Crais, S. (2005). “Internet Safety at School and at Home”. Education World. Received Nov. 15, 2010, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech218.shtml
Today I read the article “Internet Safety at School and at Home”, by Stewart Crais. In this article, Stewart talks about how parents can keep their children safe online. Parents are concerned about what sites their child is going on. Most common websites are social networking websites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. These websites allow people to keep in touch of friends or other people such and celebrities. Parents are also concerned with who their child is talking to. There’s always that possibility of a random person contacting their child. Their child may spend a lot of time in chat rooms talking to strangers. This can lead to internet stalking and arranged meetings.
Committees are being formed to discuss how to monitor their child. It really comes down to the parents talking with their child. Parents have to drill awareness in their child’s head. They have to tell them the dangers of talking to random people online, sending emails, and using profanity. Parents should also have keep up to date with their internet software and parental controls.
Honestly, I don’t think this topic is that big of a deal. I personally have only heard one story of an “arranged meeting”. This was back when I was in middle school. There was this girl that was chatting with some guy that she didn’t know and got to know him pretty well. For some stupid reason she “arranged” a meeting with him at some place. He came and she got creeped out and then it became a legal issue. Her excuse was that she didn’t think he’d actually come.
Now-a-days, I think kids need to be educated about the dangers of socializing online, but not that strict. I believe kids have the smarts to know who to talk to and who not to talk to. I don’t hear about any instances of internet stalking being a huge, consistent problem. It may just be me, but I just don’t think it’s as major of a problem that it sounds like.
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