Frienedy: A Social Media Site for All Ages

Frienedy is the first site of its kind that lets users of all ages manage life in groups. Engineered with parental permissions at the core, the company has created a private online environment that leverages parental engagement for users under 13 to guide the social media experience. Frienedy offers users of all ages a web application that provides private group communication.

Until now, there has been a void in the social networking space both for users under age 13 as well as for managing content and social feeds for groups of all types.  

According to Founder and CEO, Janel Patterson, "Kids are getting online much younger than they were when today's social networking norms were first established, which has led to a rise in cyber bullying and cyber predators. Parents need a tool that enables them to proactively introduce social media to their children when they decide the time is right- and before kids go out and discover it themselves. At Frienedy, our core mission is to prevent cyber bullying before it starts and to eliminate the risk of children becoming victims of cyber predators."

There is also a market for managing social feeds and content for groups that have members of all ages. According to Jake Giganti, COO for Frienedy, "I grew up on social media. I never saw an easy way to manage all of the events and social feeds and basic information for every group I was part of growing up. Not just my soccer team and classes, but my different groups of friends. And, now as an adult, I have even more social groups I'm part of and need to stay engaged with. Frienedy Groups solves this problem- but more compellingly- for users of all ages." Groups can communicate privately and maintain practice or meeting schedules, classroom assignments, youth group activities, photos, videos, documents, even trigger last minute notifications. Frienedy is the way to manage all of this - and for younger users, under discreet parental oversight.  

Frienedy includes a robust events calendar for managing group events and a shopping list feature called WishList to promote user engagement. Mobile apps are currently in development, and the website is currently mobile responsive for any device. You can sign up for a free account by going to www.frienedy.com.

About Frienedy
Frienedy, LLC (www.frienedy.com) was founded in 2013 as a safe, private group networking community designed for users and groups of all ages. Frienedy complies with COPPA standards for users under 13, enabling a revolutionary new way for people of all ages to connect, share and interact safely and privately in all of life's Groups.

Contact: Janel Patterson
Frienedy, LLC
Phone: (636) 542-0540
Email: press@frienedy.com
URL: www.frienedy.com

Mother's Day Gift Idea: #MyMomRocks Challenge

Don't miss the #iCANHELP #MyMomRocks Challenge that starts May 1st, 2015!

National nonprofit #icanhelp is launching a campaign for Mother’s Day to show that My Mom Rocks. During the month of May we want you to share all of the great things that your mom does or has done to make your life awesome. This event kicks off on May 1, 2015. So be sure to share how much your mom rocks and be a positive warrior on the web.

1. Change your profile picture to your mom.
2. Share a story about your mom.
3. Share the #icanhelp Mom Video and write a compliment about your mom http://youtu.be/nkOGCMwyhoo.
4. Text your mom and tell her how much you appreciate her.
5. Always use #mymomrocks #icanhelp.

About #icanhelp

Kim Karr & Matt Soeth co-founded a program called #iCANHELP. Inspired by a concerned student after a fake and damaging Facebook page that was created about local teacher, Kim realized that STUDENTS WANTED TO DO SOMETHING about all the bullying and negativity on social media sites. The #iCANHELP message is clear- one person has the power to make a difference and delete negativity online and in his or her life. #icanhelp has traveled all over California speaking to middle and high schools rallying POSITIVE WARRIORSwho are ready to combat negativity.
#iCANHELP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

To learn more about this event, please contact:

Matthew Soeth
Office: 925.202.1112
icanhelpdeletenegativity@gmail.com

April Is Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month

April is Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month.

What is child abuse?

Today child abuse is not only viewed as physical maltreatment and sexual molestation, we are now dealing with bullying and with the expansion of technology we have online bullying.

Learning about prevention and awareness is key to keeping our communities and children safer.

Resources to learn more:

StopBullying.gov
Monique Burr Foundation
Child Prevention Month
Cyberbullying.us

Kindness Wins by Galit Breen

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By Galit Breen

When I wrote Kindness Wins, a guide for teaching our kids how to be kind online, the (truly) only backlash I heard was that kids who bully come from parents who bully, so teaching kindness won’t help. I disagree. Here’s why.

The theory that bullies raise bullies is one we’ve all heard and that is, indeed, sometimes true. Cruelty is taught, mimicked, and learned.

But online cruelty is different.

We’re the first generation of parents raising digital kids without having been digital kids ourselves. When trying to help our kids maneuver online, we can’t fall back on our own experiences or what our parents and teachers told us—because we weren’t online as impulsive kids.

