You’ve been warned about all the bad stuff your kids could be doing online. And yes, there is plenty of bad stuff and opportunities to go astray on the internet.
Yes, you should have the computer in a public place, monitor computer use and use common sense.
Bottom line though is communicate with your kids.
You might not understand the latest social network or comprehend how texting friends is better than calling. But think it out. Is using the latest technology any different than talking on the phone, hanging at the mall, passing notes on clay tablets or whatever it was when you were a kid?
Parents need to talk to their children. That’s what good parenting is about. Whatever it is that they do, be a part of their lives.
You might want to show your kids this video. Text them the link or whatever. Then talk about it.
Oh yeah, you may want to read Lauren O Grady at Teachers are Learners. I got the video from her. She’s from Oz, but most of the words are English.
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Tags: Kids and Teens, Parenting, Social network
November 16th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Interesting video. Don’t think it would do much good with my girls, though. They both left home in ‘93. I don’t envy the challenge dealing with the internet poses parents today.
Nice theme. Looks a bit familiar, though. (I downloaded it yesterday and worked a good part of today to personalize it — not done yet!)
November 16th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Willis, I have to say that I agree with this. Parents need to talk to their kids, no matter how difficult it seems.
November 16th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
@Danny Thornton -
Same as it ever was.
I see kids in my job who never seem to have a conversation with their parents unless it’s some dramatic scene. To much Jerry Springer and not enough Father Knows Best… Or at least 7th Heaven.
November 16th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
@Mike Goad -
Your girls will likely have children?
Yes, raising kids does seem to get harder for each generation. But I think some basics still work.
Well, if you are personalizing then that’s OK. You don’t want people to think you copied me:) That’s the problem with using a great free theme. Everybody else wants it too. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
November 17th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Parents need to both communicate with and monitor their kids. How can you talk to your kids about internet safety if you don’t know how they use the internet? If you REALLY want to keep your kids safe online, you need to know what they are doing on the computer. You need to know if they have several social network profiles – which, trust me moms and dads out there, it’s a lot more common than you think. You need to know what websites they go to daily and who they talk to. Blocks and filters are easy to get around. But if you have monitoring software, like our [lame software that I'm trying to get you to buy]*, you will know everything they do and will be able to talk to them about it. If you aren’t monitoring and don’t know what they are really doing, how can you be sure they are safe? How can you be sure they are using the Internet responsibly and not putting themselves into bad situations?
*Yes, that’s the real name.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:32 am
@KenS -
So you sell fear and suspicion to make a buck. I was inclined to delete your troll droppings but it serves to illustrate a point.
Reasonable monitoring is, of course, warranted. But this kind of ham handed marketing causes a riff between the generations. Out of fear, parents buy this crap and feel safe. They still have no idea what the kids are doing because they think a piece of software will do their job.
Parents still need to talk to kids, keep the computer in a public place and help them to stay away from money grubbing predators like software salesmen.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:54 am
This is a decent post and I agree. I recall having America Online Dialup in my earlier and formative years. I hated it. It always restricted me. I tried to go to Nintendo’s Gameboy website and it was blocked because it was deemed inappropriate.
My adolescent brain concocted a brilliant plan. Give AOL so much trouble that they’d cancel us.
I spent a few months wreaking havoc in the chat rooms, scamming old people out of their credit card numbers and passwords, and other such mischief. I never used the credit cards for anything, but AOL caught on.
But before they had a chance to cancel my Dad finally decided to hear me out in regard to changing our service. I found something that would cost us less and gave me more freedom to do what i wanted online. What I wanted to do wasn’t cybersex, but rather it was looking up cheat codes for my video games, or researching Star Trek stuff. I’m sure had we stuck with AOL which only had a leg up in the chat department at that time I probably would have got involved in something fishy.
That’s my two cents.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
@TheInfamousGdub -
There you go. Overly intrusive monitoring software just doesn’t help the family relationship. Kids are not prisoners of their homes.
In some instances, strong measures are needed. But if a kid is being openly defiant about internet use, he’s probably acting out in other areas.