How much time do you think kids aged 8 to 18 spend using electronic devices during the day? Five hours? Six hours? Try again. According to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, kids and teens from the ages of 8 to 18 spend over seven and a half hours a day watching TV, surfing the web (on computers and from their mobile phones), or listening to music on digital media players.

When you take into account the time they spend texting or talking on their phones, the number blooms to a phenomenal nine hours of total time using electronic devices. This is a substantial increase from the last time the survey was conducted in 2005, when the total time clocked in at less than six and a half hours.

For a better understanding of how kids and teens are spending their time on electronic devices, check out the graphic below.

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According to the New York Times, “The study’s findings shocked its authors, who had concluded in 2005 that use could not possibly grow further, and confirmed the fears of many parents whose children are constantly tethered to media devices. It found, moreover, that heavy media use is associated with several negatives, including behavior problems and lower grades.”

A significant reason why the numbers have increased so much in such a relatively short period of time is the explosion of smartphones, which are capable of accessing mobile Internet, downloading music, streaming videos, in addition to texting and calling. Whereas previous generations would have been forced to curb their media consumption simply because they were not near a computer, kids today can be plugged in to the web literally 24 hours a day.

So what does this mean for parents? For one thing, it shows that parents must reconsider how they talk to their kids about using the Internet, and also that they should institute realistic limits on the amount of time their kids use certain devices. If you don’t know how to get started with laying down Internet rules, I recommend checking out our Five Common Sense Social Networking Rules for Kids.

Another thing that this study shows is that it is practically impossible for parents to monitor their kids’ Internet use all on their own. We know that most parents aren’t concerned about what their kids are doing online, so much as keeping them safe from online predators and cyberbullies. That’s why Reputation.com created MyChild. When you can’t be there to keep an eye out for them, we can be there for you.

For more information on MyChild, please feel free to Reputation.com a call today at 877-720-6488.

Since news of the devastating earthquake in Haiti first hit the web, men and women from around the world have banded together on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter to help raise money to aid in the ongoing relief effort. According to Mashable, a text message campaign spearheaded by the American Red Cross and promoted heavily online has already brought in over $10 million.  Obviously, this is a great thing, and it shows the power of social media in helping provide immediate support during crisis situations.

Unfortunately, not everybody is seeking to be charitable during times of crisis. Just as scammers and frauds come out of the woodwork during the holidays to take advantage of people’s charity, cybercriminals gravitate to catastrophes like the one in Haiti to trick people out of their money, and, even worse, stop vital funds from getting to the people who need them.

Today, in an article for The Tech Chronicles blog of the San Francisco Chronicle, Benny Evangelista explores how hoaxes on Facebook have some users confused.

Facebook was blocking a fraudulent message being circulated by its members that the Palo Alto company would donate $1 to a Haitian earthquake rescue fund for every status update that is posted about that cause and left up for at least an hour. The company has no such donation program.

There were also several other member-generated quake pages that promised donations for every fan that signed up. A Facebook spokesman said he did not know whether those were legitimate, but cautioned members to be wary. The FBI last week also warned about “individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.”

Facebook members who receive the fraudulent message are being redirected to a Global Disaster Relief page, which Facebook employees posted late Wednesday night.

Despite the hoaxes, however, Facebook has definitely proven to be a valuable fundraising tool. The article goes on to explain how the Facebook Causes application has successfully helped organizations raise millions of dollars in emergency funds.

If you are considering donating to Haiti relief efforts, we encourage you to visit the American Red Cross directly to make your donation. If you wish to donate to a different charity, check out Charity Navigator first to make sure that it’s not a scam.

If you didn’t already know, Europeans take Internet privacy very seriously. Just ask the French who only last week proposed a possible “Right-to-Forget” law regarding the removal of unwanted or outdated Internet content. Now, it would appear that European Internet regulators have struck another blow for data privacy with Microsoft announcing yesterday that it will no longer store the IP addresses of Bing users for more than six months. This time frame places Bing ahead of the world’s leading search engine, Google, who have agreed to not delete, but anonymize IP data after nine months.

