Parent Newsletters - Issue 15

No Limits Learning
kids goals Ezine

Issue 15, August 13th, /06

IN THIS PARENT NEWSLETTER

1. A WORD FROM THE EDITORS
2. TEENS AND THE INTERNET
3. INTERNET SAFETY FOR KIDS
4. KIDS CORNER COOKING AND CRAFTS
5. TICKLE YOUR FUNNYBONE (JOKES FOR KIDS BY KIDS)
6. WORDS OF INSPIRATION
7. SPONSORS

1. A WORD FROM THE EDITORS

Welcome to the next issue of kidsgoals.com Newsletter.

Recently we visited a website called Perverted Justice.com where undercover agents pretending to be children from ages 12-15 enter chat rooms and try to lure pedophiles into having conversations with them. We believe that Internet safety for children is a subject that needs to be addressed. The first article in this issue deals with teens and the Internet. In it you will find ideas to help your teen stay safe while surfing the web.

The next article deals with the experience that Cassie and I had when we went undercover posing as a thirteen-year-old girl in a popular teen chat room. I think you will find this article quite shocking. The full transcript of that conversation will be available on our website although I warn you in advance it is not for the faint of heart.

There will also be a quick start to download that will help parents and caregivers get started implementing Internet safety in their homes.

Last but not least, a big thank you to Justin (age 9) who wrote the Kid’s Craft for this issue. We think you’ll love his “Grass Monster”!

Please help us by emailing Cassie or myself at kidsgoals.com with your questions, comments and suggestions for future issues.

Monicka

2. TEENS AND THE INTERNET

TEEN INTERNET SAFETY

If you are the parent of a teenager chances are that your teen knows all about the Internet. Probably even more than you do? They use it on a daily basis for school projects and general research. It is without a doubt the ‘‘information highway‘’. But parents also need to realize that there are many dangers involved when web surfing.

Chat rooms are especially something to be wary of. Anyone can fake their identity and pose as another teen to gain the trust of your child. Someone who may appear as a 13-year-old boy may in actuality be a 40-year-old man. Pedophiles frequent chat rooms looking for victims to lure into unsafe situations.

It is important as a parent or caregiver to become just as savvy as your teen when it comes to the Internet. Learn everything that you can about the web. Ask your teenager to show you all the cool places that teens like to frequent. The important thing to remember is to keep the lines of communication open so your teen will feel comfortable telling you if they encounter a problem. Keep in mind that your response will dictate whether they confide in you the next time a problem arises. It is important not to blame your teen or take away their computer privileges.

Parents should also be aware of filtering programs that block out offensive or undesirable sites. Some even prevent users from entering certain types of information such as names and addresses. Many even restrict their ability to enter chat rooms or send or read email. The parent can configure many of these programs; to block the sites they may feel are inappropriate for their teen.

Have a discussion with your teen about what you will allow and what you will not allow while they online. Try to be reasonable and remember how it felt when you were a teenager. Finally instill in them certain rules to follow when it comes to Internet safety.

When instant messaging never give out personal information unless you are 100% sure of whom you are chatting with.
When in chat rooms never give out personal information such as names, home address or phone number, name of school or photographs.
Do not give out your password
When in chat rooms use names that are not gender specific this may prevent receiving pornographic material or harassment. If your teen receives any pornographic material report it to the local Police Department.
Never meet anyone in person that you have been chatting with.
Never respond to email or chat comments that are hostile or inappropriate. Sending a response just encourages the harasser.
Be careful about newsgroups. If you respond to a post remember to keep your personal information private. Remember anyone can read the information. Newsgroups are a favorite place for people who send “spam’’. Remember anytime you post on a newsgroup you are leaving your email address.

Email safety

Do not open links from people you do not know
Never respond to emails with pornographic or offensive material
Do not respond to advertisements

Finally if you plan to use a filtering program please be advised that no filtering program can protect your teen from all the dangers on the World Wide Web. By getting your teenager to follow a few rules you can ensure that your teen has a positive web experience and help to safeguard them from possible harm.

By Monicka

3. INTERNET SAFETY FOR KIDS

CHAT ROOM EXPERIMENT

Posing as a 13-year-old girl, we googled for teen chat rooms and visited the one that came out top of the search engine. Every room we entered on that site, we were receiving lewd comments within seconds of going in.

