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I am someone that has grown up with the net from my early teens untill now. I started on the net when it was new to the world with my parents hooking up to one of the first ISP's.
Now I still hang around a lot of the places I used to as a teenager because the people there have gotten older themselves. However as the years have gone by the new generation of Teenagers are on the net. So they talk amongst adults and adults talk amongst them on huge image boards.
Why I am writing this is the increasing number of teens starting threads about their parents not understanding a thing about computers and the internet. This causes quite a large amount of problems in real life and outside.
So I thought I would try and write a little peice about some things on the net. What you should look out for and what your teen may be exposed to or doing on the net.
First things first though. Your teenager be it boy or girl but mainly the boys will be smarter than you, when it comes to computers and the net anyhow. Any parents in here that have any type of nanny software or keyloggers or any number of things to spy in on and stop your kids looking at things. These are useless your teen WILL find a way around them in no time flat.
Want to know something about the computer. Talk to your teen like a person and ask them if they know things about computers. They can save you money on things like virus software. (Norton is the biggest ripoff since windows and is pretty much a virus in itself.). Your teen knows of sites and places you have never heard of and visits them regularly.
The net has basicly all the infomation on it you can imagine. This goes from the worst kinds of degredation or horror to quantum physics and string theory. Anything and everything will be at your childs fingertips they will learn faster than any teen before them about the world and the things going on in it.
You're probably noticing some of your kids getting a little more into polotics or laws that are being instated. This is because there is a fair bit of legislation getting thrown around which directly affects them by restricting the way the internet is used. Anyone of my generation or your teens will tell you this is very bad news.
Your kids will look at porn there is no stopping this. Boys especialy will find porn far easier today than back when the internet first started. I love the net and I believe there is too much porn. So a good talking with your teen over what it is you feel comftable with them looking at with a strict set of guidelines.
Learn how to check your browsers history and cookies. Always leave them enabled easy to tell if your child has turned them off and on again because there will be a gap in dates/times when they where on the computer.
Facebook/twitter/myspace etc. I personaly hate these things. I believe they did more damage to children than good. Created a massive amount of peer pressure by becoming a huge popularity contest. My advice here is if your child has one of these accounts you also know the password. You make your own facebook and add them as friends also you restrict greatly the amount of images/pictures of themselves they put up. The interenet is forever once it's on there it stays there. If someone saves it that pic will fly around the world rather quickly.
That being said you still have to give them some sort of independance with those sites. Try not to get too miffed if you catch them swearing or talking about subjects that you would not expect them to know anything about. This is because your child talks to their friends far differently than they talk to you just like you did when you where a kid.
Talk seriously about not putting nude pictures of themselves or sending nude pictures of themselves over the phone to boyfriends or just friends. This is the latest craze for teens among clothed pictures asking for people to Rate their pic. We have girls and boys of all ages stripping at the drop a hat for attention or praise. These images have a tendancy to come back and haunt the person posting them. Hard to get your teen to stop doing things like this because you can't watch them every moment of the day. Warn them of the dangers and look up some articles where it has turned out badly for the person doing it. ( Look up Jessi Slater in google ).
Imageboards. These are a lot like forums people posting their thoughts or ideas along with pictures to thousands of people. These imageboards are places without morals and very few rules. This sounds horrible but infact gives everyone no matter what your age a place to vent and talk about anything that is on their mind. Without having to register tell anyone their name age etc.
This is good for hundreds of reasons. The main ones being that your teens can speak in a forum with adults without being treated like a teen. Gives a feeling that they can say whatever is on their mind and get whatever they want off their chest. There is no fear of reprisal or ridicul because simply no one knows who where or the sex and age of the person posting is. Yes horrible stuff gets posted on these sites. Hard to say how you handle this because I believe these imageboards do help kids but can also be a fairly dodgy place to go.
You have a virus on your computer? don't blame your teenager unless you are good with computers and know what you are doing. Most of the time the complaints I hear from teens on these forums is their parents believe they either.
A. Downloaded something and put a virus on the computer ( Far more likely it is a parent that has downloaded something they shouldn't have and put a virus on a computer.
B. Parents not believing their children when they tell them they are getting screwed in a PC shop. Computer stores love Parents who don't know a great deal about computers.
