But let’s examine this for a minute. Previous to social media, we shared our lives in person or across the phone lines. We mail pictures and often wrote on the back who’s in them. Sharing too much? Is this when we listened to grandma talking on the phone about her recent prescriptions?

The digital era is about sharing. Personally, I think the only thing different about sharing is the how we are sharing. This “how” brings in many more variables with it, but the how is the now folks and judging by the numbers (1 out of every 8 people on Earth are on Facebook) it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Digital sharing allows for anonymity, traceability and always on hand methods. It wasn’t always this easy to share a photo!

Share safe and have a great Monday!

YouTube claims they have hundreds of millions of subscribers from all over the world and according to their FAQs page “48 hours of video are uploaded every minute” with “Tens of millions of people” creating YouTube channels”, which equates to almost 8 years of user-generated content that gets uploaded daily. But again, out of each day’s 8 years worth of new content being uploaded, how does that one video start to outshine the rest?

http://www.viralviralvideos.com, a viral video Internet magazine, claims there’s more to it than just a, “you gotta see this” logic to get viral visual uptake status. Viralviralvideos.com suggests for viral status, videos must be short in length and get tens of thousands of views in one day versus several months. Other websites have devoted their own design to be around the top viral videos for the day, week and month with even an all time Hall of Fame for the most viral videos. Viralvideos.com, one of the first few sites that come up in a Google search for “viral videos”, is a repository of the top virals from YouTube, Metacafe, MySpace and Yahoo.

Yet, if in the event I wanted a specific video to “go viral” I could always pay someone to take it there. Because I think my original Filter Man video is a fantastic spin on ImageVision technology, I could choose between several notable viral video marketing companies that have strategies to push Filter Man around the world. These companies suggest multiple site sharing, getting others users to comment in the tens of thousands of times and millions of link backs by sharing the video on various blogs and content sites. Independent video marketers have suggested in blogs that videos with shocking content, tagged well with extraordinary or unique titles also get videos more exposure.

Finally, there is another option to getting Filter Man around the world. I could transfer his video across one of many video apps for making and sharing videos across smartphones. Just doing a quick search in the iTunes store, my choices are abundant; no matter what you are trying to do with or to videos you can find an app.

Whether hosting videos, making videos, sharing videos, sorting videos or watching videos, let me just say that visual user-generated content is growing and as more and more visual content is created, don’t ever worry that the content may damage your brand, business or offend your end-users, give ImageVision a call. Whether viral or not, short or not, billions of videos or just a couple of thousand a month, ImageVision can give you that “visual” stamp of approval for your visual content.

Come on Filter Man, let’s go viral……..

There was no great surprise that when I did start asking about Facebook monitoring without EyeGuardian, I got the following responses or complaints:

• It takes a lot of time to read through everything!

• It takes more than one adult to monitor all the activity.

• When I am monitoring, it never feels like it’s enough because the content changes so quickly, especially if you child is a frequent user.

• It takes too much time because Facebook has many functions to it.

• I never know if I saw everything because there are specific settings in Facebook that children can use to hide their information updates.

Aside of getting EyeGuardian for Facebook, the general recommendations read almost like a rule book for how to “SAFELY” allow your tweens or teens even have a Facebook page and it was all great information! Thanks Moms!

First Rule– Once you have decided to let your child have a page, give them the sign on and password you want them to use and then keep the rule for them to not change it without your permission. This will allow you access and you can go in and see any or all of the content.

Second Rule– If they pick their own sign on and password, have them turn the information over to you and again keep the rule to not change the information unless notifying a parent. This too allows a parent to go in as they wish and see any or all of the information being shared.

Third Rule – Become one of their “Friends” on their page. As a friend, even though you are only seeing their content from the “outside” of their world and not the “inside” where much can be hidden from a “Friend’s” viewing.

Fourth Rule – Have other adults to be their “Friend” as well. These other adults should be safe individuals like a grandparent or and an aunt that can peek in on their content at times when the parent may not be able to. This method may also encourage children to be more cautious about their postings thinking that multiple family members are watching.

Fifth Rule – Don’t check in on their content at the same time everyday. Vary your times to look, and take notes of days and times you see questionable content. According to our moms, different times of day can offer a snapshot of who’s posting what and when.

Sixth Rule – Make it part of your routine to scroll through their “Friend” list. Although this may take some time if your child is extremely social, it is one of the MOST important tasks that should be done. Zero in on the strangers first, then our moms recommended following through other kiddo profiles slowly to observer any speech that may indicate a worrisome friendship.

