Growing Up Online

This video was such an eye-opener..especially since I was pretty much in these kids shoes. I have basically grown up with the computer, I remember when I was like 9 years old and had an AOL account. My parents were always monitoring what I did on the internet. Back when we had straight AOL I was only allowed to go nick.com or other kid-friendly websites. I didn't have access to instant messaging, so I could only e-mail my friends back and forth. I remember when I switched over from AOL to AIM, because it was free to use and I wanted in the worst way to be able to instant message with my friends online. After that my internet usage bumped way up and I would be online for hours at a time.

I don't think anyone is safe from the internet. When I was in high school I remember being concerned about what I had on MySpace, not because I thought I might get hurt in some way from it, but because I was concerned about my "image". I wanted to fit in, and I did, but as a teenager I wasn't fully satisfied with my "fitting in" status. I wanted more. Thank goodness I never went as far as looking for trouble or anything, but I was always looking for ways to make my profiles more interesting by putting up pictures, adding songs, changing the backgrounds, etc.

It really scares me to think that I could have potentially hurt myself in some way. I never realized that even if I delete it from my computer or from my MySpace that someone could still access it. Luckily I was smart enough, like many students, to be weary about friend requests or instant messages from people I don't know, especially if they ask personal questions. The good news is that children today are more aware of the dangers, I think, because they hear about it on the news all the time. When I was growing up with it, there weren't many stories about the dangers of the internet.

This video definitely opened my eyes to how children use the internet and how they aren't always aware of the consequences of what they post.