Familiar to those in education, STEM is an acronym for curriculum revolving around Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. In other words, students in STEM programs focus on these subjects more than others- taking their knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and math to higher levels than perhaps English, Arts, and more.

The initialism was developed in 2001 by Judith Ramaley, the Asst. Director of Education & Family Resource at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Since Ramaley’s finding, STEM-focused curricula have spread around the world. In fact, today’s high school graduates are some of the first to go through all of K-12 education with a focus on STEM.

Career Building Skills

At any age, it’s important for parents and educators to begin teaching kids about their career building skills even in general terms.  Despite the specific interest in STEM, just 15% of Americans pursue natural science degrees once reaching higher education. This is far less than in other nations. For example, 67% of Singaporeans pursue natural science undergraduate degrees, 50% of Chinese do the same, 47% of the French, and 38% of South Koreans.

More interestingly, America has seen nearly 2 million new STEM jobs created over the last decade. 86% of Americans believe that increasing STEM-trained workers is vital to maintaining the nation’s place in the global economy. While this is true, our students’ math and science scores continue to lag behind other nations. However, Americans students improved their international standing – according to PISA – from 2015 to 2018. In 2015, America’s 10th-grade students ranked 35th in math and 17th in science.

Stem in Schools – Infographic: 

As technology grows, specific skills become obsolete. 2.4 million STEM-related positions went unfilled in 2018. Continue reading for more information on the rise of STEM in schools.

Explore how to give kids a head start in higher education by teaching computational thinking.

With the ever-changing and advancing technology in today’s world, the majority of our lives are embedded within the virtual world. With this, so much is happening concurrently around us that we sometimes don’t notice. Especially for the non-tech savvy, a lot is going on within our devices and we don’t take notice.

Yet, as much as technology as brought with it benefits to help make our lives efficient, it also brings with it disadvantages such as risks of malware and potentially unwanted programs.

What is a Potentially Unwanted Program?

Potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) feature broad descriptions.  A PUP is basically a software that a user doesn’t use or want but consents for it to be downloaded anyways. These programs include adware, spyware or even certain features within the downloaded program you may have consented to without knowing. For example, when you are downloading a program, you may come across a pop up window a few steps before installation.

This pop-up window will have some terms and agreements asking you to consent or boxed options that may already be ticked. The majority of us normally consent to these otherwise suspicious requests without even taking the time to read the information. Sometimes, the programs may be malicious or simply take up extra space. However, generally, PUPs are not designed to penetrate your device to steal personal data or alter personal settings.

Does is Matter if Remove a PUP or Not?

Some proprietors of these programs don’t want them to be termed as malware because the device user or owner normally consents to their download and installation. PUPs do not act like classic malicious programs that damage, lose or steal your data. Thus, many users may ask themselves if it is actually worth their time to remove the PUPs from the device. The answer is yes. You should absolutely remove PUPs from your device.  

These programs are not beneficial to your device in any way, in fact, they simply bring on a nuisance. Plus, there are more reasons to support this recommendation. As much as potentially unwanted programs don’t pose dire risks to your devices, they can still be involved in an array of suspicious and unwanted activities within your windows device.

A PUP will sometimes function as a form of adware. It will do so by adding pop up adverts to clean webpages, post websites with their custom ads and sometimes, even prevent the user from closing down the pop-up ad until a video ad is finished.

Other PUPs will work as the classic adware by watching your online activities and trends, then selling the data to advertisers. Other PUPs change the default homepage of your browser then install a browser toolbar with no value and add bookmarks without the user’s knowledge. Additionally, PUPs can even work to hijack your searches and functions within the device.

These programs do this by redirecting you to their website when you are trying to visit a competitor website. The potentially unwanted programs go as far as changing your search results by inserting their favorable options into the search engine. So yes, PUPs can sometimes be destructed! And so, you must try your level best to prevent them from infecting your device.

How To Prevent PUP infection

The one key difference that PUPs hold compared to other “classic termed” malware attacks is that without your consent, they will never penetrate your device. Consequently, it should be relatively easier to prevent a PUP infection. The first step to reducing the risk of PUP infection is to always take extra precautions when installing free software and programs.

However, due to the lucrative and monetary gain, much of the legitimate software programs that are available for free on Windows do come with PUPs. Thus, if you pay extra attention during the installation process, you can opt to prevent the PUPs from being downloaded as well.

Opting Out of Installing Potentially Unwanted Programs

You should know that there are two ways you can download your software either through a standard or custom installation.

When you pick the custom installation option, the familiar ticked boxes will appear. Take the time to reviews the information that is next to these boxes to ensure no unwanted feature is installed along with the software.

