NON-Kids Websites: Where NOT to let your children visit!

I think this is an important subject that concerns kids websites after hearing horror stories on the radio driving to work in the morning. Apparently, there may be a few parents who believe MySpace is another harmless website, especially since it is a fairly big company now. Big websites and companies seem to be more legit than smaller ones.

Now, MySpace is still completely legit and can definitely be used in non-harmful ways, but the problem I heard on the radio was described by a terribly worried mother explaining her daughter posting provocative photos on her profile page and portraying herself as a nineteen year old, when she was in fact only twelve. The way the mom found out about this is even more disturbing! After repeated phone calls to the household from older men (in their twenties and thirties), the mother learned the daughter had put her phone number on her MySpace profile for all to see! What a scary thought. And she wasn't the only panicked mother to call in about this same exact problem!

MySpace states in its terms and conditions that you must be over the age of fourteen to even use their service, but this doesn't seem to faze the younger teenage crowd. After all, they are invincible and nothing bad could ever happen to them!

Now, if you have run into this situation yourself or are now skeptical of your teenager using MySpace you are probably asking how do you stop this careless behavior?

• Download parental controls software such as Spector Pro so you can monitor your children's behavior while using the internet
• Encourage children to spend less time on the computer and more time socializing or enjoying the outdoors
• Make sure other parents are keeping tabs on their kids' computer time also so your children don't have a place to retreat!! This is a big one!
• Sign up for MySpace yourself and see what information your kids are putting up there.

The main conclusion here is to maintain control over your kids and the internet! Sometimes they may not know what harm they are getting themselves into!

Thanks for reading kids websites, comments are appreciated!