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MamaBear App’s Top Three Tips for Summer Safety

summer safety for kids

It’s Summertime! When most of us were kids there was no holding us back from summer fun and extra time for discovery and exploration. Even in a world that’s way more complex than ours was, every year summer still means more free time for millions of kids.

Here are our top summer safety tips for and ways MamaBear can help you be in the know and keep the family safe.

1. Water Safety

Teaching your kids how to swim is number one. Then all of the water safety precautions will follow – wear sunscreen, no wrestling in the water, know where the lifeguards or parents are, look out for each other.

2. Camping Safety

Parent chaperones are always best. Nonetheless being prepared with a first aid kit, bug spray and sunscreen are good ideas. Location devices can also be very useful when camping. Installing MamaBear on a camper’s iPhone or Android Smartphone can give kids quick access to parents in case of emergencies while offering parents and chaperones up to date location information about the kids.

3. Safe Road Trips

The freedom of summer usually means some form of travel. This can mean single day trips to local destinations for some, or longer road trips for others. MamaBear’s sound advice is to make sure your kids have a smartphone, a car charger for it and a regular charger. Smartphones are one of the best tools to help kids stay safe on the road – but NO texting and driving. Kids can use a smartphone for directions, travel tips, taking pictures and certainly checking in with mom. MamaBear can let parents monitor trip progress and driving speed, as well as offer children an easy to use option to contact parents if there is an emergency on the road.

These favorite summer activities will give our kids such wonderful experiences. We encourage loosening up the boundaries with the help of technology to ease our minds! MamaBear can help parents with summer safety for kids and provide a variety of ways to keep tabs on our children’s whereabouts and activities. Location monitoring, social media monitoring and driving speed alerts means kids can explore and parents can still work. Let us help you keep track of the kids this summer by downloading MamaBear from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

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The MamaBear Worry Free Parenting App Can Make Checking In Way Easier for Kids

kids can easily check in with the mamabear app

I used to get into so much trouble for not calling my mom when I got to my friends house or to my intended destination when I was kid and given freedom to walk or drive somewhere by myself or with others. It really was the top reason for being grounded when I was younger. I’d like to think that if I had a tool like MamaBear, I’d have been in my room a lot less. The MamaBear App gives kids a way to check in and communicate with parents in an extraordinarily fast and discreet manner.

We designed the children’s logged in view of the MamaBear family safety app to be one of the simplest to use on an Android phone or iPhone. The three button design makes checking in with mom or dad only take a couple of seconds. Kids can check in by turning on the phone, opening the app and pushing a single button. That is literally all it takes for a parent to get a push notification update of the child’s well-being. And if your kids are like me when I was young, I’d forget to communicate at all with my mom, but you’ll still be able to see their location on a map and know they made it safely.

For some kids, particular social environments can feel awkward. Asking a child to take out the phone and actually call a parent to check in may not be a likely occurrence in many modern families. MamaBear makes this whole process easier while ensuring that our kids never feel put out by having to take a moment to check in with us. With a simple “Check In” button the kids can let us know we actually came to mind.

The other two buttons the MamaBear family safety app offers are the ones that might be even more invaluable to our kids – “Come Get Me” and “Emergency”. The “Come Get Me” button allows children to send a quick push notification to you without any conversation – the app will tell you right where they are. This works wonders for kids when doing activities with friends that will require an eventual pick up at an unspecified time. The app speeds up the pick-up process without the child spending time sharing location or what they need.

The most important function and the one we hope our kids never have to use is the “Emergency” button. This is a one button solution for kids in a variety of situations when they need our help. A push notification is quickly sent to the parent and all guardians on the account.

Kids may be resistant to parenting or safety apps like MamaBear. But arming our kids with MamaBear, even when they don’t think they need it, lets them know that we’re always there for them in every situation. As MamaBear continues it’s evolution we’ll be adding more benefits to the child’s log in view. Share your ideas and let’s get them on the roadmap.

To download MamaBear for your Android device click here.

To download MamaBear for your Apple device click here.

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How Can You Monitor Your Child’s Facebook Page Easily and Effectively?

monitor your child's facebook

It’s time consuming to monitor a child’s Facebook activity! If kids are spending 50 hrs a week on social media, parents are easily overwhelmed thumbing through the daily LOLs and happy birthdays just to get to the important stuff on their child’s Facebook page. As most social activity happens from their mobile device, it’s recommended to limit screen time. Also, it’s more than common for kids to have multiple profiles. Ask your kids about it and pay close attention to their profile names. When you need a little help keeping up, use MamaBear to monitor and navigate complex social media networks like Facebook.

