Tag Archives: social networking sites

UK Launches Initiative To Keep Children Safe Online

Officials in the UK have announced plans to require children beginning at age 5 to be taught about online safety starting in 2011. The new initiative called "Click Clever Click Safe" was created by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS). "The internet provides our children with a world of entertainment, opportunity and knowledge - a world literally at their fingertips," said Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "But we must ensure that the virtual world is as safe for them as this one." The government says that 99 percent of 8-17 year olds have access to the Internet. New research found that 18 percent of young people had come across "harmful or inappropriate content online," and 33 percent of children said their parents where unaware of what they do on the Internet. Under the new initiative Internet companies, charities and the government will be independently reviewed against UKCCIS standards to keep children safe online. Young people and parents will be targeted by a new Digital Code "Zip it, Block it, Flag it," that will be adopted by retailers, social networking sites, schools and charities and displayed where appropriate. Parents will be able to access a website for Internet safety advice hosted by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection center. "Today we are launching our online version of the 'green cross code'. We hope that 'zip it, block it, flag it' will become as familiar to this generation as 'stop, look, listen' did to the last," said Prime Minister Brown. Continue reading

Posted in Business, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged Business, child, child internet safety, digital, digital-code, government, internet new, online-safety, review and story, safety advice, social networking sites, social-networking, virtual, virtual world | Leave a comment

NY AG Works With Facebook And MySpace To Remove Sex Offenders

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said today that more than 3,500 registered state sex offenders have been removed for social networking sites Facebook and MySpace. Under New York's e-STOP law, which was written by Cuomo, Facebook was able to identify and disable accounts linked to 2,782 registered New York sex offenders, and MySpace was able to identify and shutdown accounts linked to 1,796 sex offenders. Some registered sex offenders had profiles on both sites, leaving a total of 3,533 individuals removed from Facebook and MySpace. New York State has more than 8,100 sex offenders who registered emails with the state. That means over 43 percent of those sex offenders have identified accounts linked to Facebook or MySpace. Andrew Cuomo "We created e-STOP to help put an end to sexual predators using the Internet as a tool to prey on the innocent," said Attorney General Cuomo . "Facebook and MySpace are successfully using e-STOP to help make the Internet safer, and it's time for all social networking sites to do their part to keep others from being senselessly victimized." Under the e-STOP law many sexual predators are banned from using social networking sites on the Internet while on probation or parole. Continue reading

Posted in Business, Legal, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged antitrust-suit, facebook, internet, internet identifiers, review and story, screen names, social networking sites, social-networking | Leave a comment

Portuguese Internet Users Reached Nearly 4 Million in September

comScore released findings this week from a study of the online habits of Portuguese Internet users. Interestingly, they found that the Portuguese Internet audience grew to nearly 4 Million users in September. Over 3.8 million people age 15 and older accessed the Internet from a home or work location in Portugal in September, viewing an average 1,843 pages and spending an average 1.9 hours online per person during the month. "Portugal represents a dynamic and growing Internet market in Europe with users continuing to be more active and engaged online," said Mike Read, comScore managing director for Europe and Ibero America. "The average Internet user in Portugal is spending more time online engaging in different behaviors such as reading news and articles, search, conducting personal financial transactions and social networking. As these behaviors continue to take hold in the Portuguese market there will be an increasing number of opportunities to leverage the Internet for marketing and advertising purposes." Google sites are the most popular in Portugal, according to comScore's data. Here's a look at the top 15 online properties for Portugal: Naturally, social media plays a big role in Internet use in Portugal, but it is not Facebook that dominates there, according to comScore's numbers. Here are the top ten social networking sites: The figures for both charts exclude traffic from public computers, such as those from Internet cafes. They also exclude access from mobile phones and PDA's. I'm willing to bet that social networks and Google sites are pretty popular among mobile users in Portugal though. Related Articles: > Study: Most People Go Online to Socialize > Google, Bing Perform Well In Latest comScore Report > "Time Spent Online" Report Puts Microsoft Way Ahead Continue reading

Posted in Business, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged Business, comscore, microsoft, mobile users, online, public computers, related, social networking sites, spent-online, studies, such-as-reading, top-ten | Leave a comment

