Devices and methods for improving web safety and deterrence of cyberbullying

• US 9,485,206 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2014
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Websafety, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Websafety, Inc.
• Inventors: Day, Rowland W. II, Wise, Eric, Sigler, Steven, Roarke, Jacquez Partha
• Primary Examiner(s): Arevalo, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US14/576,065
• Publication Number:
  US 20150180746A1
• Time in Patent Office: 684 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.2, 455/456.1, 455/41.2, 455/466, 455/557, 455/411, 455/418
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Devices, systems, and methods for allowing parents to view and track smart phone activities of their children can include one or more child software modules. The module can be installed on each child'"'"'s smart phone. The module can access and extract data from or about more than one of the smart phone'"'"'s other software applications, including at least two of the following: a texting application, a social media application, an image application that facilitates transmission or reception of images, and a web browser application. The module can further send the extracted data to an analysis server. The module can also monitor location data. Moreover, the system can include an analysis server that can identify potentially harmful language, images, and websites. Further, the system can include a parent portal. The parent portal can receive results from the analysis server.

Claims

1. A system and apparatus for allowing parents to view and track smart phone activities of their children, the system and apparatus comprising:

one or more child software modules, a module installed on each child'"'"'s smart phone, each child software module configured to;

access and extract data from or about more than one of the smart phone'"'"'s other software applications, including at least two of the following;

a texting application, a social media application, an image application that facilitates transmission or reception of images, and a web browser application; and

send the extracted data to an analysis server;

the analysis server, configured to;

identify potentially harmful language, images, and websites by comparing the extracted data to existing databases of harmful words, harmful images or image types, harmful websites, and harmful applications;

automatically identify patterns in the potentially harmful language, images, and websites for which helpful works of authorship have previously been created and stored in an electronic library; and

provide immediate access to those works of authorship to parents by transmitting an electronic copy thereof or a link thereto to a parent portal for display adjacent to a warning based on harmful content that underlies those patterns of harmful content; and

the parent portal configured to;

receive results from the analysis server;

display the results organized by child;

provide both generalized smart phone usage data for each child and visual warnings when harmful results have been found by the analysis server, along with specific underlying data that triggered the warning; and

provide an interface for receiving input from a parent, the input comprising;

selections of which child'"'"'s data to view; and

selections of which types and how much of the data and analysis results to view for each child.

2. The system and apparatus of claim 1, wherein each child software module is further configured to access and extract data sufficient to allow the analysis server to report which new applications are downloaded to each child'"'"'s smart phone, and that information is automatically recorded in a computer memory and displayed promptly through the parent portal.

3. The system and apparatus of claim 2, wherein each child software module is further configured to access and extract data sufficient to allow the analysis server to report each of the following:

which websites were visited using each child'"'"'s smart phone; and

content and timing of each child'"'"'s posts to social networks;

and that information is automatically recorded in a computer memory and displayed promptly through the parent portal.

4. The system and apparatus of claim 1 wherein each child software module is further configured to access and extract data sufficient to allow the analysis server to report each of the following:

a location of the smart phone at periodic intervals throughout the day; and

usage of the smart phone that occurs outside of geographic constraints that can be set through the parent portal;

and that location and usage information is automatically recorded in a computer memory and displayed promptly through the parent portal.

5. The system and apparatus of claim 4, wherein an embedded map feature visible in the parent portal indicates where each child has traveled during the day and provides a warning if the child leaves a given geographical radius.

6. The system and apparatus of claim 1, wherein each child software module is further configured to access and extract data sufficient to allow the analysis server to report usage of the smart phone that occurs during curfew periods, and that information is automatically recorded in a computer memory and displayed promptly through the parent portal.

7. The system and apparatus of claim 1, wherein for each child, the parent portal is configured to display following information on a same daily feed screen:

identities of people with whom that child communicates most often, including a visual indication ranking those people by frequency or amount of communication;

a daily feed of the child'"'"'s activities, organized chronologically, the child'"'"'s activities comprising;

any smart phone applications downloaded;

content of any SMS text messages sent or received;

identity of any websites visited;

content of any social network posts created, viewed, or sent; and

a visual warning of each of the following, incorporated into the daily feed;

cursing or bullying terms;

questionable website visits; and

breaking curfew.

8. The system and apparatus of claim 7, wherein for each child, the parent portal is further configured to display following information on a same current applications screen:

a list of all applications currently installed on that child'"'"'s phone, a visual warning identifying applications that are identified as potentially harmful based on information in the analysis server, and a description of functions of each of the applications in the list.

9. The system and apparatus of claim 8, wherein for each child, the parent portal is further configured to display the following information on a same usage screen:

a color chart indicating which applications were used by the child that day, and how much time was spent using those applications.

10. The system and apparatus of claim 7, wherein for each child, the parent portal is further configured to display the following:

text messages sent and received, with curse words and bullying terms highlighted;

a list of most commonly used curse words and bullying terms; and

an interface allowing a user of the parent portal to control if text conversations should be flagged automatically, and how many curse words or bullying terms should be allowed before a flag is automatically applied.

