beware SkyBlue Education aka Educational Hub aka Edfirst aka School Supplies Service
Update: Sept 2022
Another name change. School Supplies Services Limited have now changed their name to “SKY BLUE PURCHASING, DEVELOPMENTS AND DESIGN LIMITED” on 9th August 2022, with a new website skyblueeducation.co.uk
Update: Dec 13th 2021 I have updated this article from October 2017 to add new info that has come to light. This company is now trading under the name “Educational Hub”
Ironically they have also tried this scam on both myself and my wife again this year.
Scammers have become so ubiquitous thanks to the Internet that we just take them for granted these days, you just cannot get away from them. You are constantly bombarded with scams via email, sms, phone calls, social media, popups on websites, those of us who are savvy do not fall for them, but sadly there are still plenty of people out there who do get scammed and swindled out of their hard-earned cash by these despicable people.
The more of us that document these scams and companies implementing them, the less effective they will be as more people get into the habit of searching online first for reviews, so I do encourage people to post on review sites like reviews.co.uk, SiteJabber, Trustpilot (with caveats, see below) and report them to Action Fraud.
So I had a phone call recently from this chap called Dale at Ed First (aka School Supplies Service aka the Educational Hub aka BlueSky Education), asking me if I did IT support for schools, and how he was looking for providers in my area as currently, they did not have any and the schools were in need of IT providers.
He lamented how his company was the main supplier for schools and involved in all the tenders and how I would be listed as the “go to guy” on the school’s database for my entire area and would make a lot of money as a result. He also made a point of telling me they do not make any money from this and are not allowed to charge anything for this service.
I was still interested and listening at this point, but it all went downhill when he then went on to mention the company he had called before me, and how he had spoken to someone called “Tina”, but she needed to speak with her boss first, so he had called the next person on the list, which was me. He then proceeded to try to play me off against them, stating that the first one to sign-up would be the sole provider for my area, and I really needed to sign up right now or he would then call the next person on the list, and then asked me for a £500 registration fee.
The “this is a scam” alarm bells now started to ring, as any legitimate tendering service does not have any requirement for you sign-up there and then on the spot or lose your chance, that is not how tenders work. Plus, trying to play me off against someone else like that is a very blatant unethical sales practice, plus he had contradicted his earlier statement of them not making any money from this by then asking me for £500. So I made my excuses and asked him to email the details over to me, so I could go and look up this company online.
I then went online and checked out the edFirst.co.uk website and it seemed to be just a simple directory website targeted at schools, who do little more than supplying a printed version of their directory to the schools. After a bit of googling, I found numerous feedback from others that confirmed my suspicions, and those who had paid the fee to be listed had got no work from it.
I also called the IT support company he had tried to play me off against and spoke to Tina, and she confirmed the conversation she had with Dale and that he had tried exactly the same thing on her and tried to play her off on the company he had called prior to calling her.
I was absolutely sure it was a scam at this point, but to determine just how much of a scam, I called a few of my local schools as well. Unsurprisingly none of them had ever heard of this company and have never dealt with them and certainly do not use them to source providers or contractors. It seems even the printed catalog is fake, as nobody I spoke had ever seen that either.
Since I posted this, I have received numerous threats and harassment from Stephen Meredith in his attempts to get me to remove this post. Mr Meredith was one of the many directors at School Supplies Service, although he seems to have retired in October 2019 according to companies house.
If you check the people involved with Schools Supplies Service Limited, they all seem to be involved with several other companies as well. One that specifically stands out as having many of the same directors is Tenders and contracts Ltd. which operates from the website tenders4u.co.uk which is promoted on all their other websites.
Here are all the various trading names and related companies that I am aware.
If you discover any more trading names for these bunch of rogue traders, let me know, and I will add them to the list.
Below are screenshots from 3 of their sites, as you can see, same site, same phone number, and different names. Although edfirst no longer seems to exist, I guess they had to shut that one down as it had become too well known. The educational hub seems to the name they are now using in their scam sales calls.
Reviews on Trustpilot
I did post a review on Trustpilot originally, but unsurprisingly, Stephen Meredith had it removed.
I was told by Gemma P from the Trustpilot compliance team that literally every single part of my review was defamatory and had to be removed. I was not allowed to mention the person who called me, or what was said during the phone conversation or mention the other reviews/feedback found publicly online. I was advised by Gemma that I would need to provide police/court evidence to back up everything I have written above, which is obviously quite ludicrous and impossible.
Basically, I was thwarted from posting anything negative, so I can only assume that edFirst aka School Supplies Service are using Trustpilot’s paid service, which allows any business to request the removal of negative reviews and manipulate their ratings.
This has unfortunately been a regular issue with Trustpilot, read my review on Trustpilot for more details on why Trustpilot generally cannot be trusted.
Never go by the score alone, always actually read the reviews, as is it a common practice that if a company is not able to get all the negative reviews removed (presumably because they do not want to pay or it is too time-consuming) then they will instead try to hide them by getting a bunch of fake 5 star positive reviews to push the bad ones off page 1. This can still result in a company having a good score despite lots of bad reviews.
NOTE: Since I originally posted this, they now have loads of negative reviews on trustpilot, I guess since Mr Meredith retired, nobody took over the job of getting them all removed.
Microsoft is silently patching security bugs in Windows 10, and not immediately rolling out the same updates to Windows 7 and 8, potentially leaving hundreds of millions of computers at risk of attack.
Flaws and other programming blunders that are exploitable by hackers and malware are being quietly cleaned up and fixed in the big Windows 10 releases – such as the Anniversary Update and the Creator’s Update. But this vital repair work is only occurring slowly if at all, filtering back down to Windows 7 and Windows 8 in the form of monthly software updates.
This is all according to researchers on Google’s crack Project Zero team. The fear is that miscreants comparing the various public builds of Windows will notice these vulnerabilities are being silently fixed in Windows 10, realize the same holes are present in earlier versions of Windows – which are still used in homes and businesses worldwide – and thus exploit the bugs to infect systems and spy on people. And if hackers haven’t realized this, they will now: Google staffers have publicly blogged about it.
Redmond engineers are quietly addressing these Windows security flaws as part of their efforts to improve components within the Windows 10 operating system. For instance, a team may be tasked with improving memory management in the kernel, and as a result, will rewrite chunks of the source code, boosting the software’s performance while squashing any pesky exploitable bugs along the way. For the marketing department, this is great news: now they can boast about faster loading times. Malware developers, meanwhile, can celebrate when they discover the programming blunders are still present in Windows 8 and 7.
“Microsoft is known for introducing a number of structural security improvements and sometimes even ordinary bug fixes only to the most recent Windows platform,” Google Project Zero researcher Mateusz Jurczyk said on Thursday.
Azure fell over for 7 hours in Europe because someone accidentally set off the fire extinguishers
“This creates a false sense of security for users of the older systems, and leaves them vulnerable to software flaws which can be detected merely by spotting subtle changes in the corresponding code in different versions of Windows.”
As an example of the problem, Jurczyk highlighted the wobbly use of memset() within the kernel. This is a function that is supposed to overwrite bytes in a specific area of memory to a specific value, such as zero, thus scrubbing away whatever was previously stored in that portion of memory.
