All posts tagged Kids Go Mobile

This month our friends at KidsGoMobile are bringing us up to speed on the pros and cons of  Tumblr. Many parents would have heard their children speaking about it but not really understand what they use it for or the risks.

Tumblr is a popular blogging platform that is used by many to share and repost images onto their personal blog, almost like a virtual scrapbook. Often you will hear people explain their Tumblr blog as a visual representation of themselves, what inspires them and what they aspire to be. It’s easy on Tumblr to follow the blogs of friends and influential people, but has also become popular because of the beautiful themes it provides for laying out your images in a ‘trendy’ way. Much like the way Instagram makes the user feel like they have created something beautiful just by applying a filter, in this case they experience the same joy by arranging images and styling on their blog.

Now that all sounds rather innocent and in many cases it is, however we like to give you some insight about what to look out – the darker side of Tumblr that your children may not tell you about.

So what are the risks? Tumblr has a recommended age limit of 13+ but is more targeted towards a 20+ market, although the main contributors are high school students. Common sense media advise the site to be 15+ due to the content that is so easily accessible on it. Commonly you will find picture of beautiful actresses, baby pugs, the latest fashion trends and some inspirational quotes. What you can also find is nudity, pornography, foul language, self harm posts, bullying and much more. Continue reading →

Minecraft – what it is? What are the risks and how do we as parents mitigate them?

If you have children aged 6-12 it is likely that they are utterly obsessed with Minecraft. Who knew a game that looks like it came out of the 90’s would be such a hit with young kids today. They can’t get enough of it and when I tried to see what all the craze was about, admittedly, it took me awhile to get my head around! So, I’m sure you’re all itching to know…what is all the fuss about?

Firstly let me explain what Minecraft is. Minecraft is a game that takes place in a 3D virtual world allowing players to build a unique world of their own out of blocks where they can explore, collect resources, construct and collaborate with others. You can play in 2 modes; Survival, where you are required to find resources to maintain your health and defend yourself from spiders and creepers (much like zombies), and Creative, where you can build, create and explore without any interruptions.

Will your kids encounter risks on Minecraft? Well, Minecraft has a HUGE number of user worldwide, of all ages – in fact it’s sold over 30 million copies to date, and that doesn’t count the free download! You can play the game in three different ways. The first is alone on your computer, this is the safest environment. The second is on a trusted local server which allows you to play with friends. Someone must host the server to enable this – it’s a great option for your children to interact with their friends because it prevents unknown players from participating. The third way to play is in a public game, where anyone in the world can play and communicate with you via the Minecraft Messaging Board (much like Facebook messaging). Naturally this can create some risks that parents and kids need to be very weary of. Continue reading →