When a child doesn't use social media responsibly

SuburbMom
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 21:30:29 +0000

I worry about this. Both my girls have been caught at age 13 doing things online that I’ll just call “sneaky.” Obviously they weren’t very good at being sneaky, as I caught them both, but it’s hard to rebuild trust. A friend of mine had a near miss when her now adult daughter was 13. She had met a 15yo boy who played guitar online and messaged him. A lot. Next thing you know, police are arresting the 32yo predator posing as a 15yo after he flew across the country to meet up with the girl. You would think she would have learned her lesson, but at 16 she was using a burner phone to text inappropriately with a boy. As a now adult, she looks back in horror with what she did, but like most teens, thought nothing of it at the time. And that was the era of chat rooms. Now there’s so many more options, some of which can be hard to track.

I’ll admit I did stupid stuff in my teens, it just wasn’t recorded online and I was limited to doing stupid stuff with only people I actually knew. The consequences seem more far-reaching for today’s teens.