Sunday, February 19

Kids and the Internet

When it comes to the internet and the girls we have a stead fast rule...only on our family computer where everyone can see who they are talking too. We recently put our old computer in the girl's room. NO INTERNET much to their dismay. It just isn't safe and as it is now some days it is hard to keep up with who they are talking to and where. Here is an article on one site.

Teens at Risk on Web Sites, Experts Say
By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer

February 19, 2006, 8:44 PM EST


NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- On MySpace.com, teenagers can find kindred spirits who share their love of sports, their passion for photography or their crush on a Hollywood star. They can also find out where their online friends live, where they attend school, even what they look like.

And so can adults.

Parents, school administrators and police are increasingly worried that teens are finding trouble online at sites like MySpace, the leader of the social-networking sites that encourage users to build larger and larger circles of friends.

Police in Middletown, Conn., are investigating recent reports that as many as seven local girls were sexually assaulted by men in their 20s who contacted them through MySpace pretending to be teenagers...


...Last month, for example, 14-year-old Judy Cajuste was found strangled and naked in a Newark, N.J., garbage bin. Police seized a computer from her bedroom after friends said she told them of a man in his 20s she met on MySpace. The death remains unsolved.

Beyond the threat of abduction, bullies who once made the rounds on playgrounds are using Web logs and home pages to spread rumors and lies faster than the schoolyard grapevine ever could.

MySpace profiles have been used to threaten classmates and in at least one case, to mock a school principal.


Some of what the article has to say scars me but it also makes me think that parents must be diligent when it comes to knowing what their kids are doing. Asking questions and checking on answers is a must.

Anyway...

I hope you take the time to read the entire article.

1 Comments:

Blogger Julie said...

I check Jess's myspace daily. All her quiz's, who's been talking to her, what pictures she thinks she is going to post and her entire friends network. She knows 1 false move and she is done. I have even watched over her shoulder on AOL chat rooms. Some of those supposed kids know waaaaay to much. I limit her access to when I am home, both on AOL and on the web. My house my rules. No doubt

7:45 PM, February 22, 2006  

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