Not only am I a techno-geek at in my personal life, I'm also a professional nerd. In my "day job", I work for a global technology company. Both of these points reinforce the fact that I want my children to not only be familiar with using computers and technology, I want them to be comfortable and good at it. I'm a believer that one of the best ways for them to learn is to be able to have hands on access. So, here's a conundrum that many parents these days face: How do you let your children use PCs and the Internet without it becoming too much and without them stumbling across inappropriate material online?

Two of the most prolific and iconic elements of the Internet are Google and YouTube. Unfortunately, it's simple for anyone to enter a seemingly innocuous term and get undesirable results. Well, the good folks at Google have created the Family Safety Center, a resource that guides you through how to alter settings in both Google and YouTube for safer web browsing.

Please take a few minutes and and visit the Family Safety Center to learn how you can add a layer of safety to not only your home PC, but also on your mobile devices! Adjusting your search preferences will help filter out dubious content but it's not 100% foolproof. And, it's no substitute for being mindful of what your kids are doing online.

Recently, Donny Tobolski, a teenager attending a public high school in Sacramento, California was suspended for making disparaging remarks about one of his teachers on Facebook. When school administrators learned of the post, the student was suspended for one day because officials deemed his post as cyberbullying.

The ACLU was introduced to the situation and took the position that what the student engaged in was actually an expression of free speech and not cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is defined as "electronic communications that involve sexual harassment, a hate crime, or creation of an intimidating or hostile educational environment." You can read the letter from the ACLU to the school officials here.

According to Kristina Dunlap, the boy's mother, "My son is an honor student and a star football player, and his goals in life are to go to a university and to join the marines." She goes on to say, "It would be disastrous for him to have something like this on his record. Teens should be able to vent, and children should be able to write things down, and say what they want to say. School officials have no business punishing students for harmless words."

I thought about this for some time. While I do not think that anyone's free speech should be infringed upon, the line "hostile educational environment" stuck with me. We live in a time of unprecedented means of communication with one another. I'd be curious to learn of the tone of the classroom of the teacher who was remarked about in the coming months. It would seem to me that the teacher's role of authority could be tested, and thus make for hostile environment.

I disagree with Ms. Dunlap's assertion that words are harmless. To the contrary, words are extremely powerful. Her son's choice to use those words in this age of communication will likely stick with him for a long time, if not for his lifetime. Last Summer in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Eric Schmidt suggested that when today's youth reach adulthood and are ready to enter the workforce, they may likely need to consider changing their name due to having over-shared information, or put unflattering information in their youth among social media websites.

I can't implore parents enough to please be engaged as possible with their children and their online behavior. The Internet is a powerful phenomenon in our culture and your persona online is very much a part of your reputation offline. As parents, we are compelled to help guide our children through these concepts as it will affect their lives now and in the future.

What are your thoughts on the issue? If your child ranted online about their teacher, would it be fair if they were suspended at school? Is it simply venting or is your child eroding the authority of that teacher? What does it say about your child's behavior? Would it embarrass you for your child's comments to be made public? Let me know what you think!

Google recently announced a new endeavor entitled simply "Art Project". At Google, employees are allowed to use 20% of their time to devote to projects on their own or collaboratively with their peers. "Art Project" is a result of this program at Google.

A team of developers assembled on how to make art and museums more accessible for those unable to venture across the globe. What this team did was use Google Street View technology to navigate a trolley rather than an automobile through museums throughout the world.

Now, you can virtually travel to seventeen museums from Moscow to Madrid, New York to Versailles, and make your way throughout the collections. As you make your way through these installations, information is available on each piece including details on the artist, history of the piece and more. Additionally, viewers can zoom in on pieces for a closer look. Select pieces have even been captured using high quality digital imaging so that you can view detailed brush strokes and textures.

Spend some time with your kids on a snow day this Winter exploring the world's museums and the treasures within. You can create your own account and save your favorites pieces for your own collection. Projects like this are inspiring and can spark the future artists, art lovers and technologists of tomorrow!

You can find the infographic on our Facebook page by clicking here.

A version with click-able links as a PowerPoint Show file is available here.

Artemis Fowl is the title character in a series of novels written by Eoin Colfer. In summarizing Artemis Fowl, think James Bond collided with Pixie Hollow with Men in Black. Artemis is a twelve year old genius who is the heir to a family fortune acquired through ill gotten means by his ancestors for hundreds of years. Artemis himself is a globe trotting master criminal, even at his young age, and is accompanied by his bodyguard/confidante, Butler. It is in the first novel that the reader is introduced to the existence of fairies and other magical creatures as Artemis plots to steal fairy gold.

There are now (late 2010) seven books in the series. I found Book Six, The Time Paradox, to be "borderline" in reading to my own children, not for questionable content, but rather for a bit of a confusing story line regarding time travel and continuity.

A great series overall though. Very astute writing and clever plots kept my children (and myself) anxious for more.

