Family iBoard Press Release - June 19, 2012

 June’s Internet Safety Month Offers a Chance for Parents to Talk to Kids —
Family iBoard Shares Online Safety Tips

“The true private social network to participate in Digital Family Summit

PENNINGTON NJ – June 19, 2012 – Parents, take note: June is Internet Safety Month so it’s a great time to talk to your kids about online safety. Faced with the potential for greater online activity now as the school year ends and summer begins, it is crucial for parents to understand how and with whom their children are communicating on social networking sites. Family iBoard®, which will participate in the Digital Family Summit in Philadelphia, PA, June 29 – July 1, 2012, is offering online safety tips to parents.

“Public social networks simply don’t provide the needed guidance for kids to learn about the ins and outs of social media,” said Christopher Gentile, founder and CEO of iBoard Inc., which developed Family iBoard. “The stark reality is, that once information is posted to a social networking site, no amount of privacy settings or parental controls will keep that information absolutely private.”

The Digital Family Summit is an interactive, hands-on conference for teen digital media creators and their families.  Family iBoard joins professionals from the Food Network, Columbia University, Entertainment Weekly, Parsons School of Design along with young bloggers and entrepreneurs for interactive and hands-on workshops and thought leadership.

Keep these tips in mind this month and year-round:

  • Teach kids what information they can share with others online and what is off limits (phone numbers, address, full name, school)
  • Google your children’s names on a regular basis. It can help you determine whether your children’s contact details or other personal information may be exposed to strangers online.
  • Keep your children’s computers out in the open – in a family room, kitchen or other open area, not in a child’s bedroom.
  • Know your kids’ passwords – not just to their computer, but to their accounts for sites such as Facebook, Instagram or Tumblr.  Find out what email and instant messaging accounts they have and ask them for their passwords for those accounts.
  • Get to know their “online friends” just as you’d get to know all of their other friends.
  • Remember that personal computers are not the only way kids can live chat with people they do not know. Game consoles can be connected to the Internet for live chat with friends and strangers while game playing.

Private social networks can provide the needed training ground for kids to learn about safe, acceptable online behavior and are emerging in popularity as consumers seek to protect their privacy.  Popular social networks—even with privacy settings in place—offer no guarantee that content shared is truly private. For example, a photo that is shared with an approved “friend” can be easily saved by this friend and then shared within and outside their network.

Family iBoard is a new private family social network designed specifically for families to help share photos, family members’ contact information, stories and video safely, as well as create and store family histories. In the Family iBoard, all content is encrypted and decrypted on the fly, viewable only within the Family iBoard. Only if a Family iBoard member specifically grants download permissions to another member can a photo be saved or printed by the other member.  This secures all of the content within the Family iBoard and prevents this private family content from being unintentionally or intentionally posted somewhere else on the Internet.

Visit us at familyiboard.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/familyiboard and on Twitter at twitter.com/familyiboard.

About iBoard
iBoard Inc. desktop and mobile applications represent next generation social network platform, bringing true privacy and security for both users and data while delivering custom features and functionality to meet each specific market and client needs. iBoard® products include proprietary and patent pending technologies that improve user functionality, interaction and customization, while maintaining high levels of security and privacy.

The iBoard array of applications includes Custom iBoards® which are designed and licensed for business, organizational and consumer use. Business to Business  iBoards® have been utilized by Lexus, Ameriprise Financial, Country Music Television and others for communication, content distribution, training, production and creative. Consumer iBoards® have been utilized for ongoing B2C communication by companies, such as MTV Networks, Cablevision, DirecTV, Best Buy, Comcast, and Bell South, to deliver and distribute exclusive content to promote viewership and the acquisition of new products.
 

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Contact:

Ann Shannon/Susan Frechette
PAN Communications for Family iBoard
617-502-4300
iBoard@pancomm.com
Twitter: @FamilyiBoard