tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73459514082732381572011-11-27T16:33:55.351-08:00The YouDiligence blog explores issues and events of the day concerning internet safety and online reputation management specifically in regards to kids and social networks.Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.comBlogger441100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-69261212377759843612011-04-23T04:16:00.000-07:002011-04-23T04:16:48.826-07:00

There is a three part series in the Daily Beast today on Bullying by Lucinda Franks. An interesting read. The topic is really rising to the fore of consciousness of our country. Many states Florida, Rhode Island, Virginia, etc. are taking the issue very seriously and have passed legislation. The mothers of bullied children have grouped together and are becoming a powerful lobby similar to how

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-57543375177105557202010-11-24T04:20:00.000-08:002010-11-24T04:43:02.987-08:00

This is a blog on internet safety and reputation management, but I had to write a short post about Ronny Turiaf and something he did last night in the New York Knicks game. In the fourth quarter, of a very close game between the Knicks and the Charlotte Bobcats, Turiaf grabbed a rebound in traffic, and inadvertently elbowed a Bobcat player in the process. Turiaf threw the ball to his teammate,

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-38165136498618223972010-11-22T13:24:00.001-08:002010-11-22T13:30:50.313-08:00

There were some very interesting numbers embedded in the recent article below on Care.com. It discussed how many parents are very concerned about monitoring their kids on social networks. One of the more interesting numbers was that 75% of parents monitor their kids' pages on social networks. This is the good news. My instinct tells me that most of these 75% are performing this task using an

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-38425063660642697972010-11-09T12:41:00.000-08:002010-11-09T12:45:40.295-08:00

Saw the movie "Catfish" last night which is purportedly based on true events. That controversy aside, it was interesting to see supposed sophisticated social network participants experience 'eye-opening' events.It reinforces that even the most experienced social networkers are capable of being fooled. If people like this are fooled, what chance do our young teens stand on the networks?

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-69192437418228068692010-05-14T17:31:00.000-07:002010-05-15T05:46:31.988-07:00

In the wake of the Fox News channel segment on UDiligence, Chris Littmann of the Sporting News blog wrote about our service. Mr. Littmann keyed in on the core value proposition of how UDiligence helps Universities protect their Reputation. He comments about how the public service we provide might not be exactly how some old-school administrators wish to spend part of their budget, but how in the

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-64365825349336883012010-05-13T12:30:00.000-07:002010-05-13T12:37:49.737-07:00

Kevin Long, the YouDiligence founder, made an appearance on Fox News today. Fox News was following up on another story done by the Daily Missourian regarding our work with the University of Missouri Tigers football team.A lot of the points Kevin makes in the Fox segment about how we help student athletes applies to our work helping parents with kids active on social networks. Check out the news

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-68310654015315636522010-05-11T08:18:00.000-07:002010-05-11T08:53:17.990-07:00

One never knows where inspiration is going to come from. I got some from an unusual source the other night: an essay on the Madeleine children book series, "Mad about Madeleine", written by Anna Quindlen (which I have not been able to find published on the web in a cursory search).But toward the end of the essay, Ms. Quindlen writes the line, "Children prize both security and adventure, both

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-90227431419407260762010-01-20T05:56:00.000-08:002010-01-22T06:08:22.221-08:00

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said some interesting things at the recent Kaiser Family Foundation event exploring media usage by young people.The chairman, who worked to implement the Children's Television Act as a top FCC staffer in the 1990s, said the release of the study underscores the FCC's effort to update that act for the digital age--it launched an inquiry in October. "When I think

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-30306635060343871962010-01-18T18:11:00.000-08:002010-01-22T06:20:39.720-08:00

It seems that Facebook has truly relegated MySpace to the wilderness. Social Networking essentially means Facebook at this point. MySpace is an afterthought for the great majority of people. One of Facebook's important strategic decisions was to early on promote Facebook applications, that gave users the ability to perform a multitude of activities that was in a constant state of growth, but

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-24816602747317014682010-01-03T11:53:00.000-08:002010-01-05T13:19:50.311-08:00

The LA Times had an interesting editorial the other day against schools enforcing anti-cyberbullying activities for actions taken off of school grounds.The arguments of the editorial "Schools should not be responsible for policing Cyberbullying" definitely have merits from a legal standpoint. What is not discussed in the editorial is the fact that a huge amount of cyberbullying and bullying in

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-6452441737242351172009-03-19T05:51:00.000-07:002010-01-05T13:20:58.433-08:00