No matter the installation option you are presented with, the custom option is always the best. This is because, through this option, you really get to know what you are installing into your device.

How To Get Rid Of PUP

If by any chance you have downloaded PUPs unknowingly, there is still a way you can remove them from your device. Removing potentially unwanted programs from your windows device isn’t exactly rocket science. There are two very simple ways you can get rid of PUPs. The first option is to invest in an anti-malware program that detects and removes PUPS as well.

Antimalware programs are designed to scan through the device, automatically detect PUPS and delete them from your device instantaneously. Antimalware programs such as Malware Fox is excellent for removing PUPs for your device.

Manual Removal of PUP

The second option is to remove the PUPs from your device manually. To do this, hold down the ALT, CTRL and DELETE keys to bring up the lock screen. Choose the “Task Manager” option, then, enter the “Processes” tab and examine the background applications that are currently running on your windows system.

Take note of the PUP name when you notice it and close down the task manager. The open up the control panel, head to “Uninstall Programs”, type out the PUP name and uninstall it. You should be good to go.

As much as the topic and concept of technology are broad, there is always a way to figure things out. Now that you have found out about PUPs, researching more the topic offers a lot of information on how to tackle the problem. To tackle PUP threats, anti-malware programs also offer detailed tips on how to prevent and address the PUPs on their sites. 

Taking care of your kids while they are online is not an easy task. Being taken advantage of while bullies or seeing them hurt in any way is distressing to every parent. Thankfully some virtual convenience tools are available to assist you to protect your kids.   Kaspersky Safe Kids and Net Nanny are two of them.

Kaspersky Safe Kids verses Net Nanny (Overview)

If you have a kid that can use a computer or mobile independently, you should explore the use one of these tools to see what your child is being exposed to while surfing on the internet. We’ll be going through a detailed review of Kaspersky’s Safe Kids vs. Net Nanny.

General Information

Offered Features	Kaspersky Safe Kids	Net Nanny
Parental Control	✔	✔
Internet Filter	✔	✔
Screen Time Management	✔	✔
Apps Usage control	✔	✔
Texting Management	✔	🗶
YouYube Monitoring	✔	✔
Free Version	✔	🗶

This chart is simply a brief overview.  Now, let’s explore which parental control app is the best.

Kaspersky Safe Kids and Net Nanny Compared

Kaspersky Safe Kids:

This parental control software is developed by Kaspersky. It protects your kids from harmful content on the internet by blocking them. It allows parents to manage their kid’s screen time and check where they go.  Read the full Kaspersky Safe Kids review where you’ll also find downloads for Windows, macOS, Android & iOS.

The free version comes with limited features but it’s a great way to test out even just the basic features, which include an online content filter, safe search for YouTube, the ability to control the usage of apps used by your kids, and screen time management.

Net Nanny:

The parental control software offered by Net Nanny was developed by ContentWatch inc. This software allows parents to monitor and control their kid’s activities on the Internet to prevent them from watching or surfing inappropriate content.

Net Nanny works on devices having Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Kindle & Chromebook.

As you see, most parental control monitoring apps focus on very similar goals.https://www.safesearchkids.com/apps-for-parental-controls/

Features

Both parental control software programs offer parents the ability check and control activities of kids on their phone, as well as on tablets or computers. Let’s review some of the outlined key features that are being offered by both companies.

Internet Filter

Internet Filtering is a feature that allows parents to whitelist and blacklist websites. Whitelist is a list of websites that are approved by parents and can be accessed by kids. Whereas the blacklist is the list of the blocked website due to adult or inappropriate content. Without doing anything, default filtering is set up to restrict kids from bad content.

One cannot expect a parents first downloading and installing the software to manually allow or block websites they don’t even know about.  However, there is a feature that enables parents to block (or allow) specific websites or a category of content.  Reasons for this may be allowing certain websites for teens, as compared with younger kids in the family.

Both Kaspersky Safe Kids and Net Nanny offers internet filtering features to manage kid’s online activity.

YouTube Monitoring

YouTube is one of the most popular websites visited worldwide.  So it stands to reason that kids will be attracted to it.  Setting up parental controls for YouTube according to age through a Google account does not mean kids won’t have access to videos you won’t want to them see.  Kaspersky allows parents to check kid’s activities and protect them from inappropriate content by using an Online Content Filter feature.

On the other side, Net Nanny allows you the same feature to check kid’s YouTube activities. Net Nanny offers users the ability to filter YouTube content for their kids by using the Internet Filter feature.

Screen Time Management

Sure, there is plenty on the internet to worry about.  That’s the main reason to choose a parental control program.  But spending time in front of a screen even while watching harmless or even educational material can have unrelated negative effects.  It can affect a kid’s behavior as well as habits. To prevent issues of too much screen time, Kaspersky allows parents to monitor and control the time their kids spend on the devices.

