“I can trust my child to do the right things on the Internet.” REALLY?!

“That only happens to other people.” REALLY?!

I recently gave my son some additional permissions on the Internet. After many conversations together over the importance of protecting yourself, I thought “he got it” and I could trust him in this area. As I walked by the computer, I saw a message pop up on the screen asking my son where he lives. He was in the middle of telling this stranger that he’d met playing an online game where we lived. Needless to say, my son and I had a talk right then and looked through his message history together. Unfortunately, not only was my son getting ready to give this person our address, he had already told him his real name as well as his age. 

Wow! Talk about a dose of reality. My son is extremely smart and mature in many ways, but not in every way. Although we had talked about the dangers of the Internet and how people could lie, he just knew this person had to be an honest person because they told him their name and age first. Why would they lie about that? Oh, let’s see…. To gain your trust to get more information from you because they are looking for young children to kidnap; to manipulate you into possibly feeling comfortable enough to send them nude or partly nude photos of yourself… I could go on and on. 

Then my son explained that if he didn’t respond back, that would be rude and his online “friend” might not be his “friend” any more. Hello! Time to redefine in my son’s mind the true definition of a “friend”. It’s obviously not someone you played an online game with for a few minutes over the Internet that you know nothing about.

Just because our kids are growing up and seem understanding of an issue doesn’t mean they fully understand it well enough to be left out there with no accountability or protection. Luckily, I actively monitor my son’s Internet activities and use Bsecure’s parental controls so that I can test when he’s truly mature enough to start using different applications, allow him to stay on the Internet longer, and provide accountability. It’s easy for any of us to do the right thing when others are watching; it’s not that easy when we think no one is watching and will know. 

Don’t be caught off guard! Be proactive in your child’s life with active monitoring and parental controls. Although our kids want to pretend they don’t need us, they do and we should love them enough to fight the battle.