Hawking Hydration Low: Gatorade Tells Kids To Avoid Water

Aug. 20, 2015 Update: Now Gatorade's G-Force is forcing their bottled neon into schools under the guise of 'hydration education?' Seriously? Paging media watchdogs! Crickets. Jan. 10, 2014 I’ve … [Read more...]

Blizzard’s Snow Job: Security About As Tight As Parental Controls

Nov. 14, 2012 Call it karma, payback, or just ‘got caught,’ the class action lawsuit against Blizzard Entertainment (makers of mega-hits like Diablo, World of Warcraft, Starcraft etc) is really about … [Read more...]

COPPA: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Filing

July 1, 2010 For those mumbling, "COPPA schmoppa, there goes Amy into policy wonk land, please translate media jargon into usable tidbits" I'll offer a few primers... What is COPPA? Why do we … [Read more...]

CyberSafety Online: Tips From The Inside Out Via eModeration (Part 2)

Nov. 26, 2009 Who’s minding the kids online? What’s ‘moderation’ got to do with it? It doesn’t take a retro flashback to know that “Kids say the darndest things,” but who is there to help them … [Read more...]

Iger the Ignorant? Disney Chief Says Kids Don’t Care About Privacy?

July 24, 2009 Hey, kids, did you know the mouse house thinks it’s okay to mine your personal information and sell it to advertisers to make a buck off your back without your permission? Wonder what … [Read more...]

Keeping Kids Safe From Predators (er, Marketers) Part One

July 13, 2009 Since researcher Sara M. Grimes opened up the conversation on data mining and privacy practices for us, I’d like to keep the focus on this important topic for a sec, because I DO believe … [Read more...]

Digital Data Mining 101: Echometrix Takes Kids’ Pulse

July 8, 2009 Still focused on "child predator" panic on the internet? I'd focus more on white collar stalkers like Echometrix, ubiquitous in far greater numbers, if I were you. Imagine digital … [Read more...]

Childrens’ Digital Privacy Advocates Show FTC Watchdogs Aren’t Woofin

June 18, 2009 Here we go again. I'm beginning to feel a bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day having deja vu that we've 'been there done that' all over again.  Oh, that's right. We HAVE. Over a … [Read more...]

G-Force: Can Guinea Pigs Help Kids Get Active? Humana Hopes So!

June 12, 2009 Just finished a phone interview with some of the Humana Games for Health team to see if their new free game called OPS (Operation Planet Savers) passed the sniff test of 'goodwashing' in … [Read more...]

What’s On Tweens’ Minds? Meet Denise Restauri of AllyKatzz

I figure the Obama girls are going to be a huge focal point in the months ahead (gawd help those darlings) and self-ascribed tween “experts” will be crawling out of the media morass … [Read more...]

Kids Online UnConference: Everyone Has An Agenda, Including YOU!

November 13, 2008: Be there for the Kids Online: Balancing Fun and Safety Unconference! A few years back when I heard the geek/chic term “UnConference” I immediately thought it must be … [Read more...]