Category: blog

  • AI Deepfake Scams Targeting Youth: How to Spot & Prevent Them

    Deepfake scams targeting children and teens are on the rise, with AI-generated videos and voice clips being used to manipulate, deceive, and extort. The popular British science-fiction series Black Mirror features an episode where a woman seeks solace in a digital reproduction of her deceased partner. The episode, titled “Be Right Back,” examines how something…

  • Online Grooming & Platform Accountability: What Needs to Change

    Online grooming—where predators manipulate children through digital platforms—has become a growing threat, raising urgent questions about the accountability of the very platforms that enable this abuse. This conversation is both timely and critical, especially in light of the following alarming statistics.  Raising public awareness about online grooming and platform responsibility empowers parents, educators, and children…

  • AI Beauty Filters: Helping Kids See Through Digital Illusions

    “No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl,” Marilyn Monroe once said. Those words, haunting in their simplicity, reflect a time when beauty was observed, not edited. Today, a child doesn’t have to wait for others to notice their looks—they can apply a filter, smooth their skin, change their…

  • Digital Drama at School: When Should Parents Step In?

    School drama is nothing new. Written as early as the 1850s, Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield described the social conflicts, bullying, and peer pressure that children faced in school settings. These timeless stories demonstrate that teenage drama has always existed, albeit in different forms. Digital devices have complicated this even further, and Digital Drama is far…

  • Is Spotify Safe for Kids? What Parents Need to Know

    Spotify is a Swedish music streaming platform that was launched in 2006. “If music be the food of love, play on.”  – Shakespeare, Twelfth Night.  And on we played. Indeed, today, it is difficult to be left wanting should one crave to satiate their musical appetite. With music platforms and streaming services like Spotify cropping…

  • Group Chat Gossip: Monitoring Private Messaging Without Invading Privacy

    Group chat gossip is not a new concept. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the noun “chat” emerged around 1520, initially referring to ‘“’chatter, frivolous talk.’ By the 1570s, it meant ‘familiar conversation,’ and later, in the 1960s, it referred to talk shows. The term ‘chat room,’ referring to online instant communication, appeared in the…

  • Digital Footprints Don’t Fade: What Your Child Is Leaving Behind 

    Longfellow probably didn’t have TikTok, Snapchat, or Roblox in mind when he wrote that. Today, those “footprints on the sands of time” might just be your kid’s latest meme, comment, or selfie, floating somewhere in the digital universe. Funnily enough, both sand and computer chips are made of silicon. So those digital footprints? They’re permanently…

  • How FIFA Ultimate Team Promotes Gambling: A Guide for Concerned Parents 

    In 2008, the popular video game franchise, FIFA, released the online game mode FIFA Ultimate Team – or FUT – as part of its FIFA 09 football simulation game. The mode lets gamers use various real players to build their own teams and compete against other players or the computer.  While the mode itself remains…

  • How to Teach Kids to Recognize Red Flag Messages

    In potboilers or blockbusters, the villain is often easy to spot. They speak in a sinister tone, wear dark clothes, or have a menacing look that makes us immediately think, “That’s trouble.” Whether it’s Voldemort’s sly whispers or President Snow’s icy glare, the bad guy’s characteristics are usually exaggerated, giving us a clear visual or…