Our kids are still learning to filter their thoughts, to think of others first, to consider the far-reaching consequences of their actions. They’re experimenting and learning and making mistakes and trying again. In other words, they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. But the immediacy of the online world makes it very, very difficult for them to do this without hurtful repercussions for themselves or for others.

The real reason many kids are unkind online is because they haven’t been directly taught how to maneuver online kindly. And the real reason most parents aren’t doing this teaching is because they don’t realize they need to.

Online kindness is the new must-have talk with our kids. If the after school specials of our youth were still around, online kindness would be a series.

In my decade of being a classroom teacher, I learned that the most effective way to teach anything new is to directly introduce the concept, allow for practice, and then revisit and fine-tune the lessons based on what was learned and what wasn’t.

We would never show our kids a car, give them one driving lesson, hand them keys, and wish them luck. Cyberbullyng, teen depression, and suicide statistics tell us that teaching online kindness is just as vital.

So in the same vein, we can’t tell our kids to be nice online once, hand them a phone and social media passwords, and cross our fingers and hope they’ll be okay.

We have to talk specifics. We have to sit down and show them how loud the Internet is, that there’s a person on the other side of the screen, how to disagree with someone respectfully online. We have to practice—test drive—online kindness with them. These lessons come in bite-size pieces. Short, direct, and repeated conversations. We have to continually check in—and on—our kids’ online use to make sure they’re safe online, of course. But also to make sure that they’re being kind. Every kid will a make mistake or two or ten. We can’t make them infallible, but we can help them learn.

This is why I wrote Kindness Wins. Not because I don’t understand the reality that some kids are raised in homes where cyberbullying would be accepted as okay behavior. But because I don’t think this is the norm. I believe most of us are doing the absolute best we can with what we know. And once we know better, we can choose to do better.

So the one thing you can do right now to help with cyberbullying is to commit to having direct conversations with your kids or your students or your peers about how to be kind online. We don’t have to agree on the details, just that the conversation is worthy. This is how we can create a culture where cyberbullying is the outlier and online kindness is the expected norm.

Galit Breen is the author of Kindness Wins, a simple no-nonsense guide to teaching our kids how to be kind online. Galit was a classroom and reading teacher for ten years. She has a master's degree in education and a bachelor's degree in human development. Her writing has been featured in various online magazines including Brain, Child, The Huffington Post, TIME, and xoJane. She lives in Minnesota with her husband, three children, and a ridiculously spoiled miniature golden doodle. Galit blogs at TheseLittleWaves.com and tweets at @GalitBreen.

The Warnings Signs of Digital Dating Abuse

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month.

Dating violence is no longer about physical and verbal abuse.  With the growth of digital age, people can be victims of online attacks and cruelty.

What is digital abuse?

Learn more at www.loveisrespect.org 

National Drug Facts Week 2015

National #DrugsFactWeek  is January 26 - February 1, 2015 this year.

Although parents, teacher, and communities should be bringing awareness to drug abuse 365 days a year, it is a great time to focus on a variety of substances you may not be aware of - possible new trends or things kids are doing today that you don't know about.

What National Drugs Facts Week?

National Drug Facts Week℠ (NDFW) is an annual health observance week for teens to shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse. NDFW centers on community events for teens, NIDA’s Drug Facts Chat Day, and partnerships.

Events: Locally planned and hosted school and community events focus on providing teens the scientific facts about drugs.

Drug Facts Chat Day: During this annual live online chat held between high school students and NIDA scientists, students from around the country ask the questions they most want answers to about drugs and drug abuse, including drug effects, how to help friends or family that are abusing drugs, and what causes addiction. Our expert scientists give them the facts.

Partnerships: NIDA works with leading organizations, media outlets, and other Government agencies to spread the word about NDFW and shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse.

Step-Families are Special: Find Out Why

Honey Maid believes that just because a family is broken up, doesn't mean it's broken.


#NotBroken Keys  - pass it on.

Back to School: Starting Kindness Clubs

Schools will be opening throughout our country shortly.

Most schools have implemented anti-bullying policies – and hopefully many have anti-bullying clubs.