11. The system and apparatus of claim 1, wherein for each child, the parent portal is further configured to display following web access information and controls:

a whitelist mode that triggers warnings if the child visits any website domain that is not listed as specifically allowed;

or

a blacklist mode that triggers warnings for only website domains that that are flagged by a user of the parent portal or by the existing database of harmful websites accessible from the analysis server.

12. The system and apparatus of claim 1, further including a curfew feature comprising:

a control interface in the parent portal configured to allow a user of the parent portal to select restricted times that a child'"'"'s smart phone may not be used; and

an active restriction feature in the child software module configured to completely disable the child smart phone during the restricted times, except for emergency phone calls.

13. The system and apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parent portal is further configured provide an interface for receiving input from a parent, the input comprising selections of which types of harmful material should be identified, and what level of scrutiny to apply in determining harmful material.

14. The system and apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a computer that periodically analyzes the selections from many parents regarding types of harmful material and level of scrutiny, analyzes those selections statistically, and incorporates statistical results in setting default settings and recommendations for future users.

15. A computing system configured to access one or more databases in substantially real-time in response to input from a parent provided in an interactive user interface in order to determine information related to a user system and provide the determined information to the parent in the interactive user interface, the computing system comprising:

a network interface coupled to a data network for receiving and transmitting one or more packet flows;

a computer processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing program instructions configured for execution by the non-transitory computer processor in order to cause the computing system to;

access data from or about more than one of a smart phone'"'"'s software applications, including at least two of the following;

a texting application, a social media application, an image application that facilitates transmission or reception of images, and a web browser application; and

identify potentially harmful language, images, and websites by comparing the accessed data to existing databases of harmful words, harmful images or image types, harmful websites, and harmful applications;

automatically identify patterns from the identified potentially harmful language, images, and websites for which helpful works of authorship have previously been created and stored in an electronic library;

display results organized by child on a computing device;

display generalized smart phone usage data for each child and visual warnings when harmful results have been found, along with specific underlying data that triggered the warning on the computing device;

display an electronic copy of at least one of the works of authorship or a link thereto, the electronic copy thereof or the link being associated with a warning based on the pattern on the computing device;

display an indication of a first controlled device associated with a first child of the parent, wherein the indication of the first controlled device is selectable by the parent in order to initiate analysis of a usage pattern of the first controlled device and provide results of the analysis to the parent in substantially real-time;

provide an interface for receiving input from a parent, the input comprising;

selections of which child'"'"'s data to view; and

selections of which types and how much of the data and analysis results to view for each child;

receive an identification of a selection by the parent of a second controlled device associated with a second child of the parent in the interactive user interface;

access a database storing analysis data for the second controlled device associated with the second child of the parent;

update user interface data such that the interactive user interface includes indications of at least a subset of determined high frequency contacts; and

transmit the updated user interface data to the computing device.

16. A non-transitory computer storage medium having stored thereon a computer program, the computer program including executable instructions that instruct one or more analysis servers to at least:

identify a smart phone associated with a child, the smart phone comprising one or more software modules configured to;

access and extract data from or about more than one of the smart phone'"'"'s other software applications, including at least two of the following;

a texting application, a social media application, an image application that facilitates transmission or reception of images, and a web browser application; and

send the extracted data to the analysis server;

automatically identify patterns in the potentially harmful language, images, and websites for which helpful works of authorship have previously been created and stored in an electronic library;

provide immediate access to those works of authorship to parents by transmitting an electronic copy thereof or a link thereto to a parent portal for display adjacent to a warning based on harmful content that underlies those patterns of harmful content; and

generate user interface data for the parent portal, the parent portal configured to;

receive results from the analysis server;

display the results organized by child;

provide both generalized smart phone usage data for each child and visual warnings when harmful results have been found by the analysis server, along with access to specific underlying data that triggered the warning; and

provide an interface for receiving input from a parent, the input comprising;

selections of which child'"'"'s data to view; and

selections of which types and how much of the data and analysis results to view for each child.

17. A method for allowing parents to view and track smart phone activities of their children, the method comprising:

identifying a smart phone associated with a child;

accessing and extracting data from or about more than one of the smart phone'"'"'s other software applications, including at least two of the following;

a texting application, a social media application, an image application that facilitates transmission or reception of images, and a web browser application;

sending the extracted data to one or more analysis servers;

identifying potentially harmful language, images, and websites by comparing the extracted data to existing databases of harmful words, harmful images or image types, harmful websites, and harmful applications;

automatically identifying patterns in the potentially harmful language, images, and websites for which helpful works of authorship have previously been created and stored in an electronic library;

providing immediate access to those works of authorship to parents by transmitting an electronic copy thereof or a link thereto to a parent portal for display adjacent to a warning based on harmful content that underlies those patterns of harmful content;

receiving analysis results corresponding to the extracted data from the one or more analysis servers;

displaying the analysis results organized by child on the parent portal;

providing on the parent portal both generalized smart phone usage data for each child and visual warnings when potentially harmful language, images, and website have been identified, along with access to specific underlying data that triggered the warning;

providing an interface for receiving input from a parent, the input comprising;

selections of which child'"'"'s data to view; and

selections of which types and how much of the specific underlying data and the analysis results to view for each child.