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WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire -06/13/12)- ePals (SLN.V)

News that Facebook may allow children under 13 to join the social networking site raises important questions about online safety for our youngest Internet users and purposes of learning. All over the world, new learning standards are emerging that focus on communication and collaboration as an important means to provide the writing and media creation, critical thinking and problem solving skills essential to the 21st century work place. Proper use of social media tools in furtherance of learning has the potential to motivate and empower students in ways that traditional home and school learning methods cannot match.

ePals, which operates the largest social learning networking site specifically designed for children and teachers, has been focused on creating a safe and secure education experience for children for more than 15 years. Please see the following Top Five Tips for creating a safe and secure online environment for children.

1. Understand The Differences Between Consumer Social Media and Social Learning Platforms

It's important to distinguish between social media platforms and social learning platforms. Social media tools for education take into account the safety and privacy of students and teachers and are focused on social learning, not just being social.

2. Steer Kids To Safe and Secure Social Networking Sites

Find social networking sites with the TRUSTe seal and that have active tools such as content and language filters. Ensure that forums are screened for appropriate material that creates a safe and secure online environment. Only allow your kids to visit sites that are actively monitored to ensure a safe environment for kids. Examples of top kid-centric sites can be found here.

3. Prevent Cyber Bullying

Teach your child how to recognize and avoid cyber bullies. Only allow your children to access sites where parents, guardians and teachers have the ability to set access levels. Should a student come across a cyber bully make sure they know to report it to a trusted adult -- just like they would with a playground bully.

4. Keep Kids Connected To Learning Over The Summer And Extend Summer Reading Activities

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Top Five Tips to Keep Your Young Kids Engaged in Safe Social Networks and Summer Learning

Google may soon bring business-to-business "social ads" to its Google+ social networking platform, according to a recent job listing for a product marketing manager for social ads launch marketing.

Google+ does not currently include any advertising. The company does deliver personalized advertising to users across its properties. Social advertising, however, generally refers to ads that are served to users based on their social contacts' activities on Google+.

Google will apparently first look to introduce the B2B "social features to businesses worldwide," according to the posted job description. The marketing manager will also help determine how Google will talk about the advertising at launch, focusing on "core features," "social ads" and "analytics and platforms," the job listing indicates.

Daina Middleton, U.S. CEO of the digital marketing firm Performics, said that even B2B businesses are struggling with their conventional sales models and are increasingly turning to "social tools."

It's not clear exactly how B2B social advertising would work, and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But industry insiders suggested it would be similar to business-to-consumer marketing. Martine Hunter, creative director at MLT Creative, suggested it might consist of having people who do purchasing professionally give a "plus one" to particular brands on Google+, essentially recommending them.

Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence and a blogger on Search Engine Land, suggested that the ads would likely look much like the consumer-facing social ads on Facebook. For example, they might highlight brands that have a certain number of followers, he said. But they would target users who make business purchasing decisions.

It remains unclear whether the social advertising would be served exclusively to users on the Google+ platform or whether users might see them on other Google properties or even across the Web. Google describes its social network as a "social spine" for all of its products, rather than a destination website like competitor Facebook.

Last month, changes to Facebook's data use policy triggered speculation that the company will begin delivering targeted social ads beyond the limits of its own platform.

Cameron Scott covers search, web services and privacy for The IDG News Service. Follow Cameron on Twitter at CScott_IDG.

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Google+ Looks Poised to Roll out Social Ads

11-06-2012 15:28 Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites can be used to make friends, plan events, and maybe even find a relationship... if you know how. We got a great student video asking how a social awkward student can use social media sites to make friends. Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks and John Iadarola give him advice on how to use facebook to make friends... and whether that's even the best way to go about it. Do you think Jonathan should focus on using sites like Facebook and Twitter to plan events and find friends in college? Or should he use more traditional means like clubs, parties, etc? What advice would you give him? Have you started any real friendships or relationships online? Let us know! And if you liked this video, hit that Share button and "like" it as well! 🙂 Subscribe to TYT U for more ? Submit a video to TYT U! We love hearing from students and faculty Follow us on twitter! ?

