Kids and their online identity

I hope you had a lovely holiday.  I am tired and perhaps ate a bit too much, but I had a wonderful time with my family. This past week, I came across a great article in Forbes magazine’s website by Andy Greenberg called “How to Keep Kids Safe Online.”
Go to this link to read the article: http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/12/15/online-safety-kids-tech-security-cx_ag_1215kids.html
Mr. Greenberg discusses how a lot of attention gets focused on the extreme cases such as online predators and not enough attention is on what kids are doing everyday which can be just as damaging.
Andy writes, “Earlier this month, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and Cosmogirl.com released a survey showing that two in five teens has sent sexually suggestive messages online. One in five has electronically sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures or videos of themselves. And more than a third of teens in the survey say that those pictures tend to be shared beyond the intended recipient.”
I vividly remember being a teen and thinking that my friends were fantastic and they would be in my life forever.  I also remember the bitter disappointment when those friendships ended.  This is not a lesson that we can teach our children.  It is one they must unfortunately learn for themselves.  I remember my parents warning me and I was thinking how they were wrong.  I (continue reading...)