SUPERVISION, SUPERVISION, SUPERVISION!!! PARENTING, PARENTING, PARENTING!!!
What exactly is it that one thinks about when they read those words? How is it that some parents just cannot own up and realize that when they have children that those children are THEIR responsibility! This is just something that really irritates me.
Ok, MySpace.com has been under investigation and has been really coming under the gun as of late. I don't know if others have seen the kinds of photos that YOUNG girls put up but I certainly have. Let me just say that yes, this web site does need to revamp some things and get more serious about how they go about their business. But the parents of these girls need to be more aware of what exactly it is their little darlings are up to!
If MySpace is going to run a blog area that is directed mostly at kids, then they should very well take measures that can somewhat ensure that things are relatively safe. Maybe doing more deleting of blog owners who put up such sexually inviting photos. Or maybe have a call center that would call the phone number of the house and speak to an adult since it seems that it's ALL their responsiblity to monitor the kids anyway. HOWEVER on the internet, we can all lie and make up things as was so boldly pointed out to me just recently. True enough. And we can all change our voice on the phone and pretend that we are others. But really, how is MySpace ULTIMATELY responsible for the actions of these kids?
Now, I have an 11-year old daughter who has been bugging me for weeks to get a MySpace account. HELL NO!!!! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!! She is monitored quite closely on this computer as are my other girls. My two older girls have their blogs at a place I won't disclose and they too have been nagging me to put their pictures up on their site!!!! HELL NO!!!! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!
The two older girls built their pages and Pat and I scoured them and as suspected, they put things on their about themselves that shouldn't have been put there and it was quickly removed! I guess in my head, that is called Supervision and Parenting. To others I am just hindering my childrens ability to be independent and being overprotective. So be it, I would rather be safe and overly protective than sorry!
I have gone to great pains to keep the looks and the names of my children private on my own blog as has Patrick. Sometimes I would just love to use their names and plaster their pictures up but refuse to do that for their own safety. Common sense.
But to SUE MySpace for FAILING to protect the kids who are on there????? For $30 million dollars??? One of those cases where I just get so worked up about how it's so much easier to blame another than to take responsibility for your own screw up and those children that many seem so proud to brag about yet so uninterested in raising.
Be a damn parent for pete's sake and monitor your child, limit his/her ability to go out, meet and verify where he/she is going, and pay more attention to what he/she is doing on the internet. Oh, but wait, that's invading their space and their privacy isn't it....funny, I have found ways in which to avoid invading my kids' space and privacy and am still able to parent them. In fact, my kids openly give me their blog address' to peruse to my hearts content. And I do just that just to keep both myself and them on their toes and to teach them about privacy.
But, have we done EVERYTHING we can to protect them from people who may hurt them? No, that would mean completely disconnecting the computer and throwing it in the trash. But I can say that Pat and I are putting in a lot of effort to keep them safe and that we are aware of the filth that lies in wait.
Wake up parents...if you have kids, take it seriously and quit expecting the 'village' to take responsiblity.
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