When the kernel is told by an application, via the NtGdiGetGlyphOutline system call, to fill an area of memory with information, and copy it into the app’s memory space, the OS doesn’t fully overwrite the area using memset() prior to the copy operation. This means the kernel ends up copying into the application’s memory space left over private kernel data, thus leaking information it really shouldn’t. This can be useful to snoop on the OS and other programs or gain enough know-how of the system’s internal operations to pull off more damaging exploits.
This information-disclosure bug was fixed in Windows 10, but remained present in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 – until it was reported by Project Zero to Microsoft at the end of May this year and fixed in patches for Windows 7 and 8.1 systems in September. Google typically gives vendors, including Microsoft, 90 days to address any reported security shortcomings before going public, forcing developers and manufacturers to play their hand.
This months-long lag in deploying patches to previous flavours of Windows is leaving systems vulnerable to attack. By broadly upgrading the security defences in Windows 10, Microsoft is making it easier for hackers to see where they could exploit weak spots in older versions.
“Not only does it leave some customers exposed to attacks, but it also visibly reveals what the attack vectors are, which works directly against user security,” Jurczyk explained.
“This is especially true for bug classes with obvious fixes, such as kernel memory disclosure and the added memset calls.”
While it’s not realistic to expect a vendor to maintain major updates and produce patches indefinitely for older software versions, as many as half of all Windows users are still running Windows 7 and 8 – meaning millions of people are being put at risk by Windows 10’s security improvements, ironically.
Windows 8.1 is supposed to receive monthly security fixes until January 10, 2023, and for Windows 7, January 14, 2020.
“Windows has a customer commitment to investigate reported security issues, and proactively update impacted devices as soon as possible,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Register.
“Additionally, we continually invest in defence-in-depth security, and recommend customers use Windows 10 and the Microsoft Edge browser for the best protection.”
Translation: please, please stop using Windows 7 and 8. ®
I am sure you are aware by now that using your mobile phone for while driving is illegal.
But you may not realise that using it for sat nav directions could get you in trouble are well, I was not aware of this until today either. There’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it, and improper use might lead to points on your licence and £200 fine, and can also have serious implications for your insurance.
Here are a few tips to keep your Google/Apple maps use on the right side of the law:
1. Place the phone in a cradle or holder which fixes it in a position that’s easily viewable from the driver’s seat (but position it correctly, see point 5 below).
2. Always programme the route into the sat nav before setting off.
3. Never handle the phone to check directions or re-programme the sat nav app. Always pull over if you need to do this.
4. Pressing the screen once, such as for accepting a faster route if one is suggested, should be ok, but nothing more.
5. Beware that sticking a phone on a windscreen in its holder might not be allowed. That’s because according to the Highway Code “windscreens and windows MUST be kept clean and free from obstructions to vision”
6. Holders can be bought that attach to air vents, which gets over the problem of placing the phone on the windscreen.
What using your phone for sat nav can mean for insurance
Increased cost of cover
Using your phone incorrectly for sat nav directions when you’re driving has been proven to increase the potential for accidents and speeding.
Being distracted handling and using a phone while driving is a common cause of accidents. It also often means drivers aren’t aware that they’re entering an area with slower speed restrictions, resulting in fines and bans.
Being involved in a crash or caught speeding can negatively impact what you pay when you renew your car insurance. You will almost certainly have to pay more (possibly a lot more!) as you’re seen as a higher risk and might even be denied cover.
Potential rejection of insurance claims
If it can be proved that you weren’t in proper control of your vehicle at the time of a crash or other road incident, an insurer might not pay out on any insurance claim you make.
Insurers insist on what’s often described in the Ts&Cs as ‘due care’ to be taken by the insured. This means that reckless driving would almost certainly lead to a claim being denied, potentially costing the claimant thousands to put right any damage themselves or having to pay out for a new car without any financial assistance.
unknowingly Every few weeks, we hear the news that another major corporation and its website has been hacked, just last week we heard about Equifax being hacked and data on millions of users being compromised. We of course only hear about the major newsworthy hacks which have been discovered or disclosed, but the scary truth is that around 30,000 websites are hacked every single day.
Often these hacks mean your personal information has also been compromised, most likely without your knowledge as often website owners either do not know they have been hacked, or choose to keep it quiet. In this post, I cover the important reasons for why you should use a password manager to protect your online identity.
Passwords & Online Security Best Practices
Most websites rely on a simple login process for a user to gain access to their account–a username and password.
As an online security best practice, you need to have long, complex and unique password for every web account you use.
Strong passwords need to be:
Long – The more characters in a password, the longer it would take a hacker to guess your password. I recommend at least 20 characters.
Complex – By adding additional characters to your password you add complexity or password entropy. Password entropy is a measurement of how unpredictable a password is, based on the character set used (a combination of lowercase, uppercase, numbers, and symbols) as well as password length. Basically, your password needs to be something you could never pronounce.
Unique – You need a different password for every web account you use. Yep, that’s right. Every login on every website needs to be unique and never reused.
Unfortunately, in the real world, meeting all three criteria for strong passwords is basically impossible without the use of a password manager.
Why Use a Password Manager? The Nightmare Scenario
So why is having a long, complex, unique password important?
If you use the same email address and passwords for multiple websites that you log into (as a lot of people do), what happens when one of those websites gets hacked?
The hackers now have your username and password on a list that will be used to try to log into thousands of other websites around the internet. If you use the same email address and password for all your websites, now the hacker will be able to log into all your accounts at once and get access to all your personal data and details. If those same login details are used for your email account as well, they can now access
If those same login details are used for your email account as well, they can now access pretty much anything. Any site they cannot get into, they can simply issue a password reset, which will come to your email, which they now have access to. Identity theft at this point is a high possibility.
Once your password has been compromised, you now have the challenge of updating your information individually on every single website that has the same login information. Do you even remember them all? If you use the same email and password again on each one, you’re probably going to have to repeat this process again in the future.
Don’t Use Common Passwords
Here’s Keeper Security’s list of the most common passwords of 2016. Do you recognize any of them? These are all lazy passwords, achieved by just pressing keys that are next to each other on the keyboard, and are easily hackable in seconds by automated hacking tools.
1. 123456
10. 987654321
19. 555555
2. 123456789
11. qwertyuiop
20. 3rjs1la7qe
3. qwerty
12. mynoob
21. google
4. 12345678
13. 123321
22. 1q2w3e4r5t
5. 111111
14. 666666
23. 123qwe
6. 1234567890
15. 18atcskd2w
24. zxcvbnm
7. 1234567
16. 7777777
25. 1q2w3e
8. password
17. 1q2w3e4r
9. 123123
18. 654321
Don’t us ethe name of the website you are logging into with a few extra characters added.
e.g.
Amaz0n123!
You also should not create passwords from personal information, such as your name, names of family members, pets, date of birth, the place you met your partner, etc, as all of this information is usually easy to find out (probably on your social media profile/posts etc), and hackers will also try this first.
Don’t just use a word and replace letters with similar-looking numbers, hackers also know people do this, and this is also one of the first things hackers will try.
e.g. using El3ph4nt! instead of Elephant!
replacing o with 0’s (ZERO) replacing i’s with 1’s replacing e with 3’s replacing s with $’s replace A with 4’s
Security Questions
The use of security questions is a common solution used by websites and organizations as an additional method of identification and also as a way to reset your password.
