Kids online activities and Parent Monitoring

How many hours a month do you think pre-teens and teenagers are online? On average, most kids are spending 20 hours online. Most kids between the ages of 13 – 17 believe their parents have no clue as to what their activities are online.  imagine the freedom college brings 1st year students and their online explorations.  Here’s what they do, where they go, who they meet:

Friendships.
35% of our children ages 8-17 have made friends online 50 % of U.S. of our teens ages 13-17 claim to have made friends online 33% of children prefer spending time with their online friends rather than their offline friends

Social networking.
76% of our teens. teens ages 13-17 "constantly," "frequently" or "sometimes" visit social networking sites.

Shopping online.
35% of kids report being "very confident" or "confident" in shopping online.  Do you know where your credit card is?

Getting requests for personal information.
42% of kids ages 13-17 have received an online request for personal information.

Being approached by strangers.
16 percent of them have been approached online by a stranger; however, U.S. adults believe that just 6 percent of children have been approached online by a stranger.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?  Learn about online monitoring programs and software packages.  They can track EVERY little detail for you (from Instant Messaging to every visit online).  At the same time, you need to continually TALK with pre-teens and teenagers about the internet.  When they are at a friend’s house, your monitoring software is not going to do any good.  Educate them and empower them.

What program do you use for monitoring?  What do you like about it?  Help other parents by sharing with us here on the blog.

Written by Mike Domitrz on February 15, 2008

Tea Party With Moms and Sexually Active Teen Daughters

Parents involved in their children’s lives encourage kids to walk the right path. Creating a bond with your child and understanding their world opens lines of communication. Once those lines are open, it’s easier for your kids to feel they can approach you about the challenges and questions most teenagers will never talk to their parents about.

That’s exactly what a Mother/Daughter Tea Party in Knoxville, TN attempted to do. The community recognized that all schools in the area have sexually active 7th and 8th graders. The organizing group wanted to continue the trend of decreasing pregnant teens. To do so, they understood the importance of having parents discuss the issues of dating and sexual activity in a fun, bonding atmosphere. Besides discussing these issues, the girls learned proper tea etiquette and other social graces.

What an innovative, non-threatening, and fun way to talk to teens — to bond and create awareness

Click here to read more details.

Written by Mike Domitrz on February 14, 2008

Sexual Predators only need 15 seconds with your child / teenage son or daugther.

How many seconds does it take for a police officer posing as a minor to be approached by a sexual predator? 15 seconds. It only takes 35 – 45 seconds before a predator turns on his web cam and begins performing sexual acts for the camera.

Sexual predators are crafty and have a sixth sense. They know how to spot the weaknesses in young children and what they will respond to.

Talk to your children about being safe while on the internet. Review the following with them:

  1. - Never allow your children to give out personal information over the internet
  2. - Never give out your true name
  3. - Personal diaries should be just that, personal and never to be posted online
  4. - Anything posted on the internet is a permanent record
  5. - Never meet anyone from the internet in person

Parents, educate yourself – know terms and internet slang.  Research software programs allowing you to put parental blocks on certain web sites.  Many of the newer programs are very in-depth which is what parents need nowadays.

Click here to read more.

Written by Mike Domitrz on February 13, 2008

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