Posted on

MamaBear Family Safety App Now Includes Twitter Monitoring

twitter monitoring

Parents with kids that use Twitter to follow celebrities and tweet to their friends (and strangers) now have a tool to help them know more about their kid’s activity on the popular social network.

MamaBear Family Safety App’s new version 2.8 for iOS and 2.5 for Android  features a new update offering parents the ability to monitor their children’s activity on Twitter.

Popular with people of all ages and especially with celebrities and their fans, Twitter is a social “microblogging” app through which users can write, read and share 140-character “tweets” on any subject. While Twitter offers privacy settings that allow users the option to approve follow requests, the default setting allows anyone can follow and see what a person tweets. So a child who uses Twitter without setting the account to private is sharing his or her messages with millions of Twitter users around the world.

See Also: Protecting Kids from Internet Stranger Danger

This can be unnerving for parents worried about who can see what their kids share via twitter – especially if they use hashtags with certain words (e.g. “Headed to #MainStreetMall 2day with my gurls”), because a hashtag before a word makes that word/phrase searchable by any Twitter user as a common filtering option.

The new MamaBear Twitter update allows parents to monitor their child’s Twitter account for restricted words, who’s following them and who they’re following.

By using all social monitoring features on MamaBear 2.8 for iOS and 2.5 for Android, parents will save time and keep their children safe staying “in the know” with information from their child’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all at once.

Stay in touch and let us know what you think of MamaBear by emailing us at info@localhost.  Your feedback is critical in our mission to protect children.

 

Posted on

Using MamaBear with Apple’s new iOS 7

Apple recently introduced iOS 7, the newest version of the  iphone operating system. The new operating system features a redesigned user interface and several functionality improvements.

MamaBear family members using an Apple iPhone upgraded to iOS 7, especially iphone 4 and 4s users, may have noticed a change with location updates. Although there are many great new features to iOS 7, there are new settings to be aware of  affecting location service apps.

The October 23 app upgrade to MamaBear included better iOS 7 compatibility and we continue to work on other improvements, especially the ability to update location more often using iOS 7.

In the meanwhile, there are some proactive steps you can take to get back on track with location monitoring.  These industry articles expand on the lag iphone 4 and 4s may have on iOS 7: readwrite.com and USA Today.

Please review these settings on your child’s iPhone

1. Be sure “Location Services” is on by reviewing Settings > Privacy > Location Services.

2. Be sure background app refresh is on for MamaBear by going to Settings > General > Background App refresh. We won’t be able to update your child’s location if this is turned off.

3.  Ask your child to keep MamaBear running in the background.  If your child swipes MamaBear up by double clicking the phone’s home button, it will close the app and not allow us to monitor location in iOS 7.

4. If your child is auto-updating apps, be sure they are logged in to MamaBear after they update any new releases from MamaBear.

5. Set up safe places in MamaBear!  Entering programmed places helps the app run in the background, not to mention keeps you updated!

Following these steps will help MamaBear work more efficiently on your child’s phone if they are now using Apple’s new iPhone operating system.

We’ll gladly answer any of your concerns by getting in touch with us at info@localhost. Stay in touch!