But this has also now become a major issue, as users regularly give out the answers to their security questions on their social media accounts, such as the name of their first dog, where they met their spouse, etc.
So once the cybercriminals have scraped all this personal information from your social media profile and posts, chances are they will have the answers to all your security questions and will be able to use that information to then reset any of your passwords or even access your telephone banking.
Plus there is the fact that most websites ask the same security questions. So if one website you use gets hacked, the hackers know the answers to those security questions, and can answer them on any other website where you have used them as well.
So I recommended that you never give honest answers to these security questions, instead give fake answers for every account or website you use, and store those details in your password manager too.
Password Managers vs. Browser Password Storage
Note: While most major web browsers today will offer to remember your passwords and fill them in automatically for you, this is for convenience and not security.
A Password Manager such as 1Password not only remembers your login information but also helps you generate long, complex passwords and stores them and other useful information securely.
You may have noticed that your browser prompts you to save login details, but be warned that the password storage built into your browser is a solution of convenience, but is not secure. Anyone using your computer can access those saved details and log in to websites, plus you will not have access to those details from other devices. Also bear in mind that if you lose your device or it is stolen, or your hard drive dies, or any disaster, you have lost all those details.
Malicious software (malware) can also easily extract those passwords from your browser.
Which Password Manager to use
There are numerous excellent password managers available, depending on your budget and requirements. However, I would recommend staying away from LastPass, as they have been hacked several times now, and have been very sketchy with the details and informing their users. FYI, I now use Bitwarden myself.
I will also give an honourary mention to Microsoft Authenticator, with is a free 2FA mobile app that also has a built-in password manager. It is very basic, but may suffice if you only need to manage a few passwords and have simple requirements. However, do bear in mind, since it is only available as a mobile app, it is only useful if you only use a mobile device and not a desktop PC or laptop. If you do use other devices for logging into websites, then you would have to manually type those long, random, unique passwords every time, which is prone to error and typos, so not fun at all.
It is also worth mentioning that if you use BitDefender Anti-Virus or Kaspersky, then these both come with a simple password manager, although they are quite basic.
Ultimately, using any one of these password managers is a good choice and is better than not using one.
So as well as passwords, it is great for storing bank details, licenses, card details etc, and is very easy to share passwords with other people. It is also really secure, with many solutions you can set your account to auto-lock after xx minutes so that anyone else using your computer cannot access your passwords without your master password. You also have the option of 2-factor authentication.
However, it can be over complicated for the same reason if you are not very competent with computers, in which case one of the simpler solutions might be better for you for personal use.
You can find a review of the top password managers on the wired website here.
2 Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication (2FA), sometimes referred to as two-step verification or dual-factor authentication, is a security process in which users provide two different authentication factors to verify themselves.
For the average person, this is done via an authenticator app on your phone or via an SMS message with a code that is sent to you when you login. You should always enable 2FA whenever it is available.
2FA is implemented to better protect both a user’s credentials and the resources the user can access. Two-factor authentication provides a higher level of security than authentication methods that depend on single-factor authentication (SFA), in which the user provides only one factor — typically, a password or passcode. Two-factor authentication methods rely on a user providing a password as the first factor and a second, different factor — usually either a security token or a biometric factor, such as a fingerprint or facial scan.
Two-factor authentication adds an additional layer of security to the authentication process by making it harder for attackers to gain access to a person’s devices or online accounts because, even if the victim’s password is hacked, a password alone is not enough to pass the authentication check.
Two-factor authentication has long been used to control access to sensitive systems and data. Online service providers are increasingly using 2FA to protect their users’ credentials from being used by hackers who stole a password database or used phishing campaigns to obtain user passwords.
There are numerous authenticator apps available, but a popular free solution is the aforementioned Microsoft authenticator.
Unless it is the only option available, I would recommend against using SMS as your 2FA method, as this also is not especially secure, as SMS messages can be intercepted.
BT customers in the UK have been targeted by call centre scammers in India – with one person reporting they were defrauded for thousands of pounds this week.
The issue appears to have been going on for more than a year. Some customers said the fraudsters knew their personal details.
One victim reported he had he got a call from someone this week asking for him by name, talking about his existing broadband problems which he had reported to BT previously. This individual claimed he had malware on his computer and said he need to access his machine via a third-party client.
“Within the hour he had over £1,000 in two payments from his bank account. Fortunately, Lloyds stepped in on the second larger payment and stopped it progressing,” said his son-in-law, who asked not to be named.
A BT customer forum thread entitled Possible Scam has hundreds of comments dating back from last year.
Another recently wrote they had already been in touch with BT about their broadband prior to receiving a call from an Indian man stating that he was calling from BT.
“He asked me to confirm the postcode and address which he gave to me over the phone and then my date of birth. At that point, I said no and he hung up. Clearly a scam call and weirdly never had to call BT until the last few weeks and all of a sudden a call.”
Another said the same thing happened to him, adding that the caller was very plausible until they wanted remote access to his PC hard drive.
“She even knew my address, phone number and both mine and my husbands name… so had access to some of our details.”
Fraud appears to be a growing problem across the sector. Last month TalkTalk was hit with a £100,000 fine after the data of the records of 21,000 people were exposed to fraudsters in an Indian call centre.
A BT spokesman gave the usual spiel: “BT takes the security of its customers’ accounts very seriously. We proactively warn our customers to be on their guard against scams. Fraudsters use various methods to ‘glean’ your personal or financial details with the ultimate aim of stealing from you. This can include trying to use your BT bill and account number.”
He advised customers should never share their BT account number with anyone and always shred bills. “Be wary of calls or emails you’re not expecting. Even if someone quotes your BT account number, you shouldn’t trust them with your personal information.”
He said: “We’ll never ask customers for personal information out of the blue and we’ll never call from an ‘unknown’ number. If we’re getting in touch about your bill, it will usually be from either 0800 328 9393 or 0800 028 5085.” ®
Dealing with XBOX Support and Microsoft support, in general, is almost always a painful experience, especially if you are a technical person yourself. Very rarely have I dealt with someone who actually seems to know what they are talking about and is actually able to resolve a problem. Most of the time they drive me up the wall and I end up having to explain to them how their own systems work, while they give me pointless suggestions, and repeat themselves over and over again forcing me to do things which will never work multiple times, and completely ignore the answers I have already given them and the conversation just goes round in circles.
I thought it was high time I start keeping a record of these wonderful live chats for posterity.
Below is an ongoing issue I was having after buying Crash Bandicoot for my son, and the game simply would not run on his xbox. I deleted and re-downloaded it 10 times, I got my purchase refunded and bought the game again (twice more), but for some reason, the 2nd purchase did not show on my account, and the support pleb is simply unable to get past that fact. As you can imagine, it is so hard not to lose your temper in these situations, and as you can see the support op just disconnected me in the end, which is pretty much always how it ends when they cannot actually solve the issue.
Unsurprisingly, his solution of buy the game again on a different profile was complete nonsense as well, and made no difference.
Sadly this is not the worst example of xbox support by a long shot.
