being the bad guy
(Ironic that I'm posting this so soon after my last irresponsible post but...)
Internet safety for children is one of my big things and MySpace has been a hot topic on LM_NET (librarian listserv) this week so I decided to "browse" MySpace within a 10 mile radius of my school. There are 13 pages of people who fit that bill and within the first 2 pages I found 3 former students (I stopped there, I'll leave the other 11 pages for later this weekend). These girls are only in the 7th grade and had to lie about their ages in order to get on the site. Their postings seem to have the typical amount of tame pre-teen sexuality about them but there are some borderline pics on there and the world is full of creeps so come Monday morning I will have to be "the bad guy."
I haven't figured out yet exactly how I'm going to approach this but morally I know I need to contact their parents. It's the thought of actually doing it though that terrifies me.
On a side note, I guess I'll also be "cleaning up" or deleting my MySpace profile this weekend! I don't need any added drama arising from this.
Internet safety for children is one of my big things and MySpace has been a hot topic on LM_NET (librarian listserv) this week so I decided to "browse" MySpace within a 10 mile radius of my school. There are 13 pages of people who fit that bill and within the first 2 pages I found 3 former students (I stopped there, I'll leave the other 11 pages for later this weekend). These girls are only in the 7th grade and had to lie about their ages in order to get on the site. Their postings seem to have the typical amount of tame pre-teen sexuality about them but there are some borderline pics on there and the world is full of creeps so come Monday morning I will have to be "the bad guy."
I haven't figured out yet exactly how I'm going to approach this but morally I know I need to contact their parents. It's the thought of actually doing it though that terrifies me.
On a side note, I guess I'll also be "cleaning up" or deleting my MySpace profile this weekend! I don't need any added drama arising from this.
posted by virge at
5:56 PM
3 Comments:
There have been several articles on the local NY tv news concerning disappearances of girls and myspace. However when I have conversations with parents of children in the age group that you are concerned about I find that they are convinced that their children's participation at such websites is innocent and secure. I think that it is looked upon much like texting--a teenage thing. Anyway I strongly feel the way that you do and would feel compelled to share my apprehensions with parents that I knew.
i think you are being very responsible.
You're brave my dear. I would find it impossible to confront parents about this website. My hunch is those parents already KNOW about the site. I'm glad, however, that someone cares enough in this area to act.
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