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How do You Use Social Media to Make Friends? - Video

Social networking site LinkedIn has revealed details of attempts to increase security in the wake of 6.5 million usernames and hashed passwords being published on a Russian hacker forum.

A blog entry by director Vicente Silveira revealed that LinkedIn has not received any reports of unauthorised account access in the wake of the security breach.

The company also revealed that passwords of the service's users are now salted as well as hashed. "That transition was completed prior to news of the password theft breaking on Wednesday," Silveira wrote.

Ty Miller, chief technology officer of penetration testing firm Pure hacking, said that although the salting of password hashes has been around for a long time, "we find that many Web applications either do not hash their passwords at all, or use common hashing algorithms, such as MD5, without a salt".

"Social and professional networking sites such as LinkedIn are major targets for hackers," Miller said. "Combining this with the complexity of these types of web applications, the chance of a critical vulnerability being present is likely. This means that a defence-in-depth approach should be a necessity for LinkedIn, which includes protecting passwords with strong cryptographic methods."

Miller said that social networking services such as LinkedIn store a wealth of personal information about their users and have a responsibility to implement a very high standard of security, with security measures, such as salting password hashes, implemented as part of application design.

Salting a password makes it less likely an account will vulnerable to hackers using rainbow tables, which are essentially dictionaries of hashes that allow someone to discover what a user's unencrypted password is.

"Salts are designed to ensure that the generated hash is different even if the same password is being hashed," Miller said. "The larger the salt, the more different hashes exist for the same password. This generally means that Rainbow Tables are not a feasible option for cracking salted hashes because there are too many combinations to create.

"This means that attackers have to rely on dictionary-based password attacks, which has to calculate every possible salted hash for each password in the password dictionary. This means that weak passwords will be able to be cracked easily, and stronger passwords are more likely to remain secured."

Rohan Pearce is the editor of Techworld Australia. Contact him at rohan_pearce at idg.com.au.

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LinkedIn: No account breaches in wake of hack

Skout, which offers a social networking app for iPhone and Android devices, has suspended temporarily access to its teen community, after three cases of alleged rape involving adults posing as teenagers on the network were reported.

The app helps users to flirt, find a date, or discover new friends "at the local neighborhood bar, at a concert at Madison Square Garden or on a bus tour in Barcelona."

Skout said in a blog post on Tuesday that it had set up its teen community for people aged under 18 about a year ago after it found a number of underage users were entering the community meant for people older than 18.

In each of the alleged rape cases, the men are accused of posing as teenagers in a Skout forum for 13 to 17-year-olds, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

A 15-year-old Ohio girl said she had been raped by a 37-year-old man, while in another case, a 24-year-old man is accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in Escondido, California, the newspaper said. In the third case, a 21-year-old man from Waukesha, Wisconsin, is facing charges that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy.

"We actively monitor and screen to ensure that the two separate communities for users 18+ and for teen users are kept distinct and that behavior is age-appropriate," Christian Wiklund, founder and CEO of Skout said in the blog post.

Skout in San Francisco said it uses proprietary technology that continuously monitors activity on the network to identify users whose behavior appears "unusual, inappropriate or suspicious." Users are banned for inappropriate or suspicious behavior, and Skout's location-based apps provide general rather than specific location information, giving each community member the choice to decide if, when and where to meet in person.

"However, it's become clear to us that these measures aren't enough," said Wiklund, as in recent weeks, the company has learned of several incidents involving a "few bad actors trying to take advantage of some of our younger members."

Skout plans to keep its under-18 community shut until it can design better protections.

The company said it was working on building better safeguards, including mechanisms for age verification, and is partnering with a risk management advisory firm to strengthen its current security measures.

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Social App Skout Suspends Teen Community After Rape Allegations