okay....................in this day and age, there are thousands and thousands of "latchkey" children.

unless their parents know how to put filters and such on the computers, those children are going to explore the internet. are we to say that's it's okay when someone pays them some attention and turn our heads to those children? those kids are lonely and they are more susceptible to the attention they get online.

and before someone starts in on me about "latchkey" children, our economy is such that mothers and fathers frequently both have to work to make ends meet. gas in my town is at $3 a gallon. milk, juice? out of sight. i know that some mothers have been able to stay home with their children and not work, but it seems to me that in the majority of the families that i know, the mother has to work.

then...................there are parents who couldn't care less about protecting their children. what are we to do about those children? do we just turn our heads and not have an opinion or a feeling about children who are unprotected?

AND, of course we have parents who aren't anymore aware of the danger of the internet than my dog, Fayeroe.....do we not express ourselves about protecting those children? i bet that i have friends that have never heard of MySpace.com. bet my truck on it! there are people who do not watch the news or read the newspaper.

expressing our feelings here is NOT wrong. this goes back to the Dateline thread. there are people here who were abused in their childhood and we could be a little less adamant about knowing that EVERYTHING is the parent's fault and a little more discreet in what we say.

we can disagree and do it in a calm and loving way. xoxox pat