Arnold S
Arnold S
Hi, thanks for visiting Xbox Support! I’m Arnold S.
17:46
Arnold S
Hello Russ how are you doing.
17:46
Me
frustrated
17:46
Arnold S
I hate to hear that. What is going on that has you frustrated?
17:47
Me
as per the details I put on the form
17:47
Arnold S
I’m sorry but those details didn’t come over with the chat.
17:47
Me
why do you ask for those details every time, if nobody can see them? it is very annoying that I am forced to fill in that form every time I start a chat when it is completely pointless
17:48
Me
you sit here typing in the details of the issue, only to then have to do it all over again
17:49
Arnold S
We’ve been experiencing some system updates that sometime interfere with our ability to get your description.
17:49
Me
well it has been this way for a very very long time
17:49
Me
like years
17:49
Me
every single chat I have ever started I am told “I cannot see those details”
17:50
Me
seems weird that a company like Microsoft cannot solve such a minor issue
17:50
Me
anyway, please see ticket ref SRX1394403618ID
17:50
Me
I have replied to this ticket 4 times. 5, 8,9 and 12 days ago, but still no response
17:50
Arnold S
Thank you for that if you will give me a moment to review that case.
17:51
Arnold S
I see this is where you are being asked to repurchase “Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex.”
17:53
Me
yes
17:53
Me
I would really like to know why nobody ever replies to the emails though ?
17:54
Me
I have had the same issue with every ticket I have opened recently, nobody ever replies
17:54
Arnold S
The email you replied to was the free Xbox Gold code. Those emails come from an unmonitored account. Now I see from the notes and the account that the game was previously refunded to you. When a game is refunded the license for the game is revoked.
17:55
Me
but I purchased the game again?
17:56
Me
all the details are in the ticket
17:56
Arnold S
Can I get the gamertag you purchased the game on because on Lord Michaels all I see is the refund.
17:56
Me
that is the gamertag
17:56
Me
same one
17:57
Arnold S
If you would please go to https://account.microsoft.com and you will be able to see the order history we show on our end.
17:57
Arnold S
I see the game was refunded on Aug 7, 2017 and I am not showing any other activity after that.
17:57
Me
well I do not know what to tell you, since I have no access to your systems. But I went to the web site, I clicked BUY NOW, the purchase completed, and I own the game again.
17:58
Me
As I advised in my emails that were ignored, I can play the game on my own xbox if logged in as me
17:59
Me
which I would not be able to do if I did not own it
17:59
Arnold S
That is why I asked you to log in to https://account.microsoft.com because the order history there is identical to what I see here.
17:59
Me
and that is why I then replied to you with “well I do not know what to tell you, since I have no access to your systems. But I went to the web site, I clicked BUY NOW, the purchase completed, and I own the game again.
17:58″
18:00
Me
you would need to speak with a system admin or something to find out what happened
18:00
Arnold S
Had you downloaded this game to your children’s Xbox?
18:01
Me
obviously, otherwise how would I know it doesn’t work
18:02
Arnold S
Did you do a license transfer on your children’s 360 console, because their console would require the console license for other profiles to play this game.
18:03
Me
it doesn’t even work with my profile
18:04
Me
and it was originally downloaded on my kids xbox
18:04
Me
so that should be the console which owns it
18:05
Arnold S
Was you console the original console you purchased the game on?
18:05
Me
I purchased it via the website as mentioned previously
18:05
Arnold S
As previous agents have told you the reason you cannot download and play it now is because there purchase was refunded. It is possible that your console was the first console it downloaded to resulting in a glitch where the license wasn’t fully removed from your console.
18:06
Me
I deleted the game from the console and downloaded it again, many times
18:07
Arnold S
On your children’s 360 please log in to your profile and follow these step so you can see your transaction history…
This will show you that the game was refunded on Aug 7 back to a VISA ending in 3021.
18:09
Me
please can you stop telling me about the refund over and over again I know about it, it is not relevant
18:10
Me
I own the game, it says on my account I own the game, it says on xbox marketplace I own the game
18:10
Me
Please read previous messages
18:11
Me
here is a screenshot from my account: https://awesomescreenshot.com/0f46d066d0
18:12
Arnold S
What you are pointing to is an Xbox 360 theme not the game. Now what is the email address you are presently logged in to that account with?
18:13
Me
ok look down below the arrow and you will see the game
18:14
Me
which also says “already purchased”
18:14
Me
as I already advised you in my previous messages, the game works fine on my own xbox if I am logged in as myself. It wouldn’t work if I did not own it.
18:15
Arnold S
I see that, and when you click Download to 360 it is likely downloading to your 360, and not your childrens.
18:15
Me
if the game was not downloaded to my kids xbox, then please clarify how would I know it doesn’t work?
18:15
Arnold S
That is why I was directing you to find your purchase history on their 360, to see if you could download it from there.
18:16
Me
if the game was not downloaded, then it would not exist, there not be any icon to start the game, there would be no error
18:16
Me
we are going round in circles here with you telling me the same thing over and over again
18:17
Me
I cannot force it to show on my purchase history, I do not work for Microsoft or have any control over your system
18:17
Me
I cannot tell you why it does not show up
18:17
Me
I already told you that I purchased it again, I told you the process, I also replied to the ticket the day I did it
18:17
Me
and came back to live chat
18:18
Me
you need to speak with system admin to help you find the problem with that
18:18
Me
if I do not own the game, why does it say “already purchased”
18:18
Me
why does the game run on my xbox
18:18
Me
I would not be able to play it if I did not own it
18:19
Me
it would also prompt me to pay for it
18:19
Me
this is how the marketplace works
18:19
Me
if you do not own the game, it requires you to pay for it. If you own it already, then it says you own it and prompts “download again”
18:20
Arnold S
I understand how our marketplace works. I was trying to have you transfer the licenses to your children’s console, which you would not do which is one of our troubleshooting steps in situations like this.
18:21
Me
the way license work, is that the owner of the license can play the game on any console
18:21
Me
as I already pointed out a FEW times now, even I use my own profile, I still cannot start the game, same error
18:22
Arnold S
I asked you to check the transactions on the 360 which is where you can redownload content.
18:23
Me
and I replied that I have checked them
18:23
Me
several times
18:23
Me
I can check the transaction over and over and over a million times until doomsday, but what will that achieve
18:24
Me
Can you clarify what you are trying to achieve by getting me to check the transaction again and again
18:25
Arnold S
When you go to Settings>Account>Download History are you able to see the game.
18:25
Me
on the website or the xbox
18:28
Arnold S
On the Xbox
18:28
Me
yes it shows
18:28
Arnold S
When you try to select download again what happens?
18:29
Me
it downloads it again
18:29
Arnold S
What error does it give you when you attempt to play it once downloaded?
18:30
Me
it says “can’t launch NAME OF GAME”
18:31
Arnold S
This is because when the refund was processed it didn’t fully revoke the license. This is a flaw with the Xbox 360, the fact you can still play this on the console that has your console license is immaterial. What you will have to do is purchase this game on another Xbox Live profile so the license can be obtained. The reason I have tried to get you to look at your transaction history is so you can see that this game was not repurchased.
18:33
Me
what do you mean “tried to”
18:36
Arnold S
I asked you to go to https://account.microsoft.com and to log in to your account to view your order history where you would see the refund, but would not see another transaction.
