Internet

[LadyHawk]

Do you supervise where your child is on the internet ? I saw a show tonight that was with the guy who's child was kidnapped and killed (sorry forgot the show he runs) but he was saying; if your kids into drugs, you investigate and spy on your kids. Why wouldn't you do it with the internet. That kids now a days are giving way too much information out on the internet because they have this false sense of security. But the reality is it's very unsafe and there are more predators on the internet that they can be exposed to there than in person.

I don't allow my kids in chat rooms or to explore at all on the ineternet unless I'm sitting right next to them. I don't believe it's safe and I don't feel they have the understanding of the dangers that's lurking through a screen.

Anyone have their opinions on this subject ?

I completely agree with you.

[Skuzz-Love]

I have my kids settings on high security. They only play educational games online anyways

mine are young.

[Ariel]

Taylor is only 4, so I sit right with her while she plays games. I will continue to monitor. My computer stand is right next to the TV so it is where we can see it at all times.

When I was 13, I met a "friend" on the internet. I never told him where I lived, but he did know my mom and dads names. My school mascot. My name, and my state. The freak turned out to be a 40 some year old mak from florida, and he got our phone number based on those things. He started calling and I was really freaked out, but I would not tell b/c I did not want to be in trouble by my mom and dad. Thank God one day my dad picked up the other extension and threatened to contact the local cops with his number which whowed up on our caller ID. Ever since then, I have been leart of stuff like that.

[Tarot]

We have NetNanny installed and Tristan isn't allowed in chatrooms or to have his own e-mail address. He goes to sites like "postopia" that he reads about on cereal boxes.

Its very scary, but with our backgrounds in computers, we're on top of things.

[Cherry]

My SD doesn't live with us so her internet usage doesn't get monitored as much as me and DH would like. However, her email is set to where she can only receive emails from ppl in her address book and she cannot recieve pictures from anyone. She knows the sites she is allowed to use. We watch her like a hawk on it at our house and she's only allowed a max of 1 hour per day on the internet. At her grandfathers, he has the parental controls set very high. Her biomom, well she doesn't monitor very much

[FunDee]

My oldest is 13 and thinks he is totally abused because I won't let him have a myspace account. I also have a security thingy installed which irritates him because he can't google "paintball guns"

The whole internet thing scares me. I'm sort of glad she isn't old enough to get on yet. The kids in school age (6-10 yo) talk about getting on at night and I just know how impulsive some of them are......I also know that some of the parents aren't paying attention. I'm not sure exactly how I'll do it when Emma's old enough, but I suspect her internet time will be somewhere where I can keep an eye on her!

[Ecstacyrain]

My oldest is 11 and has an aol account, she can only go to approved websites and if she tries to go to anything else it emails me. It tells me who she is IMing with, emailing with, ect. She does have a myspace, but it is set to private and I go read all her stuff a few times a week. She knows that I do it too.

[MidnightDancer]

We do monitor the kids internet usage. When they were younger (now 13 & 16) we had a software program that only let them go to approved sites. It was a pain tho. They couldn't do research for school. THey couldn't "google" stuff because of course the results pages weren't on the "pre approved" list of urls. I hope stuff is better now a days or at least before Dani wants a turn. But anyway what we found was that it was easiest to just be there and supervise really. And now with Adrienne (16) we got her a laptop for her birthday and we collect the wireless card when she heads up to her room, she uses it for a while after supper down in the living room when homework is done. She does have my space and an aol IM user name. I have the password to both and the list of "friends". She knows I check regularly and if she wants to add a new friend she has to tell me. She talks to her cousins and kids from school. Some of you might remember I caught Adrienne's friend from school with an inappropriate photo of herself on her myspace and I had the whole dilemma of calling the mother. I think with younger kids being with and monitoring them and guiding (teaching) internet appropriatness and safety as you go is the best bet. I think with Adrienne at 16 she is just getting to that place where I have to (check in on her cookies/history/friend lists regularly) but that otherwise I do have to let go a little and hope I have done my job ok.