Parents, we have to. No matter how much they protest or complain about an invasion of privacy. Without this type of parental guidance, our children are roaming dangerously in cyberspace. I began to better understand the risks of this new playground while attending a social media conference here in Charlotte. I got the point about our kids but I realized that many of us Baby Boomers are just as naive about our online privacy.

Why, the social media experts asked, do we put our birthdays (with the actual year), religious views and other personal information on Facebook pages? Just because it was requested on a form? Why do our children think nothing of wanting to plaster their images all over MySpace? Because that’s what their friends do? Many of us parents do the same thing on Facebook.

Here’s the advice from the experts: Read and understand the Facebook and MySpace privacy settings and make sure you reserve some information, such as family photos, only for your identifiable friends. If not, it’s all free territory for anybody with an internet connection. Talk to your children, over and over, about using good judgment about what they say and do online because it never goes away. Monitor them during the turbulent high school years. A study this week showed that 70 percent of employers now do online searches on applicants, young and old.

My daughter grunted when I told her we would be having a family meeting to talk about sensible use of the internet. I’ll be looking more into privacy matters to help both of us. What about you?

As a start, check out www.mashable.com, an online guide to social media.

Related posts:

1. Monitoring Facebook and MySpace
2. How much privacy should teenagers have?
3. Say it loud: there is no privacy on the internet

I gave my daughter permission to join these social networks with the understanding that I would look at her pages regularly. Of course, she doesn’t like the idea and sulks when I’m standing over her shoulder as she shows me the latest postings. No other parents do this, she claims. She isn’t going to do anything foolish, she promises. She has a right to some privacy, she whines. I just ignore it. We adults must know what’s going on with our kids on the internet. 

We’ve all heard about the internet sexual predators that befriend our teenagers and then harm them. It’s a worrisome issue. I was encouraged this week after reading a news story indicating that new state laws are making it easier for the Facebook and MySpace folks to purge convicted rapists and molesters from their membership lists. At least 25 states now require sex offenders to register their email addresses and residences. New York officials announced that more than 3,500 offenders have been knocked off the networking sites since their law went into effect. 

I started wondering what officials are doing here in North Carolina. They’ve acted on the issue and in May began requiring sex offenders to register email addresses.

A lot is stake for our kids with all this rapidly changing technology. I don’t mind being unpopular with my daughter, a high school freshman, on the issue of internet safety.  When I was a teenager I remember being angry with my parents for setting what I considered strict curfews. They didn’t budge. I won’t change my mind either about checking in with my daughter on Facebook and MySpace conversations.

Related posts:

1. Privacy on Facebook