mmm sex

you know what alex? you are going to disagree with anything I have said so I think it best we just drop this altogether. I have my beliefs and you have yours. that is ok too but I will not argue my values or concerns any longer. there is a time and place for kids.

i was trying to understand where you are coming from. i still don't really.

if you want to be sure that kids are safe from online predators then don't let them go online it is as simple as that.

if they don't post identifying information and don't meet with anybody off the internet unless it is in a very public place (a cafe or something like that) then they should be safe from online predators.

but instead of telling kids this and ensuring that they actually ARE safe from online predators we take steps that help us FEEL LIKE they are safe from online predators. so we feel squeemish at the thought that kids and predators might be reading our dialogue about sex and we want them not to so we don't feel squeemish anymore. we feel squeemish at the thought of someone having certain thoughts and feelings and we don't feel so squeemish when we see that person evicted from the community.

these actions seem to help us feel less squeemish (which isn't at all to be sneezed at). neither of those actions actually make kids any safer from online predators, however, can you see that?

> I will not argue my values or concerns any longer.

you don't have to argue your values and concerns. i'm really not trying to do that. i would say that we have the same goal of not wanting to find out about children being preyed upon by online predators. i guess our differences in opinion are around the most effective way of doing that...

> there is a time and place for kids.

and not on the internet...

or...

not where people are talking about certain topics.

i guess i'm fairly much a fan of provide as much information as the kid seems to want.

adolescence is a very recent invention... in many past cultures females would have been married off at 11 or 12 or 13 regardless of their thoughts and feelings on the issue. we might have notions around what is 'too young' and the like. what that does, however, is result in a society where sex is a taboo subject and kids are less likely to report 'bad touching' because they get the message loud and clear that they are NOT supposed to know about such things.

they will only read if they are interested. same as adults...

The person who has the best ability keep you safe on the Internet is you.