12 Year Old Spends £900 on 'FarmVille' Facebook Game

A 12-year-old boy has spend £625 on his mother's credit card and £288 of his own savings on virtual property in the popular Facebook game FarmVille.

FarmVille is one of the most popular games on Facebook and revolves around managing a virtual farm by cultivating virtual crops, trees and livestock.

A Mother Warns: "Be aware of the online dangers that children face."

The mother of a young girl abused by a teacher over MSN Messenger warned parents:

"Be aware of the online dangers that children face." 

The stark warning came as Ian Goy, of Thornton Clevelys, Lancashire, was jailed for 26 weeks for 'inciting an under-age girl to engage in sexual activitity, whilst in a position of trust'.  Goy had denied the charge but was found guilty by a jury in less than 3 hours.

Are Your Children Hacking... Your Email Account?

 

In a survey of 1000 children, released by Cumbria Constabulary and reported by CNN, more than a quarter (26%) said that they had tried ‘hacking’ (breaking into another person’s account on a computer) at some point.

Predators on Facebook: Should you be worried?

 

In the wake of the shocking rape and murder of teenager Ashleigh Hall, who was ‘groomed’ by predatory paedophile Peter Chapman on Facebook, the British press have been quick to point the finger of blame at Facebook.

In an unbelievably sensationalist article on the Daily Mail website, Mark Williams-Thomas, a ‘vastly experienced’ consultant in child protection and a former police detective, paints a terrifying picture of hundreds of men waiting to groom and abuse young women online.  Mr Williams-Thomas set up a profile purporting to be a 14-year old girl and, apparently, simply waited for the indecent proposals to flood in.

‘1 in 4’ Children sent Pornography by E-Mail

According to research carried out by telephone provider TalkTalk and reported in the Telegraph today, one in four children have been sent inappropriate material, including pornography, by email.

Spysure Home Version: 10-Day Trial Now Available on Download.com

Readers who are interested in trying out Spysure Home Version, to see how it could help them protect their children from online threats, can now download a unique full-featured 10 day trial version of the software from our friends at Download.com!

You can also order the full version as a download from download.com, or via. our own website http://www.spysure.com/ or http://www.spysureusa.com/.

Simply click on the button below to visit Download.com

Social networking ‘campaigns’ – a force for good or evil?

The Lighter Side

Most UK readers will be aware of the runaway success of a Facebook campaign to deprive Joe McElderry, this year’s winner of TV talent contest The X Factor, of their seemingly-compulsory Christmas Number 1.  For the last five years the winner of the X Factor has been guaranteed the top position in the chart at Christmastime. 

The Facebook campaign encourages people to buy the 1992 protest song ‘Killing In The Name’ by Rage Against The Machine instead of Joe’s single as a form of protest against the glossy, slick talent show and it’s musical output.  Donations, and profits from the sale of Rage Against The Machine’s single, are being donated to charities.

As of the Midweek chart, Rage Against The Machine are leading McElderry by several hundred thousand sales, and the campaign seems to be a runaway success.

This is just one example of the ‘people power’ of social networking sites, where a spontaneous movement can turn into an organised campaign in hours, and give a voice to thousands of people.

The ‘Rage Against The Machine’ Facebook campaign is clearly relatively light-hearted, but ‘people power’ on social network sites can have a much darker side…

Poll: Do you monitor your children online?

Today we'd like to get the opinion of our readers who are also parents. Do you monitor your children online? And if so, how?

Do you monitor your children online?

As always, we also invite your comments. Simply leave a comment below, get in touch on Twitter or Facebook, or simply email support@spysure.com.

Getting a new PC for Christmas? Make sure it’s protected!

With the recent release of the latest, greatest incarnation of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, Windows 7, many families will be treating themselves to a new computer this Christmas.  Desktops, laptops and netbooks running the new system are expected to be flying off the shelves in Currys and PC World, and from the websites of online suppliers like Dell.

Whilst the majority of these new machines will come with some form of antivirus software, and Windows 7 itself contains some considerable improvement security-wise, it is still wise to consider the security of your new computer before letting your family loose on it on the internet.

Here, we recommend a selection of software for your new (or old) PC to protect both it and its users from a range of online threats: