The S.M.A.R.T initiative – Social Media Awareness and Responsibility Training

Thank you for stopping by my S.M.A.R.T. Initiative – Social Media Awareness and Responsibility Training! Just a little corner of the world wide web where you’ll find various tools, links and app reviews concerning the online safety of our children.
Now is the time to get Primed rather than remain Paranoid; where Concern is Appraised! This Site features posts about General Online Safety, App Reviews with rankings and more useful info to keep our kids safe online!

• Blogs about trending online safety concerns or tips and tricks
  Reviews
• description of apps, explanation of uses, safety precautions, and age appropriateness
  Ranking
• apps are categorized on a Scale; this is an opinion gauge – a Threat Level I personally & strongly trust. The Threat Levels begin at very low (fairly safe when used responsible) and end at very high (very dangerous, particularly for children)
  

Search a specific app or browse a previous review – just enter the title of the app in the search bar. The search… bar is located on the right-hand side just down the page a bit – on this homepage, just scroll down and you’ll run right into itDid you search for a specific app and you cannot find it here on S.M.A.R.T? No problem; send me a request! Scroll to the very top of this page & click on, “Request app Review!” Within 24 hours; I will research the app, have it ranked, and a breakdown will be posted right back here from your submission! I take great pride in assisting you with the education of Social Media with regards to your children.

Parents, Social Media is not a fad; it is a change in the way we communicate. Learn this social communication for the safety of our children. Interested in a free live presentation where I discuss the 4-step process of keeping your children safe on social media? Just scroll back up to the top of the page and click on “Upcoming Presentations,” where you will find a calendar of previously scheduled events! Hope to see ya soon!Do you know… what they’re downloading… I do!

Apple IOS monitoring downloads

A great feature of all Apple products is the operating system IOS. IOS has some neat settings that you can utilize to monitor what your children are downloading to their I-devices whether it be an ITouch, iPhone, iPad or iPad mini.

For this to work, you will need to be
on the same iTunes account (which I encourage for email receipts). You can turn on automatic download to all your devices or just certain ones. What the feature is meant for is to keep you from downloading the same app on multiple devices. For example, download the app Dropbox to your IPhone then It automatically downloads to your IPad, iPad mini or any other I device you have. Very convenient to keep you from having to download individually to every device.

Even more important it is a great way to know what your kids are downloading when you are not around. Yes I realize this automatically puts candy crush or any other kids game they download onto your device also, but all you have to do is delete it. I like knowing that when my kid is at a slumber party or in her room on her I device that I know what she is downloading immediately instead of having to wait on an emailed receipt.

To turn this feature on it only takes a few steps. From your device, follow listed steps.

1. Go to settings
2. Scroll down to iTunes & App Store (select)
3. Once you are inside the ITunes & App Store, scroll down under the automatic downloads and slide the ‘apps’ to show green. This turns the auto download of apps feature on. Now any app that is downloaded will be auto downloaded to this device.

You can also turn on ‘updates’ which will automatically keep your apps updated with you having to manually do it.

Once you have the auto updating Apps turned on, any app downloaded under your iTunes account, regardless of what device, it will download to your device also.

You will be able to monitor and stop your children from downloading dangerous apps, since a lot of times they are just curious from what they have heard from friends or school. They will also think your magic when you know within 30 seconds what they are downloading, and you are no where near.

Lookout

 

Lookout

Apps that Help

Lookout is an IOS and Android app that is very useful for parents to help keep up with their child’s devices, and to monitor them via GPS.  Lookout has several features.  It is advertised as a way to never loose you phone again.  Once installed on your device with a small setup feature, you are then able to log in to a website to monitor the location of the phone.  A neat feature also is when your battery is about to die, it automatically logs the last location it could hit a GPS tower.  You can also track your device live.  Which is a good way to check up on your children who have cell phones.

Lookout also has a contact backup feature.   It allows you to back up all your contacts to load onto a new phone or the same phone if you ever have to restore your device to Factory Settings.

Lookout also allows you to connect to any internet enabled device and log into your account to send a alert to your phone.  This works even when your phone is on silent.  A great feature since kids are always loosing their phones.  Inside this feature is also the ability to create a custom message that shows up on your screen to alert the finder of your phone how to get it back to you..

Some of these features ICloud does on the IOS devices, but the few extras that Lookout has is very beneficial.  This is Androids users answer to not having iCloud.  And did I mention it is free!

This app Being Free, and enabling you to find the location of the phone is a great plus (Especially for Android users)  Download it and give it a try.