Playing video games is one of the top pastimes for children these days, almost more than watching TV. We created AOL PlaySavvy to help parents navigate through all the gaming information out there in order to decide what’s appropriate for their children.

The new content site is a part of the GameDaily section of AOL’s content network.

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PayPal is acting responsible or at least pretending to be by helping parents tighten their children’s spending. The new system, PayPal Student Account, provides parent with an easy way to give their children some financial independence (a check on their spendings to be precise). It lets parents create up to branch their main account into four divisions (at most)  and thus distribute an amount in cash at one time or fix it up as a recurring one (pocket money). The money children have can be spent on any Web site that accepts payment via PayPal. It also facilitates easy transfer by simply texting get $(followed by the amount) to PayPal, which upon approval from the parents is transferred.

Call it saving parents from the every day squabble when it comes to their children asking for cash or putting some sort responsibility upon the young ones to spend money efficiently, I think it’s going to work both ways, until the bright kids figure out a way to transfer cash at will (you know what I am talking about).

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Libe Goad, Editor-in-Chief, AOL PlaySavvy said, "Playing video games is one of the top pastimes for children these days, almost more than watching TV. We created AOL PlaySavvy to help parents navigate through all the gaming information out there in order to decide what’s appropriate for their children."

PlaySavvy contains content in the following categories: gaming 101 (all about games), FAQ (apparently with feedback from a parental gaming panel), gaming reviews from a parent's perspective but with the kids in mind and how-to articles including how to talk to your kids about gaming.

The login functionality uses AOL ids and some of the content is provided by third-parties. While I can't imagine this site doing massive pageviews, it could help keep parents inside the AOL content network longer which is a good thing for AOL. 

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• “New media allows for a degree of freedom and autonomy for youth that is less apparent in classroom settings. Youth respect one another’s authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults. Their efforts are also largely self-directed, and  the outcome emerges through exploration, in contrast to classroom learning that is oriented toward set, predefined goals.”

The study further found that youth are mostly using social networking and social media to extend their face-to-face friendships.  They are exploiting the “always on” nature of the internet and mobile communication to keep in constant contact. However this, along with the permanent nature of so much internet interaction is not without it’s pitfalls, but therein lies another valuable lesson young people are learning: to navigate this new medium gracefully.

As Read, Write, Web puts it:

• “It’s a new world for those privileged enough to have access to the web. The consequences of these changes will unfold in years to come.”

Indeed, in the future we may very well see a break between those that have developed these skills and those that have not.

• “Contrary to adult perceptions, while hanging out online, youth are picking up basic social and technological skills they need to fully participate in contemporary society. Erecting barriers to participation deprives teens of access to these forms of learning. Participation in the digital age means more than being able to access “serious” online information and culture. Youth could benefit from educators being more open to forms of experimentation and social exploration that are generally not characteristic of educational institutions.”

So regardless of the detractors, it looks more and more like it will be a social media world in the future.  Unfortunately it might take this fresh generation of social media savvy people to transform corporate culture’s understanding and use (or misuse) of this exciting new medium.

Next2Friends - It’s NOW!

Game Protector could be the solution here. (There are many others like creating separate user profiles for example). The application can password protect any executable that you select. While it is called Game Protector it can virtually protect any other executable as well. Usage is simple and straightforward.

The user browses to the folder the executable is in and selects it in the file browser. He then enters the password to protect the file from users who do not have the password. It is also possible to change the icon of the executable and to rename it.

A click on Protect will protect the executable with the password. The main interface contains options to create a backup first and to unprotect an executable again.

A password box is displayed whenever a protected executable is launched. Entering the password will start the executable normally while a false password will simply display the form again. One advantage of this service is that Game Protector does not have to be running in the background to protect the executable.

Protect Games With Passwords

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De-friending has always been awkward. Social networks offer one click “remove a friend” options, but it still doesn’t make the decision any easier.

What follows is a collection of stories about de-friending. In summary, what I discovered is that everyone approaches their social network differently and it’s impossible to communicate all those nuances when you choose to de-friend.

