You might be hearing a lot about Facebook's new "Subscribe" button, so we want to help explain what this new feature is and what it could mean for your kids. The original Facebook friendships that you're probably more familiar with are mutual, meaning you friend someone and they accept your friendship request or vice versa.….read more

New survey results reveal the disturbing and harmful behaviors of online predators and sex offenders. Results published in last month's issue of the American Journal of Nursing showed that two thirds of sex offenders bring up sexual topics during their first chat session with a young adult.….read more

Last week Facebook announced plans to include video chat as part of its social networking service. This will now be in addition to other chat and messaging features, including public wall posts and private messaging and chat functions. The new video chat feature will be an entirely real-time and face-to-face interaction….read more

While many stats out there represent how frequently kids are involved in cyberbullying incidents, a new study from Norton Canada shows that, unfortunately, girls are more likely to be cyberbullied than boys. In the Norton Cyerbullying Survey, conducted this past February, 86% of parents said they had a daughter who had been cyberbullied, and 55% of….read more

SocialShield had the opportunity to attend the 2011 National Strategy Conference on Combating Child Exploitation over the past few days. The conference was held in San Jose, CA and the theme was "Partners in Protection and Prevention." This theme represents the collaboration between the Project Safe Childhood and Internet Crimes Against….read more

Because of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), kids under the age of 13 technically aren't allowed to create Facebook accounts. But we've reported before that there are millions of underage kids on Facebook and a recent Consumer Reports study further addresses this issue. In a report released yesterday, Consumer Reports found that 20 million….read more

Being the leader of a company that helps parents keep their kids safe online is important to me, as I have kids of my own who are very active on social networks. All of my concerns about my kids' online activities became a little more real after recently telling my daughter about my new job. When I explained to her….read more

Unfortunately, scary examples of online predators and cyberstalkers make parents focus solely on the dangers kids face when talking to people online. However, kids are pretty online savvy these days and, when using social networks responsibly, they can form some strong and safe relationships online. Of course, that doesn't mean there….read more

Many parents have probably heard of - but aren't fans of - the video chat site Chatroulette. The purpose of the site is to pair random strangers online to participate in chats over webcam. After a surge in popularity last year, the site had to temporarily shut down when when approximately 1 in….read more

Katherine Tarbox, who was the victim of an online predator, wrote A Girl's Life Online as an important resource for kids, preteens and teens. When Tarbox was 13-years-old, she met 23-year-old "Mike" in an online chat room. After building a trusting relationship, Katherine and Mike agreed to meet in person, where he then molested her in a hotel….read more