A Tennessee elementary principal is warning parents that many children in his school are using Facebook, seemingly to attract a boyfriend or girlfriend. While this is not shocking, it should put internet safety for their kids as paramount in parents' minds.http://ydurl.com/p6xwParents understand most children are still learning how to interact socially at that age, but yet the 20-30 hours a week

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-62620017247141931032009-03-18T20:33:00.000-07:002009-03-18T20:40:49.069-07:00

Chaulk one up for the MA State Police who were able to save a Boston girl, 12, who was lured to purchase a ticket to fly to Hollywood to become a movie star by someone posing as a 16 year old girl on MySpace.http://ydurl.com/nr9pAnyone who thinks that MySpace and Facebook are safe from creeps who prey on children needs to wake up. Parents need to protect their children and teach them about

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-13235368156516742232009-03-17T10:33:00.001-07:002009-03-17T15:29:48.743-07:00

I try to make it a habit of presenting YouDiligence to at least one school or church organization every week. Last week, I spoke to the PTO of Fairfield (outside of St. Albans). It seems like at every one of these presentations, I hear a cyberbullying story. In fact, one of my primary tasks at all of these meetings is to just listen. Kids' online activity raises a lot of uncertainty for

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-71431994271002216942009-03-17T08:30:00.000-07:002009-03-17T08:40:10.916-07:00

Remember when you were in junior high and the principal used to scare you into believing that if you didn't behave that it would go down on some all powerful "permanent record"? Well now that permanent record actually exists -- and worse, it's a public forumn. Internet safety is something all parents should teach their kids from the very beginning of internet use. Social Networking can be a

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-59859057366974466002009-03-12T16:48:00.000-07:002009-03-17T08:41:03.198-07:00

www.twitter.com/youdiligence

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-11466847817197054582009-03-12T16:08:00.000-07:002009-03-12T16:43:08.078-07:00

I'm sure there are many stories out there about hazing incidents that have been posted on Facebook, but this one struck close to home -- 4 miles to be exact.http://ydurl.com/f5n6This is certainly not the first, nor will it be the last story about fraternity hazing. Aside from the obvious stupidity of the hazing activity itself (and I am a proud fraternity alum -- at Purdue no less), but what

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-13669949146124243032009-03-10T23:04:00.000-07:002009-03-12T16:44:00.447-07:00

Parents in North Carolina can rest a little easier as their attorney general struck a blow for internet safety by identifying 2,116 sexual predators in NC that had MySpace accounts -- and MySpace shut them down.http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/10/nc.sex.offenders/index.htmlIn the last month there have been almost 100,000 sexual predators' accounts shut down on MySpace and Facebook combined. But

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-2977852493672858352009-02-25T10:26:00.000-08:002009-03-17T15:29:33.367-07:00

As I was watching some Parry Aftab YouTube videos (the leader of Wired Safety) I stumbled across this video. It is incredibly powerful and sad. It very simply and effectively shows a string of kids in a series of still photos taken during happier times of their short lives. To think that all these sweet kids killed themselves after being bullied is heartbreaking.Reading the connected comments is

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-60217752302927297542009-02-21T08:43:00.000-08:002009-02-24T18:43:39.840-08:00

The sincerity of social networking sites regarding Internet safety can be questioned after the latest news from Facebook. See this TechDirt post:http://techdirt.com/articles/20090220/1017023844.shtml#commentsDuring a week of taking a public relations beating and a subsequent user rebellion over claiming perpetual ownership rights to the content posted by its users, Facebook followed MySpace's

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-64749660906166779582009-02-20T15:52:00.000-08:002009-02-21T16:44:41.492-08:00

With all the issues of cyber-bullying and online predators dominating the news the last couple of weeks, two high school sports stories really stuck out to me this week that are from opposite ends of the spectrum. They have nothing to do with either cyber-bullying or online predators -- instead they are examples of how we shouldn't and should use social networks to share a story. The first story,

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-56145230033777834232009-02-15T08:42:00.000-08:002009-02-15T13:48:41.394-08:00

A good article appeared in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Biggest online threat is peers, not predators . It is a balanced view of the ongoing debate between internet safety experts. Some experts are focused on the dangers posed by predators, and some are focused on cyber-bullying and child development issues. The following quote is something that we stress all the time here at

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-49009497749076612912009-02-11T22:36:00.000-08:002009-02-13T04:40:53.683-08:00

This item from Indiana today where police arrested a 28 year old man who had repeatedly had sex with a 14 year old girl he met on MySpace.http://www.theindychannel.com/news/18688318/detail.htmlThis news only reinforces the fact that sexual predators troll social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace looking for unsuspecting victims, especially children. It is a parents' right to protect

