Parents: Do you know what your teen is doing online?

In this day in age there are already many concerns parents have when it comes to their teenagers’ day to day life. Unfortunately, what are often overlooked are things that can occur in their “virtual world”.

One of the most popular social networking sites visited by teenagers and that should be of most concern to parents is Myspace. First off, I want to say that I do not think Myspace is a bad thing for teenagers. Myspace is a great resource for social networking with friends and/or family. However, it is something that you as a parent should monitor carefully.

If your child has a Myspace account, here are some tips directly from Myspace.com that should be considered.

• Talk to your kids about why they use MySpace, how they communicate with others and how they represent themselves on MySpace.

• Kids shouldn't lie about how old they are. MySpace members must be 14 years of age or older. Myspace takes extra precautions to protect their younger members and they are not able to do so if they do not identify themselves as such. MySpace will delete users whom we find to be younger than 14, or those misrepresenting their age.

• MySpace is a public space. Members shouldn't post anything they wouldn't want the world to know (e.g., phone number, address, IM screen name, or specific whereabouts). Tell your children they should avoid posting anything that would make it easy for a stranger to find them, such as their local hangouts.

• Remind them not to post anything that could embarrass them later or expose them to danger. Although MySpace is public, teens sometimes think that adults can't see what they post. Tell them that they shouldn't post photos or info they wouldn't want adults to see.

• People aren't always who they say they are. Ask your children to be careful about adding strangers to their friends list. It's fun to connect with new MySpace friends from all over the world, but members should be cautious when communicating with people they don't know. They should talk to you if they want to meet an online friend in person, and if you think it's safe, any meeting should take place in public and with friends or a trusted adult present.

You can visit the following websites to get more helpful information and even monitoring software to protect your kids online.

* Software4parents.com
* k9webprotection.com
* WiredSafety.org
* SafeTeens.com

Do YOU have a startpage?

What is a startpage you ask? Well, for the most part it is your own customized homepage that will open when you first start up the Internet browser. Your start page can be customized with the latest news, live sports scores, current weather, RSS feeds, favorite links and more all at your fingertips!

Generally, when you find a site that offers a custom start page that you can modify, they will have multiple “widgets” that you can add to your page. Widgets are interactive visual tools containing custom information. You can usually find widgets for many popular resources such as ESPN, CNN, National Weather Service, and can also create a widget for your local news.

I happen to use www.yourminis.com as my startpage. I have had good experiences with others in the past (which will be covered later) however, yourminis.com gives the features and looks that I need and want. Just to give you an idea as to what can be done with a startpage, I will share how my startpage is set up.

I have four main tabs on my page. They are divided into the following labels. The first tab of my startpage is labeled Main, which is used for the most important information I want to see every day. This usually features a widget for my email account showing any unread messages I currently have. In this tab you can also find my favorite websites RSS feeds so I don’t miss an important story that may be of interest. After that I have a calendar, weather, and To-Do list widgets. Make sure that your most important information is on your main page, as it can be very easy to miss a great story, if you have multiple feeds, and/or widgets over multiple tabs. My next tab is labeled News/Sports. In this tab is where I have my local news, ESPN, and CNN widgets. For my last tab, I have it dedicated to all Tech related websites I frequent.

By taking your time and have fun with a startpage, you can have it looking great in no time. Below are some sites where you can customize your own startpage. These links will also be available on my website.

Yourminis.com – This is my favorite, with a great layout, and many widgets.

iGoogle – Another great startpage, with endless widgets.

MyYahoo - The first startpage I ever used, simple and easy.

Netvibes - Another good startpage.

Introduction........

I would like to start out by introducing myself. My name is Billy Fairchild. I have lived in Clarksville my whole life and I am a graduate of Clinton Massie High School. I have two amazing children, Clayton (6) and Camden (4). I am what you would call your typical tech guru. For the past several years I have become very familiar with the web community. Within this time, I have been able to start my own podcast, maintain multiple blogs, and still keep up to date on the new technology equipment as well as programs that are available. Technology has always been a passion of mine and I am looking forward to being able to sharing my experiences and knowledge with everyone.

Thanks for reading,
Billy Fairchild