To see what would happen, we responded to someone calling himself “OlderManForYoungF”. He told us that he was Brian, 45, from New York. Once he had us in a private chat room he bombarded us with sex talk and asked if we would like to see him touch himself. He also asked us to email him a photograph, and suggested talking on the phone several times.

Needless to say, we came away from that experience rather shell-shocked. This man was propositioning what he thought was a 13-year-old child! Now at that age children are inevitably curious about sex and liable to ask questions. And they would typically pose themselves as older than they are, by at least a couple of years, making them even more likely to be the recipients of inappropriate advances.

A recent Media Awareness Network survey of 5,200 students in grades four through 11 reported that of the 90 percent of Canadian children who have access to a computer in their home, 60 percent often disguise their own identity on the web and fully 79 percent have online acquaintances they’ve never met face to face.

What are the real risks our children run when using the Internet? Here are some to consider:

1. Exposure to undesirable sexual content. It is all too easy for our kids to stumble across indecent and perverted porn sites, many of which have content much more extreme than you would see in some adult magazines.

2. Unwanted sexual attention. In some ways this could be viewed as worse than pornography, because this is directed at the child. The lewd comments we got during our chat room experiment were pretty unpleasant. They can make children feel upset, introduce them too early to words and ideas about sexual perversions and also confuse them about what is appropriate or not when it comes to sexual matters.

3. Undesirable relationships. As some chat room are moderated by adults, it seems likely that people looking to have sex talk with children online will target a youngster and then try to develop the relationship over Instant Messaging (using MSN or similar software). Once the child trusts the predator sufficiently to give out his or her MSN address, the unscrupulous adult has carte blanche to talk dirty one-on-one with the child. If parents are not doing detailed monitoring of their child’s online activity, the conversations are private.

The good news is that there is a lot that we can do as parents to combat these threats. We have compiled a Quick Start guide for parents that is available for free download on our website, http://www.kidsgoals.com/kid-internet-safety.shtml. Also, you will find a transcript of the actual conversation between the 45 year old and what he thought was a thirteen-year-old child at http://www.kidsgoals.com/internet-kid-transcript.shtml - once again we warn you, it is not for children.

Wishing your kids safety on the Internet at all times!

By Cassie

4. KIDS CORNER COOKING AND CRAFTS

GRASS MONSTER by Justin (age 9)

(To see Justin’s diagrams for this craft, please visit http://www.kidsgoals.com/grass-monster-craft.shtml)

What you need:

Grass seeds
A mug
A sock
A bit of dirt
A rubber band
4 buttons
Pins
A plate of water

Instructions

1. Place the sock over the mug
2. Put the grass seeds in the mug
3. Put in the dirt
4. Carefully take out the sock
5. Tie a rubber band on the top of the sock
6. Snip a piece off the top of the sock
7. Place the buttons on with some pins
8. Put the Grass Monster on the plate and wait for it to grow

STRAWBERRY BANANA SMOOTHIE

Quick and healthy snack that teens can make in a flash

1 large banana
2 handfuls of ripe strawberries
4 heaping Tbsp of applesauce
6-10 cubes of ice

Add ice and the applesauce first (applesauce provides the liquid necessary in the crushing of the ice). Crush the ice until substance is smoothie-like, and then add the other ingredients. Enjoy!!!

5. TICKLE YOUR FUNNYBONE

Why was the computer so angry?
Because it had a chip on its shoulder.

Why did the computer get glasses?
To improve its web sight

Why did the computer sneeze?
It had a virus.

Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons.

6. WORDS OF INSPIRATION

“To err is human but to really foul things up requires a computer.” -Farmer’s Almanac, 1978

“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." -Rich Cook

From space, I saw the fragile blue earth without borders."- Onizuka

“If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push button finger.” -Frank Lloyd Wright

“Safety is something that happens between your ears not something you hold in your hands.” -Jeff Cooper

7. SPONSORS

If you can suggest any organizations or websites that might want to sponsor this newsletter, or reprint our articles, please email Cassie or Monicka at kidsgoals.com.

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