| effective, enhancing logical, practical strategies for empowerment, self-control, relaxation & hope |  | dr. j's head-cleaners shrink rap & shrink think for practical, powerful healing & hope |
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parenting strategies for cyberspace safety, email, kids and privacy A few brief shrink-think comments on some possible, practical, helpful strategic thinkings and re-thinkings with respect to kids, danger, privacy and the internet. danger, danger, danger take responsibility for your child's safety and well being keep computers in well-traveled areas retain the right to inspect emails, chat logs and anything else it is reasonable not to trust your child to be able to be careful enough your child does not need privacy on the internet danger, danger, danger The internet is dangerous. So is tv, for that matter, but the internet has all the dangers of television PLUS predators, con men and angry, disturbed, sometimes crazy people AND access to pictures and stories of every conceivable kind of sexual and interpresonal perversion. Nobody has a clue how this is all going to impact our children and our children's children. What we do know, though, is that many children are talked into giving out family personal and financial information and talked into meeting predatory, creepy people. All manner of damage, trauma and death are potentially a mere mouse click from your child. take responsibility for your child's safety and well being We keep kids under our supervision and stewardship until 18 for a good reason -- they are not capable of making responsible, well thought out, quality decisions. Though little by little many decisions are handed over to children as they develop, supervisory responsibility remains with chldren until the law says they have reached an age appropriate to do this themselves. (Actually, from what we know of the development of the brain, we should not be turning over the supervisory reigns to our children untiil they reach the age of 25 years.) Though teens may tell you that it is "crazy," "stupid" and/or "unfair" that they are not completely trusted, the fact is that they should be completely trusted to be teenagers, not adults. keep computers in well-traveled areas -- never in your kid's room or places of privacy Keep your kid-access computer where you can easily and repeatedly check on what is happening as you move through your house. Do not put computers in kids' rooms where they can access whatever they want in privacy. If your child tells you he or she is not going to use the computer if it can't be in private, you can assure your child that it is unlikely to be harmful for him or her to hold off on computering until he or she moves out of the house. retain the right to inspect emails, chat logs and anything else on the computer Retain the right to inspect any and all emails and logs of chat room expereinces. Your child may tell you that this is a violation of privacy. You can assure your child that privacy is not going to be allowed when it comes to computering. Your child can choose not to use the computer or use the computer wisely without privacy rights. it is reasonable not to trust your child to be able to be careful enough of danger that he or she can have unsupervised access to email, chatrooms, downloads or site access A child who is certain that he or she can make good decisions and keep safe from predators is, in reality, a naive, foolish child who is more likely to be taken advantage of and/or harmed. Any responsible, mature-thinking child would respect his or her lack of understanding of all the ways there are to be deceived.
Children and teenagers do not have the experience, knowledge and maturity to make safe decisions about people and places on the internet. your child does not need privacy on the internet Children and adolescents do not need privacy when they are involved in activities on the internet. |
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