Our kids on the internet

[Sam Colon]

For the past 5 years or so the internet has morphed and slowly replaced the tv as the go to source of information and entertainment for kids and adults alike. Back in the day we thought it was hard to monitor our kids television shows, but the tv only had a limited number of channels. Who knew the internet would grow into this massive uncontrollable thing. With facebook, myspace and now twitter its hard for us not only to keep track of what our kids are looking at but its even harder to keep up with the ever changing trends online. How can we make sure our kids arent being harassed or even just talked to inappropriately???

The only real answer is by being intune with our kids. We have to listen and grow with them, we have to know which sites are cool and hip and then sometimes we have to take the time to become a part of these sites so that our kids not only know that we are hip but also know that we are there and aware. I currently have 2 myspace pages, 2 facebook pages and I am just starting to learn about this twitter movement. Its really hard to not only keep up with the real world and all the daily struggles that we are faced with but it is our duty and our business to keep up with whatever new hot site or items is out there now.

We are responsible for letting our kids know what is appropriate and whats not appropriate. We can leave it up to just restricting our kids from going on certain websites because these new age kids are sometime better at using the computers than their parents so whatever lock we think we put on there, they can just as easily take it off or find some creative way around it.

Here is a list of some of the current "COOL" sites that are out there that our kids are using

www.facebook.com
www.myspace.com
www.youtube.com
www.twitter.com
www.vimeo.com

Let me know if theres any sites that i am missing