Stranger Danger Online

I blogged about Stranger Danger Online at Echelon Shorts. Check it out!

About "Witch Hunts on the Internet"

Looking for a few non-trivia fun facts about "Witch Hunts on the Internet"? Click here.

"Witch Hunts" now on Kindle

This is to let you know that "Witch Hunts on the Internet" is now available on Kindle. If you think your teen is safe online, you ought to read that book!

Recycling passwords: tip

Don't use the same password for your Facebook and online banking. If a hacker gets your details from an easy-to-hack personal site, they'll be laughing all the way to the bank. Yours.

Interview with Yvonne Walus

Hot off the press: an interview with Yvonne Walus about her thought-provoking book "Witch Hunts on the Internet".

Find out what your teenager gets up to when online....

Teens post sensitive info online

A recent survey revealed that 50% of New Zealand teenagers think nothing of posting personal information (such as pictures, stories, or comments that they wouldn't want someone who didn't like them to find) on Bebo or Facebook.

Sensitive data posted included:

• - First and last name, or their first name and a recognisable picture of themselves (30%)
• - E-mail address (30%)
  

• - Mobile phone number (14%)

• - Home address (3%)

Does your teenager know the consequences of being too open online?

Read the thriller "Witch Hunts on the Internet", then let your teen read it too!

Too many friends?

When you're a teenager, your online status is driven - to a large extent - by the number of friends you have on Bebo, MySpace and Facebook. It's yet another measure of popularity. At first glance, it seems harmless enough. But is it?

Recent research suggests that our brains evolve to know no more than 150 people, including those in your household, family and neighbouring caves or huts. 150! Most schools alone are twice the size, and we're not counting family friends, the kids in the street who go to a different school, the mates from swimming lessons, and so on.

Add to that people you befriend online, and you can almost see your brain short-circuiting as they try to sort out the Jenny from ballet and the Jenny from school and Aunt Jenny and Jenny online who goes by the handle born2bwild....

Here's the article if you'd like to see the implications of Internet socialising on this generation's puberty and adolescence years: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10562544&pnum=0.

And here's my book about online friendships going bad:

"Witch Hunts on the Internet" (http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook77234.htm).