Kids on WP

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This is a topic/question for people, say 30+, like this board is aimed at. When a kid, say, 12-14, posts questions and concerns, how do you feel about giving advice? I just wrote a response to a 12-year-old's concerns, but I can't help feeling a bit awkward about that. I mean, I think I gave good advice, and I want to be helpful. But I have an 11-year-old aspie myself, and if he was posting on a forum like this, getting advice from all kinds of adults, I would want to know.

In a way, it's probably very beneficial for kids that age to have access to anonymous adults who can offer guidance, and I think most people on WP do have good intentions, so I don't mean this to be a topic about internet safety, pedophiles, and all that. I just mean, when I'm responding to a post by someone that young, I'm very much aware that they are a kid, and I wonder if their parents even know they are posting on WP. My kids use the internet, but they are limited to a few specific sites.

I noticed one thread where a 13-year-old called a 56-year old "dude", and it made me think about how, on the internet, it seems like everyone is just the same. In some ways it's good, but in some ways it's kind of disconcerting.

Thoughts?

kids on WP are [edited for content by sinsboldly]my opinion we need a community wide effort to teach all the kids about perverts and child molestors looking for them online. from my experience, this website is crawling with lonely kids who trust every dumb peace of crack who is looking for them. kids online is a national epidemic in my opinion.

one word for you - oblivious

Lets face it, our own kids don't take our advice, so why should they take the advice of strangers. Information gathering however is different.

A child who is old enough to write/post is generally old enough to start making some sensible decisions about which content to believe and which to ignore by themselves.

My advice to adults, provide positive direction... just don't assume it will be followed.

i still think that kids on the internet being targeted by predators is a national epidemic. look at that senator who was chatting up washington pages. as a mod or a user you would not know about this as the predators are probably smart enough to conduct their business off the boards via email or a messaging program. if you educate kids, they will be safer. however, kids have developmental restrictions. for example, an 8 year old cannot understand that someone can have a motive behind their words - hence 8 year olds trust the Mc Donald's likes them.

actually a girl in my class was talking online to a boy and she was telling him about her soccer team and school. and one day an FBI agent showed up at her door and told her parents and her teachers that he was posing as this boy and that his job is like to teach kids about this. anyway, i basically think that kids should not be unsupervised anywhere. that's how they get into drugs
you should not let teenagers roam around town without an adult. you should not let them sleep over or visit their friend's homes without supervision. maybe you are right merle. maybe you are wrong. it does not really matter who is right. i'm just expressing my opinionated opinions.

maybe it is because i don't drink alcohol, don't smoke marijuana, never did drugs, and don't buy lottery tickets, while my classmates are getting drinking ulcers, knuckle abrasions, broken arms, stds, date rape, aids, and failing exams and missing interviews all cause they don't accept the slippery slope argument that if you start something, you are going to slip down a slope. how far you slip, you really don't know.

if you have a kid online, you should

1. post a clear, short list of rules of never giving out your name, address, etc
2. post a list of fake name, address, age, etc. that the kid should use when ppl ask
3. teach questions a predator might ask to gain their trust
4. go to your shool principal and find this kid some peers from your town that u know in person who will chat and play multiplayer games with him rather than random strangers
5. and you should install a keyboard spy and read everything your kid posts
6. btw, AIM is how HS kids get invited to parties where their friends get them to drink, do drugs. and after they smoke weed, they have unprotected sex.

i'm just telling you like it is.

8 year olds cannot understand that McDonalds is manipulating them for profits. that's just their developmental stage, they can't understand it.

I'm a problem solver, no AIM - no 10pm invitation to the party.

It's kind of a catch 22 with the teens. You want them to have some responsible adult to talk to, because teens to isolate from that in real life, but ...

My own kids don't come here. It's too public for my taste, for them. But I do help keep an eye on the kids and teen forums here. There is only so much any of us can do to protect or help the kids. That job really belongs to the adults in their real lives.