Webcams - do your kids have them?

I watched Oprah yesterday and was shocked! The show was about Justin Berry, a teen who started using his webcam at 13 to “meet friends”, but it quickly got out of hand, luring him into a life of self-destruction and child pornography.

Among other things, he revealed who were some of his clients, and many of them come in contact with children every day (your children and mine!):

• pediatricians
• teachers
• counselors
• a lawyer representing children

Are you talking to your kids about the internet? Are you monitoring their online activities? Did you talk to them about pedophiles? Do they know they need to talk to you about any inappropriate behavior from other people?

Sometimes we get comfortable in our daily lives, and let’s be honest: we are happy sometimes to send the kids off to the computer for some games, so we can have a little “quiet time”. But is it worth it? A few minutes of carelessness could allow for a huge mistake.

I don’t know about you, but at my house, the kids’ doors are open at all times, and I go periodically and check everything in their room: from top to bottom. And if I find something I don’t know about, they need to talk to me abut it in great detail.

Take a break now from your busy schedule, and talk to your kids about the dangers of the internet. And if your children have a webcam, I would take it away: they don’t really need it.

You can read a summary of Oprah’s Interview with Justin Berry here.