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This
Month's Article
Your
Child May Be in Danger In the
“Safety”
of Your Own Home!
What
parents may not know about the internet, handheld devices
and their
children: The Dangers That Are Luring!
By: Jessica
Gilstrap, M.A., LMHC, Heartspoken Counseling, Inc.
Well the fact
of the matter is that our children are all in danger of safety
issues within our homes. Hot boiling water on the stove, electrical
outlets that beckon little babies fingers, and riding bikes in the
driveway while Mom or Dad is backing out of the garage.
Yes these are
all dangers within our homes that can hurt our children.
Fortunately, over the years we have learned about these, and have
devised methods to help keep our babies safe.
The challenge
that we are faced with today however is much more insidious. That
marvelous machine that sits so innocently in the home office, our
children’s room, or someplace in the family room is an open door to
one of the most destructive forces that parents and children may
ever face.
Each week I
sit in my office and hear parent after parent talk about certain
situations and make the comment, “if I had only known.” What they
are often discussing is what kind of adult content was available on
Myspace.com, if they had only known what people were “looking for”
while surfing the internet, and if they had only known the reality
of the danger in the electronic world that we live in today. The
advantages of our expanding computer technology have brought
un-measured advances in all facets of our lives. Computers have
compressed time to the point that we can accomplish so much, gain so
much insight, and learn so much just by accessing the Web. In time
past, we would have driven our children to the library, written
letters requesting information, or made a telephone call to
facilitate an issue. In our world today, almost anything you want
to know about almost anything, and I mean anything is just 3 or 4
clicks away on that innocent little box sitting in your child’s
room. Information flow is moving so fast that few are capable of
keeping pace, especially parents. I have seen a growing trend in a
parents finding what I call “false comfort” in the fact that their
children are safe at home.
Children are
safe at home with that “innocent box” and Myspace.com. Parents more
and more today are appearing to be losing touch with what their
children are involved in on the internet, their cell phones, and
their I-pods. In most cases, this is not necessarily the parent’s
fault, it is just that information overload is so available, that
parents just cannot keep up. We conduct seminars and classes in
schools for children and parents on the dangers and the realities of
what children are exposed to on a daily basis and what you as
parents can do. You will be surprised with much of what we find.
With the rapid rise of technology and the booming field of
electronics and handheld gadgets, there comes great joy and pleasure
but also the distinct opportunity for serious danger.
Technology is
incredible, the things that we are able to do today are mind
boggling at best. With very little effort, teens can maintain
several conversations at one time on instant messenger (IM) (they
can be talking to people on the other side of the world), they can
be e-mailing someone they know somewhere else, listening to an
I-pod, text messaging their best friend on the their cellular phone,
and be updating their myspace webpage all at virtually the same
time! Can you believe that? In addition to this, they message in
their own message code. Parents and even I have difficulty
de-coding some of these messages. This often leaves parental
supervision out in the cold.
An interesting
article was published in the Wall Street Journal in November of
2005:
Day after day
I sit with teenagers that do this for hour upon hour. They spend
their time learning how to use the systems, play sedentary computer
games that often contain violence that can lead to unhealthy life
applications. These devices enable a child to stay in their room,
isolated; only surrounded by those images and text that exist on the
screen of a computer. God gifted our children to be wonderfully
inquisitive, quick thinking and quick learners. Couple these gifts
with a teenager who is going through the phase from childhood to
adulthood, make any and all information available to them
uncensored, and we have a potential recipe for a real challenge for
the parents. I am not implying that all computer activity is bad by
any means. The technology that we have is unbelievable and
extremely convenient. But, like anything else, with all of the good
comes some degree of danger. This is exacerbated when unsavory
activity is going on without parent’s knowledge.
With this, it
is a common belief that teens have surpassed many of us in their
understanding and knowledge of this computer world we now live in.
It is unfortunate, but true. It is not only unfortunate, but as you
might imagine from my previous comments, it can also be dangerous.
There is a very popular website that targets teens called
myspace.com. Many of you may have children that participate in this
website. As of February 13, 2006 myspace.com boasted
55,685,514
members, membership on March 16 is
63,162,878.
Its growth is staggering. This growth is attributed to inquisitive
teens that want to see what everyone else is doing. One aspect of
this site is that it is easy to share very personal information that
can lead to very serious consequences. An unsuspecting teen can
provide enough information that “child predators” and “child
molesters” and “child pornographers” can gain access to your baby.
One natural
aspect of becoming a teen is the influence of sex. The natural
changes that go on in our children often drive many of their
decisions. Web sites such as “My Space dot com” and unsupervised
technological access open a cornucopia of uncensored information
that our children can learn from. Much of this information is
harmful to your child’s outlook on sex and life.
Teens continue
to be highly active sexually. One of every three girls has had sex
by age 16, two out of three by age 18; two of three boys have had
sex by age 18. With grave consequences, our culture today
continually communicates that sexual involvement before marriage is
to be expected.
I trust that I
have provided you with some information that my help you more
clearly help your child move into and on from the teen years to
adulthood. My God Bless you and your challenge to keep up with this
ever changing world. |
