While schools and parents everywhere are wringing their hands about teens who blog, we are actively encouraging our oldest children to blog. They have only a few basic safety rules to follow and we closely monitor them (and their friends’ blogs) but for the most part, they are allowed to say whatever they want to say. When not used as an online mixer, blogs are a great way for teens to sort out their feelings and express themselves without fear of retribution. For my Aspie son, it is a way to encourage him to express himself non-verbally without perseverating on a single topic for hours and days. Like so many other things, blogging can be a good thing if you don’t fear, censor and ban it.
But the key here is you are a responsible parent. Others are not. So under the guise of “pretecting the children” they use a “one size fits all” type of “fix.”
If only more parents in the world were like you and Doug, then these problems wouldn’t be.
I agree
Teens and younger are saying/doing things on myspace that would never be acceptable in “real life”
Any parent with half a brain will at the very least, watch them like a hawk.
We go a step farther and have the computer in the main area of the house and don’t allow myspace.
I learned my lesson after my oldest daughter.