Everyday millions of people are getting onto the internet for various reasons. A good chunk of those people are teenagers that are getting onto websites like Facebook or Myspace to network with friends new and old. But there are serious concerns by the parents of these kids if they are safe. And their concerns maybe be well founded. From a Pew Internet Survey some 32 % of online teenages have been contacted by strangers, of which 17% have 'friends' on their facebook/myspace profiles who they have never actually met. Brey did mention in his article that you can have a loss of privacy and public/private boundries when he talked about the negatives of the internet. And with the demassification of information online that could be as true as ever. 23 % of the kids that are contacted by strangers said that they felt either scared or uncomfortable with the contact, that is a total of 7% of online teens. And I know when I first started doing the whole myspace thing about 4 years ago I was posting information of myself left and right, I posted my name, photos, where I was from so on and so forth. So I didn't put a lot of thought into it. Some of the kids were smarter than me. 82% of total teens online have put their first name on their profile, the rest would of course have the pretty standard "Big Stud Daddy" type names. Among those kids that have been contacted online by stranger approximatly 2/3 of them either delete the message or do not repond. Of those who do respond, some 21% would ask for more information regarding the person who wrote them.
That comes back to the parents, what are they doing to protect their childrens information online? I know when my family first got a computer we had it in the main family room of the house so when I would get on chat rooms (yeah it was a while ago) they could see what was going on. But when I got my first computer it was in my room and I basically could do whatever it was that i wanted with no checks or balances.
Most parents now have some kind of filtering software on their computers, around 53%. And as of 2006 74% of computers in a household would keep the computer in an open public area. All and all I would say the parents can only do so much because now the internet is everywhere. The main thing they can do is just educate their kids and hope their kids make the right choices. What do you think can more be done to help the safety of the kids in our community?
I think this is a really important subject for parents and almost anyone to talk about. I know that it stresses me out when my sister who is 14 is on the Internet unsupervised. These young kids are so susceptible to online predators, but they just think it wont happen to them, which is incorrect. I have talked to my sister about the potential dangers but she of course still continues to use Facebook and other various online programs where she is vulnerable. I think the only way to protect against this is when they are not being supervised then they need to be locked off the computer. But, we all know this wont work because they can just go to school or a friends house and even at the library to access these sites when their parents are not around. So, I think the only thing that will work is to have your own Facebook page to check up on your kids page and to properly educate them on the benefits and dangers of these types of social networking sites.
ReplyDeleteYou made a good point that parents should educate their kids when come to internet usage, but giving them a lecture and hoping their kids make the right choices alone do not help them to develop a well-adjusted outlook and habit about internet usage, so it is important for the parents to supervise and monitor their kids’ online activities, like you mentioned, putting the computer in the family room is a good way to check what the kids are browsing online and filter software helps. I think ovall parents should spend more time with their kids in general.
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