Smart Social Podcast: Keeping students safe so they can Shine Online

SmartSocial.com's Omegle Guide for Parents and Educators: https://smartsocial.com/omegle/ What is Omegle chat? Users go to Omegle.com to instantly start a text or video chat with strangers Visitors can use keywords to find people with shared interests College students can enter a .edu email address (which the site uses for verification) to find other students There is also an “adult” section The w...

Jenn Curtis and Cindy Muchnick felt like they were “punched in the gut” when they first heard about the 2019 college admissions cheating scandal. “We want to encourage parents to accept and love the child they have, not the child they want to inauthentically create,” explained Curtis. They believe that if you teach students to live life with their own intentions, you can help them better achieve s...

Learn from Smart Social's resources:  Our Parent and Educator's Guide to Instagram (2020 updates): https://smartsocial.com/instagram-app-parents-guide-video/ Join our free newsletter for parents and educators: https://smartsocial.com/newsletter/ Register for a free online Parent Night to learn the hidden safety features on popular apps: https://smartsocial.com/social-media-webinar/ Become a Smart...

Read SmartSocial.com's Byte App Guide: https://smartsocial.com/byte-app/ Where is the Byte app available? Apple App Store : 17+ Google Play : T (Teen) Developer’s Website : Byte.co (Based in USA, Owned by Byte, Inc) Terms of Service Privacy Policy Learn from Smart Social's resources:  Join our free newsletter for parents and educators: https://smartsocial.com/newsletter/ Register for a free online...

What is the Yubo app? Yubo markets itself as a way to chat and livestream with new friends It was formerly called Yellow Yubo’s website says users must be ages 13+ with parental permission Users ages 13 – 17 have their own Yubo community that is separate from adults, however there is no age verification to enter the adult chat area New users provide their name, birthday, gender, photo, and phone n...

The Randonautica app markets itself as “the world’s first quantumly generated Choose Your Own Adventure reality game .” It might sound enticing to students, but safety is a major concern with this app. The app prompts adventurers to set out with a goal in mind. Then it sends them to a randomly generated set of nearby coordinates. These random locations often include private property. Some teenage...

Donald's goal is to be the most welcoming school in America. If kids know they are wanted and welcome, they will be socially and mentally better and happier. Teachers, by nature, are planners, but with the times right now, the country is early in the virus and late to be planning the fall schedule of virtual and in-person classes. How do we allow visitors to our school, keep kids protected and saf...

Politicians consider banning TikTok in the US “Citing national security concerns, India banned TikTok [in the summer of 2020]. The US and Australia are also considering blocking the app… Politicians are worried the Chinese government could use the video app to spy on US citizens .” c|net Read SmartSocial.com's comprehensive TikTok App Guide : https://smartsocial.com/tiktok-app-guide-parents/  Lear...

The key to creating margins is being intentional and saying no to things that may interfere with creating margins. The last people we want to be short with is our family, friends, and those closest to us, but oftentimes, this is who gets the brunt of our lack of time and energy. Parents sign kids up for so many activities, but do these match the goals that the kids have? Ask children what their en...

If your student is a gamer, there’s a good chance they’re on the Discord chat app. Discord is a free voice, video, and text chat app that boasts more than 250 million users. Like many chat apps, Discord doesn’t put out dangerous content, but some people who use it might. If your student is connecting with random people on Discord, they’re putting themselves at risk of coming across inappropriate c...

Without a plan in place, you can't just rip screens cold turkey from you and your kid's hands. It took a slow process to gradually take away screens from April's four children until they went screen-free for 6 months. It's all about being intentional about the process - from auditing how much time each person spends on screens now to figuring out how to dwindle down the usage each day. Once April'...

Read The Negative Effects of Video Games (Parent Guide) on the SmartSocial.com Blog: https://smartsocial.com/negative-effects-video-games/  Learn more about Open Sky Wilderness Therapy: https://www.openskywilderness.com/utilizing-wilderness-therapy-to-treat-gaming-disorder/  Gaming disorder is considered a mental health condition In 2018, the World Health Organization officially began recognizing...

Smart Social’s Device Recommendation Gabb Wireless  (Promo Code: SMARTSOCIAL)   This device looks like a smartphone but is specifically designed for tweens and teens. It will not let users access the internet, online games, social media, the App Store, or Google Play.  The Gabb phone is now $49.99. As an added bonus, SmartSocial.com Podcast listeners get an extra $5 off the already discounted pric...

