Posted on 04/29/2005 10:09:38 AM PDT by longtermmemmory
Marcy's 13-year-old daughter has a knack for switching computer screens or shutting the laptop when mom walks in the room. Like in many families, the two often argue about whether mom has the right to see what her daughter is doing online. The conversation is never really resolved. But a few months ago, Marcy's need to keep up with her daughter's Internet travels took on a new urgency when she found an unfinished message on the screen urging a friend to check out her daughter's picture on a special Web page her daughter had set up. With that, Marcy made a discovery thousands of parents around the country are making -- teenagers are among the most active Internet bloggers, and many are posting pictures, names, addresses, schools, even phone numbers, almost always without their parent's knowledge. "It blew me away," said Marcy, who requested her full name not be used. "And I just lost it. I sat my daughter down and said, 'Do you realize how inappropriate and how dangerous this is? Here's your face. Here's the town you come from. Do you realize how many sick people are out there?' " To see her daughter's site, Marcy had to sign up with a service named MySpace.com. When she did, she found her daughter's page, personal information, and pictures. But she also found a list of her daughter's friends, and made another discovery -- almost all of her 8th-grade classmates at George Washington Middle School in suburban Ridgewood, N.J. had pages on MySpace. "And their pictures are very provocative," Marcy said. "There's shots with their butt in the air, with their thongs sticking out of it. They squeeze their elbows together to make their boobs look bigger." One-third of students have blogs Soon after, ...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
or ever WORSE: ENGAGING THEIR BRAINS in contradiction to thoughtcrime, or leftist indoctrination.
The media does enough NOT covering real news in favor of leftist propaganda, they are now left to desperatly try and enroll parents by couching real concerns of internet diaries with efforts to save MSM gravitas.
Perhaps. But how do you deal with the problem described - just ignore it?
I agree there is a real problem burried here, but I also think they are doing nobody a public service by confusing chat rooms, forums, and personal blogs.
If the author had simply said "internet diary" then it would have been more useful.
Below the excerpted part, the author admits there have been no pedophile cases attached to what the author called "blogs".
This is also as teachable to children as simply as parents teach do not talk to strangers.
If you can't let your mom see what you are doing on the computer, you should not be doing it.
Here's how I "resolve" such things with my 13-year-old: You're banned from using the computer unless I'm there with you. Any unauthorized use of the computer on your part will result in you being banned entirely.
I am constantly amazed at the problems caused by parents refusing to parent.
Yeah, and what mother of an eighth grader would buy her thong underwear?
I found out my 17 year old daughter at a site on myspace.com from a friend of my 23=year old daughter. The friend was searching myspace.com and saw my daughter's site with pics of my daughter, and ugly comments made by some viewers. It was a nasty experience. Loads of my 17 year old daughter's highschool contemporaries have sites on myspace.com.
No kidding. End of conversation, no argument needed.
a woman who want to be her daughter's frieeeeeend and not mother. (as a means of reliving the childhood she never wanted to leave.)
And no doubt!
My little one will not get anywhere near an internet connected PC unless mom or dad is with her.
And once that gets impossible to enforce, I'll put spyware on the PC's so that I know what is going on.
Right now I can just turn off the monitor and they come to me telling me something is wrong with the computer because it won't come on, or else I turn off the main power to the tower in the back.
That won't last for long though. Then yes, parental spyware and locks.
Heck, I don't even let my 9 y.o. son have a TV in his room, and his friends think I'm crazy!
I'd go the other way, if you can't see what your kids doing on the computer, then they shouldn't be allowed to use it.
Its natural that kids are going to want privacy, but its up to parents to make sure their kids are safe by monitoring them.
Sadly, to many.
Last year, while I was getting my MBA, I did a project about some companies and problems with NGO's.
Ambercombie and Fitch was one of those companies, and they were looking to create a thong made for small children (we're talking around 8 or 9 years old). The designs on it, was childish images.
I was disgusted, and sickened. It was like looking at a wish list of a child molester.
Any mother (or father) who buys their young child a thong, or lets them have them, needs help or is just unfit.
Your either going to laught, think I'm nuts or a geek, but when I was in High School, and I had a TV in my room (with cable), I started putting parental blocks on certain channels (my cable box had porn on it).
In retrospect, if my friends had known that, they would have mocked the hell out of me.
My almost 8 year old daughter was asking me about a tv in her room. (My answer, as always, was absolutely not!) She said most other kids in her class have them and can't believe she doesn't.
All of the above, but you probably knew it was wrong. At least you resisted the temptation.
I know, when he has friends spend the night, they want to sit in his room and watch movies. I say nope, you can sit out here in the family room. And ones who say they can't fall asleep without a TV on? I tell them they can in my house. And guess what? They do!
I'm just a meanie. I also make my kids play outside too much, I'm sure, lol.
Both of my husbands (ex and current) were raised with televisions in their rooms. Both to this day have insomnia problems and problems falling asleep in a quiet room. It's a habit that can ruin them for life.
Both of my husbands (ex and current) were raised with televisions in their rooms. Both to this day have insomnia problems and problems falling asleep in a quiet room. It's a habit that can ruin them for life.
Uh huh.
We (my wife and I) have already decided to homeschool, to strictly monitor the internet usage, and to be careful of what we allow on the SINGLE family room TV.
Our children are NOT going to develop this "grow-up-quick" mentality that much of today's youth have adopted. Our daughter will NOT dress like a tramp at 10 years old, no matter what her friends are wearing. No music with "adult" lyrics, etc., etc. No $100 shoes or jeans. No "because it's cool!" allowed.
We are going to be "parents" not "best friends". We will eat dinner together as a family, and we will not be so bogged down with extracurricular activities that none of us has time to breathe and enjoy life.
Time to slow down and return to the pre-60's values. It's all "for our children's sake".
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