It's A Matter of Trust...Let's Talk Privacy!

Let's Talk Privacy

There is a school of thought that goes around about how parents should respect children's privacy. Well, personally, I don't subscribe to that school of thought.

Privacy is a subject that constantly sparks debate especially with older teens and their parents. However, privacy must be an issue that parents must discuss with both tweens and teens especially in regards to online and internet activity.

Access to passwords and account information of your children should be yours (the Parent). There should be no child roaming the world wide web without your permission or approval. There are so much dangers that children can be exposed that it is the parents ultimate responsible to keep children safe.

Teenagers, may argue that it is all a matter of trust. However parents, you can counteract the argument by assuring them, that you may however, trust them but not the online community, that consists of hackers, stalkers and in some cases pedophiles that all lurk out there in cyber space.

For your older teens, parents must spend time in active dialogues and discussions about your expectations on how your teenagers should spend their online activity. Parents should be transparent and share their concerns and fears with their teenager but also allow some freedom, however, when abused ensure measures are in place that would prohibit the offending activity.

As much as technology is an advantage to our children it can also be a disadvantage. Information is processed with one click; accounts information can be accessible to those who you may or may not want  access and with the increase on identity fraud and mishandling of information, privacy is an extreme concern.

Talk with your children about putting up too much of their information online, consists of images, personal information, phone and home address. Ensure for your tweens who may have email and social media accounts that you have their passwords and establish ground rules for their online activity. One particular ground rule is I reserve the right to access your account anytime I would like. Parents, you reserve the right, because you are the adult and the parent.

In the end, the safeguards you put in place will ultimately help to secure a safe, responsible and fun online experience for your kids.

Stay Ahead of the Game, Learn the Language of the Web

Text & Code of the Web

Do you know that the Web has it's own language and I don't mean HTML code?


I am talking about how our tweens and teens communicate with one another. It is not the usually grammar, subject and verb agreement and or punctuation, it is code within a world of code.

In this instantaneous generation, our teens are off the opinion that writing structured and proper sentences are a thing of the past because of this intrusive net lingo that is taking their lives over.


What is a Net Lingo, it is the language of the web filled with shortcuts and abbreviations. Nothing is ever spelt out nor spelt correctly. Everything written on the Web by our teens are most likely. shortened and to the point. Parents, we have the delightful task to decipher all this code.


Yes, we probably remember from AOL, MSN and ICQ messenger days with the basics code such as ASL (Age, Sex, Location), BRB ( Be Right Back) and the more popular ones today LOL (Laugh Out Loud), SMT (Suck My Teeth)... Well those are the polite and appropriate versions but then there are more explicit codes that parents must be aware, and moreover of our teen's world filled with mystery and secrets.


Any parent raising Tweens or Teens must be exposed to the language and no it is not an issue orf privacy but an issue of ensuring that safeguards are in place to protect our kids. Awareness is key for parents, no one needs the wool pull over their eyes. The more things are hidden from us as parents, the more parents lose contact and connection with their kids, this can be to our children's detriment.


There are many websites that you can access to download cheat sheet for Internet Code or popular net lingo. The largest list of acronyms are found on this link below, so I encourage you to take time and examine the list below and stay ahead of our Tweens & Teens!


NETLINGO ACRONYMS OF THE WEB
http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php