Bark

“I cannot tell you how many children I see in their bedrooms, on live streams, with tons of people just watching them... asking them to do certain things.” 💔 We’re proud to share this brand-new FULL DOCUMENTARY about the shocking online world your child is growing up in, and to sponsor its free release so every family has access to this important resource. You may be tempted to say, “Not *my* child,” but this new movie reveals just how widespread issues like sextortion, suicidal ideation, and online predation are. 😔 👉 Please share this with your community to help other parents and guardians learn about what their kids are facing — at this very moment. https://bit.ly/32usCYx #Childhood2Movie #SocialMedia #MentalHealth

Apple, UX Shows Your Priorities A Feb. 29, 2024 Medium article touted Apple as the industry leader in UX design. “Apple's designs have become synonymous with excellence in user experience for a reason. By prioritizing seamless integration, intuitive interfaces, attention to detail, accessibility, and human-centered design, Apple continues to raise the bar for UX standards across industries.” But this has never been true about its parental controls for iOS and iPadOS. In fact, it’s as if they aren’t even considered on Apple's product roadmap, since shareholders had to force Apple to create them. A bit of iOS and iPadOS history: 🔵 Only after a 2018 high-pressure letter from shareholders controlling over $2B in stock did Apple release parental controls. They named them “Screen Time,” which is a name that has never made sense. 🔵 iOS and iPadOS prevent any third-party parental monitoring software, like Bark, from working effectively. Therefore parents rely on Screen Time. And over 87% of US teens use iPhones. 🔵 But Screen Time has suffered from a 2-year-old “bug” that randomly causes parent and kid devices to “unpair.” Can you imagine any other part of an iPhone or iPad not working for two years? And recent iOS 18 changes make Screen Time less likely to be used and understood. Consider the attached screenshots. There are many improvements Apple could quickly make to their Screen Time parental controls (first, change the name) that would INSTANTLY protect kids: ➡️ Prevent app developers from openly violating App Store Review Guidelines 2.5.18 and serving mature in-app ads in 4+-rated games to children. ➡️ Block search engines in Safari that it can’t or won’t filter (e.g., Yandex, AOL, etc.) ➡️ Apply content filters DEVICE-WIDE, including in hidden Google searches.  ➡️ Fix the Screen Time bug. ➡️ Prevent previously downloaded apps from being re-downloaded without parental permission.  ➡️ Block album covers and explicit podcasts when controls are set to “clean.” ➡️ Prevent deletion of iMessages for young Apple IDs (< age 13).  ➡️ Extend the same intuitive “Schooltime” shutdown feature from the Apple Watch to iOS.  ➡️ Scan iCloud for CSAM. Why are so many parts of an iPhone’s monitoring still broken, missing, or just designed horribly? Apple - you can do so much better. “We don’t treat the harms from technology the same way we treat the harms of romaine lettuce. One person dies, and we pull every single head of romaine lettuce out of every store. Yet the children’s exploitation problem is decades old. Why do we not have spectacular technologies to protect kids online?” (Hany Farid, an image-forensics expert at the University of California at Berkeley, who helped develop PhotoDNA)

Reactive people wait for things to happen, and proactive people make things happen. 💪 Make your child's digital experience a safer one (before you end up in crisis mode). 🙏 There is hope, ✅ and free tools/resources, 🙋♀️ and so many people standing by to help you. You can do this. (And you don't have to do it alone.)

Protect your kids by intentionally building relationships where open communication about ANY topic is welcome. Create opportunities for kids to bring up tough subjects like this one. Shared from Bark #preventiontiptuesday #onlinesafety #parenting #childabuseprevention #childadvocacy

Thank you for these tips on preparing teens for digital independence! 🙌 We're so grateful for your partnership and commitment to kids' online safety. 💙

With Apple's release of iOS 18 and the new iPhone 16, there is still... 👎 No fixes to their broken parental controls 👎 No innovation around limiting the surfacing of harmful content to children 👎 No updates to screen time or filters 👎 No movement on the removal of harmful images of child sexual abuse in iCloud 👎 No ways to report abuse in messaging 👎 No age verification that could limit children's access to harmful games, apps, videos, and ads 🍏 Learn about ALL of the reasons why iPhones are unsafe for kids right here: https://lnkd.in/ex-bxPxc #iOS18 #iPhone16 #Apple

Stop your scroll if your kid uses Instagram and they are under 16. Today #Meta announced “Teen Accounts” - essentially, a suite of updates and tools to help those under 16 have a safer experience on their platform. Now - the timing of this is VERY interesting. Here are my quick thoughts: 1. If a child actually enters their real date of birth, these changes have the potential to truly be effective. BUT, as of now, this will just encourage children and teens to create adult accounts UNLESS #Instagram implements better age verification measures. 2. Any steps Meta can take to reduce the rate of predation and sextortion on their platforms are meaningful and much appreciated – whether that's across Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp.* *(Especially in light of their move to end-to-end encryption, which makes bringing predators and criminals to justice even harder.) 3. The fact that teens under 16 will need a parent’s permission to change any of the built-in protections is CRITICAL - we haven't seen this level of protection from other platforms' "parental controls" and it's a key factor to implementation. I’m talking to you specifically -- #TikTok and #Snapchat. 4. Teens now need to accept new followers – and people who don’t follow them can’t see their content or interact with them. This is a great start, but leaving it up to children to decide who can follow them can be risky. I get why Instagram didn't make this a parental-level control. I disagree with that choice, however, because new followers can be a pathway to predation/bullying. 5. Time limits and sleep mode? Awesome. As long as kids can't turn it off/ignore it. We all need more sleep and less screen time. 6. The major lever here is AGE VERIFICATION. If Instagram can truly identify who is under 16 and automatically turn on those protections, this might be THE most effective in-app parental control rollout to date by a platform. Now - about the timing - there are hearings that are literally happening THIS week - legislative measures are being debated in the House right now in D.C. that will direct the course of how platforms like Instagram are regulated. Interesting, right? 

Big announcement today from Instagram --> "New Protections to Give Teens More Age-Appropriate Experiences on Our Apps" Will these updates actually protect teens? Is this another Big Tech gaslighting campaign? My thoughts in the video below. Full update in The New York Times: https://lnkd.in/eCKCsn8M Contact your rep to #PassKOSA: https://lnkd.in/gBdysvhz

A deeper dive into iOS 18 for parents! 🍏 There are a ton of new features that families need to know about, and we’ve broken them all down for you. #Parents #iOS18 #Apple #Tech

🚨 iOS 18 is being released tomorrow!⁠ How are you feeling about these new features (or lack thereof)? 🤔 A more detailed look at this update coming tomorrow. 👀⁠ #ios18 #Apple #iPhone16 #ChildSafety