Saturday morning cartoons that Gen X-ers and millennials watched as children have been replaced with endless TikToks, memes, and FaceTime for kids today. Even more, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teens of all ages have significantly increased their screen time, and it has never been more important to check in with your teens about their internet activities.

Today’s teens have grown up with a digital life, but that doesn’t mean they inherently know the risks of sharing the ins and outs of their day. As schooling tools shift online and students are accessing the internet more often than ever before, parents need to take steps to keep their teens safe online.

Since 45% of teens have stated, they’re online “almost constantly,” USDISH encourages you to check out the tips below to learn how to help your teens with online safety.

1. Talk about Digital Footprints

Digital footprint” is a term used to describe every action someone takes online. Your kids might assume that having a private social media profile keeps their posts, well, private, but that’s not always the case. It’s important for your teens to know that their private posts can still be screenshot and shared, and their digital footprint is never as confidential as they think it is. There are no do-overs after something has been posted!

2. Educate about Phishing Tactics

Phishing is a type of cyber scam in which a criminal convinces someone to give up private information by appearing to be a trustworthy source. For teens, this often looks like fake scholarship messages, DMs from someone posing as an influencer, or fraudulent employment offers. Remind your kids that if they receive messages about anything involving money or personal information, they should always verify the source.

3. Explain the Information That Should Stay Private

Posting a picture of your dog or birthday may seem innocuous, but cybercriminals can use this information to answer security questions and hack into accounts. Make sure your kids know the following information should stay out of posts, comments, and DMs:

  • Pet names

  • Parent maiden names

  • Full birthdate

  • Last names

  • Phone numbers

  • Email addresses

 

4. Teach That Word Choice Matters

59% of teens in America have experienced cyberbullying, and your teen should know how to identify and report bullying in the digital space. Additionally, teens need to be aware that words matter, and how they choose to treat other people online can follow them into adulthood.

While it’s unfortunate that so many teens have experienced bullying online, the good news is that the majority of teens find parents to be highly effective at addressing online harassment.

Check out USDish.com’s Essential Teen Internet Safety Guide for more tips and tricks on how to keep your teens safe—from social media to social studies. The internet might feel like the Wild West, but with a few extra precautions, your family can stay safe and happy online.

 

USDISH.com is one of the nation’s premier online DISH retailers. Our goals are to give you great deals on DISH satellite and internet services. 

I often wonder why costumes are so special to children. One of my children would get stuck on a particular costume for months—wearing the same thing every day. As a preschooler, he seemed to really believe that he would fly a rescue helicopter if he just had the right gear on. He would leave his “rescue helicopter pilot suit” by his bed at night, a suit which included the jumpsuit, rain boots, and a bike helmet to which he attached the plastic lid of a fruit container and some pipe cleaners to look like a mask and microphone. One night he showed up at my bed, fully dressed in his rescue helicopter pilot suit, telling me the airport had called—there was an emergency and he had to go fly the helicopter. It was 3 a.m.; he was 4 years old.

Then he moved onto the Santa costume—beard and all. He wore that for more than a month. He wore Santa pajamas to Christmas Eve service and threw a sport coat and bowtie on only to appease me—and to perhaps get even higher on Santa’s good list. After all, he had asked Santa for some pixie dust for Christmas that year so that he could fly like Santa’s reindeer.

Though he never flew a helicopter or like Santa’s reindeer, there was a common thread with these costumes—it seemed he really believed that the costume would ignite a bit of magic inside of him and he could then do the impossible. Or at least imagine the impossible in such real terms that it would change his very being. Regardless, there was a belief that magic is possible if you can only kindle that yearning within one’s self.

As adults, many of us also seem to be trying on costumes—costumes of the right job, the clothes which portray success, the good school for our kids, the impressive home in the right neighborhood, a place in the sought after social circles. These adult costumes are expensive, time-consuming, and surface-level for too many of us. We seek them out not to kindle something wonderful and inspiring inside us, but rather to fit others’ expectations of us. They are not about flying a rescue mission to save someone else, but rather to save ourselves from criticism or rejection.

We adults no longer believe in magic at all, let alone any magic within us—we understand the science behind what seems impossible; we know if it is too good to be true, it is a scam; and we are too busy to notice the enduring power of our actions, words, and relationships. We can become so frantic and drained trying to keep our heads above water that we are not still enough to hear the yearning within us. So many of us are overwhelmed with bad news and stress that we can’t see any magic in this world or believe we have any sort of power to change the world around us for the better. For so many of us grown-ups, we don’t see the disconnect between our inner yearnings and gifts and the artificial costumes of our lives.

What would our world look like if we adults sought costumes which kindle something wonderful in us? What if we adults recognized that kind words, selfless acts, and deep relationships are so powerful the effects cannot be explained by science alone? What if we took a bit of this time in quarantine to be still and listen for our yearnings, to see that we don’t need the expensive or “right” costumes to be happy, to understand the disconnect between our yearnings and our costumes? What if we started to admit that even though we are grown up there is yet a little flicker of magic within us and worked to build a costume that nurtures that magic into a roaring flame? What hope could we inspire, what joy could we bring, what change could we embody?

