf Coast Giving

September 19, 2014September 19, 2014

Parents Are Most Distracting to Teen Drivers

A whopping 86% of high school juniors and seniors admit to using their cell phones while driving, according to a statistic presented by American Psychological Association.

That is dangerous data when paired with another statistic. Twenty-six percent of the nation’s car accidents were caused by the use of cell phones, per the National Safety Council’s annual injury and fatality report.

With so many teens using their phones while driving, and a high correlation between accidents and distracted driving, instilling safe driving habits in teens is becoming increasingly important. That starts with parents — because they could be the root of the problem.

In a recent presentation “Is That Mom on the Phone? — Teen Drivers and Distraction,” the American Psychological Association explains that parents may contribute to the amount of distracted driving their kids do.

APA reviewed current data on the topic and conducted research of their own by surveying 395 teens, and found that teens often use their phone while driving because of influence by their parents.

Parents Often Set Poor Examples by Driving, Talking, and Texting

Teens aren’t the only drivers using phones while driving. Adults, including parents, frequently engage in distracted driving.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention released data that 69% of US drivers reported they had talked on their phone while driving within 30 days of being surveyed.

With examples of distracted driving all around them, teens tend to increasingly replicate the habit the longer they drive. Thirty-four percent of drivers ages 15-17 said they didn’t use a cell phone while driving. While only 10% of 18-year-olds said they didn’t use their phone while driving.

When teens see so many examples of distracted driving, they begin to believe it is common. Parents need to reinforce that distracted driving is dangerous by setting an example and never driving while texting or talking.

Parents Pressure Their Teens to Answer Their Calls

Parents often expect their teens to answer their calls or respond to their texts right away. This pressures teens into thinking that they always need to answer, even if they are driving.

All but one teenage driving demographic surveyed by APA said that parents were the number one contact they talked to while driving.

Teens talk to their parents more often than they talk to their friends while driving. Fifty percent of 18-year-olds said their phone time was spent talking primarily to parents.

Related: Monitor Teen Driving with the MamaBear Driving Monitor App

Parents Can Help Decrease Distractive Driving Time

Successfully teaching teens how to incorporate safe driving practices starts with the parents. A few ways parents can help instill safe driving habits in their teen include the following.

Be a good role model. Don’t talk or text while you are driving.
Ask your kids if they are driving. Within the first 30 seconds of a phone call with your teen, ask them if they are driving. If they are, tell them to pull over and call you back.
Put the phone in the back seat. Teach your kids to put the phone in the back seat while driving. (Even better, parents can practice this themselves.)
Use a monitoring application. Programs and apps can help prevent distracted driving. MamaBear Family Safety App uses GPS so parents can connect with their kids without making phone calls (and also monitor car speeds). Other apps that disable phones while vehicles are in motion are also available.
Understand that kids might miss your call when they are driving. Don’t repeatedly call if your teen doesn’t answer right away. Give them time to pull over and make a call.

Make it easier to connect with your teen and encourage them to be a safe driver with the MamaBear Family Safety App (available for iPhone and Andriod).

September 10, 2014September 9, 2014

MamaBear’s List of Apps Parents Should Ban

Social media apps that offer anonymous profiles are becoming popular with preteens and teens. It may seem like online anonymity would offer protection and increased safety for users, but it does quite the opposite.

Apps that allow users to interact anonymously create a dangerous online arena where aggressive users can bully and harass without repercussion and casual users can accidentally connect with dangerous strangers.

The following apps have received negative publicity for their inability to moderate cyber-bullying, and many parents are calling for them to revisit their harassment policies and systems. But it seems that the companies are not reacting to the potential dangers quick enough.

Foutune.com tested Secret’s anti-bullying system, and it failed. The site was unable to identify and remove the inappropriate content they posted, even after other users added more negative and harassing comments.

Since Secret and other similar platforms don’t include systems that can appropriately protect your child from dangerous users and harassment, MamaBear recommends not allowing the following social media apps be installed on your child’s phone.