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-77566655278359426842009-02-10T19:19:00.000-08:002009-02-10T20:49:28.075-08:00

Larry Magid who is connected to the organization ConnectSafely.Org has written an interesting response to the State Attorneys General report about MySpace kicking 90,000 sexual predators off their site. Check it out: Magid ArticleOne of Magid's comments that sticks out is:"Online safety groups and public officials should be spending our time educating families on how to avoid real risks that

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-91009048122997742592009-02-06T13:49:00.001-08:002009-02-06T14:13:46.746-08:00

The second and third tier consequences are flowing in from Michael Phelps now famous pot smoking lapse of judgement. The latest? As reported in this New York Times article, he has been suspended for 3 months from competition and he is losing one of his primary sponsors because he did not project the image that Kellogg's wanted for its kids cereals. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/05/

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-4384429628202803532009-02-05T14:57:00.000-08:002009-02-06T07:15:59.310-08:00

Here is another story about the dangers of social networking and Internet safety. People posing as someone else, and then getting the real person's friends to send money to the impostor. This is the ultimate cyber-bullying.http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/05/facebook.impostors/index.htmlAt UDiligence, (YouDiligence's product for college athletic departments) we have run into this problem when

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-36889436440704081112009-02-05T06:42:00.000-08:002009-02-05T07:42:35.721-08:00

A group of State Attorney General's offices released a report the other day stating MySpace had purged 90,000 accounts of people who are in the sex offender database.http://www.ct.gov/ag/cwp/view.asp?A=3673&Q=433228It is good that MySpace is tring to be proactive in this regard. Tech Crunch has a blogger, Erick Schonfeld, that has been covering this topic for the last month. He wrote a very

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-54792750929459037062009-02-05T06:21:00.000-08:002009-02-06T14:15:02.257-08:00

The day after MySpace announced that they had removed more than 90,000 sexual predators with accounts from trolling their social network, this story appears out of Wisconsin. An 18 year old male faked being a girl and then solicited and blackmailed teenage boys into having sex with him by claiming he would expose nude photos of them if they didn't comply.http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-14934574974988278002009-02-01T19:53:00.000-08:002009-02-01T20:29:22.138-08:00

This story in February 1's Rocky Mountain News suggests there are a number of specialized college athletic recruiting social networking sites that are popping up across the country that are selling themselves as a way for high school athletes to connect with college coaches -- and maybe more importantly it signifies a trend where creative athletic programs and coaches are embracing social

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-15735573271131819612009-02-01T13:47:00.000-08:002009-02-01T14:33:34.096-08:00

For those who have yet to see the photo that surfaced in the London tabloids of American Olympic hero Michael Phelps taking a hit off of a marijuana bong, here is the link to the story and the photo.http://snipr.com/b35foIt's amazing that this took place in November and it is just now getting out. Phelps has quickly admitted his mistake, apologized and said it would never happen again.

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-7789165992768281962009-01-31T17:28:00.000-08:002009-01-31T17:58:20.227-08:00

One more typical weekend on a college campus where yet another athlete does something to negatively impact his future.http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/11323487/rssThis is not even really news any more and that's unfortunate. The only part that is news: who it was and what did they do -- this time?In my role running MVP Sports Media Training (http://www.sportsmediatraining.com/), I

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-11911283969493895392009-01-29T07:16:00.000-08:002009-01-30T10:35:52.269-08:00

One question I get asked a lot is "How can YouDiligence help my child if they are being cyber bullied. I have their login and password, and can check whenever I want." It is a good question. I usually answer this question with the following points.First off, just having a login and password can be a false sense of comfort. My brother had his kids' login and password, but rarely went into their

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-14648178595107128872009-01-29T02:11:00.000-08:002009-01-29T02:15:45.901-08:00

Social networking benefits validated, at least in some cases as shown in the post on the link below:http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/28/social-networking-benefits-validated/More science like this needs to be done to discover how extended periods of social networking prepare people for actual situations, confrontations, problem solving- if it increases or decreases judgment, creativity and

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-1656310997745789332009-01-29T01:59:00.000-08:002009-01-29T02:10:08.545-08:00

New study challenges attorneys general on predator danger and the link below describes the debate on this issue:http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10151959-238.htmlThis debate will continue, but what is necessary no matter the danger, is that parents have technologies to counter the risks and realities that may come with social networking. It may seem simplistic but parents would not allow their

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-77738749524874120052009-01-27T10:00:00.000-08:002009-01-27T15:25:24.834-08:00

