Growing up with today’s technology has its advantages. Constant access to family and friends via social networking, and the ability to take all of your music, photos and videos with you wherever you go are just a few perks. As many parents will tell you, there are also downsides to growing up in the “always connected” generation.

Kids can all to easily be maliciously bullied via texting, Twitter and Facebook. All without any physical contact. Even worse, kids can even become targets for sexual predators — all from that mobile phone you gave them only for ‘emergencies.’ A company called SMobile is working to help families block what’s dangerous, while offering monitoring and location-based services to help ensure your child’s safety.

Read on to see SMobile’s full list of features and learn how it can help protect your loved ones.

Read more about mobile security products

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Students attending Albuquerque Public Schools could soon learn whether they will be allowed to carry cell phones in school.

Board members are considering changes to the school district’s student behavior handbook. An APS spokesman says a vote isn’t expected before Tuesday.

Under a proposal, the district would not ban students from having cell phones, but phones or any other electronic device must be turned off or silenced during class.

Currently, individual schools design their own policy about electronic devices.

Opponents of cell phones in schools say they hope a ban will cut back on cyber bullying and sexting.

Read more about sexting

Even with recent cyberbullying-related suicides receiving national attention, teens continue to use the Internet to harass, embarrass and even make threats against peers!

Why is cyberbullying now ubiquitous in the lives of teens? I sat down with more than 100 seventh graders to talk about it.

Read what teens have to say about Cyberbullying

Leslie Buentello, 17, was sitting around her house Tuesday evening, more or less doing homework, when a serious case of boredom — compounded by the munchies — set in. So she decided to text her friend Isabel, a classmate at Mount Pleasant High School.

“i bought the marshmallows,” she said, thumbing the keyboard of her cell phone nonchalantly. “hee hee.”

“fersuuuure,” came back the immediate reply. “i m eating my yummy soup.”

“i m eating my chili cheese fries,” Leslie replied. “life is good.”

A new study published Tuesday reveals the texting habits of America’s 12- to 17-year-olds. The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 75 percent of teens own cell phones, which they use at an astonishing rate to send text messages to friends. Eighty-eight percent of the kids in that age group are sending text messages in a way that mimics — and in many instances replaces — the way kids once talked to each other.

Read more about teens and texting

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – Laramie County School District 1 is adding “electronic torture” to its suspension and expulsion policy in order to combat cyber-bullying.

Assistant Superintendent Mike Klopfenstein says school officials can suspend or expel students who use hurtful language on cell phones and computers, but the proposed change is meant to clarify its policy.

The new policy will be available for review until June 7 when the board votes on the matter.

Klopfenstein says there have been incidents of cyber-bullying in the past two years.

Read more about cyberbullying

A MELBOURNE magistrate has pleaded with young people to think before sending hate-filled text messages, as he prepares to sentence a cyber bully whose victim killed himself.

Allem Halkic was aged 17 when he jumped to his death from Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge in February 2009.

Shane Gerada, 21, of Bacchus Marsh, west of Melbourne, had sent him five threatening text messages in the hours leading up to his death.

He pleaded guilty to stalking in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today.

The court was told cyber bullying had reached plague proportions.

Read more about cyberbullying

Dan Hoffman, Executive VP and CTO for Smobile Systems speaks with Michelle Sklar of bnetTV.com at the 2010 CTIA Wireless show held in Las Vegas

Click here to view the video

Mobile phones should be fitted with improved parental controls so that children can be prevented from accessing harmful internet material, a Government advisor will say today.

Tanya Byron will say that youngsters are increasingly accessing the internet via their phones and that the national safety strategy must keep pace with technology.

She will call for the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) to work with phone manufacturers to enhance parental controls on mobiles.

There are concerns about young children accessing social networking sites, which can be used for cyber-bullying, and internet pornography.

Read more about the demand for Parental Controls

With millions of preteens and teenagers carrying mobile phones, instances of cyber-stalking, cyber-bullying and “sexting” are on the rise, and has resulted in everything from the prosecution of children and parents to teen suicide.

To help parents protect their children from these “mobile assaults,” SMobile Systems has unveiled the latest version of its Parental Controls and Monitoring service to now include GPS tracking and picture monitoring.

Mobile Marketer interviewed Neil Book, CEO of SMobile Systems. Here is what he said.

Read more about SMobile’s Parental Controls product

Christopher Columbus Middle School students learned that the personal information they post on their online social sites may pose a danger if it falls into the wrong hands.

State police officers demonstrated to students that they were able to gather a person’s whole life story in 15 minutes of online research.

Based on the trail of information posted by teens and children, a stranger can determine personal information such as home address, school, telephone number, first and last name and much, much more.

While these young people explore life using the information highway, they may just find themselves face to face with real-life dangers.

Parents need to be aware of the dangers and be vigilant.

Read more about keeping your children safe