Teens online - scary

[BigChill]

Please read some of these stats and make sure you're talking to your kids about the interenet! We're all so savvy online and I think that it's easy to take it for granted, or assume that kids aren't doing stuff that they are. These stats really just scared the you know what out of me! This sort of news coupled with Dateline exposes and whatnot really get me thinking.

(Excerpted)
-- 61% of 13- to 17-year-olds have a personal profile on sites such as MySpace, Friendster, or Xanga. Half have posted pictures of themselves online.

-- 14% have actually met face-to-face with a person they had known only through the Internet (9% of 13- to 15-year-olds and 22% of 16- to 17-year-olds).

-- When teens receive messages online from someone they don't know, 40% usually reply to and chat with that person.

-- As well, 37% of 13- to 17-year-olds said they're "not very concerned" or "not at all concerned" about someone using personal information they've posted online in ways they haven't approved.

-- Fully 22% of those surveyed reported their parents or guardians have never discussed Internet safety with them. -- On the other hand, 36% of youth--girls and younger teens, most notably--said their parents or guardians have talked to them "a lot" about online safety, and 70% said their parents or guardians have discussed the subject with them during the past year.

...

Complete survey results, online safety tools and tips, links to NCMEC, NetSmartz, and the CyberTipline, and a glossary of common Internet chat lingo are at www.cox.com/TakeCharge The comprehensive Take Charge! site includes a free parents' guide to help parents and guardians make good choices about content available on TV and the Internet, Public Service Announcements featuring Walsh, and local educational activities within the communities Cox serves. Teaching young children and teens how to stay safer online is a major element of the program thanks to Cox's partnership with NetSmartz. In addition to Take Charge! PSAs, Cox Communications has donated more than $25 million worth of advertising time to NetSmartz and NCMEC to encourage children to be safer online.

...

Here's the entire article if anyone is interested:
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060511005101&newsLang=en

[stephwhiz]

Thanks for posting this. It is SO scary how easily our children could be pulled into something like this! Stephanie

[imported_rachel]

Porn is a huge danger too. I wonder what % of teens (boys or girls) look at it online?

[mama4ever]

The worst thing to do is put a computer that is on line in your kids room.
Make sure it is in a room where the whole family is. The more we can keep an eye on things the better.

We also need to inform our kids. My husband's best friend is now divoiced because his wife met a man on the net. The man moved from Canada to our home town and she was a christian adult.

We can never be to careful

[angel]

[BigChill]

Wow, I'm so sorry for your husband's friend, that must have been very difficult.

I just can't get over the benefits and drawbacks of the web- it provides you with unlimited resources for learning, connecting with people, etc. - but there are also such obvious dangers. I'm glad that the issue is getting press, for a long time it was hard to get people talking about it, but now with MySpace and other such sites it seems I can't turn on the TV without hearing about the issue, which is great - the more people know the better. I'm glad that groups like Cybertipline, Dateline, NCMEC and others mentioned in that survey are out there.

Here's another article from today's LA Times about how kids can get around filters and nanny net programs - gosh it never ends!
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-networkingwars31may31,0,1492800.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[danter]

Thanks so much! My husband and I are excited to see more of the chat language my son uses. My younger son informs me they created more of their own language but this is a good start. the only one we really knew before this was POS, Parent Over Shoulder. Guess why we figured that one out, LOL. Thanks again, this is a great start.


Please read some of these stats and make sure you're talking to your kids about the interenet! We're all so savvy online and I think that it's easy to take it for granted, or assume that kids aren't doing stuff that they are. These stats really just scared the you know what out of me! This sort of news coupled with Dateline exposes and whatnot really get me thinking.

(Excerpted)
-- 61% of 13- to 17-year-olds have a personal profile on sites such as MySpace, Friendster, or Xanga. Half have posted pictures of themselves online.

-- 14% have actually met face-to-face with a person they had known only through the Internet (9% of 13- to 15-year-olds and 22% of 16- to 17-year-olds).

-- When teens receive messages online from someone they don't know, 40% usually reply to and chat with that person.

-- As well, 37% of 13- to 17-year-olds said they're "not very concerned" or "not at all concerned" about someone using personal information they've posted online in ways they haven't approved.

-- Fully 22% of those surveyed reported their parents or guardians have never discussed Internet safety with them. -- On the other hand, 36% of youth--girls and younger teens, most notably--said their parents or guardians have talked to them "a lot" about online safety, and 70% said their parents or guardians have discussed the subject with them during the past year.

...

Complete survey results, online safety tools and tips, links to NCMEC, NetSmartz, and the CyberTipline, and a glossary of common Internet chat lingo are at www.cox.com/TakeCharge The comprehensive Take Charge! site includes a free parents' guide to help parents and guardians make good choices about content available on TV and the Internet, Public Service Announcements featuring Walsh, and local educational activities within the communities Cox serves. Teaching young children and teens how to stay safer online is a major element of the program thanks to Cox's partnership with NetSmartz. In addition to Take Charge! PSAs, Cox Communications has donated more than $25 million worth of advertising time to NetSmartz and NCMEC to encourage children to be safer online.

...

Here's the entire article if anyone is interested:
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060511005101&newsLang=en

[AngieBlessedby3]

Hi,

I have been very open with my son about online preditors. I do let my son have a computer in his room but it is very restricted. I have software that logs and restricts the sites he visits. It also restricts the time periods and amount of time he can be on the net and when. It doesnt allow internet access at times that are after 9pm or before 8am. I also restricted access during homework and mealtimes, so that we are not shoveling in our food so we can get to computer time.

Speaking of preditors, if you are from Texas here is a link to an online petition against preditors.

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?notxcsa&1

[pioneerchristianmomof3]

Hi all!

The internet is a very useful tool.(my girls do on-line school) However it is also a scarey place with access to horrible things we can only imagine!

Even in the most monitered homes, kids can and do go places on the net that they shouldn't.

I our home we have made it well known that there is no such thing as privacy on the computer. Because it is such a dangerous place, I told my kids that as their mom I reserve the right to know everything they are doing online. I have all their passwords to email,MSN etc. I randomly check their things and read their emails. (if they want privacy they can write in their diary) I also have a keylogger program that records anything typed on the computer. Also I enabled the MSN program that records all MSN conversations. My kids know that if they don't follow the rules or if I find accounts that I don't have access to, they loose their privileges for six months. Also we have a three strike rule-do it three times nothing again ever! So far the most we've had is twice.

A great book to read on this subject is; Staying Safe in a Wired World, by Rob Nickel. The author was a police officer who worked undercover online to catch pedophiles. He is the leading expert on internet safety.
He also has a website: www.cyber-safety.com

Hope this helps, God Bless. Traci

[mamallama]

It sounds like you have some good advice, Traci. Thanks for sharing what you do with your children. Both of mine are still young but I dread it when they get older...so many scary things out there.