Internet FAQ: What your Kids know that you don’t!

Well, this is a follow up to Eric’s article regarding “net lingo” so I decided to up the ante and give parents out there some more information about what are the 2009 kids do on the internet.

It’s no secret, your kids computer is not just a workstation. And sure they might not be playing a massive multimedia online role playing game (MMORPG) like World of Warcraft or WarHammer, but there are still a lot of things to do on the internet that is equally (if not more so) distracting.

Here is a simple break down of all the things that your kid is probably doing on the computer:

Social Networks: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter

Facebook: Well it’s a great way to “hang out” with you friends and post pictures and leave messages. You can chat, play games, and do silly stuff like “You have now made Eric unclog your toilet” which is all in good fun. Bottom-line: Safe, but there is a lot of information being stored and broadcasted to their ‘friends’.
Myspace: I believe this is still one of the heavy hitters because many musicians and entertainers are getting publicity from updating their Myspace. But Myspace has been known to be a “hook-up” website (where you can find someone to meet up and make a date out of it). Bottom-line: Be careful. Myspace has been known to attract ‘crazies’ and parents should always teach their kids regarding personal information and meeting strangers.
Twittter: This new kid on the block is a fun way of chatting with someone over a long period of time. Basically you throw out sayings and what you are doing out to ‘twitterland’ and wait for a response. Bottom-line: Super safe. But just don’t twitter what you are doing if you shouldn’t be doing it. Uh, I’ll leave it at that.

Communicate (Chat): Video chat, text chat, blogging

Video chat (IP phone, Skype, Ventrillo): Well, it’s quite simple, you log into a chatting program and you chat with a friend while your web-camera is on. Bottom-line: I don’t want to get really specific, but this activity should be done in a public place in the home. Meaning, locked doors and late night activies should be monitored more.
Text chat: Since the invention of the chat room, this is the internet staple for catching up with people and meeting new people. Bottom-line: Generally really safe, just make sure they don’t offer too much information and plan meet ups unless you know about it.
Blogging: It’s this generation’s journal/diary. Except anyone can read it, but you can be totally annonymous. You can pretty much talk about anything and even make money out of it. Bottom-line: Ultra-safe, BUT sharing too much (I feel like a broken record on this point) can get people into trouble.

Social Media: Torrents, YouTube

Torrents: It’s a way where you can download files from other people’s computer if they allow you too (it’s not hacking). Whether it would be music, a movie, or a program file you can download this file from multiple sources via programs like Bitorrent or uTorrent. Bottom-line: Well other than the piracy issue and the virus issue, it’s a really cool way to download files that you cannot normally download. Kids usually download anime or tv shows that they can’t find streaming off of YouTube because of copyright/piracy concerns.
YouTube: You can almost do it all on YouTube, you can blog, chat, watch videos (and music videos) so long as it’s not copyright protected. A great way to post a video and get some feedback from fellow YouTubers. Bottom-line: This site is fairly regulated so I haven’t heard of anything really bad happening to people. It’s probably the safest thing your kid can do on the internet that doesn’t cost money.

Here is the bottom line, you can’t really trust anyone on the internet (like who they really are or what they say they like to do) so it’s really important that no one should give out any information that might be used against you. It is not to say that internet isn’t safe for your family, but just like when I was growing up I was taught “Never talk to strangers” it should now be “You can talk to strangers, but Never give out personal information.”

Lastly, the internet isn’t set up to be kid friendly, so just keep in mind how your child has access to the internet. It’s really easy to stumble upon things you should be looking at.

G’luck