Nickelodeon’s Linda Ellerbee rocks!!

Nickelodeon will investigate autism in Nick News with Linda Ellerbee Private Worlds: Kids and Autism, which will air Sunday, April 22 at 8:30p. The episode will explore what it means to be autistic and the varying ways it can affect someone, as well as the different levels of severity, through the stories of real [...]

Friday is Stop Cyberbullying Day! (At least that’s the word on the street)

March 30: Participate in Stop Cyberbullying Day
by Andy Carvin
This Friday – March 30th – has been declared Stop Cyberbullying Day – by me. I’m hoping to get as many people, bloggers and nonbloggers alike, talking about cyberbullying, because it’s spinning out of control. Just ask blogger Kathy Sierra.I had high hopes for this week – [...]

UK Social Networking: Making friends online is good.

Ninety percent of British youth have access to a computer at home, and more than 60% of UK 13-to17-year-olds have profiles on social-networking sites, The Telegraph reports in its thorough, thoughtful article, “Can u speak teenager?” Like the New York magazine piece I linked to last week, this one reflects some interesting analysis occurring about [...]

Tweens Rule: TV & Web

Tweens leading
No wonder tweens are in demand. Despite widely reported jumps in Internet usage, video games and other distractions for tweens ages 9-14, ratings are up 8% last year from 2002; among kids ages 2-11, they rose 7%, according to a Magna Global USA analysis of Nielsen data. So far this year, the 6-to-14 crowd [...]

Pimp My Ride’s new addition to MTV’s Virtual Empire

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – MTV Networks said Wednesday it will launch a virtual world next week for “Pimp My Ride” to complement its online “Laguna Beach” and “Virtual Hills” offerings.The “Ride” world will be patterned after Van Nuys, Calif., a hotbed for car culture, and it will let users customize cars, participate in races [...]

Rumorville: Harry Potter & the Graphic Novel?

Now that the title and release date for the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, has been announced, much speculation has begun on what could happen next for the beloved series that many do not want to see come to an end. For example, one comic book site has a new [...]

UGC, Social Networking, Branding, and the future…

In the past year, more and more advertisers have flocked to social networking sites to promote their products to the tens of millions of users there, hopefully winning over a few influencers in the process. Burger King set up a MySpace page. The American Brewer, Anheuser Busch, is sponsoring MingleNow’s Clink section where the object [...]

When Cyberbullies get Expelled…

Four Sherwood Park junior high school students have been expelled and more than 20 have been handed out-of-school suspensions after creating fake Nexopia accounts of teachers and posting negative comments on the sites.
Nexopia is an interactive online community that is popular with teens. Users make profiles and can comment and rate other users on their [...]

COPA: Sound the funeral Procession…

A federal judge on Thursday dealt another blow to government efforts to control Internet pornography, striking down a 1998 U.S. law that makes it a crime for commercial Web site operators to let children access “harmful” material.In the ruling, the judge said parents can protect their children through software filters and other less restrictive means [...]

Doin’ it for the kids!

What Is Locks of Love?Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. We meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics. Most of the children helped [...]