WiredSafety's Guide for Piczo
For Parents and Schools:
Hi! My name is Parry Aftab. I am an Internet privacy and security lawyer. I founded and run the world’s largest online safety and help group, WiredSafety.org. You may have seen us on TV, read one of my books or heard about us in magazines or newspapers on Internet safety issues, especially those impacting kids. We get lots of e-mails and inquiries from parents about all types of Internet risks. Recently, I have been receiving a large number of inquiries from schools, parents, regulators and the media about social-networking websites. I decided that it was important to address parent concerns and answer their questions.
Piczo and other similar sites are designed to allow people to share their creativity, pictures, and information with others. Sometimes people do this to find romance. Sometimes they do it to find friends with similar interest. While this may be okay for adults, it is not okay for kids.
Piczo recognizes this, and prohibits anyone less than 13 years of age from using their website. Unfortunately, while they may set rules to keep younger kids off the site, they can’t prevent kids from lying about their age, pretending to be 13 years of age or older. Along with their own Content Review program, Piczo uses the reports of other members and site visitors, pointing out suspicious pages or under-age users. It’s not perfect, but it does help spot many underage members.
While we can’t always tell if someone is lying about their age, Piczo tries to keep them off their site. If you discover that your child is posing as someone older and using their site, you have two choices. You can have the site taken down, or you can supervise what they are posting and doing online. It’s important to all parties that you help maintain your child’s safety while online.
For parents, the procedures for deletion of an underage Piczo account fall into the following two primary categories. No matter which one applies in your case, you should take advantage of this opportunity to review their page first. You might be surprised (hopefully pleasantly).
If they haven’t posted anything to put them at risk, and aren’t communicating with strangers, ask them why they want a profile page at all! You might be surprised at what they tell you. While parents freak out (understandably) at the provocative images and wild language used by some online users, most of the teens don’t see them or pay attention to them. They are there to show off their creativity and self-expression and to communicate with their offline friends. As long as they are old enough to understand the rules and adhere to them (no one under 13 is old enough for this, even with parental approval in my humble opinion), and as long as you keep an eye on what they are doing, posting and how they are communicating with others, it’s YOUR choice as to whether they keep their site up or not. (Make sure that you don’t become a self-appointed “cyber-cop”, reporting other people’s kids for posting underage until you speak with their parents first!)
If you find that they are saying and posting inappropriate things or those comments don’t seem to conform to their otherwise good offline behavior, don’t panic yet. Think about how our parents would have reacted if they could have seen or heard everything we said to our friends when no adult was around. I guarantee that they would have been almost as shocked as many parents are about what their kids are posting online.
Also, remember that many of the things your kids are saying are being said to impress their audience and are often not true. (Luckily!)
The important difference between what we used to say or do and their posting online, however, is that when we acted out or boasted about acting out, we didn’t do it to an audience of millions of people. So, while you shouldn’t panic, you should take quick action if your kids are posting personal information in a public forum, such as Piczo, or communicating with strangers online.
You can learn more about how to help them surf and communicate safely at WiredSafety.org, WiredKids.org or Teenangels.org. If you fear that they are communicating with strangers, or even thinking about meeting them offline, send them to KatiesPlace.org to learn how Internet predators operate. It may help scare them safe. If you fear that they are being cyberbullied, check out our Stopcyberbullying.org page, or reach out to WiredSafety.org’s cyberbullying help line.
With that being said, here’s how you can have their page removed from Piczo:
With Piczo Login Information
Click Here for information on cancelling a Piczo site with login information.
Without Piczo Login Information
Email us abuse@piczo.com
Please include the site name, the first and last name of the member, the first and last name of the parent, and the parent’s phone number in case we need contact you for further verification.
How do you know if your child has a profile at Piczo?
The best way to find out if your child has a profile on this or another similar site is to ask them. If you’re not sure that your child is being honest with you, you can search most sites by using their e-mail address, or by searching for their school. (You click on “search” and enter their email address or full name in the appropriate search box.) If you find that your child has a profile on the website, you should review it. It’s amazing how much you can learn about your child by reading their profiles. Does it contain personal information, such as their full name, address or phone numbers? Has your child posted photos? Are they photos of themselves or someone else? Are they sharing poems they write or provocative comments about themselves or others?
Ask them why they created the profile. You might learn that they wanted to share their thoughts with others, make new friends or even allow others in their school to get to know them better. But not all of their motives are as noble or safe. Some may be interested in meeting new romantic interests or role-playing inappropriately online. And when a young preteen lies about their age posing as a seventeen year old at the site, that can be a serious problem. Others in their late teens might approach your child thinking they were older. That’s bad for everyone.
If you discover that your child is posting provocative comments or inappropriate images online, it’s time for the tough talk. The one about stranger dangers and how that cute eighteen year old boy they meet online may not be cute, may not be eighteen and may not be a boy. (Parents of young boys need to understand that their children are equally at risk. About one-third of the cases of Internet sexual exploitation are men exploiting boys.) Our children need to realize that there are real risks relating to meeting strangers offline, including murder. The first confirmed murder victim by an Internet sexual predator was thirteen when she died, four years ago May 2002. The risks are real, not matter how smart, sophisticated or tech savvy your kids are. We recommend the book, A Girl’s Life Online, by Katie Tarbox. We are also developing a few videos for teens teaching them about standard ploys used by Internet sexual predators to lure a young boy or girl into an offline meeting or sexual exploitation situations online.
It’s not easy raising children anymore. It is even harder when the parent is expected to be expert in Internet, cell phone and interactive game risks. The good thing is that you’re not facing these challenges alone. We’re here to help.
Just remember that while your kids may know more than you do about technology, you know more about life. And you are allowed to set the rules and enforce them. You’re still the parent! There is software you can install that will record what your kids say and post online. There is even one that will e-mail you reports at work. The ones I like best are made by Spectorsoft, and can be found at spectorsoft.com. But don’t use them just to spy on your kids. Treat them like a security video camera in the corner of a bank. No one views the tapes unless and until there is a break-in. Do the same here. Check the program reports if something goes wrong. It will collect whatever you need for evidence and to help your child if something goes wrong.
Also, check your parental control programs. Many, such as
If you child is being bullied by another Piczo user online, check the terms of service first. If the bullying violates Piczo’s terms of service, report it to abuse@Piczo and the offending comments and/or profile will be removed. If something serious occurs and you need to reach out to law enforcement, let them know that Piczo has created a special procedure for law enforcement inquiries, especially when the safety and well-being of its site users is involved. They should contact abuse@Piczo. Cyberbullying is a growing problem. You can learn more about it, as well as how to prevent and handle cyberbullying incidents, at WiredSafety’s StopCyberbullying.org and InternetSuperheroes.org. WiredSafety.org also has a reportline link for victims of cyberbullying, their schools and parents where specially-trained volunteers assist victims of cyberstalking, harassment and cyberbullying without charge.
If schools are looking for a presentation or program to address their students’ posting inappropriate profiles or using these websites while underage or other parent concerns, they should visit WiredSafety.org, WiredKids.org or Teenangels.org. Schools may find many of their students using a particular website. If the students are under 13, please notify Piczo’s help staff and their profiles will be removed as soon as they can be reviewed. Working together with schools and parents, we may be able to keep our kids off of website that are inappropriate for young children and teach them to make good choices online and offline.
If you have other questions, contact me at askparry@wiredsafety.org.
Stay safe.
Parry Aftab, Esq.
Executive Director,
The Wired Safety Group (wiredsafety.org)
Learn more about Internet safety at WiredSafety.org!