How to Protect Your Children Online

DAVIS, CA--(Marketwire - February 20, 2009) - Mary Kay Hoal tried everything she could to keep her daughter off of MySpace.

She put password locks on the computer and blocked the site. Still, her daughter found ways to log on. Hoal's concerns stemmed from statistics that showed 29,000 registered sex offenders were on MySpace, one out of every five kids are sexually solicited online, and nine out of ten children are exposed to pornography online.

When she looked for alternative safe sites for kids, she found none, so she decided to do something about it.

The result is www.yoursphere.com, the only social networking site for kids and teens that's backed by the Federal Trade Commission through the site's Privacy Vaults approval. The site's Chief Technology officer worked at the California Department of Justice tracking anonymous online sex offenders, as well as the Megan's Law database. Moreover, it requires verified parental consent for a minor to join. Other features include:

--  Requires verifiable parental consent to join
--  Confirms the identity of the parent providing consent
--  Confirms that the parent or guardian providing consent is not a
    registered sex offender
--  Is exclusively for kids and teens through age 18.
--  Exceeds COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and Federal
    Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines for protecting kids online through our
    approval by Privacy Vaults Inc.
--  Whose policy is "no creepers allowed" -- lurkers are removed and
    banned.
--  No fake profiles. (No one is anonymous on Yoursphere.com)
    

"The bottom line is that we're the only place in the online world that that has taken extraordinary measures to help ensure the safety of its members and meets or exceeds standards set by the government," Hoal said. "Our opinion is that if it's a behavior that is illegal, immoral or unacceptable offline, then it's unacceptable online."

About Mary Kay Hoal

After researching the disturbing landscape of social networking sites -- including endless inappropriate content and thousands of predators targeting youth -- Mary Kay Hoal decided she wanted to raise the bar. Yoursphere is the first social networking service for youth that parents can embrace. Drawing on her corporate entrepreneurial experience as a media strategist, advertising, marketing and publishing VP formerly with CMP Media LLC, Mary Kay built the Yoursphere team.

Contact Information: Contact: Rachel Friedman 727-443-7115, Ext 206 rachel@newsandexperts.com