21st Century Sheep

A report out in December of 2009 highlights the fact that many Internet users are still not choosing good passwords.  If the bad guys can guess your password they can cause all kinds of havoc.

“In December 2009, a major password breach occurred that led to the release of 32 million passwords1. Further, the hacker posted to the Internet the full list of the 32 million passwords (with no other identifiable information).”

Here is a list of the five most common passwords.

1. 123456

2. 12345

3. 123456789

4. password

5. iloveyou

We all know the challenge.  The tougher a password is for someone else to guess, the tougher it is for us to remember.  Here are a few tips for creating strong passwords.

1. Use capital and lower case letter

2. Use numbers and special symbols

3. Make the password at least 8 characters long

Here is a strategy that I have used to create a password that is hard to guess and easy to remember.  Think of a sentence and use the first letter from each word to form the password.  For example, “I love to read books and visit facebook”, becomes the password Il2rb&vf.  That could be the password for facebook.  For ebay I could use “I love to read books and visit Ebay” or Il2rb&ve.  Get the picture?  You have a strong password, 8 characters, includes a capital letter, a number, and a special symbol.  This lets you have a unique password for each website and still have a pattern to help you remember.

A new poll by Harris Interactive says the average adult internet user in the US spends 13 hours a week online.

Surprisingly it not the youngest users who are spending the most time online.

The age groups that spend the most time online are those aged 30-39 (18 hours) and those aged 25-29 (17 hours) and 40-49 (17 hours).

Do you spend more or less time online than the average person?  Do you know how much time you spend online?

I received this in an email from my sister-in-law and wanted to share.  I apologize for not being able to attribute this to the proper author.  If anyone can find the original source I would love to know.

A Letter from Jesus about Christmas
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking my name out of this season. Maybe you’ve forgotten that history isn’t really sure of the date of my birth. It was some of your ancestors who decided to celebrate my birthday on what was actually a time of a pagan festival. Of course, I do appreciate being remembered anytime!

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of their own. I don’t care what you call the day: if you want to celebrate my birth, just get along and love one another!

Now, having said that, let me go on. If it bothers you that the town where you live doesn’t allow a scene depicting my birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santa’s and snowmen on your own front lawns and put up a small Nativity scene in their place. If all my followers did that there wouldn’t be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a “holiday tree” instead of a Christmas tree. Don’t forget: it was I who made all the trees. You can remember me any time you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish! (You might remember I used that image once myself when I was explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks are. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15:1-8.)

If you want to give me a present in remembrance of my birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way my birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are lonely and afraid at this time of year. I know: they tell me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. It might be someone you know – or perhaps someone you don’t know. Those folks just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing the President to complain about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don’t you write and tell him that you’ll be praying for him and his family and the decisions he makes in the new year. Then follow up with other concerns you have as they come along.

4. Instead of (at least in addition to) giving your children a lot of gifts you can’t afford and they don’t need – spend time with them. Tell them the story of my birth, and why I came to live with you down there. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them. Tell them how much you depend on me and how you want them to learn to trust me, too.

5. Think of some persons who have hurt you in the past and really work at forgiving them – and, if possible and helpful, let them know you’ve forgiven them.

6. Did you know that some in your town are so lonely in this season that they feel hopeless? Since you may not know who they are, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile, a kind word: it could make the difference…

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailers in your town calls “the holiday,” be patient with the people who work in their stores. (They deal with all kinds of customers all day long!) Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren’t allowed to wish you a “Merry Christmas” that doesn’t keep you from wishing them one.

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary – especially one who brings my love and the good news of the Gospel to those who have never heard my name.

9. Here’s a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no “Christmas” tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don’t know them, buy some food and a few gifts and give them to your church or the Salvation Army or some other charity who will know how to get those gifts and food to those who need them the most. (Actually you could do this in any month of the year – even in every month of the year!)

10. Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in me, your loyalty to me, then live like a Christian. Don’t do things in secret that you wouldn’t do in my presence. Let people know by your words and deeds that you are one of mine.

Don’t forget; I am God and can take care of myself. Just love me and love one another and do what I’ve told you to do. I’ll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work – time is short! I’ll help you, but the ball is now in your court.

And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those you love…

And remember: I Love You.

Jesus

I’ve been hearing this term more and more lately and I think it is a good framework for teaching adults and children about the proper use of digital resources.

Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey have written on this subject in Digital Citizenship in Schools.  Ribble and Bailey structure the book around `nine elements of digital citizenship‘ to help educators better understand the variety of topics that constitute digital citizenship and to provide an organized way to address them. The nine elements are: digital access, digital commerce, communication, literacy, etiquette, law, rights and responsibilities, health and wellness, and digital security.

I’m looking forward to reading their book.