MamaBear’s List of Apps Parents Should Ban

Yik Yak: This app shows a feed of updates that people in the surrounding geographic area have posted. Users can comment on posts or upvote them to raise them to the top of the list. Although the app is for users 17 and over, younger kids regularly create accounts. They use the platform like a gossip bulletin board and write mean things that may get upvoted to the top of the list and be difficult to take down.

Ask.fm: Users post questions and answers on other users’ questions. The site offers options to share posts on Facebook. Users often hide behind the site’s anonymity and post harassing text and photo responses to questions, or post mean questions that call out people by name.

Tinder: It shows a stream of photos of users that are located with a certain mile radius. Users say yes or no to each photo, indicating if they would like to engage with the person. If both users say yes, the app allows them to connect. Younger users should not create accounts as Tinder is intended for an audience 17 and over and is often used by adults as a “hook-up” app.

Whisper: The app allows users to anonymously share text and photos. It shows which users are nearby and allows private communicate which creates safety issues for young users who many unintentionally connect with dangerous or older users. Whisper is intended for users 12 and over, and iTunes rates it for the same age group due to “Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor, Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity, Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References, and Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes.”

Related: The Dangers of Messaging Apps

Secret: Users can post “secrets” which are shared with friends and comment on other users’ secrets. If a friend “likes” a secret, it is then shared with their list of friends. Users can’t see who shares secrets or posts comments. Many users have complained the site does not stop anonymous users from sending harassing and bullying comments.

These apps are not set up to protect young users, and they do not have the proper systems to flag inappropriate use or moderate comments. They enable bullying and have created a dangerous social space that your kids should avoid.

Talk to your kids about acceptable social apps and actions, and ban these apps. Then protect them by connecting with their social media accounts through MamaBear Family Safety app – currently monitoring Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. The free app, available for both Andriods and iPhones, makes it easy to review how you child is interacting on social media.

September 3, 2014September 3, 2014

How to Receive Automatic Alerts with MamaBear When Kids Arrive/Leave School

When you give your kids the freedom to take the bus, walk, or ride with friends to school, it can be a little unnerving. You send them to school for the day, but you don’t actually see them walk through the doors.

Did they make it on time? Did they . . . detour? Are they safe?

Without confirmation that their kids made it safely to school, many parents are left with a series of uneasy thoughts. Those feelings can be even worse if the child was supposed to send a text and check-in but forgot.

There’s plenty to worry about during the school year. Concerns about your kid getting to and from school shouldn’t be one of them. So MamaBear Family Safety App created a system that automatically notifies parents when their kids make it to their destination — without any effort from the child.

The free app takes the stress out of school travel, and it’s easy to set up.

How to Set Up Location Alerts on MamaBear

From your phone:

Install MamaBear (available for both iPhones and Androids).
Register and create profiles for your family
On the main menu, select “Add Child.”
Enter your child’s name, cell phone number, and birthday.
Under settings for that child, select “Location Alerts.”
Under Safe Places, select “Add New.”
Add a safe place by entering the name and address of the location. May we suggest adding addresses for school and your home before the first day of school.
By default, alerts will be set for both arrivals and departure but you can toggle the buttons to change the settings.

From your child’s phone:

Install MamaBear.
Select “this is a child’s phone” and log in with their phone number and family password.
Review device settings to be sure location services is on, background refresh is on and wifi is toggled on.

Related: Getting Started With MamaBear App

Once you go through these steps, MamaBear will take it from there. The app uses GPS and combined location services on your child’s phone and automatically sends messages to you when your child arrives at or leaves one of the saved locations.

How to Protect MamaBear App From Being Deleted

Locations alerts only work if the MamaBear app is installed and logged in from your child’s phone. It will not work if the app is uninstalled.

To make sure that the app is not deleted, you can add a password to set a restriction on removal for iPhones. Android users will need to explore other parental control options.

For iPhones:

Go to the general settings in your child’s phone.
Tap general.
Scroll down.
Tap restrictions.
Enable restrictions.
Create a passcode.
Toggle “Deleting Apps” to OFF.

With the help of MamaBear, parents can give their kids the freedom to go to school by themselves without having to call or check in when they reach their destination. It offers parents peace of mind knowing that their kids are at school and making it home safely.

Give you and your kids one less thing to worry about this school year, and download the MamaBear Family Safety App.