There was recently an article in the Washington Post about the ongoing controversial issue of teen online safety, more specifically MySpace and FaceBook. This article states that when 500 students were randomly researched based on their MySpace profiles over 54% of them participated in discussions or posted photos that included sex, violence, and/or substance abuse.
Statistics from the Virtual Global Taskforce show that 1 out of every 5 chat room users have been approached by a child sex abuser. That number alone should get every parent involved in their childs internet activities.
Parents can do a few things to help insure the online safety of their children while using the internet. First, there are several software programs available that will allow you to put filters, limit access, or view what your child is doing. Second, if you become aware your child has an internet account (such as MySpace) that has personal information viewable to the public send them an email telling them what you found. This will usually convince them to make their profiles private. Some parents may not like this option as it also make it private to them as well but at least your childs information is not out there for the whole world to see. Third, sit down with your child and do a Google search under his/her name, you may both be shocked to see what kind of information is available.
In the 90's we were concerned about a digital divide between income levels and their ability to access the quickly growing computer age. There is also clearly a digital division between youth and their parents that is continuing to grow. Every parent should do their best to continue to be educated in computers, be aware of what is available to their children, and know what their child knows about online activities.
