MYSPACE
im getting the PiNK RAZR V3 purrtty soon
my art project didnt blow up! [i feel sooo bad for Katherine!:(]
Mackenzie, if you read this ever.. my mom ran into your dad and discussed how we need to sign up for OYA the SAME weeks and some SAME camps,
babysitting, football, maybe Lacrosse but id prolly be the worst one.., basketball, maybe Hip hop? VOLLEYBALL, idk call me!
ya well i know everyone loves Myspace and all. but even if u have it private.. its still not safe
i DELETED mine. This was in the Middle School News Letter online.. after my mom warned me about it and suggested I go read it! Im telling u guys u should read this for your safety.
PARENT AWARENESS - MY SPACE
A scary online wakeup
March 13, 2006
BY L.L. BRASIER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
I keep a close eye on my 13-year-old stepdaughter.
As a veteran crime reporter, I've seen what happens to kids when parents don't pay attention.
My daughter lives with her father and me most of the time, along with her little brother. I know her best friends. I know she loves to lip-sync to Ashlee Simpson, and that her favorite television show is "Seventh Heaven."
I know that she has had two crushes on boys in recent months, and I know she waits until she gets on the school bus each morning before applying bootleg mascara and lipstick -- I've seen the tubes stashed in the bottom of her purse.
What I didn't know until last week is that beginning in November, she posted a picture of herself on the Internet, listing her age as 15, and noting that she: drinks alcohol, has assorted body piercing, and is looking for a boyfriend.
None of which is true, with the possible exception of the boyfriend.
Her father and I made this horrifying discovery after a tip from the mother of one of her friends, who had seen the posting on MySpace.com.
"That can't be her," my husband said when I called up the photo. But there she was. Our child, in full makeup, in a dramatic pose, with that look of angst and despair that 13-year-old girls are so good at affecting.
And she had provided details that kept her father and me gasping. Her birth date. Her full name. Her hometown. Her cell phone number. And, according to the posting, her favorite hobby: "Hott guys."
Her logins showed she was often on the site in the hour and a half she was home after school.
Her father called her to the computer. She could tell she'd been busted, I suspect by the tone of his voice. "Am I in trouble?" she asked in that way kids do when they already know the answer.
"What were you thinking?" we screeched. We asked if she knew how dangerous this is, how many predators are out there wanting to connect with someone just like her.
"I just wanted to make new friends," she said, beginning to cry. "I didn't think anything bad could happen."
Well, it could. And it does.
Cops call the site "the Wal-Mart for pedophiles," and say 1 in 4 kids will be approached by a predator online. Police chiefs across the country, including Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, are urging parents to prohibit their kids from logging on to MySpace. A teenage girl in New Jersey was found raped and strangled after meeting a man from MySpace.com.
And as I perused the site, I was sickened by obscenity and provocative pictures, of references to alcohol, drugs and sex.
I assumed my daughter was spending her time after school studying Spanish and biology. We assumed wrong.
Here's the thing; her father and I thought we were doing everything right. The household rules were simple: no Internet access except with parental permission and then only to research homework projects. We hadn't bothered with any of those parental control devices because we are both techno-challenged. We thought the spoken rule would be enough.
We made sure we knew what was going on in her life. We have family dinner together most nights. She attends a private Catholic school that encourages parental involvement. Her teachers e-mail me each time she takes a test so I have an ongoing accounting of her progress in school. We don't allow her to stay overnight with friends unless we know the parents. Her mother and stepfather take similar precautions when she is with them.
And still, it happened. It got past us.
What struck me -- and kept me up most of the night -- was her astonishing naiveté. "But somebody bad couldn't have found me because they wouldn't have a password," she said. "Only my friends can find me."
And this. "I wouldn't talk with somebody dangerous."
No, my sweet-faced child, in your kneesocks and ponytail and pretty-in-pink lip gloss. But somebody dangerous is perfectly willing to talk to you.
My little family remains safe, and her site has been dismantled. The computer is now completely off limits to her, and I am installing parental controls to keep it from happening again. She has lost her television privileges for two weeks. We've taken her cell phone from her.
A hard and scary lesson for her, but perhaps more so for her father and me, and her mother and stepfather.