Whereas Net Nanny options related to screen time focuses on setting usage limit, such as a a daily time limit allotment.

Texting Management

If you are worried about a specific contact that is in touch with your kid. You can flag and monitor those conversations using Kaspersky Safe Kids.  You will be able to check all call logs and text messages. However, this feature is limited to Android users only

Net Nanny doesn’t provide any text management feature.  No monitoring is available but it allows you to block texting and related apps.

Child Locator

With Kaspersky you can check the real-time location of your kid. Additionally, it allows you to set a geofence. Geofence allows you to set the location where you expect your kid to be.

Net Nanny doesn’t have any feature like geofencing but it shows you the current location of your kid.

Pricing Comparison

Kaspersky Safe Kids pricing

Kaspersky offers a free version with limited features. To truly test it out, you’ll need to give the software a try via the free 7 day trial of the paid version.  It it gives you a bundle of great tools to protect your kid online. Kaspersky Safe Kids software is cheaper than Net Nanny.  For a one year plan you will be paying $14.99 a month.

Net Nanny pricing

Net Nanny doesn’t offer any free version or free trial to users. Currently, it has 3 below outlined plans are available.

1 Desktop, For PC & MAC	5 Devices, For PC, Mac & Mobile	20 Devices, For PC, Mac & Mobile
$39.99/Year	$54.99/Year	$89.99/Year

In the debate of Kaspersky Safe Kids vs. Net Nanny, doing your own research is key to finding the right solution for your family.  What works for you is dependent on the size of your family and the number of devices you want to implement parental controls on.  Kaspersky is the most budget conscious when dealing with one single device.  There 7 day free trial certainly makes it a convenient way to test out the software on your child’s particular device, as well as giving you a feel for the monitoring features as a parent.

For many years, Kaspersky has been a well known software company providing complete internet security resources. More recently, they’ve entered the parental control zone with Kaspersky Safe Kids.  It’s an excellent parental control option for parents as they navigate to find the best means to protect their family.

Kaspersky Safe Kids can be implemented as part of a total internet security bundle, which includes privacy protection, anti-virus, anti-hacking, anti-malware, and even a VPN.   Or you can choose to subscribe to receive only the parental control options.  Keep in mind that if you own a computer you should already have the basic internet security features activated on your computer. These includes built-in features such as Windows Defender, as well as anti-virus protection and malware protection.

It can be a confusing landscape. To clarify, if you are seeking parental controls with a reputable software program like Kaspersky Safe Kids you can download it alone or as part of Kaspersky Total Internet Security with a bundled price.

Kaspersky Safe Kids – Parental Controls

Not sure about Kaspersky Safe Kids?  There is a free version that offers free parental controls but with limited features. It’s a great way to get a feel for how parental controls work, especially if you are new to this type of online protection for your kids.  Let’s first review the differences between the two.

The Free version of Kaspersky Safe Kids includes:

• App usage, allowing the ability to monitor and control the usage of apps.
• Screen time management, limiting the amount of time a child can use their device.
• Online filtering of websites, similar to our Safe Search Kids filtering app.
• YouTube Safe Search, which provides YouTube parental controls and blocks harmful videos in browsers and on the YouTube app.

Kaspersky Safe Kids – Full Version

The premium version includes the following parental control features;

• Online filtering to protect your family from searching for and accessing harmful websites and content.
• App usage control, including setting time limits and usage limits according to age and categories.
• Screen time limits for device access as shown on the free version with the additional ability to set exact times for access.   For example, it is possible for you to limit internet and/or phone access overnight or at school.
• YouTube filtering and search history monitoring.  Just as Kaspersky Safe Kids FREE allows you to block bad content, the premium version enables you to also keep an eye on their YouTube History.
• GPS location, allowing parents to monitor their kids whereabouts on a map.
• Battery tracker, a unique option not available in other parental control programs. It let’s parents know when their child’s phone battery may be out of juice resulting in them losing touch with their child.
• Real time alerts.  This parental control feature is a staple of all good parental controls software programs and apps.  It simply means you don’t have to login to your Kaspersky parental control account everyday do be sure everything is fine with your child’s online activity.

Setting Up Kaspersky Parental Controls

Whether you are seeking Total Internet Security or only the Safe Kids parental control app, here are the steps for easy set up.

1. Locate the program you want to download:  Kaspersky Safe Kids (scroll down page to see free version), or Total Internet Security
2. Set up your My Kaspersky account.  This is the universal account that give control of any Kaspersky software you install and use.
3. Install the software on any device in your home that you wish to monitor. Set up security options and parental controls.
4. From within your account, select parent mode so that you can manage the various options available.

