For as long as I've had kids, I have known the dangers of the internet. I have made sure to educate myself as far as my kids are concerned. And to pay attention to news stories that focus on on-line predators.
But what I have mostly done as their parent is to educate them, to monitor their internet usage, and to pay close attention to things that they may be doing on this computer, even if that means that I have to check their activity when they aren't here. I'm no idiot on this computer when it comes to research.
I have seen MySpace accounts and wonder how parents can allow their kids the freedoms that some of these kids have. I have even gone as far as to call one parent and warn her about some pretty racey pics of her daughter that were posted. And I asked another parent if she even knew her daughters had accounts because one of them lied about her age. I suspected this mom didn't know and in the end she thanked me profusely for pointing it out. Did I do that to rat on the kids? No, I did it because it concerned me, as a parent and I would hope that another parent would be nice enough to return the favor!
In my opinion, it is up to the parents to stay on top of things. To rely on the internet to protect our children is insanity at best! It's called educating ourselves as parents, educating our kids, and then using that education to protect.
Is it right then to sue MySpace when your child ends up a victim to a child predator? Is it right to seek damages to something that you as a parent could have possibly helped prevent? Apparently for these parents, it's up to an internet site to monitor all the thousands of kids sites 24/7 and protect them from child predators.
Families sue News Corp. and MySpace after children abused
1 comment:
Parents should be responsible and pay attention to what their kids and their friends do. When we were young all the parents in the neighborhood felt free to yell at all the kids in the neighborhood so I have no problem with you calling the other parents.
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