5 Tips to Protect Kids During Online Gaming

uKnow.com’s co-founder, Tim Woda, offers advice to help parents keep their kids safe from digital dangers including child predators and cyberbullying while using social networking components in online games  

Even the most vigilant of parents are struggling to keep up with advancing technologies that allow kids to be online without parental knowledge...

According to a 2012 study by TDG Research, 80 percent of an expected 190 million households (approximately 148 million households) with next generation video game consoles will have this console connected to the Internet. Unfortunately, many parents do not know the risks associated with social gaming including cyberbullying, sexting and child predators.

“Even the most vigilant of parents are struggling to keep up with advancing technologies that allow kids to be online without parental knowledge,” says Tim Woda, a Digital Safety Expert and the co-founder of uKnow.com, a provider of parental intelligence systems. “Parents need to know that any time your child is online, they are at risk for such issues as identity theft, cyberbullying, sexting and online predators.

Additionally, Internet-connected gaming devices are now a popular way for cybercriminals to place malware and viruses in a home network.”
Tim offers the following advice to parents trying to manage their child’s gaming console:

•     Set the rules up front. Make sure you child knows that under no circumstances are they ever to give out any personal information via the gaming consoles, such as their address, passwords, parent’s credit card numbers, etc.
•     Agree on downloads or game purchases. Nearly all games are identified by a universal rating similar to movies (“E” for everyone, etc.) Make sure your child knows what ratings range he is allowed to play within, and stick to consequences should they stray.
•     Stay in safe zones. Just as you teach your child that they should check both ways before crossing the street and to never walk alone at night, kids need to understand how to avoid dangerous places online. And, if they do find themselves in a risky place, tweens/teens need to know what to do: never engage with someone they don’t know, never forward/share explicit conversations or pictures, delete any unpleasant content, and most importantly, talk about it with your parents.
•     Ensure your child understands that people aren’t necessarily who they say they are in cyberspace. We don’t want to scare our kids, but it is imperative that they understand that stranger danger exists online as well. Johnny316 may not be the 13 year old boy from the next town, but instead, a 45 year old convicted sex offender. Parents should read “11 Signs That Your Child is being Targeted by a Child Predator” to fully understand the issue.
•     Understand what your child is doing on their gaming system. Many parents do not even know their child’s gaming system has a social networking profile that can be public to anyone with an Internet connection. A service like uKnowKids (and the new uKnowSearch™ service), can identify, monitor and report a child’s activity on a gaming device (or social networking account or mobile phone).

About Tim Woda
Tim is an Internet and child safety advocate, public speaker, author, and co-founder of uKnow.com. He has made protecting kids from digital dangers his life mission after his own child was targeted online by a child predator. You can get more useful safety tips at TimWoda.com or on Twitter at @TimWoda.
About uKnow.com

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Arlington, Va., uKnow.com is the only company that offers a parental intelligence system available for both private-label and consumer use. The company powers the world's leading Parental Intelligence Systems including uKnowKids.com, KidSafe.me, SafeCyberKids.com, SocialFirefly.com, aBeanstalk.com, MySocialScout.net, and p911Safety.com, among others.

uKnow.com works with companies and organizations to help parents protect their kids from child predators, sexting, and cyberbullying with a special focus on the social networks and mobile phone. uKnow.com’s technology provides parents with a bird's eye view of what is going on in their child's digital world so that they can keep their finger on the pulse, and when necessary, take action to protect the safety and privacy of their kids. You can find uKnow.com on Twitter at twitter.com/uKnow_com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/uKnow.com, and on their Parenting Blog.

 

 

How to Improve the Internet Speed for Online Gaming

Slow Internet speeds can ruin a user's enjoyment of a good game. Too many gamers have had easy victories slip through their fingers because of a lagging connection. The speed of your Internet connection can vary greatly depending on which game you are playing, the computer you are running the game on and the type of Internet connection you have, as well as transient conditions that may affect your connection. Even so, you can follow a few basic guidelines to keep your game running smoothly. 

Instructions:

1.  Shut down other Internet activities. Unless you've got a computer with an ultra-fast processor, the performance of your machine will decrease as you open more windows and run more tasks concurrently. Online games consume quite a bit of bandwidth, so engaging in other bandwidth-intensive activities such as streaming video, video chat, instant messaging and browsing the Web with auto-refreshing feeds on sites such as Twitter and Facebook will noticeably slow down your game.

2.  Configure your firewall to recognize and allow your game to run. It's easy to forget about your firewall since it runs in the background, but often a slow-running game is the result of your firewall interpreting the inbound connection from the game's servers as a security threat. All firewalls have a menu option for setting "allowed" or "trusted" programs. Make sure your game or your gaming platform (such as Steam or Impulse) is included on this list.

3. Invest in a high-speed Internet connection. Adjusting your usage habits and your firewall will only get you so far if your connection is slow to begin with. Contact your ISP to discuss your upgrade options or research other local ISPs to find the right connection for you.