Seventh Rule – Go through their pictures routinely as well. Pictures are one of the easiest things that children can share on Facebook. Their online social world is Point-Click-Share and done so in just seconds.

Eighth Rule – Check in with your child about their page. Even if you haven’t checked their content as often as you would like, ask them about how things are going for them and if they might need you to look in on anything that might be questionable in their eyes. This will let them know that they have a strong supporter on the outside who cares.

Ninth Rule – Make sure that their privacy settings are in place correctly. Children may think that adding years to their own age on their profiles may be a good deterrent for predators, however they may be attracting predators by leaving their profiles as public or available to be found in public search results.

Tenth Rule – Give them rules for what can and can’t be shared. For instance, pictures of their “check-ins” and pictures of documents with personal identifying information such as their school class schedule or their new driver’s permit. Also, encourage them that they should never give strangers access to their Facebook page where their information may be listed.

Finally, all moms offered that parents should never leave questionable content or privacy issues unattended. This rule would apply even if all parents had EyeGuardian in place. Any issue that is of concern should be immediately dealt with.

The lesson to be learned from moms around the globe about tween and teen use of Facebook is, monitor and monitor well. Therefore, share EyeGuardian with any parent you know. It’s Free and it’s a game changing way of dealing with the dangers of Facebook. No scrolling through tons of content that may or may not be bad and no worries that a child may have changed their privacy settings to disallow parental views. EyeGuardian for Facebook will open your eyes!

Read through what Facebook has offer in Account settings, privacy settings and on the Help and FAQs page. You can find just about any topic for help so don’t be afraid to ask. Here are two of the most common ways of cyberbullying that we see.

Fake Facebook Accounts

If you have identified a Fake Facebook account that was designed to harass you or someone else, Facebook wants you to report it. Facebook instructs people to go to the profile that has been made and then Report/Block the profile.

Inappropriate Comments or Images Posted on Your Child’s Page

If you find that your child is experiencing bullying on Facebook by other people posting inappropriate things on their walls, in their messages or by inappropriate images, the site asks that  you don’t respond because bullies want a reaction from their targets. Also, Facebook asks that the content be forwarded to a trusted friend that can help. Forwarding the content in Facebook will cause a report to be generated. Keeping the content will be helpful if reporting further becomes necessary so copy the content and date it.
These bullies need to be unfriended, blocked and then reported. It may not stop all of their bullying attempt, but it will definitely help you while on Facebook.

With a tool like EyeGuardian for Facebook watching your child’s page, the content will be better organized and will show you exactly where it is on your child’s page. Once we alert you, then the real work helping your child to understand, cope and get past the damage of torment and harassment.

Just this week Facebook and other media partners have joined together to help combat cyberbullying with a new campaign called Stop Bullyin: Speak Up! Especially if you have found that your child is being bullied, visit the site and take the pledge to help put an end to cyberbullying! Here are just a few of the stars you will be among for stomping out bullying:

Anderson Cooper, Enrique Iglesias, Selena Gomez and more!

Remember, document, report and share!

EyeGuardian for Facebook, designed by parents, for parents!

This video so far has cause for extreme interest for those experiencing or dealing with any aspect of bullying and cyberbullying. According to the “Sneak Peek” video, this multilayer special will hopefully help students, teachers, parents and others to understand the phenomenon a bit better.

Several critical points of view will be shown like having a bully discuss why they are bullying, or how a mother deals with losing her child to suicide because of bullying. Other children are shown giving their own personal experiences on having been bullied and how they feel about it. One youngster even address lawmakers in Rhode Island asking for more help on the issue. The child claims that adults are currently “discounting” children with bullying claims because they are just children.

No matter which aspect or topic dealing with bullying, you can guarantee we will try to understand and will be watching along with the rest of America. We want to understand more so that we can do more to help the best ways that we can. Which is one of the reasons why we developed our EyeGuardian for Facebook application. We wanted to expose bullies on Facebook with the inappropriate language, threats and images they use to torment others, all the while educating parents as to the who, what, when, where and whys of cyberbullying.

Here’s the “Sneak Peek” if you haven’t seen it, but more importantly lets all tune in tonight and learn as much as we can. Until it completely goes away though, get EyeGuardian to be alerted to when it starts, or continues or ends, it’s the only application to monitor Facebook the way children use Facebook.

Have a great weekend!

Bullying: Words Can Kill

Research shows that 35% of teachers report that they have experienced abuse, with 72% of abusers being students, 26% being parents and 12% of the abusers being other staff members. Of the abused, 75% say they need more help to combat the problem!