18:37
Me
And I have looked it many times, and I have replied to you many times telling you I looked at it
18:37
Me
read previous messages
18:37
Me
we are going round and round in circles because you are ignoring my responses
18:37
Me
at 17:58 I said “well I do not know what to tell you, since I have no access to your systems. But I went to the web site, I clicked BUY NOW, the purchase completed, and I own the game again.”
18:38
Me
if your website has a bug and is putting it in my purchase history, I am not sure how or why you are blaming me for this?
18:39
Me
I have no control over your website
18:39
Me
as I keep advising, you need to speak with a sysadmin about that
18:39
Arnold S
As I stated earlier since you got a refund for this game on this account you will need to purchase it again on an account that had not have the license on it. Is there anything else I can help you with?
18:43
Me
and as I stated earlier many times now, I already did
18:43
Me
I don;t know how I can explain that in a different way that will make sense
18:44
Me
step 1: I went to to website
step 2: I found game
step 3: i clicked buy now
step 4: process completed
18:44
Arnold S
Sir, as both me and Jeana (on 8 Aug) have informed you the purchase of this game does not appear on your account, a license for this game does not appear on your account since the refund on 7 Aug. The fact it still shows in your marketplace is a glitch in our system that sometimes allows someone to continue to play a game that was refunded.
18:45
Me
and as I keep telling you over and over and over again, I have no control of that as I do not work for Microsoft. If your website is not logging it, I cannot fix that.
18:46
Me
you need to speak to a godamn sysadmin to find out why the website is not showing the purchase
18:47
Arnold S
Microsoft operates a zero tolerance approach to abusive or threatening behavior, if you continue to be abusive or threatening I will close this chat session.
18:47
Me
you have intentionally ignored everything I have told you again and again and again
18:47
Me
you are going out of your way to aggravate me
18:48
Me
you are trying to blame me for problems with your website
18:48
Arnold S
Because this is not a sysadmin issue it is a issue were you were refunded the game, the licenses didn’t fully revoke, and you will have to purchase this game again on a different account to resolve your issue.
18:48
Me
i purchased the game
you refunded me
I purchased the game again
now you want me to purchase a 3rd time
18:49
Arnold S
Sir, I have provided you with the resolution to this issue. I hope you have a great day, and thank you for contacting Xbox Support.
18:49
Arnold S
Your Xbox Support agent Arnold S has ended your chat session. Thanks for visiting Xbox Support.
Accept card and contactless payments easily without monthly fees using just your mobile phone and the PayPal card reader.
I am now setup with PayPal here, and can provide you with an onsite demo (Kent only) and training in using the card reader. If you do not already have paypal, I can help you setup paypal, a full merchant account if you also need online processing and anything else e-commerce related.
This feature is most definitely very long overdue, and I am frankly surprised it has taken PayPal so long to get this done, it isn’t exactly difficult to do.
Why would you need this?
If you normally deal in cash and you are onsite with a client, but they do not have the cash, you can just send them your
If you normally deal in cash and you are onsite with a client, but they do not have the cash, you can just send them your paypal.me link, or type it for them on their computer, tablet or phone, and get paid right there on the spot.
Sold something on gumtree, at a car boot sale etc, just send them your link to get payment.
I have been testing out Solarwinds MSP backup, and one of the features this has is that you can restore the backup to a virtual disk, which is in VMware vmdk format.
I have tended to use Oracle VirtualBox locally for my virtual machines since it is compatible with a lot of appliance templates and vhd images you can download online and is free and has a small footprint. Although Windows 10 now does include a cut down version of hyper-v allowing you to run virtual machines, you do need the PRO version of Windows, which I did not have at the time of writing this, I was running Windows home edition.
While the vmdk file does work with VirtualBox natively, I discovered that it does require some work to get it to boot and you cannot do much else with it, which includes shrinking it. This is one thing I needed to do in order to reduce the amount of space used by my restored virtual disk image.
Firstly in order to get the vmdk to boot I had to enable EFI mode in virtualbox settings.
I then had to run bootrec/rebuildbcd
To compact the disk, I discovered I have to convert the vmdk to a VDI file. thankfully this turned out to be quite simple.
If you will not be using a dynamic disk, and do not need to shrink it, then you can skip these first 3 steps obviously.
1. Delete Unnecessary Files from the VM
The best way to do this is to run the Windows disk cleanup tool, including the option to “clean up system files”
2. Defragment the Disk
If you want to also shrink the disk, then Using the Windows defrag tool will help with the shrink process.
3. Clean any free disk space
After the disk has been defragmented, the virtual Windows drive will still have unused space containing garbage bits and bytes. These garbage bits and bytes are from the contents of files that used to occupy that space but that are no longer there.
The most effective way to clean free disk space on a Windows drive is to overwrite the unused space with a bitstream of zeros or to zero-fill any free space.
If your vmdk image file is already connected to a guest VM, then you need to remove it, otherwise, the process will not work.
shutdown the VM
go into the virtual media manager and remove the vmdk file from the guest VM
Open CMD prompt, and navigate to your VirtualBox folder, from here you will execute VBoxManage, using the coneMEdium command to clone the VHD and convert to VDI.
c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox> VBoxManage clonemedium disk --format VDI [drive]:[\path_to_file\sourceFile.vmdk] [drive]:[\path-to\destinationFile.vdi]
Obviously, replace the [drive]:[\path_to_file\myserver.vmdk] with your source and destination paths.
This conversion process will actually shrink down the VHD by default if you are using a dynamic disk, and should get it down the minimum required. If it hasn’t sufficiently reduced it, then you can try to run this command.
I have been having some WIFI problems the last couple of months where devices would randomly lose access to the internet, some devices couldn’t even connect to the WIFI access point, others could connect but were just slow as hell. Even wired devices seemed to be having problems. After trying everything possible, I finally thought that maybe something on the network was sucking all the bandwidth, as some devices did still have a connection.
So I logged into my router and checked the connected devices bandwidth usage and saw that PC which was showing high usage. Lo and behold windows update was running, which was sucking all the bandwidth and killing the network for everyone else.
P2P Updates
After further investigation, I discovered that one of the new features introduced in windows 10 is the ability to get updates through P2P (like how torrents work) to improve download speed. This can be a major network bottleneck due to the number of p2p connections that get opened up. So disabling this was the first step.
go to Windows Update -> Advanced Options -> Choose how updates are delivered
and chose PCs on my local network, this will still allow you to get updates from other computers in your local network only, and not external computers, which will save your available bandwidth.
Although making this change while updates are already downloading doesn’t seem to have any effect, so you would have to stop the downloads for the setting to take effect. This also did not solve the issue by itself, it improved things, but everything was still slow.
My next step was to go into my router admin and set some throttling so that individual computers had a limit on how much bandwidth they could consume. Although if you have a basic/cheap router from your ISP then you may not have such an option available. In which case you can try setting thr throttle on the individual pc’s using BITS.
BITS
The updates happen through 2 main windows components: WUDO and BITS.
WUDO is the Windows Update Delivery Optimization is part of the Windows Update for Business and is used for the P2P installation that I disabled already.
The Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is commonly used by Windows to download updates, so this can also be tweaked using group policy.
