TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: parenting

  • Parenting, what a concept

    The Return of the School Shooting:

    This is an opinion piece from Blogger News Network about school shootings which also come to the most logical conclusion about them…

    However, I think it’s important to note that kids getting picked on doesn’t explain the totality of the issue. Something had to make school shootings start in the first place in the mid-to-late ’90s — bullying has been going on for ages — and analyses of Columbine showed the shooters did not concentrate on those who’d picked on them, opting instead for “Doom”-style random violence.

    My preferred explanation — one that ruffles feathers — is parenting. Many of these kids had plenty of time alone in their houses (Harris and Klebold made pipe bombs), and in most cases I can recall, the parents could easily have afforded quitting one job or working fewer hours. It’s also a parent’s job to monitor his/her children’s mental health issues, and keep guns away from the offspring if need be.

    I think it’s the only explanation that stands up to scrutiny, as it’s one of the few explanations that changed markedly between my parents attending high school in the ’70s (much bullying, lots of access to guns, no shootings) and now. Other factors can make it wax and wane, but as long as parents let a violent media raise their kids, the shootings won’t disappear.

    I’m glad to see that I’m not going crazy by having the same opinion.

  • Teens’ secret MySpace lives

    Mom finds her teen’s secret life on MySpace:

    Another parent with no clue waking up to the harsh reality of their kids and the internet…

    Q: My 15-year-old daughter has a MySpace website (I overheard her talking about it on the phone with a girlfriend), and I was able to check it out last week. I was astonished with what I found a group picture with a bunch of her best friends, apparently at a party, most with a can of beer in their hand. She wasn’t holding a beer, but she was surrounded by kids who were. I also read some (but not all) of the notes on the site from her friends, and many were OK, but some were suggestive of other parties and some skipping of school. This is all news to me, and I don’t know how to approach her. I’m furious, but I’m also concerned and want to let her know that this behavior is not fine with me. But will she think that I was snooping? How is the best way to handle this?

    Who cares if she thinks you were snooping? You’re the parent. If your kids do not practice common sense or good judgment online then it’s your job as a parent to watch out for them.

    Or you can click the article link for the lengthy answer by a professional.

  • Congressman wants FTC to do parents’ job

    Suburban congressman wants FTC to warn parents about MySpace:

    So Congressman Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) wants the Federal Trade Commission to issue a national consumer alert warning for parents to look at the web pages their children are posting on MySpace. Isn’t that basically wasting taxpayers’ money on something that used to be known as common sense?

  • Is MySpace finally getting serious?

    MySpace.com hires child safety czar from Microsoft:

    News Corp. is set on Tuesday to name a security czar to oversee child safety measures on MySpace.com, the popular teen dating and music site that has provoked an outcry among parents who fear they have not done enough to thwart sexual predators.

    Hemanshu (Hemu) Nigam, now director of Consumer Security Outreach & Child Safe Computing at Microsoft Corp., will head up safety, education, privacy and law enforcement oversight programs for MySpace and other Fox Web properties.

    The appointment is effective May 1, News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media, the parent of MySpace, said in a statement.

    The move is one of several responses MySpace and its owners have taken in recent months to respond to harsh criticism by parent groups, legal authorities and politicians.

    Nigam brings strong credentials to his new role. He has more than 15 years of experience in online safety, including serving as a Federal prosecutor against Internet child exploitation for the U.S. Department of Justice.

    He was also an advisor to a Congressional commission on online child safety, and an advisor to the White House on cyberstalking.

    Prior to Microsoft, Nigam was vice president of worldwide Internet enforcement at the Motion Picture Association of America, where he oversaw the global strategy to combat online video piracy for seven major Hollywood studios.

    Impressive credentials outside of that stint with the MPAA.

    MySpace reaching out to parents:

    MySpace has also hired more employees to handle security and customer care–roughly 100 people, or one-third of its workforce, scout out inappropriate content or underage members.

    Again that is rather impressive but will it be enough? Only time will tell.

