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Some might imagine that the mere existence of Facebook promotes a certain infantilism.

However, one school principal thinks that there are so many underage kids on Facebook and other social-networking sites that the parents need to face official consequences.

Paul Woodward, the principal of St. Whites School in the Forest of Dean, England, believes that 60 percent of the kids in his school use social networks. The trouble is that his school caters only to children between the ages of 4 and 11. Facebook's minimum age is 13.

So, as the Daily Mail relates it, he wants to report … Read more

Amazon released a small software update for the Kindle Fire, but it does have something a lot of people have been demanding: the ability to enable password-protection for purchases, a feature the iPad has always offered.

On top of that, the update has additional parental controls, including the ability to disable access to specific content libraries and block access to the Silk Web browser.

You can manually update you Fire's software by following the instructions on this page or wait for your Kindle to automatically update itself in the next few days when you log onto a Wi-Fi network. … Read more

I am sure that they'll kiss and make up in around 30 years.

Currently, though, I can imagine there is something of a standoff between an Ohio mom and her voluble little 13-year-old.

As WKYC TV tells it, Denise Abbott warned her daughter that if she discovered her mouthing off on Facebook again, she would lose it for a month. This would surely be the equivalent of removing her daughter's pinkie.

"If she can't talk respectfully to me, she won't be able to talk to anyone else either," Abbott said of little Ava.

It … Read more

It's easy enough to childproof a computer, to keep kids away from the Web's unsavory spots. But what about their Android smartphones and tablets? Google's browser offers no parental controls to speak of, no filtering or monitoring or search guards.

Here's an easy fix: Mobicip Safe Browser for Android ($4.99), which offers a familiar Web interface, but with a raft of protections designed to keep kids safe. (It's also available for iOS.)… Read more

Someday there will be a headline that will read: "Parents sue themselves over their own failure to bring up their children."

Until then, we must enjoy legal actions in which parents band together to stop big, bad corporations from mercilessly corrupting their children and bankrupting the harassed people who brought them into the world.

For example, take the group of parents who last year sued Apple, accusing the company of making it too easy for little Johnny and Jemima to make in-app purchases on cute games like Smurfs Village.

The BBC reported earlier this week that Apple had … Read more

Apple today was awarded a patent for "parental controls," a system that lets adults manage purchases made on and made with a phone.

The patent, which was discovered by Patently Apple, outlines a system that lets adults control access to particular linked credit cards, as well as limit the stores at which goods are purchased. Apple originally filed for it on January 9, 2009.

In its filing, Apple makes the case that society is becoming "more mobile" and "fast-paced," with parents giving their children payment cards instead of cash--a solution that can result in … Read more

Teens can be precocious, difficult, and presumptuous. Oh, and whiny. So given how tech-savvy they've all become, one idea to offer them perspective might be to take their laptop and blast it with a gun.

No, no, this is not my advice. This is the advice of Tommy Jordan, a man who appears to run an IT company in North Carolina called Twisted Networks.

Jordan, you see, became frustrated when he discovered his daughter Hannah (we're guessing at the spelling of her name) had posted a rather whiny message about her parents and her domestic responsibilities on her … Read more

Amazon's Appstore for Android include apps that allow in-app purchases. In-app purchases may include items like premium content, subscriptions and game unlock codes.

To prevent a scenario in which your 3-year-old daughter accidentally makes an in-app purchase of an unlock code while playing Cut The Rope (true story), here's how to set the Amazon Appstore's parental controls :

Step 1: From within the Amazon Appstore, touch the menu key and select Settings.

Step 2: Select Parental Controls.

Step 3: Check the first box to enable parental controls and enter your Amazon.com password. This will … Read more

More than 90 percent of Americans own a cellphone today, and a growing number of those cellphone users are children. But how young is too young for a cellphone?

Cellphone or smartphone for kids?

Dear Maggie, This is a two-part question. I'm considering getting a cellphone for my 11-year old daughter for Christmas. A lot of girls in her class already have phones. She's been begging me for one. But I'm not sure if this is too young. What do you think?

Also, at what age do you think it's appropriate for a child to switch … Read more