To open the Local Group Policy Editor from the command line:
Click Start , type gpedit.msc in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
To set a bandwidth rule on the BITS:
Navigate to Administrative Templates -> Network -> Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
Open Limit the maximum network bandwidth for BITS background transfers
To be blunt (no insult intended), most parents are not very computer literate and are also oblivious to the dangers of letting their kids loose on the Internet without supervision or protection.
This is not specifically because you are parents but simply a statistic based on research that shows that 69% of the population are not very computer literate and 26% cannot use a computer at all. It is also based on my 18 years as a parent and dealing with schools and other parents.
While your kids might be better with technology, they have ZERO knowledge or experience of staying safe online, and will happily look at much of the inappropriate stuff you would rather they didn’t and of course, the more you tell them not to, the more they want to.
Are you aware of the most common dangers that the Internet and social media (Facebook, twitter etc) present? children are regularly bullied online, your little darling could even be the one doing the bullying and this cyber-bullying has led to many children committing suicide. They can be easily manipulated into performing any number of dangerous or perverted acts, or groomed into meeting a sexual predator or sharing photos.
Using the internet without protection can also cause you a lot of damage, and if you are allowing your child to use your computer or tablet, then you could end up being the target of cyber-crime. Everything from malware and ransomware attacks, trojans and bots using your computer to attack other people to identity theft, and emptying your bank account.
Just as you do in the real world, you need to offer guidance, set boundaries, and, depending on your child’s age and maturity level, carry out some safeguards.
You also need to be aware of where the threats are coming from, so it is your responsibility as a parent to educate yourself about online security and take action not just for your kids, but for yourself and other people’s children too, who can be indirectly affected by your lack of knowledge or action.
I of course lock down my own home internet connection and my kid’s phones and tablets and PC’s , but the problem is, that none of the other parents ever did the same. This then meant that all the content I had blocked could simply be viewed on my kid’s friend’s phones, computers and consoles. This includes looking at porn and whatever else unencumbered, thus bypassing my efforts.
When my kids were at primary school, they had friends who were watching porn on their mobile devices and playing adult games like grand theft auto at only 10 years old, and probably younger. Alas the school did not care and was not interested in my advice or help, which is what prompted me to write this article several years ago.
So these are practices you not only need to put into place yourself but ideally your friends as well and encourage your school to promote them, post them on social media for other parents to see as well.
If you need help in getting your home network and devices secure, then I can provide this as a service, which in most cases I can do remotely.
I also recommend to read: Screen Time Guide for Parents Screens are everywhere in the modern world. But spending too much time looking at screens can be harmful to your children’s eyes, bodies and minds.
Things you can do right now to protect your kids
1. Install Internet security and parental controls on all your computers and mobile devices
Children are just as vulnerable as the rest of us, if not more so, to clicking on bad links and downloading malicious software. Every device that is connected to the internet needs to be protected from malware. You also need the ability to block them from viewing inappropriate websites.
Some anti-virus software has parental controls built in, but generally, it is not very good and you are better off using separate products.
Internet Security / Anti-Virus
Windows computers do have Windows Defender built in, which is better than nothing and will block most malware, but lacks a lot of other cyber security features.
Windows defender may well be sufficient for the security savvy user who never clicks on dodgy links, always checks URL’s and SSL certificates, never visits porn sites or downloads pirate software or movies etc. But for anyone else (including your kids), you need something better with more protection and more features.
There are some of the most popular free products available from trustworthy brands. Bear in mind that the FREE versions are limited in functionality and features, and may not be much better than Windows Defender, so for the best protection, you do need to use a premium product.
For your mobile devices, just search for the names in the Apple or Android store. When it comes to the mobile versions, there is not a huge difference.
If you want maximum protection for you and your family, then there are so many choices out there from excellent to terrible. I would personally avoid the likes of McAfee or Norton/Symantec as these are well known for causing system problems and being notoriously hard to remove.
I personally use and recommend the premium edition of BitDefender Internet Security, which is a full internet security suite and has consistently been the #1 in the industry and is what I use on all my devices, previous to that I used Kaspersky, which is also a good product.
If you have multiple devices in your household, then the BitDefender family pack is a great deal as it allows you to install on unlimited devices, there is also a mobile version. The other very handy thing about BitDefender is that you can monitor and manage all your devices from their website portal.
I suggest avoiding random brands you have never heard of or which you get spam emails about, as these are quite likely malware themselves or next to useless products.
Parental Controls
According to the Pew Research Institute, 50 percent of parents have used parental control tools to block, monitor, or filter their child’s online activities.
BEWARE: Most online reviews of this type of software are written by people who have not actually used the software and probably do not even have kids. The reviews are often sponsored or written entirely to gain clicks on affiliate links.
If you have an Apple device, then it has a screentime app built right in, you can find more info on that HERE, but it is quite limited.
Since writing this article, Apple has either crippled or completely banned all 3rd party parental control apps from their Apple store. These apps are now essentially useless and do virtually nothing useful.
The whole ethos of Apple is based around privacy and secrecy, even for kids and based on their aforementioned actions, they clealry do not care about the welfare and safety of children, It is also easy for any child to bypass the built-in screentime, they can simply choose to turn it off.
As a result, I do not recommend giving an Apple iPhone or iPad to your child due to the lack of security and parental control and would strongly recommend purchasing an Android device instead.
There is also a popular 3rd party ScreenTime app available for Apple, Android and Amazon devices. The app is free for one child and includes the ability to monitor the device remotely and to see your child’s web and search history. A $4-per-month premium version adds daily time limits, the ability to block apps, and block the use of the device during school hours or after bedtime. (nb: I have not actually used this one myself yet)
Some of these apps (such as mmguardian) will let you track your child’s location, monitor their text messages, and generally spy on their activities. Which one you use depends on your requirements.
Of the above-mentioned apps I have used MMGardian and Qustodio. I have explicitly not mentioned any apps I have tested that I found inadequate and not worth recommending. I have left Qustodio on the list purely as a warning not to use it.
Qustodio is one of the most well known and popular parental control apps, it is also one of the most insecure and useless apps I have tried. I do not recommend it.You can read my full review here.
I currently use Google Family Link and life360 on my younger kids phones, and they fully understand why, and they do not moan too much. The only time they moan is when I lock their phones at bed time or when they have been naughty.
Of all the apps I have tried thus far, mmguardian was the best of the bunch, although it is only available for Android. The GPS tracking however was not 100% reliable, so I had to use a separate solution for that. I am currently using Life360 for the gps tracking.
Note: Since writing this, mmguardian has also become highly unreliable will randomly stop working and fail to do its job. I have therefore had to stop using it and look for another solution. Currently, I have bit the bullet and switch to Google family link and have to live with the fact it doesn’t work with Google workspace.
Life360 is not just good for your kids, it is also handy for friends and family too. It allows you to create groups with which you can share your location, your kids can do the same with their own friends too. It also allows group chats, thus negating the need to allow social media apps.
NOTE: once again, since writing this article, Life360 started going downhill and started to have a lot of issues. Tracking would just stop working, would send alerts/notifications hours later would randomly report my kids being somewhere other where than they actually are. We have also had issues where it had been reporting them leaving school in the middle of the day or leaving the house in the early hours when everyone is sleeping. The only solution from Life360 support is to constantly keep logging out, resetting passwords, and deleting accounts, which is rediculous.
