Who are your kids friendly on Facebook?

Online, May 17, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Boca Raton, Florida May 15, 2010 - Do you know who your kids "friending" on Facebook? If you think your child spends a lot of time online during the school year now, just wait till they get out of school for summer break. Unlike summer vacations from days of yore full of hours filled with fun times outside by the pool and other fresh air activities with today's youth things are different. Often with both parents working, scores of children will find themselves left alone this summer inside their homes on their computers with much of that time being on social websites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and others.

So what can a parent do to help keep their child safe online? Also how can you give kids the freedom to explore while still keeping an eye on their safety? Herb Tabin and Craig Agranoff social media experts and Co-Authors of Do It Yourself Online Reputation Management (http://doityourselfonlinereputationmanagement.com), $24.95 ISBN-13: 978-0578050867 have some simple advice.

Herb Tabin suggests the first thing parents do is educate themselves on social media and social media websites. "Parents need to learn about these websites having their own experiences on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and such so they have a better understanding of the allure, the possibilities, and the pitfalls children and teens face being on these sites. Secondly, as a parent the second most important step you can take, especially when it comes to younger children, is to set up their social media accounts for them. As the person completing the sign-up process from day one this will establish you as the gatekeeper of social media and not a barrier for your kid to try and circumvent. As such you can become part of their online life while also monitoring it"

Craig Agranoff suggests focusing on the Privacy Settings. "Privacy Settings are important tools that provide a substantial level of protection for social media users. If your child or teen is on a social networking website, you must make sure that they know how to keep their updates from public view and if they don't you must do it for them." Additionally, being a member of the same websites your children belong to is also helpful. While you need not be an "active participant" having your own account allows you to familiarize yourself with the controls and features. If you teach your kids to use their privacy settings correctly, you might be able to stop a problem before it gets out of hand.

Overall kids need to be told that the most important rules are - don't do anything online that you wouldn't want anyone else to see or was inappropriate and secondly the only thing worse than sharing something inappropriate online with one person is sharing it with the whole world and that's what social networking websites can do.

About the Book- Do It Yourself Online Reputation Management

With the Internet, untruths, lies, exaggerations are easy to spread. And in this brave new frontier the Internet has become a place where the attackers have gained the upper hand, and the people who are victims are disadvantaged -- but you don't need to feel powerless any longer. If you know how to type in a web address, you can learn how to claim, repair, and monitor your online reputation. There is no software to buy, or computer languages to learn. This book teaches you how to get bad stuff about you off Google -- and good stuff on. Anybody can repair an online reputation using the simple, step-by-step guides in this book - a guide that that requires absolutely no programming or web development experience. With this book you will learn: * How to have search engines show what you want them to display about you * How to suppress information on search engines * How to remove information from search engines. Do It Yourself Online Reputation Management is now available on Amazon.com bit.ly/9o62lA

About the Authors

Craig Agranoff (www.craigagranoff.com) is an entrepreneur, and national Social Media consultant as well as a noted specialist in online reputation management and monitoring. He has worked with many Internet startups and founded the tech blog sCommerce.com and Rev2.org. He was also a Tech/Social Media Correspondent in the New Times, and VentureBeat.com.Agranoff has been featured in the Miami Herald, New Times, The Palm Beach Post, AOL Digital Cities, Slice, CenterNetworks, Thrillist, Daily Telegraph, and The Sun-Sentinel. Also has appeared on Gary Vaynerchuck's Wine Library TV, Fox News, NBC News, Weekend Sunrise, and CBS News. He is a frequent speaker at tech events such as Refresh,and New Tech Community. He was also nominated at Mashable's Open Web Awards as a finalist for creating best Large Scale Social Network, winning best "Photo Sharing Website Category". Currently Craig is a columnist at InternetEvolution.com and The Palm Beach Post. Additionally, in his spare time, Craig's the Pizza Expert and founder of WorstPizza.com.

Herbert Tabin (www.herbtabin.com) is a consultant, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, merger and acquisition expert as well as a noted specialist in online reputation management and monitoring. He has worked with many Internet startups and founded Vois.com, the blog sCommerce.com and operated Rev2.org. Tabin has been featured on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine - Entrepreneurs Business Start-Ups, The Palm Beach Post, and in Steve Spalding's book - 'All the Little Things' - Get the advice you will need to get your idea out of the garage and onto the web. He is a frequent speaker at technology events such as Refresh and LaidOffCamp. Over the years he has received various entrepreneurial award nominations including Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award, received The Award for Business Leadership. He was also nominated as a finalist for best Large Scale Social Network, winning best "Photo Sharing Website Category" at Mashable's(tm) Open Web