I know that lots of adults use social networking sites but I didn’t realize how many.  According to a report for the Pew Internet and American Life Project 46% of online American adults use a social networking site such as MySpace, Facebook, or Linkedin.   Not surprisingly, Facebook is the most popular of the social networking sites for American adults.

These numbers come for a larger report, The Democratization of Online Social Networks by Amanda Lenhart.  You can see her presentation here.

A new study suggests that approximately 10% of U.S. children are addicted to video games, including online games.

“Video/online games stimulate the brain’s “reward centers” which gives the same high drug addicts feel,” said Dr. Charles Lee, physician for The Pinnacle Schools.

“Children and teens are becoming addicted to video/online games the way people are addicted to drugs, alcohol and gambling.”

The 10% figure sounds a little high to me, but certainly some children are demonstrating addictive behaviors.

From the website: “The warning signs for gaming addictions are the same as those for alcohol and drug addictions. Signs include: Lying, Restless and irritable when doing other activities, Eating meals at the computer while gaming, Inability to keep track of time spent gaming, Increasingly defensive about game playing habits, Poor school performance, Skipping class, Loss of appetite/ skipping meals, Defiant, Isolate themselves from family and friends,  Playing games instead of doing homework.”

The behaviors listed in the paragraph above certainly point to excessive use.  Someone once told me “If something causes a problem, it is a problem.”  If video games are causing the problems listed above it is time to take action, restrict video game use, and get the child involved in other activities.

For help identifying video game addiction and takes steps to curb it, check out this great resource from the MediaWise Network.

The Children’s Ministries Group at the General Board of Discipleship for the United Methodist Church is planning a Children’s Ministry Forum in Raleigh NC in February of 2010.  The title of the forum is “Fill My Cup Lord.”

I have been invited to present and I am looking forward to being there.   I will present two worksessions.  The tentative topics are:

I am a big fan of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.  They regularly conduct research on how individuals, families, and society are being impacted by the Internet and online technologies.  They have been tracking cell phone use among teens for 5 years now.

Pew found that the number of teens with cell phones has risen to 77%, closing in on the 88% of adults who have cell phones.   More teens send text messages daily (38%) than talk on their cell phones daily (36%).  If you are around teens regularly these numbers will not be a surprise to you.

These numbers reinforce the importance of teaching teens to use cell phones in a responsible and safe manner.  Probably the most important thing we can do as adults is model good behavior and teach the dangers of driving while talking on the phone, or worse yet, texting.    Researchers from the Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters and the Eastern Virginia Medical School recently conducted a study to see the impact on teens of driving while talking on the phone or texting.  Donald Lewis M.D., co-researcher, called the results frightening.  Teens drove erratically and ran over virtual pedestrians.

According to a recent study by the American Automobile Association, the risk of a car accident increases by 50% for people who text message while driving.

It is time we made this a topic for discussion in our youth groups and Sunday School Classes.

At our church breakfast this morning someone asked how they could keep their young child from accessing inappropriate sites on the web.  This should be a concern for any parent or grandparent who has children in the house.  Even if the child is not actively seeking out inappropriate material he or she can come across it accidentally.

The person I talked with today is using the Microsoft Vista operating system.  The first thing I recommend is to make use of the parental controls that Microsoft has built into the system.  The first step is to setup an account on the computer for the child.  The setup is easy and is covered in depth at the link below.  The harder part is actually using the accounts properly.  You can setup a child’s account and impose restrictions in the software, but if the child uses the computer under your login, all the controls are bypassed.  Therefore you must log off when you are finished using the computer and make sure the child always uses his or her own account.

Detailed instructions are available here.

Of course, the general guidelines always apply:
1. Talk to your kids about your expectations for Internet use.
2. Monitor your kids when they use the Internet.
3. Talk to them about what they are doing online.
4. Keep the computer in a public room in the house.

I hope you never get that message on your computer, however, it is a distinct possibility.  Think for a few minutes about the files you have on your hard drive at home or at church.  What would happen if that drive failed and could not be recovered.  What would you lose?  Years of sermons?  Income tax records?  Pictures of vacations?  Genealogy records?

If you are like me the thought of losing all that information makes you shudder.  We all know we should backup our hard drives regularly but I dare say, few of us do.  You can copy your important files to CDs or DVDs and store them in a safe location or you can consider one of the many online backup services available now.

I use SugarSync to backup my critical files.  They have a free account that lets you backup 2G of files to their online servers.  You select which folders you want to be backed up.  The program monitors those folders and automatically backs up file that are changed.  You can even back up files from multiple computers to the same account.  If you need more space there are other paid plans available.

Other services with similar features include DropBox, ZumoDrive, and OpenDrive.  Don’t wait until it is too late.  Get your critical files backed up today.