Technology News Roundup

I have had so much going on this past week and there has been so much going on in technology news of course. Murphy’s Law has been in full effect! My son had surgery last week, so to say I have been a bit busy (and stressed) is an understatement. He is on the mend and I finally have a bit of time to share some of the things I have seen in the news this past week.

First up this week in the news – kids and “screen time”.
A study by the American Academy of Pediatrics says kids under two should not be watching television or even be in the room when you are watching. That means no Netflix or Hulu on the iPad or PC either! I remember when my oldest was an infant, he would start to cry if I was upset watching my soaps. I stopped watching because I knew he was reacting to the subtlest of mood changes. What are your thoughts?

A child-pornography image sharing ring was taken down by Anonymous this week. The group began the operation in mid October when they found a darknet that was hosting approximately 40 sites that contained over 100 GB of images. Don’t miss the video Anonymous posted explaining the operation. Not only did they take out the site, they scooped up as much information about the users as they could and published it online. I may not support vigilantism, but I have to say way to go Anonymous!  I fully support protecting children and slowing pedophiles down.

I saw this post from McAfee Labs about an Android virus that is being spread via QR code. QR Codes are those images that are popping up in magazines and in stores. You scan the image with the camera built into your smartphone and it opens up a webpage with content about that item or store. 
 

I have been using QR codes that I find in magazines and I had no idea that QR codes could link to malware. This particular virus sends text messages from your phone to a premium number that charges users. The solution to this is to use a QR scanner that previews the code before it brings you to the site. See this post by Jimmy Shah with McAfee Labs to get suggestions for QR scanner apps for both Android and iPhone and some tips to keep your phone and phone bill safe.

Netflix lost 800,000 customers since they made all of their changes to the service.  I have not left Netflix and I still stream movies online and get disks in the mail, but I am disappointed in the selections since new movies have a delay in being available.  If you are/were a customer, what did you do with the changes? Is there a service you like better? 

My kids stream movies often and I realized that my cyber son #2 has hit that age where he is old enough to figure out how to stream what he wants to, but I still want to filter some of the selections. He was telling me about a movie he wanted to watch on Netflix which just sounded inappropriate, gross and well, I just don’t want him to watch it! I can block it using McAfee Family Protection on my PC and devices. We can also block it on our gaming console using the parental controls.

But what if he goes to a friend’s house? I had to explain to him why I didn’t think he should watch it and give good reasons – the content was not something that I would want to watch, it was violent, it was demeaning to women and once you see that type of content it is hard to get it out of your head. After my discussion with him, I have to let go and trust him.

I hope you all have a great week!

Stay safe out there!

Tracy

@McafeeCyberMom on Twitter

Tags: Anonymous, Anonymous Group, cybermom, good parenting, malware, mobile security, online child safety, parental controls, QR codes

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