Internet Safety

I love statistics. For some reason, they just put things into greater perspective for me. Because of this, I immediately went looking for the numbers of adolescents who engage in online material. I was shocked by the numbers I came up with. Ninety-three percent of teenagers in the United States are online. One in seven of those teenagers have been sexually solicited online, and one in three of them has been the victim of cyberbullying. The internet can be a great source of good, but it can also be a great source of bad. I don't have any kids of my own right now, but I do have nieces and nephews who are entering adolescence. In their schools, they are increasingly being taught how to manipulate various technologies; technologies that I have only just recently started becoming familiar with. I think the best way a parent can help his/her children is to stay informed on the various technologies out there so that he/she can adequately prepare children for the dangers that may come with it.

For my interview, I taught my sister-in-law about the things I learned. She has 4 children of her own, 2 of which are about to enter adolescence. When I asked what she knew about internet safety, her only response was that she knows about the dangers of pornography. Being LDS, this came as no surprise. The church highly emphasizes the dangers of pornography and cautions us to avoid it at all costs. However, we don't often hear about cyberbullying, or creating new identities. These are the two topics I shared with my sister-in-law. She was the most shocked at the number of kids who are the victims of cyberbullying. She, in turn, shared some stories of incidents her siblings have encountered with their kids and internet safety. Overall, our talk was, I felt, productive. We were both able to teach each other something. My sister-in-law stated that it's a scary world. The only thing we can do is be good parents, teach our children correct values, and hope they make the right decisions.

Here are the resources I used:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/

http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents