A New Zealand 3-year-old girl surprised her mother by logging on to an auction site and buying a $12,000 excavator. Initially the mother thought her daughter bought a toy digger but was surprised to see the actual bill.
She logged on to the auction site (TradeMe) her mother, Sarah, had browsed the previous day, searching to find toy excavators for her daughter. The girl managed somehow to buy an actual mechanical excavator for a sum of £8,000 ($12,400 US).
Luckily for the mother she didn’t have to pay or purchase the mechanical digger. She contacted the auction site and the seller and explained what her daughter had done. (DigitalJournal)
* Accompany your child in chat rooms until he or she learns your safety rules
* Teach your child to never give out personal information such as his or her name or address, school name or address, or anything else that is personally identifying.
* Teach them to check with an adult for any exceptions.
* Explain them to never respond online to any messages that use bad words or words that are scary, threatening, or just feel weird.
* Teach them if they get that kind of message, to print it out and tell you/an adult immediately.
* If you spotted threatening or just weird messages contact the online service or appropriate agency.
* Explain that people are not always who they say they are
* Teach your kid the `power of ignore` - If her/he is uncomfortable in a live chat room, to use the “ignore” button.
* Set a rule that your child never arranges an in person meeting without you present
* Limit your child to specific chat rooms or consider blocking out chat entirely
The Mom to Mom Quiz (brought by T-Mobile) Redefines Parenting Styles and it is fun. Discover your parenting style by taking the quiz here.
We`ve taken the quiz also, here is the result 
What`s yours?
An article about Social networks, risks and what is to be done
Social Networks or Online Communities have become an integral part of the lives of many teenagers today. Social Networking is a term used to describe the fairly recent breed of websites, also referred to as online communities. These sites generally enable their subscribers to post a journal and various forms of media content, to generate and maintain relationships with other participants, and to engage in discussions around common interests with others.
Some of the most popular social networks are in the U.S. are MySpace, Xanda, LiveJournal, BlackPlanet, MiGente, AsianAvenue, Bolt, Hi5, Facebook, and Friendster.
These sites encourage and enable people to exchange information about themselves, share pictures and videos, and use blogs and private messaging to communicate with friends, others who share interests, and sometimes even the world-at-large. There are some real dangers involved, as there are in off-line aspects of a young person’s life. And that’s why it’s important to be aware of the possible pitfalls that come with networking online.
Continue reading ‘It`s 11 o`clock! Do you know what your child is doing right now?’
Educate your kids to:
• always use a nickname instead of real name;
• never give out personal information (name, address, age, telephone number, password, credit card number, and so on) in chat rooms and email
• always inform you if they receive any frightening or upsetting communication
• never exchange photographs over the Internet
• never agree to meet in real life with persons knowned in a chat room.
Many are asking themselves this question. But the answer is quite simple: Information. All you need is to give them the informations they need.
If you know your kid knows the difference between right and wrong, then you shouldn`t be worried about the internet. Let them know the dangers. They will know what`s safe and what isn`t.
Most parents find this hard to believe, but if they talk with their teenagers about the internet and all the things that come with it, they will usually make the right choices.
Read more about Teenagers and the Internet, in a great post written by Vanessa Van Petten on Radical Parenting.
Even we talk about cell phones or online chat talks, teens speak their own language. Teen chat rooms have become a social haven for millions of connected teens worldwide.
Chat rooms are an interactive lifestyle and for many provide an outlet for expression, making new friends and in a lot of cases making romantic or sexual connections.
We`re sure that you`ve walk up behind your teen to peek over his shoulder to see what he is saying online. The only problem is that most kids use a “short hand” when they chat online and parents just don’t know what their kids are saying online.
To make things easier for you, we present you some interesting acronyms, to understand what letters like POS are meaning (Parent Over my Shoulder).
Other acronyms include:
420 – `Marijuana`
9 – `Parent is watching`
99 - Parent is no longer watching
ASL - `age/sex/location`
ASLP – `age, sex, location, picture`
CD9 - `Code 9 - it means parents are around`
D46 - `Do you want to have sex?`
E or X - `Ecstasy (the drug)`
KPC -`Keeping Parents Clueless`
LG6 - `Let’s have sex`
LHOS - `Lets Have Online Sex`
GNOC - `Get naked on camera`
P911 - `Parent Alert`
PAW – `parents are watching`
PIR – `People in room`
SOS – `someone over shoulder`
TDTM - `Talk dirty to me`
LMIRL - `Let’s meet in real life`
Check out more Chat slang here and Acronyms & Text Message Shorthand here
Good luck!
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Allow access only to certain websites previously agreed together with your children. You can check with the children’s teachers for suggested Web sites and for recommendations for good resources online.
