Mother For Life

I have only been on the Internet now for almost two years. One of my very first newb mistakes was pointed out to me within 30 minutes in a chat room. My old Yahoo messenger was showing my first and last name. Luckily, I was taken under the wing and told how to change all that.

Every site I belong to, not a one of them has my real name, other than the initial sign up if I have to. So yes, shocking I know, but my name really isn’t Nipsy. Point being, I understand the dangers of hiding my real name, I don’t give out my city, zip code, or any information bad people could use to find me. When I do give out some of that information, I mix it up. Make it harder for any stalker type person to find me.

It’s unfortunate tweens and teenagers don’t have the same sense of self protection. I belong to MySpace, and Yearbook, both of which many underage persons have accounts with. On both sites, my page is marked as private, and anyone requesting my friendship gets “checked out” first. I deny all requests under age 25. But I ramble here. Let me get to my point.

Parents: CHECK YOUR CHILDS PAGES!! I don’t want to know your child’s age, full name, location(for many they list city and state), school they attend, and extracurricular activities. They might as well put a sign up saying “here I am Mr. Kidnapper, come get me”!

Has no one taught these kids to hide their identity? No, of course not. They think its cool to have these pages. I’ll give some credit, they have their page as private, yet it still shows their names and cities. That’s all the info a possible kidnapper needs.

For the ones who don’t have them set to private, not only do they give away information, then they post pictures that are so beyond their ages it sickens me. I want to yell at these tweens and teens to take those down now. I report every damn one of them that has a pic even hinting at sexuality.They don’t even realize they are opening themselves up to every pedophile, stalker and possible kidnapper out there.

I want to know one more thing: WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? How can you not know what your child is doing online? Sure, they can access the computer from the library, but they can’t download pictures from there, these are taken at home many of them. In other words, right under your noses. Get involved here dammit, be the adult. I’ve said it before, my children have no privacy. You want privacy, turn 18, get a job, and get out of the house. Until then, my roof, my rules.

I wish every parent was like me, no website memberships until you are 18. No pics of my children running around the Internet for every joe shmoe to see. If you feel your child must absolutely have that Yearbook and MySpace page because Jenny down the road does, set it up right. Make your child up a nickname, hide her city, and make sure you have all passwords, and can check the site at ANY TIME to make sure whoever is hitting their page isn’t leaving adult material behind. Check the pictures your child puts up. Do you really want a 50 year old man looking at your little girl in her tank top and underwear? Or a 35 year old woman hitting on your son because he’s showing off his mini six pack?

In other words: Get a clue. I don’t want to read about your child on my next milk carton. And if I do, and the words “She met someone on MySpace” are involved, I will stop reading. You only have yourself to blame for taking no actions.

Now excuse me, it’s time to wake up my non-Internet allowed children for school. That’s a dangerous enough place for them for now.

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