The MamaBear app is available for parents using both iPhones and Android powered smartphones with several options to effectively monitor a child’s Facebook account making the Facebook experience safer for children and less time consuming for parents. MamaBear Facebook monitoring is so easy with email and push based notifications related to friend activity, restricted words and tagging.

Facebook Friend Monitoring

Be aware, the average 12-15 year old is friends with at least 72 strangers on social media sites! MamaBear will send parents an email or push notification when their child adds a new friend, giving parents a chance to see who our kids are communicating with online. MamaBear also allows parents to select specific friends as “restricted” so they know when these so-called friends are in contact. This gives parents an opportunity to talk to their kids about who they are communicating with via Facebook.

Restricted Words Monitoring

Cyber bullying and other inappropriate behavior is widespread on Facebook. MamaBear monitors words used on Facebook programmed by the parent to help combat these unfortunate interactions. Parents can choose specific words and phrases to monitor on their child’s Facebook page. Parents receive an automatic alert when their child or any other Facebook friend uses the restricted word, or words, on their child’s Facebook wall. This language based alert option can help parents start some really necessary conversations to stop bullying and other inappropriate behavior as soon as possible.

Tag Monitoring

It’s so common for our kids to be tagged in a photo, a post or at a location by their friends. But being tagged by other people can create wider exposure for our kids on Facebook outside of just their friends list. Tag alerts from MamaBear help monitor when others include your child in their Facebook activity. Parents can receive alerts when a child is tagged in a message, photo or a location. While it may seem like a small thing, the information our children’s friends post can provide parents with a wealth of insight in order to take precaution to protect them.

MamaBear is here when you need help monitoring your child’s Facebook account and activities. MamaBear downloads easily from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store for iOS and Android powered devices. The next time you’re curious about your child’s Facebook activities, you should probably think about saving hundreds of hours by checking out our easy to use family safety app.

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Is Instagram Safe For Kids?

is instagram safe for kids

We get a lot of questions about Instagram. “Is Instagram safe for kids?” “How old should my kid be before they use Instagram?” “How do I make sure my kids are safe on Instagram?” There’s a lot to think about with Instagram, but MamaBear has advice and information to help parents sort it all out.

Like many social media platforms, Instagram offers kids both opportunities and hazards. Due to fairly lax login policies and few restrictions, it is fairly easy for children on Instagram to be exposed to age inappropriate content. Racy photos are fairly common. Nude photos aren’t allowed but are often posted anyway and with a quick search on the explore tab, kids can let their imagination run wild. While the app requires users to be at least 13 years old (compliance with COPPA) to create and account, it is not difficult to fudge to access the app.

Like all social media platforms, Instagram can easily mean too much exposure. Anyone can view photos a child posts, and anyone can comment unless settings are appropriately changed. Geotagging presents another danger. Instagram settings make it easy for a child to broadcast their location and information to millions of strangers.

With the basic settings, any user can comment on an Instagram photo, which makes the app prime for bullying. Parents know all too well that kids can be cruel, and Instagram can become a venue for this behavior. In current trends, children of all ages are being ranked in “Instagram Beauty Pageants.” This disturbing trend has teen girls of all ages attempting to gather millions of votes compared to classmates and peers.

Rest assured, Instagram isn’t all bad. Many parents have discovered ways to mitigate and monitor risks for their kids that like to stay up-to-date with popular technologies. Instagram does allow kids to share and view amazing photography and creativity around the world. That’s a pretty exciting prospect for parents and kids.

We have a few tips for parents who want to allow their kids to participate on Instagram.

1. “Stranger Danger” Rule Applies.

Parents can prevent most problems by talking to their kids know about the risks of the app and what to do should they face an uncomfortable situation. Making sure kids understand that exposure isn’t always a good thing can prevent many unfortunate situations. If your child doesn’t know someone, they shouldn’t follow or allow a stranger to follow your child.

2. Check the Privacy Settings.

Protect from outsider looking in on your child’s Instagram profile by adjusting the built in privacy settings. Setting the “Photos are Private” option in the profile menu prevents unwanted strangers from accessing the child’s photos.

3. Use a Social Media Monitoring App Like MamaBear.

Many parents need a little help when it comes to ensuring social media is safe for their kids. MamaBear can make it easy to track a child’s Instagram account. Parents can receive email alerts or push based alerts when a child follows someone, a restricted word is used or a restricted follower mentions the child. It also gives parents a nudge when the children upload photos. It’s a time-saver.

Is Instagram safe for kids?

Like all family matters, it’s up to the parent and the kid. Parents have options to help. MamaBear is here to help parents navigate the tricky world of social media with our groundbreaking social media monitoring app for Android and iPhones.