Help please
By Withoutwings
@Withoutwings (6992)
United States
May 31, 2007 12:24pm CST
I need to know as many stories - personal are ok - but news articles with the link would be better - about young kids and teenagers that lie about their age online in chatrooms and sites like mylot - and something bad happens - whether it's sexually abused, murdered, or even better - having their whole family murdered because of someone they met online. My mom needs them because my little neice doesn't seem to understand the dangers of being 14, pretty, and lying about her age online to strange people. Nothing else is working so we are resorting to the scare tactics. Thanks so much.
3 people like this
5 responses
@ljcapps (1925)
• United States
31 May 07
I don't know the exact statistics, but i do know that they're pretty high, especially depending on the area that you live in. Our son isn't old enough to play on the net yet, so we haven't upgraded to windows vista yet, but you might pass on the information that Vista allows the parent/guardian to limit the websites they can go on, and the amount of time they can spend on the internet. It might be a worthwhile investment for her. And if scare tactics work, then that's what you have to do.
1 person likes this
@Withoutwings (6992)
• United States
31 May 07
I will definately mention Vista to her parents - I'm thinking she does this at a friends house or elsewhere. Her parents check out some website to see how many swear words and bad things are in movies - I can't imagine they wouldn't moniter her computer use.
1 person likes this
@Withoutwings (6992)
• United States
31 May 07
Hopefully once my mom and I talk to her, she'll see the bad things that can happen and take her site down. My mom is very upset because it seems she is leading a double life. Something else happened recently that they haven't told us about - they are putting her in Christian school again.
1 person likes this
@ljcapps (1925)
• United States
31 May 07
Then my best suggestion would be for her parents to have good communication with her friends parents over this. Ask them to monitor her computer use, or not even allow her to use the computer at their house. The girl might get mad at them, but better to be safe. I know also on myspace that they should be able to actually contact the myspace personnel and have her removed from myspace, or at least make sure that her profile stays on private. But my best bet would be communication with the other parents. I'm hoping we never have to go through this with our son, as it's a very stressful situation. i am so glad we had a boy!
1 person likes this
@emeraldisle (13139)
• United States
31 May 07
Well I don't have any personal stories but I would suggest checking out Dateline and 60 minutes. They have been running shows about catching some of the pedophiles online and how they use online chats, myspace and such to find the girls. I would also recommend letting her watch Law and Order SVU, they've had some instances with that on there plus other stories that might work to make her realise you aren't being paranoid. I know this helped with my niece.
@Withoutwings (6992)
• United States
31 May 07
She is one of those girls that thinks nothing bad can happen to her.
I'll see about the Law and Order. Her parents are hardcore Christians and they've really sheltered her a lot. I have to see if she is allowed to watch that when she is here. Now before the Christians start jumping at me - I mean no offense to you - but they never explained to her what pedophiles and rape were or even told her about her period. Her mom got mad when my mom explained what rape was (my neice asked her) - and my mom told my sister - how is she supposed to know if it's happening to her if she doesn't know what it is.
1 person likes this
@emeraldisle (13139)
• United States
31 May 07
I feel for you with this one. Not sure how to help if they are limiting her knowledge that much. You might check the site for Dateline to see if they have anything up there on it. They might. It would be a start if nothing else.
1 person likes this
@Withoutwings (6992)
• United States
31 May 07
Thank you, I'm definately going to check that one out.
@lifeis2good (1183)
• United States
31 May 07
Hello there - it's so unfortunate that teens these days still don't get how dangerous the real world is!!!! I don't have any links for you right now but will be sure to let you know if I come across any.
Also - I have a program installed on my computer that basically lets me see my teenager's instant messages(if they contain anything negative but also lets me know when he makes changes to his myspace account. It's completely free and I can't believe how easy it is to use and how helpful it really is!!!
You can find the program here at http://www.imsafer.com
Feel free to ask me any questions about this program!!!
1 person likes this
@Withoutwings (6992)
• United States
31 May 07
Thank you! I will have to put that on the computers here. Things are crazy right now and she won't be here for another week - but when I get a chance to put it on my computer I'll definately let you know if I have questions.
@inked4life (4224)
• United States
31 May 07
Yikes...thats scary and pretty irresponsible of the parents if you don't mind me saying. I've found a few articles that may be of interest...hope they help
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/12/INGU9H51EF1.DTL
http://www.pcanswer.com/articles/sjm_chatrooms.htm
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/internet/safe_passage_parents/chatrooms_safety_p.cfm
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2002/10/25/loc_hamsting25.html
1 person likes this
@Withoutwings (6992)
• United States
31 May 07
Thank you - these are great sites - these are better for the parents - the daughter needs to hear about someone getting hurt or dying for it to sink into her thick skull.
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
31 May 07
Well I was searching around and came up with a few of these links
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6083442/
http://www.securitysoft.com/chatroom_dangers.html
ttp://www.warningsigns.info/chat_rooms_warning_signs.htm
http://www.chatdanger.com/chat/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/12/INGU9H51EF1.DTL
These are just a few...you can do a search like this, just type in dangers of on-line chatrooms
1 person likes this
