Comcast Teaches Parents About Safe Social Networking

Cable tv and Internet provider Comcast has put out a release today with tips and ideas for parents who want to talk to their teens about social networks like Facebook and MySpace. I must be old because growing up parents were supposed to talk to their kids about drugs. Comcast actually has an entire security site which, among other things, tells us that our global security threat risk level is low.

Here are five of the tips Comcast recommends for parents who are planning to speak with their kids:

• Choose your pictures wisely
• Don’t talk to strangers and use privacy settings
• Keep your personal information personal
• Don’t be a cyberbully
• Go outside and stay active

These tips sure seem like 1995 to me – with so many new networks and ways for teens to interact online, parents really need a full education.

Comcast does recommend that parents learn about the new online networks so they can speak intelligently about them. Perhaps there’s a business opportunity there – people who teach parents about the current state of online networks and keep them up-to-date moving forward. In fact these people could even be there to “moderate” discussions between teens and parents so the teens can’t get over on the parents.