For a better understanding of Microsoft’s newly announced privacy changes, which the company says will take effect in the next 12 to 18 months, check out the chart below.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft’s move may put pressure on Google to follow-up with their own stand on consumer privacy.

From the article:

Although most search engines have significantly reduced the time they hold on to search logs since requests to do so by the European working group—comprising of all 27 national privacy officials—Mr. Vasallo said that there still remained a possibility that the European Union might want to regulate online privacy requirements.

Microsoft had earlier said that it was waiting for the industry to move together to reduce the time search queries are held to six months, but it said Tuesday it will now act unilaterally and called on rivals to follow suit.

Google maintains that it needs to keep queries for nine-months in order to improve search quality and to fight online fraud, such as companies artificially increasing the cost of online advertising, known as click fraud.

“Data from our search queries represents a crucial arm in our battle to protect the security of our services against hacks and fraud. It also represents a critical element allowing us to help users by innovating and improving the quality of our searches,” Google said in a statement.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is convinced it can “manage the search data” within the six-month time frame both in terms of improving the online search and fighting fraud, Mr. Vasallo said.

Data privacy has quickly become one of the most significant issues affecting the Internet industry, and how Microsoft, Google, and other major companies handle it will be important not just to their business, but to the overall security infrastructure of the web. We will see in the coming days if Google announces their own changes to their data retention policies in response to Microsoft’s change.

Gen-Yers and Gen-Zers lookout – there’s some new kids on the social networking scene. Baby boomers and Generation Xers are quickly taking to Facebook, leveraging the sites many capabilities to do more than just connect with friends and family but to network professionally and create the social site equivalent of an online resume.

In a digital era where, more often than not, we learn about what’s new in a person’s life through their Facebook status, the mega-social site is showing remarkable potential as a business tool, causing older users and professionals to take notice and sign up for the service. Statistics for 2009-2010 show Facebook’s U.S. growth in the 55-plus age demographic was 922%, followed next by a 328% increase in 35- to 54-year-old users on the site, and a 127% jump in 25- to 34-year-old Facebookers, according to the info supplied to istrategylabs by Facebook’s Social Ads system. Remarkably, the number of college students on Facebook shrank by more than half during the same time period, according to the report.

As more and more professionals join Facebook, they must first decide whether to keep their sites for business or social use, as the content for the latter may be inappropriate for the former. This problem can often be overcome by combining the two, carefully filtering the information you allow on your site, or more simply creating two profiles – one for social use and the other for business to promote you, your company, organization, or craft. From there, setting up your site’s content to be as organized and polished as possible is key to giving an authoritative first impression. To help make this first impression a reality, check out our five expert tips below.

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Step 1: Know Your Audience

Keep in mind what you want potential employers and associates to see on your profile. Fill out the profile sections (“Basic,” “Personal,” “Contact,” and “Education and Work”) as you would write a resume, highlighting accomplishments, responsibilities, goals, etc. Keep content as relevant to your career or professional aspirations as possible and keep important information you want users to notice first on the front page, below your photo.

Step 2: Think Simple

Simplify the site’s contents, avoiding the use of widgets, extra photos, graphics, gifts, irrelevant links, and similar items. Limiting the many fun tools Facebook allows is just one obstacle professionals have to overcome with the social networking site, says job search expert Alison Doyle in her article Facebook and Professional Networking: Should You Use Facebook for Professional Networking?

According to the article,

“Part of the difference is that when I look at my LinkedIn profile there isn’t anything other than professional information. With Facebook there’s just so much other stuff – gifts you can send, friends you can poke, birthdays, parties and other events, and widgets and tools for countless other applications. However, that’s exactly what Facebook was designed to do and therein lies the dilemma for those who want to keep their personal life separate from their work life.”

Limit the aps you add to your profile, instead choosing applications that provide value and are applicable to the workplace, like these 10 apps highlighted by ReadWriteWeb.

Step 3: Looks Are Everything.

Appearance is everything, at least when it comes to your professional Facebook profile. Use your complete name when setting up your account and choose a professional-looking photo in which you’re wearing typical business dress. Limit access to photo albums you post to your account by using privacy settings. If you keep a blog that may shed light on your interests or personality, link to it in your profile, though use caution when linking Twitter feeds to your Facebook status. Adding the hashtag #fb to your tweets allows them to go straight to your wall, giving you more selection of what appears on your site.

