Thursday, February 9th, 2012

If you’re a parent, you know more and more kids are using wireless devices to download music, stream video, play games, and visit social networking sites.  To help customers manage their wireless budgets and stay on top of their wireless usage and their families’ as well, Verizon Wireless offers a service called Usage Controls, now more powerful with new tools to help manage megabyte usage and content purchases such as games, application downloads and ringtones.  For $4.99 per line per month, customers can control data usage as well as how much, when and with whom family members are communicating.

Watch the video below from Verizon Wireless entitled “How To: Manage Usage with Usage Controls from Verizon Wireless.”  The video explains how customers can harness the power of Usage Controls to help monitor and manage their wireless lives.

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Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

 

Check out Common Sense Media’s video and article below about managing this year’s top tech toys.  Once all those high-tech gifts have been opened this year, consider taking the time to educate yourself about the parental controls available for specific devices.  Verizon parental control tools include free Verizon Wireless Content Filters, free parental control features for FiOS TV services, as well as family protection features within the Verizon Internet Security Suite.  

How to Manage This Year’s Top Tech Toys

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Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Dr. Walsh and his daughter Erin offer the tips below for setting Parental Controls effectively.  Read on to learn more!

  Will setting parental controls solve all of your family’s Internet safety challenges? Of course not.  But parental controls are an essential component of your 21st century parenting toolkit. There is no silver bullet or t

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Saturday, November 13th, 2010

 

Verizon had a strong presence at the Family Online Safety Institute’s 4th Annual Conference, “Internet Freedom, Safety & Citizenship: A Global Call to Action.”  This year’s conference included 400 participants, 90 speakers and 30 exhibitors! 

 

Aside from Verizon’s role as a co-sponsor of this extraordinary event, Verizon Wireless’ West Area President, Tami Erwin, delivered an inspiring keynote address, and Jack McArtney represented Verizon on the panel “Tech Talk: the latest tools to empower and protect.”  In his opening remarks, Stephen Balkam, CEO of FOSI, even mentioned that he uses Verizon Wireless Usage Controls on his daughter’s cell phone!

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Monday, November 8th, 2010

With the support of the Verizon Foundation and other partners, Enough is Enough began a new program—Internet Safety 101SM—to educate, equip and empower parents, educators, and other caring adults with the knowledge and resources needed to protect children from the online dangers of pornography, cyberbullying, sexual predators, sexting and other threats related to social networking, mobile and gaming devices.  For more information, visit www.internetsafety101.org. To get started, print out the Rules ‘N Tools Checklist below, and use it to stay in touch and in control of your children’s internet use.

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Friday, October 29th, 2010

Online gaming is becoming an increasingly popular activity for kids of all ages.  If your child is participating, get smart about the online games they play, and help them to protect their privacy.  The following tips from the National Cyber Security Alliance can help you guide your children as they navigate the online gaming world.  

 

Gaming Safety Tips for Parents

 

Before your kids start playing, be sure your computer has an activated security suite: a firewall, anti-spyware software, and anti-virus software.

Be sure your kids have strong passwords for their gaming accounts. Passwords should be at least eight characters long and cont

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Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

You’ve heard your kids talk about “Googling” their latest pop-star obsession; you’ve watched them click through millions of videos on “YouTube” in the blink of an eye.  In fact, as a Verizon customer, you and your children have probably both used a lot of Google products like Google Search, YouTube, Blogger or Picasa Web Albums.  To help you better monitor your child as they use these products on their computer and wireless device, Google recently launched its Family Safety Center.

 

Google’s new site walks you through using Google Safety Tools and reporting abuse in Google p

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Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

LookBothWays’ founder Linda Criddle has determined that Verizon has the most comprehensive family safety/parental control options among mobile service providers, citing an exhaustive study by GetParentalControls.org the independent guide to Online Safety Technology. The July 2010 mobile carrier review was provided for one purpose – “to provide consumers of all ages the best information on internet safety, security, privacy and ethics available”.

LOOKBOTHWAYS Inc.’s mission is to make the Internet safer for all consumers. In addition to providing free web resources to consumers, LOOKBOTHWAYS Inc. speci

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Monday, August 30th, 2010

As summer draws to a close and parents ready their homes for the start of another school year, it’s the ideal time to discuss digital citizenship and responsible internet usage practices with kids.  This digital workshop from the Verizon Foundation and Frontline entitled, ‘Advice for Parents,’ focuses on digital parenting.  Anne Collier, web safety expert and editor of www.netfamilynews.org, emphasizes that while parents cannot remove all risks from a child’s life online, they can empower and educate children to be responsible social web users.  And, in fact, this empowerment and education is a vital part of their cognitive development. 

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Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Android devices are definitely hot these days.  Not only are the devices themselves pretty cool, but there are also a wide range of great apps and games available in the Android Market. What do parents need to know? Although Verizon customers are able to access the Android Market on Android phones, the store is actually run by Google.  Google sets the policies regarding what types of content may be included in apps provided through the store, and it also determines which apps are available. Verizon, however, offers tools that parents may use to help control the types of content accessible through the Android devices used by their children.  Verizon is the only wireless company that provides content filtering tools on

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