If you ever get a new phone, Life360 will continue to try and track your old phone, even if you uninstalled the app, factory reset the phone or completely destroyed it. This is because every time you install the app it creates a new profile and will still count all old profiles as online and being tracked, even if there is no phone to be tracked.
We are still using Life 360, as the issue was intermittent, but do not rely on it as the only tracking solution.
Google family link is a relatively new edition, at least it was not available when I originally wrote this article. Annoyingly it does not work with Google Gsuite (now workspace) accounts, only free Gmail accounts. It also doesn’t seem to play well with older phones. however, if one can live with these compromises it does work well for managing screentime and control access to apps.
Family link does not have any way to monitor messaging or chat apps or detect any suspicious or dangerous messages or texts.
I will be doing a full review of family link at some point, In the mean time, here is a review by zdnet.
Explain the apps to your kids
When dealing with older children, be sure to explain to them why you are using these parental control apps, that you are only protecting them from all the issues with bullying, abuse and threats social media presents and spending all their time on social media turns them into mindless vegetables unable to speak proper English.
Remember that you would not be happy with this level of control, especially if it was forced on you with no explanations. Education is the key here.
The last thing you want to do is lose your child’s trust and have them go out of their way to bypass your parental controls, which will no doubt figure out how to do given enough time, or to get themselves a burner phone which you cannot tracks.
Explain that knowing their location is important in case something happens to them or they get stranded so you can find them. It is also useful to point out that they can see your location too (using life360) and can use it with their friends so that it seems less of a stalking app to them when you can all see each other.
2. YouTube
YouTube is the new children’s TV. It is one of the most popular sites out there, but a massive number of videos are not suitable for young children. One minute they will be watching someone playing Minecraft, the next they will be bombarded with swearing and making sexual references, even from children’s characters like Elmo.
My best advice is “Do not give your kids unrestricted access to YouTube”. Ideally, you want to limit youtube to use on a TV or PC where you can monitor what they are watching, if this is not possible then I suggest you block YouTube altogether. This can be done in your parental control software.
The youtube site does have a “restricted mode” safety feature, and if you are going to let your kids loose on YouTube then you should take advantage of this, although be warned that there is absolutely no way to block the majority of explicit content because it has not been flagged as explicit by the maker, so is thus regarded as safe by YouTube. There is also nothing to stop a savvy child from turning this setting off again.
On the desktop site, if you scroll down to the bottom of the screen, there’s a “Restricted Mode” setting that hides videos that have been flagged as containing inappropriate content.
In the mobile apps, click on the three dots at the top right and click on Settings > General and scroll down until you see the “Restricted Mode” option.
If your children have phones or tablets, then you can remove the Youtube app and install Youtube Kids instead, which is a kid-friendly version with filtered content. Don’t forget that you will also need to install some parental controls to stop then undoing your changes.
You can also use DNS filtering to force youtube (and search engines) into safe mode for any device on your network.
Tablets
If you are thinking of buying a tablet, then you may want to look at the Amazon Fire tablet for kids, which is completely locked down by default and only allows child-friendly apps and content, had child-friendly videos, and also has a 2 year guarantee, during which time they will replace the tablet for FREE if your kids break it for any reason.
Be warned though kids who have previously been used to using a regular phone or tablet, will get annoyed with kid mode very quickly, so it’s best to start with this from the get-go. For older kids, you can just factory reset it and use it in regular mode. You are also restricted to apps from the Amazon store.
Auto Amazon Links: No products found.
3. Help your kids set the privacy controls on their social media accounts
Most social media sites have an age limit of 13, and I highly recommend that you obey this and keep them off it until they are 13, as social media is a nightmare and the cause of no many problems. But kids sign up regardless and lie about their age, and frankly, if they have the ability to do this behind your back anyway, then you are better off at least letting them do it so you can monitor their activity.
If your children share messages, pictures or videos on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, they might not be aware of who can see their posts, in fact, many adults do not realise that everything they post/share is public by default.
Most apps do have privacy settings, however, letting your children control who they let into their lives is not really the responsible or safe thing to do, so you should take a hands on approach to this too.
Here are the links to information about the privacy settings on the most popular apps:
4. Set up separate accounts for your kids on your computers
If you share a device with your children, then you need to set up a separate account/user for them. Each account would have its own home screen and, depending on the device and platform, a different choice of features, apps, and permissions.
Not only does this help you protect your own data — or video recommendations — but you can also set up customized security and privacy settings for each child.
On Windows computers, you can set up a new user account for your children. Go to Settings > Accounts > Add a family member > Add a child.
You can blog specific apps, games, or websites, or set screen time limits. Visit https://account.microsoft.com/family for more information. Although I would not rely on this alone, as Microsoft family safety has were notoriously unreliable and randomly breaks.
On Apple computers, you can set up Parental Controls for some user accounts, where you can, for example, restrict access to adult websites. Learn more here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201813
5. Set up separate accounts for your kids on your mobile devices
Tablets and smartphones also allow multiple user accounts on the same device.
On Android tablets, you can create a restricted account for your child, with limits on which apps they can use.
On Android phones, you can create a new user account for your child, but the only account restriction now available is to turn off the ability to make phone calls and send text messages. However, you can restrict their Google Play account. Go to Settings > Parental controls and turn them on. You will able to set specific content restrictions on apps and games, movies, TV, books, and music.
On the Apple side, iPhones and iPads have controls for apps and features, content, and private settings. Launch the Settings app and go to General > Restrictions and tap on “Enable Restrictions.”
6. Secure your gaming systems
Don’t forget that your gaming console is also an Internet device these days. Children can download games and make in-game purchases, and even surf the Web.
Most devices have parental control features that allow you to restrict the kind of content your children can get, limit their purchases, and restrict or turn off their Web browsing. You should take some time to use your kids games consoles and find out what they can do setup the parental controls accordingly.
The best console for parental control is the Xbox, which because it runs on windows 10, has quite granular controls allow you to set age limits and actions which can be performed, down to allowing and blocking individual games.
The PlayStation is not so good, you must setup a parent account and then create sub-accounts for your kids, which is an all or nothing solution, with no granular control. This is fine for the little ones, but for your older kids who want to play online with their friends and use game sharing mode, I find it far too restrictive. And the only workaround is for them to setup a full adult playstation account.
7. Consider using kid-safe browsers and search engines
For added control, you can install a kid-safe web browser for your children to use.
NOTE: This is not an alternative to parental supervision. You need to keep an eye on what they are doing, who they may be talking to, what websites they are browsing.
Zoodles, for example, offers a child-safe environment, and there’s a free version for Windows PCs and Macs, and for Android and iOS tablets and smartphones. The premium version, which costs $8 a month, includes ad blocking, time limits, and other features.
There are also some built-in tools in the browsers you’re already using.
If you use the Chrome browser, you can set up a “supervised profile” that will block explicit search results, show you what websites your children visited, and even restrict what websites they can go to. The way the restrictions work is that you can either have a list of approved websites, where your children can only visit the sites on this list, or a list of restricted websites where they can visit any website except for the ones you’ve banned.
