How to monitor the kids from online social perils?

Bonita Williams already was concerned about how obsessed her 15-year-old daughter was becoming with MySpace, the Internet’s largest social networking site. She didn’t like the suggestive photos Jade was posting. And she was worried about all the time her daughter was spending online: sometimes more than five hours a day.

"The final straw came when I found out that she gave her cellphone number out to someone in Pennsylvania," says Williams, 51, of Virginia Beach. "I looked at her list of friends who were not only from school, but from all over the country. Who were these people?"

Williams grounded her daughter, has blocked MySpace at home and moved the computer into the family room.

"Parents," Jade says, "are being overprotective and overreacting."

But Williams is afraid kids who socialize online "don’t see the dangers."

By Janet Kornblum, USA TODAY

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2006-03-08-generation-gap_x.htm

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