As you read, keep in mind that these are all one-sided stories. The interviewees made their best guess as to why the de-friending happened or how the offending party felt after being de-friended. I purposely didn’t include stories of de-friending romantic exes because those de-friendings are obvious. If you see a real name and in some cases a link to their profile page, I received permission to publish. In all other cases where people wished to remain anonymous, I replaced their name with the first name of one of my ex-girlfriends or one of my wife’s ex-boyfriends.

1. Squashing opportunists trying to grow their network

Andrew Bouchard is a member of the Nashville swing dance scene and it’s reflected among his Facebook friends. One day a request came from Jane Dubuffet (not real name), who happened to be friends with five other of his swing dance friends. He couldn’t remember her, but friended her anyway.

Soon after, Andrew received an invitation to join the group “Who is Jane Dubuffet?” Having all fallen for Jane’s friendship requests, the group of 50 members quickly discovered that this mystery woman had infiltrated the Nashville swing dance scene just to grow her business network. Unimpressed, Andrew decided to scratch Jane off his dance card.

2. Getting laid off can be embarrassing, especially if you were bragging about your job

Liz’s college friend Dave wouldn’t shut up about his new high powered consulting job. After a few quick promotions that inflated his head, the bubble burst. Dave got laid off. Ashamed, he quickly closed up his social network so certain people, like his ex-girlfriend, wouldn’t find out and take pleasure in his misfortune. So he began de-friending all those connected to his ex, like Liz, who worked with his ex.

3. Parents can be embarrassing exhibitionists

On Facebook, Lauren leaves outrageous status updates about her mock drug use. Her mother, new to Facebook, wasn’t in on the joke. After seeing an update announcing that Lauren’s superpowers might be tempered by PCP, her mother responded and laid into her. In turn, Lauren looked at her mother’s profile and saw that her mom posted a photo of herself in the pool, nude! While Lauren couldn’t actually see any of the naughty bits, it was obvious to Lauren that her mother was nude. Lauren called her mom on it, de-friended her, and ever since their relationship has been strained.

4. Take a hint. I don’t want you in my show

Coordinating an arts management program, Aaron accepts friend requests from more artists than he puts in his shows. While Aaron accepted Dustin’s MySpace friend request, he let him know that he wasn’t good enough to be in one of his art shows. Retaliating, Dustin began leaving nasty messages on Aaron’s blog and MySpace profile. Aaron de-friended Dustin on MySpace and Facebook only to discover that even if they weren’t friends, Dustin could still leave nasty personal messages through his Facebook profile.

5. Guilted back into re-friending

Denise V.’s kickball teammate had a little too much to drink one night after a game. His obnoxious behavior really got to her. She had enough. Not wanting to see his updates anymore, Denise de-friended him to which he quickly responded, “Whoops, I may have de-friended you accidentally when I was removing some coworkers. Or else you de-friended me on purpose because you are a hater…” Caught, Denise felt obliged to re-friend him because they have so many mutual friends and they see each other once a week. Having told her friends the story, Denise is often jokingly referred to as the “hater.”

6. De-friending can regress mature women into a high school gossip mob

Jill received a message from her friend Megan asking, “When are we getting together? Miss you.” Moments after that message, Jill discovered that Megan had de-friended her on Facebook. That was odd. She gets a “let’s get together” message, the two of them hang out twice a week, and they have lots of mutual friends. All signs that made Jill believe she was Megan’s friend. Jill didn’t realize that Megan was on a rampage, a three day de-friending bloodbath, cleaning out her Facebook friends list.

The behavior was so strange that all the mature 30-something women who were in Megan’s original friend pool turned into gossiping teenagers. Why did some of them make the cut and others didn’t? Turns out some friends who stayed on were told by Megan that they were being left on because they could be valuable to Megan’s professional network. One friend was told that she was kept on because Megan thought if she de-friended her, which apparently she wanted to do, she would lose her social standing in the group.

7. I really love the Minnesota Vikings, and I don’t care if that ends our friendship

On Sundays, David Erickson goes into full “I love the Vikings” Twitter mode with his MST3K-like running commentary throughout the game. Most people follow him for his marketing advice, but often get fed up once a week on Sundays. David doesn’t get upset that people stop following him. He knows it’s not personal. He just really loves the Vikings.

