Protect Yourself Online

While being online doesn’t always feel like a financial activity, it can lead to financial consequences if you aren’t careful. Our personal information is the gateway to our financial accounts, so we must protect ourselves online. Use the following tips to protect your personal and financial information from scammers.

Download Security Software

One method that scammers may use to access your information is via malware. Malware is short for “malicious software” and it refers to a variety of viruses that cyber-attackers create to damage your computer and gain unauthorized access to your information. Scammers may embed malware in a link or an email.

To defend against malware, you can download security software that will protect against, or even remove, malware. Popular brands of security software include Norton, McAfee, and Kaspersky Anti-Virus. In most cases, this software should cost you less than $50. Some may even be available for free download. If you already have security software downloaded, be sure that it is up to date.

Trust Your Intuition

Phishing refers to a variety of scams that try to trick consumers into providing private information. They often involve fake emails, copycat websites, or pop-ups on your computer that ask you to divulge your Social Security numbers, usernames, and passwords.

Phishing scammers will often reel you in by posing as legitimate, trusted, or well-known companies or individuals. They may even pose as a family member. However, there are often red flags. If you think something seems suspicious about an email or an offer seems too good to be true, you are probably right. Don’t respond to an email asking you to divulge information. Instead, call the number listed on a company’s website (and not the number provided in the email) to verify whether an email is authentic.

Many phishing scams rely on fear tactics to get you to share your information. They may tell you that something bad will happen, such as a fine or a frozen account, if you don’t act immediately. Trust your intuition. If you have any reservations, be deliberate and investigate the claim on your own.

Activate Two-Factor Authentication

You have probably used two-factor authentication, even though you may not have known it. Two-factor authentication requires you to enter a password and an additional piece of personal information, such as the name of your first pet or the street where you grew up. Other types of two-factor authentication may be a code sent to your email or phone that you must enter, or a fingerprint scan or face recognition on your phone. Using any of these second-step features will help safeguard your account, even if scammers get access to your password.

Back Up Your Files

Get into the habit of backing up your files into the cloud or onto an external hard dive. That way, even if a scammer penetrates your security software and compromises your computer, your information is protected somewhere else.

Report Phishing

Help the Federal Trade Commission protect consumers by reporting phishing attempts. Forward phishing emails to spam@uce.gov. If the scammers posed as a legitimate company, email that company to make them aware that they are being impersonated. You can also file a report with the Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov/ complaint.

Source: Alex Elswick, Extension Specialist, Department of Family Sciences, University of Kentucky

First, freedom is never free; in fact, it has always been bought at great cost, whether on the battlefield, in the legislative assembly, in the law courts, in the schoolroom, or in synagogues, temples or churches. Also, it is never self-perpetuating, but has had to be rewon again and again... ~Author unknown, 1960s

Reading to Young Children is Time Well Spent

In a hurry-up world where parents spend less time with their children than they would like, what joint activities bring the biggest payoff? Try reading - you can't go wrong.

The benefits of reading include:

• A time out from your hectic pace to quietly be alone with your child; • The warm coziness of curling up together; • A pace that's soothing to the senses (in sharp contrast to the auditory and visual bombardment of television); • Illustrations to delight the eye; • Stories that convey positive messages that help children become the kind of people parents want them to be.

At a time when children leave the home at an even earlier age to be cared for by others, then spend much of their "free time" watching television, parents have less and less control over the messages children receive about how the world works and how they should behave in it. With books and stories, parents can choose the messages that convey values important to your family.

Take a picture book that's just right for three-year old children. Sam Who Never Forgets by Eve Rice. In this charming story, Sam the zookeeper feeds all the animals at 3:00 each afternoon. He knows each animal's favorite food and never forgets to bring it right on time. But one day it appears that Sam has forgotten the elephant and all the animals feel very sorry for him.

It turns out that Sam, knowing how much the elephant needs to eat, had gone to get a wagon full of golden hay especially for him. With a thank you and a hug the elephant trumpets for all to hear: "Hooray for Sam! Sam who never ever never, Sam who never, never forgets."

There's much in this 15-page story (it takes all of five minutes to read) about kindness and dependability, about understanding other's needs, and about gratitude, too. There are many other great old books and wonderful new ones that teach developmentally appropriate concepts and values to young children, like sharing things, helping others, showing kindness, giving comfort, and working together.

All of these are things parents want their children to learn. You can't beat storybooks for getting the point across. The reason for this is that the slow pace of reading aloud allows children to absorb what the story is all about and make meaning of it for themselves. The same holds true with pictures that are stationary. Children have time to take them in.