YouDiligence founder Kevin Long was interviewed yesterday on the33tv.com station. Kevin was interviewed via phone as part of the story. The piece featured interviews of college and high school students, as well as parents and administrators. It focused on how college admissions offices are using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace as a determining factor in their

Rob.Schwartzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394391227176520215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-39505716271376478472009-01-26T17:04:00.000-08:002009-01-27T15:19:13.575-08:00

The topic of cyber bullying is heating up. There are 10 or so stories a day being reported. There is still quite a debate on how to prevent this for parents and teens. There's an even greater debate on how to respond when it happens to you or your children. One of the largest discussions on this topic is centered around the legal aspects of this type of attack. This is new territory for all

Rob.Schwartzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394391227176520215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-91893979023852991542009-01-23T07:31:00.000-08:002009-01-26T18:49:06.240-08:00

I am scheduled to speak to a local PTO organization next saturday night. PTOs are similar to PTAs--it is just that they are not officially recognized by the national or state PTA organization. PTOs tend to be organized for elementary and middle schools.I think it is great that parents and their respective PTOs are taking proactive measures at the elementary and middle school level. It shows they

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-18156513166454862372009-01-22T18:20:00.000-08:002009-01-27T21:50:23.066-08:00

Hey all you sports fans, my name is Kevin Long, or "KLONG", to most of my friends. I am one of the founders of YouDiligence. For the purposes of this blog, I will be the one to focus on the athletic side of the business, which we are now calling UDiligence, and soon enough the athletic side will have its own web address and login on that page. Check out our snazzy new logo embedded in this post.

KLONGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06000234661759925469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-11772958340176762712009-01-21T11:55:00.000-08:002009-01-23T07:01:07.307-08:00

Another call came in today from a distraught parent worried about her teen child being bullied online. This is a case of a teenage girl going after another teenage girl in horrible fashion on MySpace. According to the mother, the abuse has escalated from taunts and disparaging remarks to death threats. The concerned parent said she went to the police, and the police told her they could do

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-12145669621351509312009-01-19T20:15:00.000-08:002009-01-19T20:45:55.328-08:00

Dr. Megan Moreno of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, is one of the authors of a just released study (appearing in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine) that looked at potentially risky behavior on MySpace by self-described 18 year old males and females. The gaudy headlines in a lot of the major media verged on the tabloid-esque with

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-14790356549554325062009-01-18T17:40:00.000-08:002009-01-18T18:15:58.041-08:00

The report release last week on Internet Safety is drawing fire from many critics. The credibility of the report may come into question over the involvement of Myspace in putting it together. Here is a recent story commenting on the growing debate and concerns that are arising."Internet security task force downplays online threats to children; critics blast report"The article mentions one of the

Rob.Schwartzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394391227176520215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-69764032139711872912009-01-17T06:18:00.000-08:002009-01-18T07:30:40.202-08:00

Harvard recently published results of a study on Internet Safety. Contrary to what many people believed, they concluded that the internet may in fact be safer than expected. The reaction to the study has been quite varied. Although some people are expressing relief, others are still pointing out the variety of abuses that can occur online. Hopefully this debate will encourage further study on

Rob.Schwartzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394391227176520215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-38828447924379645022009-01-16T13:12:00.000-08:002009-01-28T05:47:00.845-08:00

We got a nice little plug for YouDiligence in the local paper where Bryan and I grew up: http://www.wiltonvillager.com/story/463353We were both paper boys for this paper growing up. It was a very quaint process. We would go down to the intersection, and pick up, from a wooden blue box, a bundled group of papers. We would then walk or ride around the neighborhood, and distribute to each house

Michael Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10522089332441286847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-66016328746747125162009-01-15T18:13:00.000-08:002009-01-29T15:31:56.630-08:00

It was about 1:00 AM. My buddy invited me to be on his high-school radio show. I thought this was the coolest thing in the world, and it was. We started talking and I soon forgot the butterflies in my stomach and we were having a blast. We played some great music and spoke about our favorite musicians.The studio was the quietest place in the world. Nobody was left on the campus at that hour. We

Rob.Schwartzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394391227176520215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345951408273238157.post-7440917242407663482009-01-15T06:33:00.000-08:002009-01-31T16:57:02.422-08:00

YouDiligence is a Vermont-based company with affiliate offices in Indiana and Washington, D.C. Our mission is to help parents deal with the growing social networking phenomenon.YouDiligence is a tool that allows parents to feel comfortable about their kids' activities on social networking sites while at the same time respecting their kids' desire for privacy.Concurrently UDiligence is helping

Rob.Schwartzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394391227176520215noreply@blogger.com0