Step 4: Privacy Settings Are There for a Reason

Don’t forget to utilize Facebook’s privacy settings, which can help you hide information in your profile from some users while still allowing colleagues to see your work and education information. For networking, it makes sense to let Facebookers view your profile photos and “Education and Work” sections. If you don’t want everyone to see where you work or where you went to school, you can also customize your privacy settings to a per-user basis. For more helpful tips from journalist Meryl Evans on utilizing Facebook to the best of its abilities for business, read her article on WebWorkerDaily.com.

Step 5: Reach Out

Now that it looks good, show off your professional Facebook page through social networking. Once your page is complete, leverage its abilities to show off what you’ve done and what you can do. Establish connections with old and current co-workers, keeping in touch using Facebook e-mail. Also, choose your Friends selectively, understanding that once added, your Friends can see information about each other through your profile.

Additionally, you should link to worksites and pages of relevant organizations, allowing visitors to your profile to learn even more about your professional pursuits. It is a good decision to join groups relevant to your career interests as well, since these groups may provide opportunities for adding new Friends of similar careers or attending events and activities to network in person. Use Facebook’s many applications to find professional face-to-face networking events.

In addition to the five steps we’ve already outlined, here are some extras: Let potential employers and colleagues know you’re philanthropic by use the Causes app to help nonprofits and look good while doing it too and consider taking advantage of Facebook’s paid advertising for professional profiles, allowing you to connect with possible employers using a simple ads.

Over the weekend, the Associated Press reported on an unusual AT&T network glitch that gave some mobile users the ability to login to other people’s Facebook accounts. While the problem only affected a small handful of users, the story reveals the tenuous technological grip we rely on to protect our digital identities and private information.

From the report:

Candace Sawyer, 26, says she immediately suspected something was wrong when she tried to visit her Facebook page Saturday morning.

After typing Facebook.com into her Nokia smart phone, she was taken into the site without being asked for her user name or password. She was in an account that didn’t look like hers. She had fewer friend requests than she remembered. Then she found a picture of the page’s owner.

“He’s white — I’m not,” she said with a laugh.

Sawyer logged off and asked her sister, Mari, 31, her partner in a dessert catering company, and their mother, Fran, 57, to see whether they had the same problem on their phones.

Mari landed inside another woman’s page.

Fran’s phone — which had never been used to access Facebook before — took her inside yet another stranger’s page, one belonging to a young woman from Indiana. They sent an e-mail to one of their own accounts to prove it.

They were dumbfounded.

“I thought it was the phone — ‘Maybe this phone is just weird and does magical, horrible things and I have to get rid of it,’” said Candace Sawyer.

The women, who live together in East Point, Ga., outside Atlanta, had recently upgraded to the same model of phone and all used the same carrier, AT&T.

According to a follow-up report from ReadWriteWeb, AT&T and Facebook have worked quickly to determine what caused the glitch and have already set about fixing it.

From the RWW report:

As it turns out, those affected were logging into Facebook using their AT&T phone numbers as opposed to a username/password combination. Typically, when a username and password is used, a cookie is stored on the mobile device. This small file retains a user’s login credentials, allowing them to access Facebook without having to re-enter their sign in information. When a cookie is not available, the subscriber information is sent to Facebook.com automatically. This is what had taken place in the reported incidents.

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AT&T reports that they’ve now put additional “security measures” in place to prevent a reoccurrence of this issue but won’t elaborate on what precisely those measures involve. In addition, the wireless company states they are working with Facebook to disable the use of subscriber information as a method for automatic login. That means going forward, AT&T users will no longer be able to use their phone numbers as login credentials to access Facebook from their mobile devices. Only a username and password combination will be allowed.

Because this glitch was a very isolated incident, AT&T users shouldn’t be worried that strangers around the country are logging into their Facebook accounts. However, it does show how technology is not infallible. On the web, there is very thin line separating our public and private lives, and it doesn’t take much for one side to cross to another.