FBI warns against teen blogs
Not content to let their British counterparts warn alone against the dangers that blogging presents children and teens, the FBI in Little Rock has joined in the fun.
According to a report at KTHV Little Rock, the FBI is warning against posting personal information on blogs after 23-year-old Louisiana man was arrested for kidnapping a girl he met through a Xanga blog.
Bill Temple, special agent in charge of the Little Rock FBI says, “We have made numerous arrests, convicted people that have gotten on the Internet pretending to be teenagers and meeting for sexual purposes.”
Temple says one in five kids every year is contacted by a predator. He is surprised at the amount of personal information kids are posting in blogs.
Temple says, “The Internet is a wonderful thing for educational purposes and a lot of other things, but it’s open to everyone and we live in a dangerous world where not everyone has good intentions.”
The FBI apparently has many tips for parents when it comes to Internet safety and never let your kids post pictures of themselves. Never let them give out personal information
Posting personal informaiton in Blogs such as the school you attend is an invitation to pedophiles to kidnap your kids. Don’t let your kids include any personal information in blogs. Kids need to be aware that all a kidnapper needs is your name and the school you attend for you to become a victim. The more personal information posted the more risk you take. I recommend using a fake name whenever you post online to protect your identity.
Have a little bit of faith people. Seriously, of coruse it’s important to have some idea of what your kisd are into online and of course it’s important to make sure they udnerstand the dangers of certain practices. But if you have as much distrust for your kids and are as paranoid as linda seems to be, then maybe it’s your parenting skills that need to be examined more closely. As long as the proper precautions are taken, blogs can be a good and healthy way for kids to express themselves and get things off theit chest. Nothing good can come from them? Please. And one more thing: If you think shutting down services like Xanga (which will never happen, BTW… i.e. the First Amendment), will stop kids from “degrading” their parents or speaking about them negatively, you are sadly mistaken. You can’t stop your kids from swearing and bad-mouthing you every second of every day… and frankly, it’s healthy for them to rebel in those ways. Do what you have to do, but why bother wasting your time trying to stop them venting their anger?
As a teen blogger, I have to say that I think there are more sides to this issue than are presented. Some bloggers are smart enough to make their posts “friends-only,” and some are just plain careless with what they post for everyone to see.
Before anyone limits their kids’ internet/blog access, find out their safety habits. It’s articles like these that make clueless parents freak out and ban their kids from the internet, without even finding out what their kids know.
I’ve got to agree with Eric. Would you rather your kids rebel with words online where no one but their closest friends will know, or would you rather they rebel physically by skipping school, using drugs, and just doing everything in their power to oppose you?
dont let kids be on the computer unless you know who they are talking to or unless you at least know what is going on dont leave them un supervised unless over 18