Watching the Growing Up On-line special was kinda sad and extremely blown out of proportion. The message I got from the program was that there are many untrusting adults that want to live the lives of their children in addition to some extreme paranoia. Why adults feel like they can even attempt to explain something that they can hardly relate to and did not have access to when they were growing is a mystery indeed. The fact of the matter is, kids are going to be kids, and with or without the internet, they are still going to get into stuff they’re not suppose to do, and partake in dangerous activities. In my opinion it is actually better and extremely safe to be on-line than to be out in the real world, at some underage party, drinking heavily and smoking because some fast kids have the house for the weekend and their parents have no idea is going on. Shielding our kids from new technology because they don’t understand it is CRAZY!!!!!!. In the program, one of the little girls stated, “the boogy man lives in your computer….” or some non sense, HELLO AMERICA, the boogy man is everywhere, and i would hope the boogy man is in my computer too, and not lurking around the corner to snatch me up!!! Besides most people know not to be so naive and actually meet these predators on-line, and if they don’t have the common sense to know that, then parents need to get on their job and teach them. They are spending way to much time on the itty bitty things instead of preparing their kids for the real world, cause its out here, and when these poor sheltered kids get in it, they’ll sink so fast, you”ll think of the Titanic!!!!!!