8. Don’t leave or we’ll all de-friend you

Steven Ortley gave his 2-week notice to his small 35 person PR firm. He was going to leave for a larger competitor, Weber Shandwick. The move came off as a personal insult to his coworkers. As he walked out the door, 18 of his former coworkers immediately de-friended him on LinkedIn. He hasn’t spoken to any of them since, but expects he will since he’s in such a small community. Until then, Steven prepares himself for the inevitable by having awkward conversations about his 401K transfer with his former office manager.

9. Don’t use my personal life as leverage in business negotiations

Doug Cone works hard and plays hard. After getting a little behind on a project, Doug’s colleague took advantage of their social networking friendship at work by using Doug’s posted Facebook photos of his weekend rafting adventures. In team meetings, his jealous colleague would complain, “…and you are sending pictures having fun in rivers with a bunch of girls.” Now de-friended, the colleague doesn’t seem so distracted by Doug’s weekend adventures.

10. I’m ok with your race and religion, but not your political beliefs

I was not surprised to hear that many people de-friended during the political season. Here’s a quick roundup of the offending issues that pushed people to pull the de-friend trigger:

- An argument about abortion rights ended with Jay Ferrari being called a baby killer.

- A good friend of Allison Nazarian called the candidate he didn’t like a “Nazi.” After the de-friending and a discussion, Allison re-friended him, but they don’t discuss politics online anymore.

- Marsha became scared of one friend who announced on his status updates that he hoped all the candidates died in a plane crash.

- Marianne had enough of her friend’s political propaganda harassment. Unfortunately, de-friending didn’t stop the harassment as it continued on email where she had to block him.

- Claire Kiefer had to pull the plug on a friend who announced, “I don’t really HATE Mexicans, but I am sick of all the immigration rallies” and another who photoshopped an Obama campaign sign with an Islamic flag in the “O.”

11. Trying to de-friend your best friend’s ex-girlfriend

Chris de-friended his best friend’s girlfriend during their breakup. Even though the de-friending was unprompted, Chris got roped in with the ex-girlfriend complaining, “How can you say, ‘Let’s be friends’ and then ask Chris to de-friend me on Facebook!”

12. Keep your online flirting to one woman at a time

Michelle Reynolds began cautiously dating David, a guy she met on MySpace. While they were dating Michelle noticed that David was also sending flirtatious messages to some other random woman online. The pick up lines were identical to the ones David had been using on Michelle. He said things like, “Thinking about you,” “Let’s get together,” and “When can I see you?”

While in full blown multi-flirt mode, David began telling Michelle he wanted a relationship. In addition, Michelle saw David send a message to the other woman announcing he was going to take the next plane out to see her. Having seen enough, Michelle finally confronted him, and David began begging and defending himself, “Gimme another chance…I flirt with all my friends like this…I have no interest in that woman at ALL…” Michelle didn’t believe him so she deleted him.

Three weeks later Michelle looked at David’s MySpace page and the other woman’s. Turns out they both had publicly professed their undying love to each other and had moved in together.

I’m sure you’ve been de-friended or had to de-friend someone. It’s always uncomfortable. Please share your story. I’m sure we can all learn from your misfortune. For more insight, please check out “When technology tells us we have no friends,” and “The awkwardness of de-friending.”

David Spark (@dspark) is a veteran tech journalist and the founder of Spark Media Solutions, a storytelling production company. More importantly, he has lots of great friends. Read more of Spark at his blog Spark Minute or listen and subscribe to his “Be the Voice” blog and podcast.

Imagery courtesy of iStockPhoto, swilmor, dolgachov, 7nuit

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"Here's something that is sort of under the radar: evidently a company called Mobileyes has teamed up with various local news networks to release customized live Traffic cam apps. Available for for WM Pro and Standard devices, you can download the app for your region and then select via various sub-menus locality and specific highways."

Now this is a handy application. I remember when I was a kid we use to watch this mythical box called the TV that would show us pictures from various "eyes in the sky" so my parents could see how traffic was looking on our always backed up highways. Now you can pretty much do the exact same thing from your phone and a few traffic cams making the days of helicopters recording traffic a thing of the past.