Available for Windows® | macOS® | Android™ | iOS®

Kaspersky Internet Security with Parental Controls

Kaspersky is a longtime trusted name in cyber security.  Within the last few years they have developed a parental control app for their customer base, as well as new users seeking parental controls with multiple options. Kaspersky Safe Kids can be downloaded even if you are not currently using Kaspersky’s internet security solutions. If you desire, you can bundle their parental controls with other software, such as anti-virus, anti-malware and anti-hacking.

The 100% free downloadable version of Kaspersky’s parental controls is available for iPhone and android, but with limited features. This is not a free trial. The free version is available for indefinite use and includes web filtering, basic app monitoring, screen time management, and filtering of YouTube videos.

The full version of Kaspersky’s parental control app includes additional options to protect kids fully on their devices, such as YouTube search history monitoring, a GPS locator, more control over app usage and screen time schedules. A unique feature of this app for iPhone is battery management.  It allows parents to know if their child’s phone is about to lose power. If they are not home, you can remind them to plug in their iPhone before it goes offline and no longer can be tracked.

There are currently 6.5 billion smartphone users in the world, each carrying an array of applications in their pocket. Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store combined offer over 8 million apps available for download. While most of the applications in official app stores are considered secure, many malicious programs still find their way to these platforms.

One can never be too careful when downloading mobile apps. On top of raising awareness about potential security issues, it is recommended to implement safety measures to increase data security in general. One of these measures would be using a VPN and connecting to a VPN server to encrypt data and devices, thus preventing cybersecurity threats in time.

Here are a few tips that will help you recognize malicious apps on app stores.

#1. Check for Inappropriate Permissions

The most obvious hint that the application you’re about to install is unsafe is the list of permissions it asks for. Normally, an application will require a set of permissions to operate on a mobile device. For example, a camera app will require permission to use the device’s camera to take photos and videos.

However, if you’re installing a game that has nothing to do with video recording, yet the app still asks for permission to use the camera, you have a reason to be worried. Make sure to check whether the required permissions are aligned with the app’s purpose. If not, look for an alternative app instead.  Learn how to detect and remove PUP (Potentially Unwanted Programs)

#2. Look at the Contact Emails

If you check the information about the app developer, you should come across a contact email address. Professional developers would never list a contact address that was opened with a free service such as Gmail or Yahoo!. Therefore, if the email address ends with gmail.com or a similar domain, you are either dealing with a very unprofessional developer or a malicious app.

Even if the app wasn’t malicious, it is most likely low quality, since the developers are not putting enough effort into the project. On the other hand, some apps won’t have any contact addresses listed, which is also a reason to be concerned. If there is no contact email at all, chances are the app is not as legit as you would like it to be.

#3. Read the Description Carefully

Malicious apps designed to scam people and steal information often have very poor descriptions. For instance, if you look at any professionally designed application, you will notice that the app’s listing in the app store is flawless. The description flows naturally, and all of the photos are high resolution.

Suspicious apps, on the other hand, don’t have such professional listings. Make sure to read the app’s description carefully and check for grammar errors or inconsistent wording. Any illogical errors of this sort could point to the fact that the app could be dangerous. If you find any bad language or low-quality images, it’s best to stay away from the app altogether.

#4. Check the Reviews

Users should be exceptionally careful when checking the reviews of said applications. The reviews section is a good place to look for evidence and check whether previous users had any issues with the app. However, one thing you should keep in mind is that the reviews can be staged.

If the app has a poor description and low-quality images, yet it only has five-star reviews, chances are that the developers paid people to write positive reviews without even testing the app. No matter how professional an app is, there should always be a good balance of positive and negative reviews that point to areas that need improvement. Therefore, if the review section is nothing but praise for the seemingly low-quality app, chances are it was staged to fool you.

#5. Google It

Whether it’s the Apple or Google Play, the simplest way to screen for malicious apps and research information is to Google the application you are interested in and check what people have to say about it. There are plenty of review websites out there that take time to test mobile apps and report back on their experience. This is an easy way to check whether any of the previous users had security issues because of a specific application.

Start Paying Attention

According to statistics in the US, 57% of digital media usage comes from mobile applications. We use mobile apps on a daily basis, sometimes even more often than we should. This excessive use of applications gives hackers room to sneak in, steal data, and gain unauthorized access to our accounts. Thus, it is important to stay away from potentially malicious applications that could be hiding in app stores. Another way to stay safe is to invest in a VPN to encrypt your data and browse the internet anonymously.

This article is about malicious apps.  Read about ways to protect your computer as well from ransomware.

And explore was to further protect kids regarding their app data.