A quick search on Facebook will find doctors, lawyers, restaurants; products and principals take quite a hit too. Often individuals see the “comment” box a little too opportunistically and leave disparaging comments versus constructive criticism.

EyeGuardian for Facebook is a great tool for professionals as well. It can be used to see everything associated with your Facebook page and alert you to the problem areas instantly versus waiting for a “pile-on” situation that can easily get out of control. Teachers, sign up! Doctors, Coca-Cola, or even Starbucks, EyeGuardian is here for you as well! Remember the link www.EyeGuardian.com.

Courtesy of: OnlineSchools.com

It just isn’t enough to know what information is available through your child’s Facebook page or if your child has received an inappropriate image from a stranger.  Its important to know that problems with children and their social networking are numerous and very real. As parents, we should know how to guard their Facebook pages.

Just this weekend, as it was a recognized U.S. holiday and many kiddos were out from school, tons of content was shared across someone’s Facebook account. As well, someone was hacked, someone was solicited for nude photos, someone was made fun of, someone gave out their phone number, someone threatened someone and someone else made a friend out of a stranger all while on Facebook.

June 2011, Consumer Reports Magazine published data in an article “That Facebook friend might be 10 years old, and other troubling news” that indicated the following statistics about Facebook and its use by minors:

• There are an estimated 20 million minors on Facebook that actively use it.

• More than one third of those users (approx. 7.5 million) of those are younger than the required 13 yrs. old.

• More than 5 million were also under 10 yrs. old with the majority unsupervised by parents by a whopping 82 percent!

Perhaps it could be that 66 percent of those parents weren’t aware of the privacy controls on Facebook or exactly how to use them. Yes, it is published information, but where is it published and how is Facebook helping with the problem?

Parents, until we get more help from Facebook, get your child’s privacy controls in check. Perhaps use this set of slides and information  just out this weekend on ZDNET in a Blog titled, “September 2011: The Definitive Lockdown Guide: Securing your privacy settings.”  Their recommendations even cover phone settings for the Blackberry and iPhones. Although great information, it’s not exactly geared towards parents and or protecting children and it may even be a bit too much leaving the time-pressed parent a lot to read. But, try to weed through it, then “Friend” your kiddos. Next, give yourself a sense of relief by putting EyeGuardian for Facebook into place so that no matter what the settings are, you will know what is going on with your child and their page.

Because our specialty is visual filtering, we are able to digitally see what your children are seeing and where they are seeing it. We developed our EyeGuardian for Facebook because we too are parents. We want to make sure that when your children are on Facebook, they are safe and protected.With EyeGuardian, you’ll be able to see what messages have been shared, see what images have been shared and much more.Visit EyeGuardian on Facebook and put your name on the list to give our Beta version a try. They are your children and it’s your time that it takes to monitor everything they are sharing on Facebook. Get in line for EyeGuardian, it will be worth the wait!

Courtesy of: OnlineSchools.com

EyeGuardian was developed as an answer to the worst problems with social networking, cyberbullying, online predators, youthful content mistakes, unwanted associations of user-generated content and the free-for-all sharing of any content on Facebook. Utilizing our visual recognition technology, we were able to design a Facebook software solution capable of identifying and flagging illicit or unwanted content shared or posted on Facebook.

For Parents – We designed EyeGuardian as the best parental control or awareness tool to help monitor the ills of Facebook socializing our children currently participate in. With EyeGuardian, you can monitor the photos, messages and information that your children and/or their friends are sharing with worrisome content flagged for immediate attention. In Beta phase, we want your feedback. We want to know, as a parent, what you think about the product as it is and what could be better with it. If you already have a social networking monitor tool for your child’s account, try it anyway and do the comparison for yourself. We aren’t giving you a snapshot view of your child’s account, we are showing you the actual content they are sharing or receiving, and the way they are doing it!

For adult Facebook users – Log in and sign up for your own Facebook account. With EyeGuardian, you can check to see what others have posted or shared, and what you might not want visible on your own Wall. As we have learned, it can be difficult to locate the content others share or that you may have accidently shared. EyeGuardian will flag the content that is questionable for you without hours of searching and weeding through pages of postings.

For businesses with Facebook pages – Run your company’s Facebook account through EyeGuardian. Don’t let unwanted associations keep others from participating in your social media campaigns because of inappropriate comments or pictures. Rest as your message is carried through professionally and accurately!

When I give you the signal, rush to the start page and Log in to give it a try! You won’t be disappointed with what you see, unless it’s unwanted content! If you are, just let us know and we’ll put your concerns or needs to the whiteboard and figure it out!