Never Too Safe Online Options

[Im So Vain]

In my recent issue of Teen Vogue there was an article about how, more teens are looking for love online. On sites like match.com, friendster, craigslist. makeoutclub, myspace, etc.

According to a September 2004 Dateline NBC report, one in five teens who chat or date online will be contacted by an online predator. As part of the show's investigation, a reporter and a team of volunteers created a fictional 14 year old Brooklyn girl who e-mailed with men in cyberspace. "She" eventually made plans to meet them for sex, In the course of a single afternoon more than eighteen men showed up at a house where they thought the young girl would be waiting alone for them. (Instead, they were greeted by Dateline reporters.)

QUESTIONS TO GET STARTED:
1.)Should the minimum age to have an online personal be raised?

2.)Should parents have more control over their childs internet access?

*Fell free to add anymore thoughts you have, beyond the two questions.

[mai_z]

I think a person should have to be of legal age to post an actual personal, but no matter what, there's not much way to enforce that. In terms of parents monitoring, as long as the children are dependants, they have an element of control over them, so it's really up to the parents to decide how they want to 'monitor' their children, or how much freedom they want to give.