Parenting today comes with challenges never before experienced due to the rapid expansion of technology and its influence on our kids. I thought we were doing a pretty good job of monitoring our daughter's online activity, but we found out that despite our efforts, we needed to do more. While at a friend's house, our daughter created a webpage/blog on a social networking site that we didn't even know existed. We found her page by googling her name.
We were bothered by the fact that she had not asked for permission, nor had she told us about this page. What really shocked us was that she put her contact information on the top of her profile, and invited her followers (most of whom were strangers) to contact her.
We had a long talk with our daughter about how dangerous this is, and she agreed to delete the account. The problem? She always logged on via her ipod touch, and once she signed out, she couldn't remember her password. She did not set up the account on her personal email, but used a friend's. Guess what? Her friend no longer has that account. This means that we cannot delete the account.
My husband and I have contacted the online site multiple times to no avail. There is no phone number listed on the site, and no one has answered our emails.
Why am I sharing this with you? I want parents everywhere to realize that it no longer matters that your child is a minor. They can navigate the internet and post information on the world wide web without your permission. I don't know about you, but this scares me to death. There are predators out there who are real threats to our kids. If we don't protect them, who will?
What are you doing to keep your kids cyber safe?