C. Looking into their emails. Thats a hard one as I don't think you should go looking around in your teenagers emails as that is something that is going to drive their internet habbits underground. Should only ever do this if you suspect something serious.
Some simple tips for young teens and the net you can do are.
1. Put the computer in an open space of the house such as living room/kitchen etc.
2. Put a set of rules fowards. Time allowed spent on the computer. Sites they should stay away from etc.
3. Limit pictures/personal infomation on Facebook/youtube/twitter etc. ( These include don't post pictures of your house the street where you live etc. I only need to see the outside of a house and I can find where it is.
4. Listen when your teen tries to explain something or is talking to you about news or something they heard of the internet. They are going to be open to a lot more infomation about the world and what goes on in it.
5. Keep in touch with the latest fads and lingo that goes around the net. Trust me even if you have grown up with the net like me it is getting harder to keep up with the teenagers these days.
I may add more to this about other things that Teens complain about on Imageboards and forums. They have a lot of serious and interesting troubles I remember from a kid that parents don't even know.
If you want to ask any questions about Internet lingo/sites Dangers. Go ahead I will answer them to my best ability. Also all of this is just off the top of my head. This is what I believe it may not be what a lot of parents think. But I remember quite vividly my teenage years still and a lot of the problems them are still around now. Sorry it is so long but I type fast and rant faster.
But honestly, I know WAY more about computers than my kids do. When it comes to what you can do with computers or on the internet they eat my dust. It didn't just happen though, I have an interest and made it my mission. LOL. Although none of us actually "gets" Twitter.
I think we will soon be at the point where the new kids on computers will be the children of the first computer users anyway so it's all going to be moot. Although there will ALWAYS be something "new" that the oldsters aren't interested in.
I thought that myself too however for teens in their 14-17 it is still very bad. Even younger teens have parents that have little to no interest in computers or the net and let them do whatever they want.
I don't know that I buy that parents of teens are ignorant of computers. Most parents of teens are in thier 30's-50's. Most of us know our way around the internet pretty well. Most of us have to use computers and other technology for jobs. I am sure there are some people who are not well versed in computer usage but as a generation most of us have been required to keep up with technology.
I don't know that I buy that parents of teens are ignorant of computers. Most parents of teens are in thier 30's-50's. Most of us know our way around the internet pretty well. Most of us have to use computers and other technology for jobs. I am sure there are some people who are not well versed in computer usage but as a generation most of us have been required to keep up with technology.
I think it's more not so much ignorant of computers but current trends. I mean i am just now learning about facebook lol.
I don't know that I buy that parents of teens are ignorant of computers. Most parents of teens are in thier 30's-50's. Most of us know our way around the internet pretty well. Most of us have to use computers and other technology for jobs. I am sure there are some people who are not well versed in computer usage but as a generation most of us have been required to keep up with technology.
I agree with this.
In our house, trust me, given my husband's line of work, our 16 year old doesn't know more than he does when it comes to computers and the internet.
When it comes to facebook and all that crap, thankfully my son has very little interest in it. He does have a facebook page but rarely gets on it, and we've pounded into his head what effects posting something stupid can have down the line. Not to mention, he sees what some of his friends post and just shakes his head. I'm connected to him on facebook and if he posts anything, I see it anyway. The other day he posted a status for the first time in I don't know how long - "We have kittens!". lol!
In our house, trust me, given my husband's line of work, our 16 year old doesn't know more than he does when it comes to computers and the internet.
When it comes to facebook and all that crap, thankfully my son has very little interest in it. He does have a facebook page but rarely gets on it, and we've pounded into his head what effects posting something stupid can have down the line. Not to mention, he sees what some of his friends post and just shakes his head. I'm connected to him on facebook and if he posts anything, I see it anyway. The other day he posted a status for the first time in I don't know how long - "We have kittens!". lol!
Right-remember the OP is talking to teens NOT their parents. Teens think they know everything and their parents know nothing regardless of what their parents actual computer knowledge is.
Yes I should have worded that I know a lot of parents these thays do know these things. Have either grown up with them as I have or learnt themself. I don't think it comes down so much to knowing your way around a computer.
I just think too many still rely on things such as purchased safeguard software and passwords for the computer. Even if a teenage is not that computer litterate one of their friends is bound to be.
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