County police in Maryland are reminding parents of the importance of talking to their children about the dangers of the internet, reports the Maryland Gazette.
According to Bruce Lohr, community crime prevention specialist for Maryland’s Department of Public Safety, 60 percent of children between the ages of 10 and 17 receive communications from strangers online. Of the youths contacted, nearly two-thirds return correspondence.
Additionally, 49 percent of children won’t tell their parents about the solicitations out of fear of how they will react. Lohr recommends that parents open up the lines of communication with children, making "it a comfortable thing so they can come to you."
Lohr advises parents to keep all computers in common areas of the home. This allows them to better monitor their children’s internet usage.
Many of these unsolicited conversations occur on social networking sites, including Facebook and MySpace. In response, Facebook recently launched an application that allows young internet users to report predatory sexual behavior in the UK. According to AOL News, the site has similar plans for the U.S. as well.
This is perfect timing for this article. I’m sure most people have heard about the Jessie Slaughter incident. Parents should really be aware of what their children are doing online. It seems safe because there’s no physical contact, but it can be just as dangerous.
It’s funny how much things have changed. When I had the internet as a child we had chat rooms. Plain, boring chat rooms. Sending pictures was a pain! And of course, most everyone lied about everything. Today, people are still lying, but there’s so much personal information that is now public. People need to be aware of this fact and really learn how to protect themselves AND their children.
If you think that’s bad, you should get a load of this: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20012031-501465.html
I totally don’t trust Facebook thats why I deleted my account.
Get a parental control software, like cyberpatrol. So many creeps out there.
I agree with Amanda, Facebook is incredibly dangerous these days. Maybe not as bad as MySpace, but frightening.