Every day, I pass a sign, tacked on our office bulletin board, that says, in huge red letters: “19% of kids worldwide (ages 2-5) can operate a smartphone app. Only 9% can tie their shoelaces.” Where did this dire statistic come from, and what’s it for, other than to leave us pining for a (better,Read More…
Yesterday my five-year-old daughter said to me screamed at me before slamming her bedroom door, “You are the MEANEREST MOM I have EVER MET!” I had just (for the third time, without raising my voice, which was still tinged with gentle cheer, which took every shred of self-control I had left) told her no, sheRead More…
We Safely folks like to work behind the scenes, writing code, designing apps, and generally making the world a better place, in our own way. But with the new year, we’re turning over a new leaf, and coming out from behind the curtain. Here we are (above!), wearing our Sunday best on a Friday. (ReadRead More…
This weekend we brought home a gorgeous new 23” touchscreen desktop computer. We dropped everything to unbox and set up this beauty, but ever since, the kids have been drawn to it like moths to the flame. Its enormous, shiny surface gleams in a much-trafficked area of our house, beckoning them each time they pass.Read More…
Hello, I’m Leticia Barr, Safely Spotlight guest columnist and a DC Metro area mom of 2 elementary-school-aged children. I’m also the founder of Tech Savvy Mama and a regular contributor to Parents.com, where I provide technology tips to parents through Tech Savvy Parents. In today’s world there are myriad digital devices that let us communicate andRead More…
We at Safely are committed to helping families, by providing services and resources parents can use to teach their children healthy mobile habits for life. To celebrate the new school year, we’re excited to extend that help into another important place where children learn: the classroom. Enter our Facebook giveaway, and you could win: •Read More…
I’ve spent the last week thinking a lot about parenting expert Madeline Levine’s recent New York Times column, in which she writes: “Parents must acknowledge their own anxiety. Your job is to know your child well enough to make a good call about whether he can manage a particular situation. Will you stay up worrying?Read More…
“22% [of parents] live in denial, claiming that their kids can’t get in trouble online,” reports a recent study about how much parents know about their kids’ online activity. Characterizing parents who don’t think their children can get in trouble online as “in denial” is harsh. But I think before we deem these 22% GoodRead More…
Over the past few weeks, there’s been a lot of buzz about how Facebook is considering allowing children under the age of 13 to sign up (right now, officially, you have to be at least 13 to use the site). News organizations surveyed parents, brought in parenting experts and even roped in so-called “internet researcher”Read More…
That’s an infographic that recently appeared on the social news site Mashable about moms who blog. While the statistics may seem innocuous at first, this grahic caused quit a stir in the blogosphere. Women bloggers around the internet rightly pointed out that these sorts of studies always characterize women bloggers as “mommy bloggers” even ifRead More…
Fact: 43% of teens have texted while driving in the past three months. Fact: One of the main reasons parents call their kids is to check up on their location. Fact: 64% of teens text during class. These days, kids are getting cellphones as young as 8-years old. If you’ve been thinking aboutRead More…
Since we’re a software company, many of us here at Safely have a bit of a nerdy side. We recently looked through some of the data we’ve collected from Safely Family Locator to figure out how parents use it to locate their kids. I thought I’d share a few of the interesting trends we’ve discovered. ParentsRead More…
A few days ago Facebook introduced a new support dashboard for reporting and tracking incidences of cyberbullying. While it’s good to see Facebook making strides towards curbing cyberbullying in their community, all the dashboard does is help parents and kids track abuse reports. It doesn’t add any extra reporting features or new methods of deterringRead More…
With the rising cost of education and a total national student debt of over $1 trillion dollars it’s not hard to see how many high school students may be looking for a low-cost alternative to a traditional college education. Recently a slew of new technology companies have cropped up to tackle that problem through providingRead More…
A couple of years ago Pew ran an extensive study on how teens use their cellphones. If you want to see a quick breakdown of what they found, check out this infographic we made about it. One interesting thing the survey found was that teens who talk on the phone a lot tend to haveRead More…
Here at Safely we’ve been working to help families keep their kids safe in the digital world for years. As part of our dedication to family safety, we’re constantly researching how technology affects families. We recently pulled some numbers from Safely Phone Controls to see how teens use their cellphones and how parents are copingRead More…
A Blast from the Past Remember WebTV and their hokey advertising from the 90s? If you don’t, check out the commercial below. That guy is really excited to see the internet on his television. Unfortunately, real customers weren’t quite as enthusiastic. Due to slow internet and lack of interesting features, WebTV never really took off.Read More…
Ten years ago, the idea of sharing photos online was strange. Today things are very different. In 2010, Consumer Reports found that 63% of people share photos of themselves on Facebook, and the numbers have only been on the rise since then. As social norms about sharing photos online have evolved, something else has beenRead More…
Popular wisdom says today’s teens don’t care about their privacy. In reality, that isn’t true. Pew reports that 55% of teens stopped themselves from posting something online because they knew it could come back to bite them later. And, over 80% of teens use privacy settings to control who can see their Facebook page. Still,Read More…
“Facebook spies on phone users’ text messages, report says” Or at least that’s what a Foxnews.com article said earlier this week. The article alleges that Facebook’s mobile app is secretly recording the contents of all your text messages. Facebook denies the charges. But still, it begs the question, are companies collecting too much data onRead More…
We calculated just how protective American parents are by looking at how often our users locate their kids’ cellphones with Family Locator. We found that parents in some cities are more protective than others. Does your home town rank in the top 15?
Safely’s Family Locator (sold as AT&T FamilyMap, Sprint Family Locator and T-Mobile FamilyWhere) lets parents locate their kids’ mobile phones. You can also create “Schedule Checks,” which automatically check if your kids have arrived on time at locations you save like Home, School or Work. We looked at the places where people located their kidsRead More…