Making headlines this past week has been a tweet that an 18-year-old high school senior wrote in reference to her state's governor. Emma Sullivan, a student at Shawnee Mission East high school in Kansas, was participating in a Youth in Government program in Topeka where she, among friends and classmates, was listening to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback speak.….read more 
It's that time of year again when kids start having more time off from school (Thanksgiving, snow days, winter break) and more time to spend online. Add to the mix the frenzied holiday schedules that parents are busy coordinating, and it may seem impossible to be able to effectively monitor what our kids are doing online during this busy time.….read more 
One of the best things about being a police officer specializing in online safety and Internet crimes is some of the stories I hear and have even been witness too. I wanted to share one particular incident involving a young girl who was a victim of cyberbullying on Facebook. The girl and her parents contacted their local police department about….read more
There have been a number of articles written about Facebook and how it affects relationships, both on- and offline. A big topic is how social networks - and subsequent sexting or inappropriate messaging - have been linked to divorce. While we haven't seen a significant increase or decrease in divorce over the past few years, a large number of divorce….read more 
Earlier this month, news broke that the Federal Trade Commission had proposed changes to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. This act applies to online safety and protection for kids, currently ruling that companies and websites have to obtain parental consent before collecting any personal information from or about children under 13 years of age. However,….read more
In a recent article I read, a Facebook scammer made off with $57,000 over the last few years by obtaining personal information from his neighbors' Facebook accounts. The thief, Iain Wood, would gain as much information as possible about each neighbor by friending them on Facebook and then spending over 18 hours a day learning about their personal….read more
Facebook's new facial recognition feature allows users on the popular social network to find more online friends based on how their photos match users with photos containing the same friends. This is an easy way to increase one's number of Facebook friends, but the creep factor goes way up for those who understandably don't want other people in….read more 
We've been really excited about the new ABC Family movie that premiered this past weekend. Cyberbully portrays the very real risks and dangers that teens online face these days, specifically issues like cyberbullying, oversharing, online reputation damage and phony profiles. In the movie, high school student Taylor receives a laptop for her 17th birthday….read more 
