Family Tech News Roundup: Dec 15th – 21st

You want to read all about the experiment the company Bark did on tweens on Instagram! It's definitely hard to read.

It’s the home stretch! Are you all ready for Christmas?? It’s these days that I am get suckered into buying more things. I start remembering people…oh I should have gotten them something, or OH This would be perfect for so-and-so.

I have found that the best thing to do is to just sit in my house and watch Hallmark Christmas Movies and drink hot chocolate. If I’m home, I’m not tempted to buy anything extra. Who’s with me?? Oh, and of course read the latest news in the world of Family Tech.

The news was a little light this week, being so close to Christmas AND so close to CES when the family tech news will be coming fast and furious! You definitely want to be following us on social @FamilyTech during the first full week in January so you don’t miss a thing!

Woman Poses as 11 Year Old Girl on Instagram

The really big story this week has been about a post on Medium.com. There is a special team at Bark that is working to show the dark side of the web and social media. This is to help parents understand the dangers that are present so we can help protect our kids.

The woman used photo magic to appear like an 11-year-old and posted on a brand new Instagram account. Within MINUTES she was getting direct messages from all sorts of terrible people. They sent over all of their evidence to law enforcement, but the results were shocking. Warning. The article is extremely hard to read but super important to know.

Although Instagram has stated they are releasing the ability to turn off DM’s from people you don’t follow, I have not seen that added to my Instagram app yet on Android or on my test Apple device. On Android I’m even in the beta test group, so I should get new features before they are released. Hey, Instagram! This one is an important one to release ASAP, so please get on that.

Star Wars Episode 9 Released in Theaters

It’s the end of the end of the trilogy of trilogies! The final installment of the Star Wars franchise was released this week. I haven’t watched it yet… so NO SPOILERS!!! Hoping to maybe catch a viewing right after Christmas!

Massive Hulu Outage

On Thursday I came home from work and tried to watch the finale of The Masked Singer, only to be greeted with an error message! I rebooted the Roku thinking that might fix it. When it didn’t I took to Twitter, as I always do in situations like this.

Twitter was abuzz with the hashtag #huludown. Ironically, it happened on the same day that Hulu apparently upped it’s pricing for Hulu Live. People were NOT pleased with the development. It wasn’t down very long and came back up within about an hour. I was able to watch my show and all was right with the world.


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About the author

Sarah Werle Kimmel

Sarah Werle Kimmel is a digital parenting coach and family tech expert. She has spent the last 20 years of her career working as a Microsoft Certified IT Manager supporting over 100 small businesses. During that time she started Family Tech LLC to help families understand and manage the technology in their home. She has regularly appeared as a family tech expert on local NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX news affiliates, BYUtv and Studio 5, and has been invited all over the world from tech companies like Lenovo, Verizon, Microsoft, Dell, and Samsung. Find out more on her website SarahKimmel.com

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