If you want to be able to hand your phone to your child to play with in the back seat of the car without worrying about them messing up your phone or surfing the web for creepy content, what you can do is open up an app for the child and then set it up so that they can’t exit the app.
On phones running Android 5 and higher, it’s called “screen pinning.” First, go to Settings > Security > Screen pinning and turn it on and also enable “Ask for PIN before unpinning.” Then load your app, hit the overview button — the little square on the bottom right — and swipe up until you see a pin icon come up in the lower right corner. Now your child will need your PIN in order to switch apps.
On iPhones and iPads, this is called “Guided Access.” First, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access to set up Guided Access. Then when you’re in the app you want to lock in, triple-click the home button to bring up the Guided Access settings. You can turn off Guided Access either with a PIN or by setting it up to work with your Touch ID through Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access > Passcode Settings.
10. Make sure your kids are only using safe chat rooms
Some kid-friendly platforms offer chat rooms where kids can talk to other kids. Vet the sites first, to make sure that the chat rooms are monitored.
In addition, teach your kids not to share their real identities on such platforms, and use anonymous screen names, instead.
Teach, Educate and Talk with Your Children
11. Teach your children not to respond to messages from strangers
obviously I am talking about older children here. Small children really should not even have access to apps where they can received messages from strangers.
If they get a text message, instant message, email or social media message from someone they don’t know — they should just delete it.
Make sure they know not to open it, not to respond to it, and, of course, not to click on any links or attachments.
If those girls from Pretty Little Liars followed that advice, the show would have been over after one episode.
12. Educate your children about the risks of “sexting”
Last year, in a report to the U.S. Congress, the Justice Department revealed that the most significantly growing threat to children was something called “sextortion.”
It’s bad enough when minors send nude images of themselves to boyfriends or girlfriends, and those images then get distributed to others.
In addition to the psychological damage, children who both send and receive the “sexts” are breaking the law — and could result in prosecution and even registration as a sex offender.
And it gets worse.
According to the FBI, the “sextortionists” have gone pro, with individual criminals targeting hundreds of children each. They pretend to be the same age as their victims, trick or coerce them into producing child pornography for them — and even get them to recruit friends and siblings.
In a review of 43 such cases, the FBI found that two victims committed suicide, and ten others attempted to kill themselves. Victims also have their grades decline, drop out of school, get depressed, and engage in cutting or other types of self harm.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, reports of sextortion were up 150 percent during the first several months of 2016 compared to the same time period in 2014.
In 4 percent of the sextortion reports, the children engaged in self-harm, threatened suicide or attempted suicide as a result of the victimization, the Center said.
13. Warn your kids about file sharing
Uploading illegal files is, of course, illegal.
And so is downloading, though fewer media companies seem to be prosecuting kids these days.
But downloading illegal files also carries other risks, such as viruses.
Fortunately, there are now many free and low-cost services out there where kids and teens can get videos and music.
14. Warn your kids about online polls and surveys
There are lot of fun, harmless polls out there, like the one that tells you what kind of poodle you are.
Others ask for too much personal information, and could land your kids on spammers’ email lists, or open them up to identity theft.
Many adults have a separate, throw-away email account for when they need to provide an email address in order to register for something. If your child have a legitimate reason to fill in questionnaires that require an email address, consider helping them set up a throw-away email account of their own.
15. Warn your kids about getting too close to strangers
When you’re meeting someone for the first time after, say, communicating with them via an online dating app, you know to set the meeting in a public location, such as a coffee house, and to let friends know where you are.
This is common sense.
But children and teenagers often lack that basic common sense — or might be tricked into keeping their online relationships secret.
Of course, predators can also communicate with potential targets via traditional mail, or meet them at bus stops. But the Internet allows them to scale up their activities dramatically.
Attackers can use online relationships to lure children to meet them in person. Or, more frequently, they will try to trick children into making unnecessary purchases, or sharing information, photos, or videos.
Know your children’s online friends. And, just as with regular friends, confirm their identities, and talk to those kids’ parents. If those “kids” are, in fact, kids.
16. Help your children deal with cyberbullying
Cyberbullying affects up to 15 percent of children, according to a report released last year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
And the rates are even higher for children who are overweight, disabled, or LGBT, or members of a minority group.
Victims have physical problems such as sleeping, upset stomachs, and headaches and also suffer psychological effects, such as depression, anxiety and alcohol and drug use.
Let your kids know that they can turn to you for help, and find out what resources are available from your local schools.
You should save messages and other evidence of the cyberbullying and report the bully to the social media platform, telephone or Internet service provider, school, or local law enforcement authorities. In addition, you should block the bully from your child’s social media, telephone, or email accounts.
How many baby pictures and vacation photos have you posted online? Before lecturing your kids about staying safe, make sure that you yourself are a good model. Learn about the privacy settings in the social media apps you use most, then check that you aren’t sharing private, personal moments with the whole Internet.
Also, don’t drive while texting or talking on the phone.
Wait until we all have those self-driving cars, and do your texting then.
18. Set rules about what your kids can share online
As an adult, you know to be careful about what information you post online. You know not to share your financial information or social security numbers with strangers.
Make sure your kids know the rules and understand the reasons behind them. Even seemingly innocuous information, like vacation pictures, can let criminals know when your house is empty.
Some information, like funny picture of your cat in the snow, can be shared with everyone. Some information, like vacation plans, can be shared with family and close friends. And some things should never be shared online at all.
In addition, the recommended age for children to have their own social media accounts is 13.
You’ll be able to see if they are posting inappropriate things online and can step in before problems escalate.
It’s not foolproof — there are ways that children can keep their communications hidden from you. And if you are too heavy-handed in your monitoring, it may cause your children to be more secretive.
20. Set limits on how much time your children can spend online
According to a recent national survey, tweens spend an average of six hours a day with their devices, and that’s not including the time spent on school or homework. And teens spend an amazing nine hours a day staring at their screens..
Sure, some of that is listening to Spotify while exercising. But the bulk of the time is spent watching videos, playing games, and using social media.
The American Academy of Pediatrics used to recommend that children under two should not have any screen time at all, and had very conservative limits for screen time for older children. In late 2016, the organization re-evaluated current research and loosed its recommendations.
Some screen time, such as video chats with relatives, or educational applications, can be very valuable, even for the youngest children.
Now, the organization suggests that families create a Family Media Plan.
However, the organization recommends that parents limit the use of screens during meals, and for an hour before bedtime. Also, phones and tables shouldn’t be charged overnight in the child’s bedroom, to limit the temptation to check the devices at all hours of the night.
21. Additional resources
Internet Matters: Resources for parents looking to keep children safe online, with age-specific how-to guides, free apps, and device safety checklists. https://www.internetmatters.org/
Family Online Safety Institute: Parenting guides and news and reports about online safety issues. https://www.fosi.org/
Safe, Smart & Social: Social media training guides and safety tips for parents and educators. https://safesmartsocial.com/
Internet safety for kids from consumernotice.org who strive to notify consumers of health and safety risks attributable personal and financial data vulnerability, among other things.
Thanks go to John Mason for providing some of this content, who conveniently emailed me which reminded me I had this article in draft, so saved me a lot of typing.
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