The monsters aren't necessarily lurking at the mall or in the parked car at the end of the street. They're on that blue screen in the family room.
my art project didnt blow up! [i feel sooo bad for Katherine!:(]
Mackenzie, if you read this ever.. my mom ran into your dad and discussed how we need to sign up for OYA the SAME weeks and some SAME camps,
babysitting, football, maybe Lacrosse but id prolly be the worst one.., basketball, maybe Hip hop? VOLLEYBALL, idk call me!
ya well i know everyone loves Myspace and all. but even if u have it private.. its still not safe
i DELETED mine. This was in the Middle School News Letter online.. after my mom warned me about it and suggested I go read it! Im telling u guys u should read this for your safety.
PARENT AWARENESS - MY SPACE
A scary online wakeup
March 13, 2006
BY L.L. BRASIER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
I keep a close eye on my 13-year-old stepdaughter.
As a veteran crime reporter, I've seen what happens to kids when parents don't pay attention.
My daughter lives with her father and me most of the time, along with her little brother. I know her best friends. I know she loves to lip-sync to Ashlee Simpson, and that her favorite television show is "Seventh Heaven."
I know that she has had two crushes on boys in recent months, and I know she waits until she gets on the school bus each morning before applying bootleg mascara and lipstick -- I've seen the tubes stashed in the bottom of her purse.
What I didn't know until last week is that beginning in November, she posted a picture of herself on the Internet, listing her age as 15, and noting that she: drinks alcohol, has assorted body piercing, and is looking for a boyfriend.
None of which is true, with the possible exception of the boyfriend.
Her father and I made this horrifying discovery after a tip from the mother of one of her friends, who had seen the posting on MySpace.com.
"That can't be her," my husband said when I called up the photo. But there she was. Our child, in full makeup, in a dramatic pose, with that look of angst and despair that 13-year-old girls are so good at affecting.
And she had provided details that kept her father and me gasping. Her birth date. Her full name. Her hometown. Her cell phone number. And, according to the posting, her favorite hobby: "Hott guys."
Her logins showed she was often on the site in the hour and a half she was home after school.
Her father called her to the computer. She could tell she'd been busted, I suspect by the tone of his voice. "Am I in trouble?" she asked in that way kids do when they already know the answer.
"What were you thinking?" we screeched. We asked if she knew how dangerous this is, how many predators are out there wanting to connect with someone just like her.
"I just wanted to make new friends," she said, beginning to cry. "I didn't think anything bad could happen."
Well, it could. And it does.
Cops call the site "the Wal-Mart for pedophiles," and say 1 in 4 kids will be approached by a predator online. Police chiefs across the country, including Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, are urging parents to prohibit their kids from logging on to MySpace. A teenage girl in New Jersey was found raped and strangled after meeting a man from MySpace.com.
And as I perused the site, I was sickened by obscenity and provocative pictures, of references to alcohol, drugs and sex.
I assumed my daughter was spending her time after school studying Spanish and biology. We assumed wrong.
Here's the thing; her father and I thought we were doing everything right. The household rules were simple: no Internet access except with parental permission and then only to research homework projects. We hadn't bothered with any of those parental control devices because we are both techno-challenged. We thought the spoken rule would be enough.
We made sure we knew what was going on in her life. We have family dinner together most nights. She attends a private Catholic school that encourages parental involvement. Her teachers e-mail me each time she takes a test so I have an ongoing accounting of her progress in school. We don't allow her to stay overnight with friends unless we know the parents. Her mother and stepfather take similar precautions when she is with them.
And still, it happened. It got past us.
What struck me -- and kept me up most of the night -- was her astonishing naiveté. "But somebody bad couldn't have found me because they wouldn't have a password," she said. "Only my friends can find me."
And this. "I wouldn't talk with somebody dangerous."
No, my sweet-faced child, in your kneesocks and ponytail and pretty-in-pink lip gloss. But somebody dangerous is perfectly willing to talk to you.
My little family remains safe, and her site has been dismantled. The computer is now completely off limits to her, and I am installing parental controls to keep it from happening again. She has lost her television privileges for two weeks. We've taken her cell phone from her.
A hard and scary lesson for her, but perhaps more so for her father and me, and her mother and stepfather.
The monsters aren't necessarily lurking at the mall or in the parked car at the end of the street. They're on that blue screen in the family room.