[lynn P.]

I was wondering if anyone is familiar with the webite called Formspring. My daughter has several kids at school who have accounts there and she called me over to read the questions/comments. I was stunned at the hateful, sexual and abusive comments on their account. The problem I have with it, is an anonymous person can ask a question or hurl an insult. These kids are 12 and up. I scratch my head wondering why a young person would put up with this. The only answer I could come up with is:
1. they keep the account for the occasional comment like "you're hot/pretty" because they crave this kind of attention due to low self esteem.
2. they like the drama and being able to fire back.
Or they're immune to this kind of stuff on the internet.

There's also a fairly new website for children called Moshi Monsters. It's a bit similar to Webkinz except you can have a live conversation. I let my youngest join but became aware that adults actually join this too. One night a supposed kid asked my daughter if "she knows what sex is"? I told her to delete any comments and the person. Two friends of hers at school have accounts and they were naive enough to post their phone number on their message wall.

I wonder why parents aren't teaching their kids to be more safe when they're on the internet?

[BugsyMalone]

Wow, that's shocking. Really bad that parents don't teach their kids never to give out phone numbers, addresses etc. (or maybe they do teach them and kids ignore it? I dunno...)

The internet can be a real "Wild West" at times. When I was a teen (back in the day... ) the internet was just developing so although we had it at home, we had just one computer in the front room. So it was fairly easy for my parents to see what I was doing, I guess. How parents can keep an eye on their kids now, when many have internet access in their bedrooms, on their cellphones, etc. I have no idea.

[lynn P.]

This is what I do - we have laptop and a regular computer in the main living room. The laptop never goes into the bedrooms and must stay in the main living area.

[KathyM]

I'm as baffled as you Lynn. I'm very concerned about the huge amount of time children/parents, friends/neighbors are spending connected to all these "tv screens."

The kids' reasons are understandable. It's been going on with kids for as long as I've been alive. We had our fair share of flirting, drama, and warfare. Some of it was sweet, some of it was quite vicious.

The difference is we were peers who grew up together. We had to face each other daily in the classroom, on the playground, and in the streets. We knew our friends, and we knew our enemies. We didn't have to worry so much about the interference of strangers because we didn't want to have anything to do with them - unless we really needed something from them.

At the age of 9, I was with my friends one day when some other kids rode up and said a man was sitting in his car in front of a house - and he wasn't wearing ANY pants. Why the heck would anybody do THAT? He was parked in front of a friend's house, so my best friend and I hopped on our bikes to go have a look. We stopped our bikes on the sidewalk and peered over at him. It was the funniest thing we had ever seen. When he made eye contact with us, we busted out laughing. He drove away, and we never saw him again. There would have been no way he could have gotten close to us. We knew where to run...and we had a head start because he didn't look like the type that would want to run down the street without any pants, lol. Besides, my friend and I really needed that laugh, lol.

But kids today are really playing with fire on the internet. People can be very good at imitating others. The vicious and/or outcast kids were included in my peer community. That man in the car never would have been welcome in our community - even if he WAS wearing pants. It would just be too weird to see an adult want to hang around and play children's games - unless he had a severe and obvious brain injury.

Just about everyone around the world has access to the internet these days, including prisons. These parents who desperately want to protect their children from the REAL world could possibly be exposing them to the REALLY REAL world. If they needed to go to work or out on a date, would they be comfortable having local prisoners to serve as their nanny? Even if they are very nice adults - how would the anger level of a child match up to the anger level of an imprisoned pedophile?

We learned valuable life skills growing up because we grew up together. We learned how to walk on our own two feet in our own community - our skills expanded as we expanded further out of our community. It wasn't served to us all at once as fast food - or shoved down our throats under the disguise of a "Happy Meal."

If these kids really are peers, it's still very dangerous. We considered ourselves invincible - but it would have been VERY dangerous for us kids in Chicago to take a bus to NYC, a flight to LA, or a boat to China to confront the kids over there.

[Rose3]

I've encountered that kind of site, where participants are insulting, nasty, etc. - so if you encounter this (or if a child encounters this), then try to report it to a moderator, and find a different forum where people are respectful.
There is no need to continue going to that kind of site.

[lynn P.]

Thanks, BugsyMalone, Rose3 and KathyM - with the Formspring I even annonymously asked the girl - "why do you keep this account if 9 out 10 comments are verbally abusive? She said 'that's what Formspring is". I'm thinking about speaking to the school principal and see if she'll talk to the grade 7/8 classes and warn them about this particular site. I know they've taught internet safety in the schools but it doesn't seem to work.

[kikki27]

Originally Posted by lynn P.

I was wondering if anyone is familiar with the webite called Formspring. My daughter has several kids at school who have accounts there and she called me over to read the questions/comments. I was stunned at the hateful, sexual and abusive comments on their account. The problem I have with it, is an anonymous person can ask a question or hurl an insult. These kids are 12 and up. I scratch my head wondering why a young person would put up with this. The only answer I could come up with is:
1. they keep the account for the occasional comment like "you're hot/pretty" because they crave this kind of attention due to low self esteem.
2. they like the drama and being able to fire back.
Or they're immune to this kind of stuff on the internet.

There's also a fairly new website for children called Moshi Monsters. It's a bit similar to Webkinz except you can have a live conversation. I let my youngest join but became aware that adults actually join this too. One night a supposed kid asked my daughter if "she knows what sex is"? I told her to delete any comments and the person. Two friends of hers at school have accounts and they were naive enough to post their phone number on their message wall.

I wonder why parents aren't teaching their kids to be more safe when they're on the internet?

Wow thats crazy some parents dont care what they children do as long they not In there face bothering them.Those kind of websites need to be closed down.Hugs

[Soul Quake]

Kids will be kids, and even steering them in the right direction doesn't supersede their curiosity or the influence of peers.

I don't think the internet should be used by kids under 16, and this is the main reason. There's just too much crap out there.