Letting the World Into Your Home

In grades K-3, students have discussions regarding "Stranger Danger".  The title tells the story.  Young children should not talk to strangers without parental or guardian permission.  What is a stranger?  Any person that you do not know.  Uncle Billy from California, whom you have never met would qualify as a stranger until you are introduced to him by your parent or guardian.  This does not mean that Uncle Billy or any other stranger is a bad person, but this is not to be decided by the child.

The internet is a wonderful tool.  It can take us around the world and back in seconds or hours.  Almost anything we want to discover is available to us on the internet.  Yet, as we know, for every advantage there tends to be an equal and opposite disadvantage.  The disadvantage to the internet, with regards to not only young people but also older naive people, is that some people use the internet for a multitude of nefarious endeavors.

Children generally have not had opportunities to experience life like older people.  Chat rooms, instant messaging, on-line gaming and social network sites have an allure to children.  These tools allow children to prematurely stretch their social tentacles beyond what their life experience has taught them.  In other words, they lack the life skills to recognize con artists at work.  Lacking this experience has gotten many people into trouble.  Without decent guidance they can be harmed mentally, emotionally and in some unfortunate cases physically.

The question is why would we let our children talk to strangers?  If you are a parent, like myself, who wants to know where and with whom your children are playing, then talking to strangers is out of the question.  This is not an issue of trusting your child as much as an issue of being able to trust who is talking to or interacting with your child.  When a child is unsupervised while on the internet, what sites are they on and with whom are they engaging?  Knowing who your child is interacting with on-line is as important as knowing what route your child takes home from school.

I strongly suggest, before any child is allowed to use the internet, a substantive discussion takes place between child and parent/guardian.  Why?  Communication is a cornerstone of healthy relationships.  A child's use of the internet is a perfect opportunity to foster a rich and rewarding dialogue between you and your child.  This may be set-up as a contract of "expectations".  Expectations you have of your child regarding their internet use and expectations he/she has when using the internet.  Allowing your child to discuss his/her expectations first, un-jaded by parental/guardian thought processes, may give some insight as to what your child thinks about internet protocol.

Cyberbullying

Before sending a text message or email to someone think of the parent/guardian rule.  If your mother or father is looking over your shoulder and you are happy with your message and confident that your parents would like what they see then you have passed the test.