Why aren't parents monitoring?
Toolbox
Published: March 1, 2006
As a mother of two teenagers, I have been keeping up with this "MySpace" deal on both television and in the news. You people have made such a big deal about pedophiles using it to get at children but what about the other side of the coin?
Do you realize that there are numerous young girls out there, saying that they are 18 and up, using pictures of movie and pop stars to represent themselves, hitting on older boys and young men?
My son was "hit on" by just one of these children. She said she was 16 but my son was suspicious of it as he recognized the picture as one of a pop star. After much questioning, she finally admitted she was nine years old. He immediately blocked her from communicating with him any more.
Everybody is up in arms over this Web site, but my one big question is…."Where is the parental supervision when these children are on the internet? Why isn't Mom and/or Dad looking over their shoulders every so often and checking to see where they are?" The history of visited Web sites can be saved up to two weeks on any computer, so why haven't the parents checked to see where the kids have been. I do and will willingly ground my kids off the computer if I find they have been where they shouldn't be.
In conclusion, I say let's, as parents, take control of the computer and say "No!" to our children running amok on the computer!
Beverly Gumprecht
Barre
37