Anti-bullying Clubs are now being switched up to Kindness Clubs.
This is a great idea since kindness a direct way to combat bullying.  Finding small ways each day to help someone feel good – or finding community projects your club can participate in, spreading kindness needs to be a way of life.
As school opens find out how you can start a Kindness Club in your school or class this year.  Ask your teacher or guidance counselor.  Get your friends motivated and start by listing how you can spread kindness each day:

• Tell a teacher you appreciate them
• Help a student that is being tormented, be an upstander
• Pass out flyers on bullying and cyberbullying prevention
• Leave messages for someone that is feeling down, let them know they are not alone
• Leave messages ‘just because’ it’s nice to do – lift others up everyday
• Tell a janitor what a good job they did
• Smile at people – let them know you notice them
• Make time for those that seem lonely, introduce yourself
• Offer to tutor students that are struggling academically
• Compliment others, (their hair, clothes, their smile) – be kind – it matters
• Eat lunch with new people
• Be sure new students don’t feel like strangers
• Look for community projects to participate in – visiting nursing homes, assisted living centers and teaching them about cyberspace!  CyberSeniors love meeting cyber-mentors!

Need some inspiration?  Visit these websites for ideas: Spark Kindness, Ripple Kindness, iCanHelp, Random Act of Kindness, KindnessCounts, and Pennies of Time.

Bridging the Digital Divide: Students Making A Difference

When two sisters realized the difference that the Internet made in their own grandparent's lives, they knew they were on to something.

It was time to make this a community service project and get students involved.  The response was overwhelming and the seniors were excited to learn about a whole-new-world - The Internet!

They have become Cyber-Mentors to the Cyber-Seniors in their community.

These Cyber-Mentors has contests  and taught seniors how to take selfies! Students brought so much joy to these senior citizens!  One video shows a 90 year-old woman that found her home in England on Google Earth – and was brought to tears – yet another elderly woman makes the students giggle as she sings Hallelujah to YouTube for the first time.

Encourage your school to reach into your community retirement centers and open up new worlds to these wonderful seniors!  Paying it forward is a wonderful feeling!

Learn more.

Pause and Think Online Video Contest Winners!

Congratulations to our three Pause & Think Online Video Contest winners!

Common Sense Media was impressed with the creativity, the musicality, and the artistry exhibited in all three. Thank you to all of the students and teachers who submitted videos.
See all of the contest submissions here.

We are so proud of all the digital citizens! - Common Sense Media

ThirdParent: Protective Parenting for the Digital World

Digital parenting is part of parenting today.

If parents are not technically connected to their teens, they will be in trouble.

ThirdParent can help you become a digital parent.

ThirdParent pride themselves on giving parents access to the essential information they need to protect a teen or preteen’s online reputation and ensure their safe and responsible internet behavior.

In the interest of online reputation management, our goal is to identify any negative information that could be found in the course of searching for an individual. They will alert you as to whether your child’s online profiles, activity and privacy settings make them overly susceptible to predators.

They scour every major search engine and every popular social network to identify:

• Sexual inappropriate behavior
• Racism
• Cyberbullying
• Slander
• Other inappropriate behavior
• Predator risk

Learn more by visit www.thirdparent.com.

Follow them: @ThirdParent on Twitter | ThirdParent on Facebook

No Such Thing As A Bully

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Does your child talk about being treated badly by his peers, and you don’t know what to do? Does the school tell you to make your child stop bullying, and you don’t know how? You’ll find concrete answers inside this book. For years and years we have talked about bullies and victims. We’ve talked about them enough that the words have shaped the lives of many people. It’s time for a whole new framework.

No more will we speak of bullies and victims. No more will we give power to the idea that bullying is inherent in our society, or that “Kids can be cruel”. This new framework throws traditional bullying theory on its head, examining bully actions and victim responses, instead of labelling children. It teaches lessons that help each and every one of us, adult and child, stop ourselves from falling into either category.

Use the information and lessons to learn the information yourself. Use the activities to teach the information to your children. People who communicate well and have developed a strong self-concept, balanced thinking, balanced approaches and empathy for others are less likely to use bully actions or victim responses. It’s simple. All children need the same skills. Children aren’t “bullies” and they don’t need to be “victims”.

They just need to be provided opportunity to learn. All children need the same skills. “It was a pleasure to read your book and see how well you present your valuable ideas and strategies for removing the horrible effects of bullying behavior, victim behavior, and bystander behavior. Your writing is beautiful, clear, passionate, and meaningful. If all parents, children, teachers, and administrators could be exposed to your ideas and methods, we would soon have a safer childhood experience for all our loved ones.” Ralph Kilmann (Thomas Kilmann Conflict Indicator)

 *This book is part of a community wellness system created by Kelly Karius and Dr. Ron Graham, which includes this book for parents, lesson plans and strategies for schools, full community training (Community Immersions) and a website that supports schools, parents and community, an anonymous reporting system through TIPS Awareity and a safety app promoted by aBeanstalk.

For more information about the full system, please see http://nosuchthingasabully.com

Order on Amazon today!