"Just because you don’t live in an urban area where you see exploitation happening does not mean that your child, sitting alone with their computer or their phone, in their bedroom, is not being exploited.” - Erin Williamson, US Programs Director at Love146.org Love146 is an international human rights organization working to end child trafficking and exploitation through survivor care and preventi...

April and Jennifer are making the summer of 2020 “the summer of grace.” They’re saying yes to their children more often and are giving themselves extra grace through it all. Do you have a summer bucket list set up before the summer? How have all the cancellations affected your lives? April and Jennifer talk about changing up their schedules and navigating the world of cancellations.  One of their...

Fortnite: Battle Royale is a free, multiplayer game that is incredibly popular with students. The concept of the game is simple – the last player to survive the battle wins. But this isn’t a traditional war game. Fortnite Battle Royale is set in a colorful, surreal world where players can dress their avatars up in silly costumes, dance, and have fun while trying to survive. Watch SmartSocial.com's...

What is the Zynn app? A free Chinese-owned video app where users watch and create content It’s extremely similar to TikTok The main difference is Zynn claims to pay its users for watching content and referring friends The app boasts a “massive” music library, cool stickers, and funny effects Videos can be shared to Instagram , Snapchat , etc. You don’t need an account to watch videos, but you do n...

Learn more on the SmartSocial.com Blog April Whiting is a mother of 4, a TedX speaker, author, and founder of www.thescreensafeproject.com Jennifer Zumbiel is also a mother of 4, author, and founder of www.togathermoments.com Learn from Smart Social's resources: Join our free newsletter for parents and educators: https://smartsocial.com/newsletter/ Register for a free online Parent Night to learn...

Watch SmartSocial.com's Fortnite Battle Royale app video Register today for Smart Social's Fortnite Safety Workshop for Students Learn from our resources: Join our free newsletter: https://smartsocial.com/newsletter/ Take one of our 30+ additional courses on the latest teen apps: https://learn.smartsocial.com/ Download the Smart Social app: https://smartsocial.com/app Learn the top 100 popular tee...

Get to know the Smart Social Podcast's new "Mom Talk" Hosts April Whiting and Jennifer Zumbiel. They are two moms who are trying to raise strong families and are desperate to not let distractions win. Listen as they tell the stories of the moments that changed their view of motherhood, and ultimately led to the creation of both of their businesses.  They discuss being in the trenches of motherhood...

WhatsApp is a free messaging app that allows students to use wifi to bypass their SMS/text messaging feature and directly communicate with other users on the app. The app offers free texting, voice calls, and video chats. WhatsApp can be accessed on a smartphone or a desktop.  WhatsApp is now one of the largest messaging apps in the world, with two billion users, according to Facebook. Read Smart...

Read more: https://smartsocial.com/facebook-app-guide/  Learn from our resources: Join our free newsletter: https://smartsocial.com/newsletter/ Take one of our 30+ additional courses on the latest teen apps: https://learn.smartsocial.com/ Download the Smart Social app: https://smartsocial.com/app Learn the top 100 popular teen apps: https://smartsocial.com/app-guide-parents-teachers/ View the top...

Learn from our resources: Join our free newsletter: https://smartsocial.com/newsletter/ Take one of our 30+ additional courses on the latest teen apps: https://learn.smartsocial.com/ Download the Smart Social app: https://smartsocial.com/app Learn the top 100 popular teen apps: https://smartsocial.com/app-guide-parents-teachers/ View the top parental control software: https://smartsocial.com/paren...

Learn from our resources: Join our free newsletter: https://smartsocial.com/newsletter/ Take one of our 30+ additional courses on the latest teen apps: https://learn.smartsocial.com/ Download the Smart Social app: https://smartsocial.com/app Learn the top 100 popular teen apps: https://smartsocial.com/app-guide-parents-teachers/ View the top parental control software: https://smartsocial.com/paren...

The Netflix app allows users, with a paid Netflix account, to watch streaming movies and TV shows on a mobile device. Family members can share one account with up to 5 individual profiles. You must be 18+ to start a Netflix membership, according to the Terms of Use. Netflix offers many parental controls to filter content on a student’s profile. Parents can only access the safety settings on Netfli...