Hola de Buenos Aires moderno (Hello, from trendy Buenos Aires!)

Just wanted to post a quick note from BA (where we are having a crazy winter in the summer - given it is in the southern hemisphere), since I sa a blog about keeping kids safe online and thought you folks may find it useful. Though written for a BA audience (I gather), it is pretty global in it's messages.
http://www.beesafe.blogspot.com/

Testing Lead in Toys

How do you test for Lead in your kids' toys? I did see a few at home testers online. Has anyone used them ? Any recommendations ?

Toy recalls - Toxic Toys

I am sure we all have heard about the lead paint related toy recalls,and the disturbing stories around the use of banned substances in toys and the harmful effects on children - aqua dot story being the most recent one.

Well, there's another issue that we don't often hear about - thanks to the powerful toy industry lobbying in America, consumers are kept in dark and we become victims of consumerism. This one's about the use of legal toxins such as Phthalates.

This article discusses Phthalates in toys and how California is the only state in the country to pass a bill prohibiting the sale of phathalate toys.

http://mobile.thenation.com/docmobile.mhtml?i=20071105&s=schapiro

Consumer Products Safety Commission, CPSC is the government agency that regulates the industry. They regularly update on their website, all the toys that have been recalled. Here's the list so we know what's been recalled so far:

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/category/toy.html

Didn't know modern day evil (narakasura) could come in the form of toys in order to hurt our children. Let's try and stay enlightened this Diwali on the various forces of evil around us so we know best how to protect our children safe and healthy! Hope you all had a wonderful Diwali! :-)

Praba

Protect yourself and your family - Online Safety

This issue is close to heart for many reasons - One, I've had a stalker(not creepy but very annoying nonetheless) during my teen ages and that had bothered me in many ways. Second, two of my online friends were troubled by a stranger, who knew their whereabouts from reading the online interaction of my friends in a discussion group.

We blog, comment, write about ourselves pretty freely, mostly with the idea that you are sharing the post with like minded bloggers or moms...which in our mind translates to harmless people. But , in reality, we never know what kind of 'creatures' read our posts. Some of the mommy bloggers had figured out a way to see what brings the readers to their sites and some of the search words are not very nice. So, we have to watch out for the kind of information that we are sharing on our blogs.. It might reveal our/our children's whereabouts which we don't want those unwanted readers to know.

What not to reveal

• Full names, date of birth, place of birth etc - not yours, not your child's and not anybody else's.
• Places that you visit frequently... eg: Every Wednesday you goto this xyz park... or every Sunday we attend the Presbyterian church near to this school etc
• Address and phone numbers of course
• About an activity that you are planning in recent future - say, a blog meet at starbucks on 3rd street at 3 pm... or a birthday party at chuckycheese on el camino and lawrence at 6 pm.

I could go on, but this list had made my life more easier. It is a list for young children to keep in mind when they talk to strangers online, but most can be relevant to us too. Please read that and pass on to your friends or young kids that you know, who hang out on the net.