  • Ask Amy

    Mom finds MySpace a harmful disgrace:

    Check out this letter to an advice column called “Ask Amy”…

    DEAR AMY: I didn’t realize the harmful nature of MySpace.com until I received an anonymous copy of my 16-year-old daughter’s MySpace page. She thought it was “just fun and games” when she posted provocative pictures on her home page. I was shocked when I read her Web space, which was tame by comparison to other kids from our community who have posted lewd pictures with profane comments for the world to see! I’ll be monitoring my daughter’s activity, if not deleting it altogether, but what about the parents who are unaware of this Web site? What has our culture degenerated to when photos of girls imitating sexual acts and wearing bras in the midst of boys are posted online for anyone to see? No wonder we are so concerned about predators. Our children are making themselves targets for anyone to exploit.

    Saddened by Complacency

    Rather than give the whole answer away I’ll just post the best part that should be common sense…

    DEAR SADDENED: If your daughter is demonstrating such poor online judgment, then it’s time to take the “car keys” away until she figures out that those photos could affect her life now and haunt her well into the future.

    Is that so hard for parents?

  • More kids posting more personal information

    MySpace, your space, some say it’s unsafe:

    Another local news article about how kids are posting too much information on their blogs. This time from Asheville, North Carolina, the Berkeley of the South.

    HENDERSONVILLE Lynn Price doesn’t remember the exact moment she realized she needed to learn something about Xanga. But she knows it was right about the time she heard the screen name one of her students had come up with for herself. (Sorry, it’s unprintable here.)

    Flabbergasted, the computer science teacher at Rugby Middle School visited xanga.com and got a look at the site that was revolutionizing her students’ social lives. What she found didn’t make her feel any better.

    “I was scared to death. I was mortified when I came across these 13-year-old girls, beautiful girls in my classroom, and they’re giving their names and they live in Henderson County and they go to Rugby Middle School and they’ve got a soccer match at Hendersonville Middle Wednesday at 4:30, everybody’s going to be there,” she said. “I get real frightened because I’m thinking they haven’t got a clue who they’re inviting to that soccer match by putting that on the Web.

    I don’t get it. Are parents really so clueless or such technophobes as to not know what their kids are posting online? Or haven’t they instructed them on the dangers of posting personal information online?

  • What would we do without experts?

    A Parent’s Guide To Checking MySpace:

    Another local news article on what parents can do to protect their kids online. I only have one bone to pick with the article…

    Remember, experts have said you should warn your child that you are going to look at their Web site, and be prepared to talk reasonably about how they present themselves on the Web.

    Screw what the experts say. If you really want to protect your kids don’t tell them you’ll be checking it out. This way they won’t have time to change anything and you can really see what they’re doing online which in turn will let you know how you need to protect your kids. When it comes to protecting your kids be a parent first and their friend second.

  • Wake Up Call

    MySpace Dangers:

    Yet another local news expose on the evils of MySpace. That seems to be the in thing with local newscasts right now…

    MySpace.com is a growing phenomenon among teens and also an easy way for people to find you if you’re not careful. Many people think, ‘It couldn’t happen to me.’

    Only on KXAN, Jenny Hoff set out to prove those people wrong with a wake-up call at their front doors.

    Jenny admits MySpace is a great resource for journalists. She logs on every time there is breaking news to get information.

    It’s also a great resource for predators, pedophiles and stalkers, and as I’m about to show you, for anybody who wants to know where you live.

    You may call it an ambush. We prefer wake-up call.

    This article is actually much better than most of the local newscasts about MySpace. I love the fact that the reporter actually took it to the parents of MySpace users and their children.

    This is a great read for any parent whose kids have a MySpace account.

  • Minor Problem

    Minor Problem

    MySpace Investigation:

    Just another “expose” on MySpace, but it has some interesting quotes…

    Who else is on the ever-popular social Web sites? A recent search on MySpace found this teen, listing her age as 13 and calling herself “Hottie Wid A Body.”

    “I’m Delicious” is 15 years old.

    So is the minor who calls herself “PlayboySlut101,” who says the perfect date is “going to a party, then having sex.”

    This is Megan. Her quote is, “Slippery when wet, boys.”

    Parents? Anyone? Beuller?