By contrast, television, with its constant movement and quick-paced soundtrack, is mentally and emotionally overwhelming. TV can rob children of their own thinking. The totality of it is all-encompassing and too quick for them to make sense of. It renders children passive, whereas being read to is something they become engaged and actively involved in.

What's more, both parents and children share a common experience and have a common body of information to draw on later. While child development experts may urge parents to watch television with their children and talk together about the content, few parents can or do. Television is too convenient a babysitter. But with books, you both know what the story is.

Parents can use this shared knowledge in other situations when they need to remind a child of desired behavior. For example, if your toddler forgets to put away her toys, you can remind her about Sam who "never, ever forgets." Or, you can ask your preschooler what a storybook character would do in a similar situation.

It's very comforting for children to repeat familiar lines from stories. That's why children will demand that you read the same story, again and again, never tiring, while adults may become bored. It gives them an incredible feeling of competence that they know the story, particularly those stories that have great meaning for you and your child.

When's the right time to begin reading aloud? Begin right away by giving babies plastic books to chew on. Books should be part of what's good for children: bottles, blankets, and books. When they're a bit bigger, begin reading classics like Pat the Bunny, a cardboard book for ninemonths-old. By a year of age, an infant should know how to hold a book and turn the pages.

For the next ten years, most children relish the chance to be read to daily. A half an hour or so incorporated into each day's routine is ideal. This may sound like a lot of time to eke out of a busy schedule, but it can be a break that refreshes parent and child alike. Most parents have a lot of struggles during the day with their children. Reading time is struggle-free. It can bring back a feeling of intimacy at the end of the day. (And is a welcome halfhour spent with your feet up before facing the demands of the evening!)

Ask the children's librarian at your local public library for reading recommendations. Make sure that the suggested books have illustrations you like and that the text is lyrical and pleasant to read.

The quality of the illustrations also matters. Books can provide the perfect antidote to the violent and ugly imagery often found on television. Choose artistically solid, visually pleasing, positive images. Be sure the content of the illustrations isn't stereotypical and accurately represents the diversity that is America today. Representational images are easier for children to take meaning from than are cartoon figures. Again, they get plenty of those on TV.

Some very beautiful books are downright painful to read. Skim the text to be sure you're attracted to it and that your child will want to listen to it. Choose the right amount of text and correct vocabulary to suit your child's stage of development and attention span.

Reading is a low-cost, stress-free, and fun-filled activity that parents and children can share every day. Reading together is a great way to feel closer, communicate, teach, and learn. It prepares children for reading independently - a skill that is critical to school success. Reading is probably the best thing that parents and children can do together.

Source: Judith Ross-Bernstein, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, New York State College of Human Ecology, Cornell University. Parent Pages was developed by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County. HD 9

Warren County Connection

Quarantine Side Effect: Nearsightedness in Kids

Most kids in the U.S. have spent more time on screens during the COVID-19 pandemic for a myriad for reasons: to complete schoolwork virtually, stay occupied while parents worked at home and maintain connections with friends and family members.

While there is a range of viewpoints about how much media use is appropriate for kids of various ages, there is consensus that too much screen time leads to negative effects on sleep, attention and learning, and increases in kids’ risk for developing depression and obesity.

This spring, researchers are finding another negative consequence of kids’ screen use: myopia or nearsightedness.

First, a little background: Research shows myopia has been on the rise globally for decades and this increase is expected to continue. While most of us associate nearsightedness with simply wearing glasses, the condition can lead to more serious problems later in life such as cataracts, detached retinas, glaucoma, and even blindness.

While genetics certainly play a role in whether a child develops myopia, there are risk factors within our control. Spending long periods of time doing what researchers call “near work” – reading, writing, using computers, playing video games, and watching TV – is associated with developing myopia . Research shows one of the most important steps children can take to prevent myopia is to spend more time outside.

Back to COVID-19: We now know certainly that most children have had less time playing outside and less physical activity during the pandemic; and they have spent more time engaging in sedentary behaviors including screen time.

A large, longitudinal study conducted by American and Chinese researchers screened more than 120,000 children ages 6 to 13 over the course of five years ending in 2020.

Researchers found a substantial uptick in the prevalence of myopia, a several-fold increase, among children ages 6 to 8 years old during the first six months of 2020 when COVID-19 lockdowns took place.

While this is just one study, eye experts across the globe agree it’s likely indicative of a larger problem of increased near-sightedness among young children.