UK Police Arrest 2 Over ZeuS Trojan

British police said today they have made Europe's first arrests in the battle against an online Trojan which threatened to compromise thousands of computers in the UK. The ZeuS or Zbot Trojan, a type of sophisticated malicious malware, is believed to have infected and accessed personal information from tens of thousands of computers around the world. The Trojan was configured in a way that when installed in the systems of infected computers, it recorded users' online bank account details and passwords, credit card numbers and other personal information, including passwords for social networking sites, before causing the computer to forward data to servers under the control of distributors. Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit (PceU), said on November 3, they arrested a man and a woman, both 20 years old, in Manchester. Both suspects have been released on bail pending further investigation. "The ZeuS Trojan is a piece of malware used increasingly by criminals to obtain huge quantities of sensitive information from thousands of compromised computers around the world," said Detective Inspector Colin Wetherill of the PceU . "The arrests represent a considerable breakthrough in our increasing efforts to combat online criminality." Police said computer users' should take the following measures to protect against malware: Continue reading

Posted in Business, Legal, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged computer users, credit-card, crime unit, criminality, increasing, investigation, personal, police, security, social networking sites, software vendors, trojan, wetherill, world | Leave a comment

Spam is Getting More Malicious

Symantec has released two new reports for the month of November - the State of Spam , and the State of Phishing (both PDFs). The reports highlight a dramatic increase in spam that contains malware. On top of that, junk and malicious email now accounts for close to 9 out of 10 email messages. The security firm says that a new generation of "Spam Princes" are rising, and that the Asia Pacific region, Japan, and South America have surpassed North America, with regards to where spam is originating from. "Rising spam levels originating from South America, Asia Pacific and Japan are not altogether surprising when you consider the massive growth of internet connections in these regions," says Amanda Grady, Principal Analyst, Symantec. "Meanwhile, the increased threats to social networking websites is interesting because it shows spammers are hiding behind the reputation and brand trust built by legitimate companies. Social networking sites that have a large user base will continue to be targets of malicious and phishing emails." Symantec shares the following findings: - In October, an average of 1.9% of all spam messages contained malware. This equates to a 0.6% increase from September, when the number of messages containing malware hit a maximum of 4.5% of all spam - Symantec observed a 17% increase from the previous month in all phishing attacks Continue reading

Posted in Business, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged america asia, beware-holiday, computer viruses, holiday, princes, review and story, social networking sites, windows-users | Leave a comment

Nearly Half Of Consumers Would Recommend A Product On Facebook

Consumers are more willing to engage with and buy from brands on social networking sites, according to a new study by Performics and ROI Research. The study found thirty-four percent of respondents who have used a search engine to find information on a product/brand after seeing an advertisement on a social networking site. In addition, thirty percent have learned about a new product, service or brand from a social networking site. "Social networks are creating a monumental shift in how people communicate with each other and with brands," said Michael Kahn, SVP of Marketing at Performics . "The results of this study can help marketers better understand where and how consumers interact with social media sites and what types of offers and communications engage them and motivate them to act." The study also found the opportunity for engaging with consumers on specific social networking sites: Continue reading

Posted in Business, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged facebook, mobile, mobile phone, online-retailer, percent, respondents, review and story, social networking site, social networking sites, twitter-lists | Leave a comment

Facebook Most Widely Used Network Among Businesses

Webinars and podcasts are the most popular social media resources for business people, used by 69 percent of those who turn to such channels for business information, according to a new study by Business.com. Facebook is the primary social network on which consumer-focused companies maintain one or more profiles, cited by 83 percent of respondents compared with 45 percent for Twitter. Business-to-business companies maintain a presence on both social sites with 77 percent maintaining a profile on Facebook and 73 percent on Twitter. Among those using social media for business purposes in their jobs, 62 percent visit company or brand profiles on social networking sites and 55 percent search for business information on these sites. Consultants and marketers are the most active users of social media as a resource for business information, particularly in micro (less than 10 employees) and small businesses (10-99 employees). IT professionals have the lowest participation rate. The average company in this study was planning, developing or running seven different social media initiatives; 65 percent of respondents staffing those initiatives, and 71 percent of companies themselves, have less than two years of experience with social media for business. Building brand awareness and brand reputation are two of the top social media success metrics, but nearly two-thirds of companies focused on these metrics have little insight into performance via standard or easily accessible reports. "We are constantly analyzing trends to determine exactly what tools business professionals leverage most for purchasing," said Ben Hanna, Ph.D., vice president, marketing, Business.com "This survey was a way for us to benchmark where businesses, and business people, are finding value in social media." Continue reading

Posted in Business, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged accessible reports, Business, business professionals, d vice, facebook, languages, participation rate, social networking sites, social relevance, social-media, study, success metrics, twitter | Leave a comment