Heather lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband, three sons, one dog, one bearded dragon, and one fish. She is a lawyer, but currently home with her children. When she is not mom-ing, she likes to spend time with her family and friends, watch documentaries, and go for a jog!

Your inbox is filled with holiday sale offers, coupon codes and just about everything else your fave retailers could send this time of year. Well, along with the deals, discounts, other promos comes a pretty sneaky Netflix email scam.

If you’ve recently received an email from Netflix asking you to update your payment information—don’t. Sure, “stranger things” have happened—but this isn’t the first time customers of the streaming service have received this type of phishing scam email, either.

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix

The email looks like it’s from Netflix—But, of course, it’s not. The email may not include your full name, and may simply start with, “Dear.” That’s an obvious sign that the message is not from the real streaming service. The email also includes a link to click on, supposedly helping you to update your billing and payment details. And that’s how the scammers get your info.

So how can you tell if an email from Netflix is real or not? Aside from the generic “Dear” greeting, look at the sender’s email address. While the name may read “Netflix,” the actual email address (address of origin for the sender) isn’t from the real deal.

According to Netflix’s help page, never provide login or payment info after following an email or text message link. If you have concerns that you may really need to update your Netflix payment information, go to the website and log in to your account to do so.

Along with staying away from links in suspicious emails, never open attachments that come with these messages either. Do not respond directly to the email. Instead, visit Netflix’s help page for the steps to forward the suspicious email to them.

—Erica Loop

 

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Beware! If you’re looking to get your hands on free athleisure wear in 2019, don’t fall for this Lululemon recruitment scam. A recent scam surfaced on Instagram, and if you’re all about this super-popular yoga/athleisure brand, you need to know about it.

Sometimes those way too good to be true ads on IG are just that. An IG account called lulurecruitment.us recently shared a post claiming that the Lululemon brand was looking for 150 ambassadors for 2019.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Brbf7JsBs8r/

According to the ad, the ambassadors would receive free Lululemon clothing, first access to new lines, gift cards and discounts. Sounds pretty perfect right? Hmm…maybe a bit too perfect. The ad also stated that the only requirements for consideration were having 150 IG followers, following the account (lulurecruitment.us) and reposting the original post on Instagram Stories.

When asked on Twitter if this ad was for real, a rep for the real Lululemon account responded, “We’re not associated with this account and have already looped in our brand protection team—they are on it! You’ll know an account is ours if it has a blue verified check mark.”

While the fake IG page did manage to get more than 350,000 followers over the course of their not-so-real promotion, the account is now no more. But it seems like others are still trying to scam social media followers. There are now several new accounts that have popped up on IG, all with the fake brand ambassador ad.

To repeat: these ads are NOT the real deal. As Lululemon pointed out on Twitter, its social media accounts are verified and thus have the check mark.

—Erica Loop

Featured Photo: Lululemon via Instagram 

 

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If you’ve received any unusual messages, particularly those with video, on Facebook Messenger, you may want to think twice before clicking on the video to watch it—especially if it’s from someone you don’t know. In the age of phishing scams and malware that hacks your secure info, this video is far worse: this viral Facebook Messenger video depicts child pornography.

The video first began circulating on Facebook Messenger late last week. Both local police and news stations throughout the country were alerted by innocent Facebook users who came upon the disturbing video.

By early Tuesday morning, two men had been arrested in connection with the creation and distribution of the video in the cities of Millbrook and Montgomery, Alabama. The victim was also identified, found and is now safe, according to authorities as reported by The Montgomery Advertiser.

What’s particularly diabolical about the distribution of the video is that it was included with a plea for viewers to help identify and track down both the perpetrator and his victim. Essentially, the ploy was to get Facebook users to actually watch child porn as the video itself was a recording of the crime.

A spokesperson for Facebook told BuzzFeed News on Monday that the company was “aware of this issue.” The spokesperson continued:

“We reported the video to the appropriate authorities, and we have used PhotoDNA technology to automatically prevent future uploads and shares. Sharing any kind of child exploitative imagery using Facebook or Messenger is not acceptable—even to express outrage. We are and will continue to be aggressive in preventing and removing such content from our community.”

Parents worried about whether or not their kids could be exposed to this viral Facebook Messenger video can take comfort that Facebook has not only removed the video, but deleted the alleged perpetrator’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in an effort to stop the circulation of a video-recorded crime.

On Tuesday, the company followed up with BuzzFeed News to report that once Facebook was notified about the video, “It was immediately added to our Photo DNA bank, which has prevented thousands of attempted uploads/shares since.”

Even so, I wouldn’t put it past some shady individuals to find ways to around Facebook’s safeguards to keep spreading this horrible video, further victimizing the minor shown in the video, despite being found and made safe.

It’s a good rule of thumb to be wary of Facebook requests from people you don’t know, or links that look… off, especially if it’s coming from a Facebook friend, but seems unusual or uncharacteristic of them to share such links or messages.

If you or your Facebook-using tween or teen encounters questionable content on Facebook, be it on someone’s post, a private Facebook group or even in Messenger, they can report the content directly to Facebook by clicking the “Report” button or link. The Facebook Help Center has a comprehensive guide on how to report anything you come across on Facebook.

Have you been affected by a phishing scam or other type of malicious content on Facebook? Share your story in the comments.

—Keiko Zoll

 

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