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By Heidi Leder, Techlicious.com

Even if you weren't tuned into the tech festival SWSX, you may have been thinking it would be easier to ignoresocial networking sitesand hope theyll go away. They wont. The age of social media and openly sharing information to find others with shared interests beyond geography is here to stay. While navigating tween and teen years in real life can be precarious, its equally important these days to learn the process of finding and defining oneself in the online realm as well.

The best social media sites for kids and tweens (ages 7 to 13) adhere to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which regulates how much personal information sites can ask from kids under 13 years old, among other things. Likegood kids' online gaming sites, most of these sites require a parental account, or for parents to prove they are who they say they are via a one-time credit card verification (typically requiring a $1 fee). It's a good step toward keeping your kids safe online.

With the popular Togetherville site shutting its doors after being acquired by Disney last year, many kids and parents are looking for a similarly safe-yet-fun place to hangout online and practice savvy social media skills. Here are some social networking sites for kids and tweens that give them some freedom to explore the social media realm while giving parents the control to monitor and guide their process:

giantHello Previously called FaceChipz, giantHello is a social gaming network for tweens that comes very close to mimicking the social networking look-and-feel of Facebook with similar profile pages and layouts.

ChipzCo, Inc.

Once you friend another tween, you can leave comments, send private messages, join groups, update your status, upload photos and more. Users even have a news feed and can follow tween celebrity Twitter feeds.

Kids need to share invites with their friends in real life via email or by printing out an invitation code to friend them on the site, so everything is connected through the real world.

To establish an account, parents must verify their identity via the usual credit card charge, or via the last four digits of their Social Security number. The gaming experience is similar to what you find on Facebook.

Continue reading here:
Safe social networking sites for kids

BY DEON J. HAMPTON

RUTHERFORD Municipal firefighters must now monitor what they post on popular social networking sites to ensure that they aren't revealing information from fire scenes not privy to the public.

The Borough Council has passed a resolution to create the social media policy at the request of the volunteer Fire Department.

Fire Chief John Melfa made it clear that the request was a preventive measure and not a result of any inappropriate postings.

"Even though we are volunteers, there is still a code of ethics which must be followed," Melfa said.

Postings on social networking sites can lead the public to assume that the firefighters are speaking on behalf of the department, Melfa said of the 74-member staff.

Under the new policy, firefighters can have user accounts on sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but they aren't allowed to reveal any information about fire scenes.

Officials said the policy came about when firefighters were recently discussing ways to improve the department. Melfa said the department must keep up with evolving technology.

Email: hampton@northjersey.com

See the rest here:
Rutherford asks its firefighters for restraint in social networking

According to a new poll from the Pew Research Centers Internet & American Life Project, self-described liberals are twice as likely than self-described conservatives to block material on social networking websites that they find politically disagreeable.

Thirty-six percent of social media users said they have blocked, unfriended or hidden someone because of politics, but left-leaning participants were far more likely to havetaken that action to express disagreement about a friends political views.

Liberals are the most likely to have taken steps to block, unfriend, or hide disagreeable political messages, Pew concluded. In all, 28% of liberals have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone on SNS [social networking sites] because of one of these reasons, compared with 16% of conservatives and 14% of moderates.

Sixteen percent of liberal users said theyblocked someone who posted something specific that they disagreed with, compared to eight percent of conservative users.

Liberals are also far more likely than conservatives 11 percent compared with 4 percent to completely delete friends from social networking sites because they disagree with their politics.

There has been no word nor will there likely be any about whether liberals will enjoy reading this story. Many, if the Pew study is to be believed, will just block it from their news feeds.

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Study: Liberals more likely to block social-media friends over political differences

Time for Newt to exit the race

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Study: Liberals more likely to block social-media friends over political differences

A "Facebook" for tattoo lovers? Surely the social-networking bandwagon is already full to tipping. But hold on--the photos section here seems tailor-made for this community. And beyond.

I pity the fool who says social networking has jumped the shark.

Sure, Mark Zuckerberg has a hoodie with weird totemic symbols hidden on the inside. But if he were truly hard core, he'd have a Like icon tattooed on his neck and the word "HACK" inked in all uppercase black letters from one shoulder to the other.

You can bet members of the tattoo-themed social network the TatSpot don't mess around with wussy iron-on transfers. These people go the distance, as evidenced by the photos on the site.

A tattoo-themed social network? You're probably thinking, "OK, the whole social-media thing has really jumped the shark." But why not? After all, I'd wager there's a forum or chat room or virtual who-knows-what for just about every wired subculture on the planet.

And though many of the TatSpot's different areas (videos, events, blogs, and the like) have yet to be filled out with posts (we got an e-mail announcement about the site just today), the aforementioned photos section seems to be off to a colorful start and appears tailor-made for this community.

And beyond. The photos section is a fascinating little journey for anyone, tattooed or not. As new as it is, you'll still encounter a cornucopia of iconography, from Mr. T to an unknown soldier to Mahatma Gandhi. And we suspect this will only get weirder and more wonderful with time.

The only problem I have with the site is its name. My CNET colleague Jeff Sparkman came up with a far better one: InkedIn.

Link:
TatSpot: New social network gets under your skin

By now you've heard that Yahoo has sued Facebook, alleging patent infringement. But just which pieces of intellectual property is Yahoo claiming Facebook ripped off?

Surely, you'd say, Yahoo doesn't claim that it invented the entire social networking model Facebook is based uponexcept it turns out that is almost exactly what Yahoo is claiming.

"Facebook's entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo!'s patented social networking technology," Yahoo claims in the lawsuit, filed yesterday in US District Court in Northern California. "Prior to adopting Yahoo!'s patented social networking technology in 2008, Facebook was considered one of the worst performing Internet sites for advertising. Facebook's use of that social networking model has reportedly dramatically driven up Facebook's advertising click through rates."

Nearly all the technology that makes Facebook successful is based on Yahoo patents, the company further states.

"For much of the technology upon which Facebook is based, Yahoo! got there first and was therefore granted patents by the United States Patent Office to protect those innovations. Yahoo!'s patents relate to cutting edge innovations in online products, including in messaging, news feed generation, social commenting, advertising display, preventing click fraud, and privacy controls," Yahoo alleged in its court filing. "These innovations dramatically improve user experience, privacy, and security and enhance the ability of advertisers to connect with users."

What does Yahoo want? Money. Lots of money.

"Even if Facebook were to subsequently pay past due royalties, it would still enjoy a market share it has developed during its period of 'free riding' on Yahoo!'s intellectual property. Yahoo! would likewise lose its portion of the market share for this period. Due to the difficulty in predicting whether, if at all, such market share can be recovered, Yahoo!'s harm cannot be compensated by payment of past due royalties alone."

Yahoo doesn't specify a dollar amount. But whatever amount of damages the court sees fit to grant, Yahoo says those damages should be tripled "in view of the willful and deliberate nature of the infringement."

Yahoo is asserting ten patents against Facebook, divided into five categories: social networking, advertising, privacy, customization, and messaging. Facebook, by the way, apparently owns just 21 US patents, while Yahoo has more than 1,000.

Yahoo notified Facebook of the allegedly infringed patents on Feb. 27, and then filed suit after Facebook apparently refused to pay the licensing fees Yahoo demanded. Let's take a look at each of the ten patents being asserted against Facebook, organized by the category divisions used in Yahoo's lawsuit.

More:
Yahoo IP lawsuit: We patented "Facebook's entire social network model"