My intention with this site isn’t to scare parents or to vilify anyone or any service. Quite the contrary, I want to help educate parents and arm them with some knowledge that will help them and in turn help their kids. So, with that said… Facebook: Why are your kids on it?

Well, that’s not totally fair. I actually know people who are quite conscientious about their children, their online safety and reputation (yes, that’s right… your child’s online reputation). I have friends who have extended families who live on opposing coasts on the country and Facebook is a great medium for families, even children, to maintain regular contact with family members.

In my humble opinion though, if you’re not actively involved in monitoring what your kids are doing online and are letting your children have a Facebook account for the sake of having one, you’re doing a huge disservice to your child. I’m being pretty vocal about this due to having recently been shown the pre-teen Facebook account of a child that our family knows. Now, I’ve seen Facebook accounts of children within our children’s network of friends, schoolmates, relatives, etc. When asked, I’ve given advice to parents on helping them ensure that their child’s profiles are locked. This one threw me for a loop though. It has all the makings for a disaster:

- Account publically viewable

- Full name and hometown info on the child and siblings

- Inappropriate content

What I found to be most egregious here was thay the parents are “Friends” of the child on Facebook. I am probably opening up a hornet’s nest here, but seriously? Any number of this child’s posts would be cause for concern. The fact that there are regular posts is just over the top.

I implore all parents: Please think twice and thrice before allowing your child to have a Facebook account. Seriously ask yourself what value is there in my child engaging in online conversations that all too often will go unchecked. Tragically, there have been instances of cyberbullying that goes unchecked amongst children on social networking sites such as Facebook that lead to children being harmed or harming themselves.

My friendly advice:

- Be savvy about what your child is doing online. You don’t have to cyber stalk your kids. Be forthright with them about what they aren’t allowed to do and why.

- Have your home PC in communal area, not in your child’s room. There’s less chance for shenanigan’s when their surfing is ‘out in the open’.

- Talk often with your kids about pitfalls of certain online sites. Let them know that you’re aware of the downside and that you care about what is said online to them and about them.

- Participate with your kids in what they’re doing online. You don’t have to be overbearing or spy, but be involved.

If your child has a Facebook account what can you do to help keep them safer? Facebook allows you to control your privacy settings. Once you’re logged into Facebook, atop the menu on the right side of the screen you’ll find “Account”. Click on this and then “Privacy Settings”. From here you can ‘lock down’ the profile settings so that things such as contact information or photos are only viewable by people who are “Friends”. Otherwise, family photos, names and email information can be viewable to just about anyone.

Here are some additional resources where you can learn more about Facebook security and settings:

Controlling How You Share
Source: Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=820#!/privacy/explanation.php

Locking down your Facebook account step by step
Source: ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/photos/locking-down-your-facebook-account-step-by-step/420964?seq=6&tag=content;get-photo-roto

The Internet is a crazy place and as a parent it can be a daunting thing to ensure your kids aren't going to come across the wrong thing online. My wife and I limit our children's time online, but at the same time, we want them to be comfortable using a computer and the Web as tools to aid them in their schoolwork as well as for fun. What I'd recommend to parents who are just venturing into this territory is to approach this much like you'd approach other situations with your children: do some research; talk with your friends; explore on your own.

What are your kids interested in? Chances are, whatever they are interested in offline, they'll be interested in online. You can help steer their online experience by going online yourself first and do a bit of Googling. Have a daughter who is a fan of American Girl? Check out their site. Have a son who loves Legos? Go to their online game site. Visit sites of brands that you're already familiar with and that you have a comfort level with. From here, you can venture out and explore. Make bookmarks of sites for your kids and offer them a variety of sites to choose from during their session online.

Supervision without Suffocation

By giving your kids a set of sites to choose from, you're giving them a sense of empowerment that they are making their own choices (they are of course, but within a controlled environment). This allows you to offer a certain level of supervision without suffocating them. Hand in hand with this is where in your home your PC is physically located. I highly recommend that you have your childs online session be in an area where you are… a communal area, not off in their room behind a closed door. That way, you're there as a resource to answer questions and you're there to ensure they're where they ought to be.

General Parameters that we follow and some nuggets of info

• You don't go online without asking. The PC is password protected anyhow

  There are also many ways to protect your child's online viewing habits with software applications such as NetNanny . You need to research and figure what best suits your situation.

• We ask what it is they're interested in doing. "Dunno" or "Just going on Google" doesn't cut it.

  Did you know that you can set up Safe Search Filtering on Google? With this, you can have another layer of protection to ensure that your kids don't stumble across something inappropriate when doing something as benign as a search.

• Time limits. Nobody spends all day on the PC (except for Daddy )

  My wife bought an egg timer to put near the PC. When the kids get feisty and all want time online, this is a sure fire way to make it even-stevens.

• If you want to look at something new, we do it together first.

  One of my six year old's favorite things to do online is to sit on my lap and watch " funny cat " videos on YouTube. Call up clips of "America's Funniest Home Videos" at will!