Protect our children

I remember when I was a kid and my parents were very strict about letting me use the internet.  If I did ever get to use it, it was for school work or to play on Disneychannel.com.  I was often told that if I ever got a MySpace account my parents would want my username and password so they could check up on me.  So obviously I just never told them I had one and would only use it if I was at a friend’s house or if I knew my parents weren't looking over my shoulder.  It was a huge thing back then to inform your children about the dangers that were online.  There were often commercials about being safe and asking a parent to use the internet, and I vividly remember my parents preaching to me about not talking to people I didn't know online.  

Today, I feel like the internet is such a giant part of our lives that we forget to teach our children how to practice safety on the internet. Kids are getting cell phones at super young ages now a day and they are often learning to use the computer as early as the age six.  I feel that parents these days do not stress as much how dangerous the internet can be sometimes.  There are chat rooms, cat fishers, creepy old men that pose as thirteen year old girls and our kids just fall into these traps.  Kids these days also seem to be not fully aware that what you put on the internet is much more permanent than what we say and do in real life.  If you write something on Facebook, it can be on the internet for years to come, even if you erase it, and I am concerned that these kids don't think that way.  They are careless and think that they are invincible.  They also are not worried about their futures at the time they post something.  They aren't thinking about what an employer would say if they post a picture at a party, all they are thinking about at the moment is who is going to "like" the picture.  

On safekids.com there are a bunch of links that can teach kids about how to use the internet safely.  There are also links for parents about what to look out for if their child is taking place in some risky activity online.  There is also a link to help kids deal with cyber bullying and even try to prevent it, considering cyber bullying is starting to happen a lot more these days.  I think that we need to keep a closer eye on the younger children that are using the internet and teach them that the internet isn't all fun and games and that there can be some serious consequences for some of their actions.