This is the site that pairs people in random chats. A woman in Texas may be paired to chat with a man in Japan. Anyone can join and no one is screened. That means your children could be paired with sex offenders and other felons. On Monday the Texas attorney general warned parents to make sure their children are not on the site.
However, the site has been featured on Saturday Night Live and the Jon Stewart Show so your kids may want to join. Warn them about the dangers and hope they listen. For more information on the Texas attorney general’s warning visit http://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagNews/release.php?id=3239.
As I was scanning my Facebook posts today one of my friends, who is a new parent, posted that he didn’t wasn’t told how much it would affect you to hear stories of children being harmed after you have a child. He said it more elquoently than that but you get the picture.
I know exactly what he is feeling. I became a parent after a decade of reporting on crime. It always upset me to hear that a child had been hurt, but since my child has been born it has been so much harder to hear. We have to be vigilant and use all of the tools at our disposal to keep our kids safe offline and online.
I have a confession. I have been holding back and not saying what I really feel. Let me explain.
For more than 15 years I was a reporter that spent most of my career focusing on crime. The last four of my journalism career I was a crime reporter in a medium-sized Georgia town. It’s a great place and the kind of place that you wouldn’t expect to be shattered by stories of child predators. In fact, in most places I worked you would think would be isolated from horror stories of sexual abuse.
Think again. The things I heard went beyond a 25-year-old man trying to date his 16-year-old girlfriend. There were kids as young as 2 in some cases molested by people they trusted. After I become mother myself, these stories were harder to hear. I couldn’t imagine the pain of those parents.
I feel like I have held back on the horror stories–that is the best way to describe them–maybe in an effort to try and be politically correct or maybe because I did not want to think about them. But these people are out there. And they are online.
When Jacob Andersen gave me the chance to write this blog I jumped at because I sat in those courtrooms and hear how those children were abused. I want to be a part of the effort to stop the abuse.
Pardon me if occasionally I tell a horror story about a case I covered. I am no longer dancing around the issue.
Writer’s block happens to me when I least expect it. Today was one of those days. I was reading articles about Internet safety hoping something would inspire me. After I realized that nothing would, I decided just to log into the blog site and start writing.
The funny thing about inspiration is it can come from the strangest places. The first thing that caught my eye when I opened our comments section was a word I would not use and would not want my child to hear. We were getting spam comments on this blog. Ironic that a blog devoted to keeping out porn and spam attracts it. It’s the same on our Twitter account. I have to delete several followers that are really just spammers and pornographers several times a week.
Sadly, if the spammers and pornographers were not having some success, they would quit doing it. For those who choose to keep their computers and Internet history free of this stuff, Kidsemail.org and MyKidsbrowser.com are great tools.
By the way, before i finished this blog another spammer left me a message.
The news this week produced some surprising facts about just how much spam is out there. According to a story in several technology magazines, about 90 percent of emails sent in February were spam. Some of that spam contained malicious spyware. Earlier today Spanish officials announced that three people were arrested and charged with infecting more than 12 million computers in 190 countries with botnets. If you dont’ know what a botnet, it’s malicious software that can infect your computer.
Often our kids are not aware that some of the emails in their inbox are spam or that they could infect your computer. That’s why KidsEmail.org is such a powerful tool for families. We filter out the spam you don’t want your kids to see.
Twitter is a great business tool so it should be no surprise that pornographers and spammers are there trying to persuade you follow them. When a word that is not allowed to be said in PG-13 movies appeared in our Twitter feed, I assumed it was from a spammer or porn site. I was shocked when I saw it was from a business owner disgruntled with the world. I am no prude but I blocked the person so that the word was out of our Twitter feed.
It made me think about an article I posted last week. The Internet exposes us and our children to an environment we may not be exposed to in our own homes. You may never say curse words around your children but if your child was reading our Twitter feed this morning, it was there. With KidsEmail.org, curse words are blocked out of any emails your child received. And with MyKidsBrowser.com, your child is protected every second he or she is online.
What do you think about the Twitter incident? I would love to hear your views.
Do you ever wonder if your kids are spending too much time online? According to a 2009 survey, 16 million kids from the ages of 2 to 11 are online. The average time online is 11 hours a month, up from 7 hours a month in 2204.
Surprisingly, boys are online more than girls. Boys tend to watch more videos than girls, who usually read content online.
While online, kids are exposed to many images–many which parents don’ t want their kids to see. And almost every child has manged to get online when their parents are not around. It could be while at a friends house or while the parents are asleep. Make sure you have parental controls in place to keep your kids from pornography, predators and spam while online.
According to a recent survey by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), children are not learning about Internet safety in he classroom. While more than 90 percent of educators surveyed support teaching Internet safety, only 35 percent work in schools with any type of program.
This study further emphasizes the need for parents to educate their children about Internet safety at home. Firewall and anti-virus programs help but can’t keep the predators from contacting your child. Talk to your kids about Internet safety.
KidsEmail.org has a new affiliate program that can make you money while you promote a great product! This is the easiest affiliate program on the Internet. To sign up:
1. Go to http://www.kidsemail.org/affiliate/index.php.
2. Fill out the information.
3. Post the banners, ads, etc… on your blog or website.
4. Make money!
Even if you don’t have a blog or website, you can be an affiliate. All you need to do is send out an email to your friends and family.
The best part is you get $100 just for signing up (payouts are made once a month with a minimum $200 balance). And you get 25 percent for each sale you make.
As a KidsEmail.org affiliate, you are doing your part to keep kids safe online. Sign up today!
Justin Coulson writes a great blog called Happy Families. If you are not reading it, I high recommend it. He has great advice from the Land Down Under.
His blog from today mentions KidsEmail.org. You can read it here.
http://happyfamiliesblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-are-your-children-doing-online.html
