#CyberSafe Keeping Children/Teens Safe Online #IC #ad

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Boys & Girls Clubs of America. I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

June is Internet Safety Awareness Month! Throughout the month of June, BGCA and Sprint are inviting parents to submit their top questions about cyberbullying, social networking, online privacy, mobile smarts and other cyber-related issues. BGCA’s Cyber Safety Ambassadors, a panel of Boys & Girls Club teens from around the world, will answer parents’ questions from a teens’ perspective on CyberSafeFutures.org. Their answers will educate parents and other mentors to help avoid risky situations for their kids and teens online.

I am pretty knowledgeable about technology but of course I am not an expert and everything changes so fast and so often. Many bloggers are much more tech savvy than I while to some other bloggers – I may appear to know ALOT.  However, in my daytime job I am pretty tech savvy compared to everyone there.  Funny how that is.  But when I started in my career we were on big old main frame servers – servers that literally took up an entire room; servers that took 23 of the large floppy discs to back them up every night and it took me 10 hours to do it. There really isn’t too much more boring than sitting there for 10 hours every night to perform this task.  I did a great deal of crocheting.

Then along came windows and the internet.  I could never in a million years have imagined that just about anything I wanted to research will be on my fingertips.  Any fitness activity I want to partake in – on Youtube.  If you can’t learn something through Youtube and Pinterest – I would be surprised.  But even more – that anyone I ever wanted to “talk” to would be just as accessible.  My oldest two children were able to pretty safely navigate through all this social media accessibility.  However, my third child definitely succumbed to so many things and much of it was negative.  And I am social media savvy but it still happened.  It was a full time job keeping track of her – which was nearly impossible.  I could do whatever I could on our devices but she always managed to “find” other devices that it took me a while to find.  I now have the two youngest children (and a nosy English Mastiff) and they have yet to be “on” social media – they are just starting to explore on my social media accounts.  Every now and then I let them peruse my Facebook page with me but they do not have accounts, they do not post and they don’t have any interactions.  They also don’t have cell phones yet etc…  That day will be here soon though I am sure.

Then there is bullying.  The biggest thing I had to worry about was possible bullying on the playground.  Cyber bullying is just as nasty and probably even worse since it is a 24/7 possibility.  You have got to keep an eye on your children’s online activities to help keep them safe.  We have all heard horrific stories – we must be proactive parents.

But now you can get help from BGCA CyberSafe site. BGCA is committed to keeping kids safe, and in today’s world that means being safe online.  Here you will find quizzes, resources, and even a way to submit questions for your most pressing concerns.  Boys & Girls Club of America have teamed up with SPRINT, myclublife.com, 4NetSafety and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to create a panel of expert teens, Cyber Ambassadors – a team of tech savvy teens to answer your questions on the issues facing kids online, like cyberbullying, mobile device safety, online privacy and personal data sharing, especially on social networks. Because every teen deserves a #Cybersafe future.

Submit your questions to the BGCA Cyber Ambassadors regarding cyberbullying, social networking, online privacy, mobile smarts and other cyber-related issues and everyone who submits a question will be entered to win one of three iPad minis AND $500 to your BGCA club of choice!

There are so many great resources available – check it out.  Take their quiz to test your online safety knowledge.  Ask a question of the CyberTribe and enter their giveaway!