OK, I feel a little better now CAMom.... I deleted my earlier post because all of a sudden I felt like a horrible mom for letting my 7yo have free access to the internet and YouTube!
I certainly hope I did not make you feel this way, St. Pauli. It was absolutely not my intention. And I have so often enjoyed reading your posts here over the years that I know you are a wonderful mom
Quite honestly, I wouldn't have thought twice about giving my dds access to a computer with internet in their rooms had I not seen this presentation. The detective talked a lot about internet predators and he said the victim is almost always a tween or teen with unlimited and unmonitored access to a computer. So the fact that you and all other parents who have replied are monitoring and "looking over the shoulder" does not put you in that category.
The things this detective showed us had nothing to do with bad language or stumbling on to some nakedness. There are some really awful things going on in cyberspace that I had never considered (and I used to work in a pretty gritty profession).
CAMom, I can't remember how old your son is. My dds are 7 and 5 and do not have any interest in going away from their mainstream sites. However, the Middle School parents who attended the same seminar had a much different story. So, like so many things, situations may change as the kids grow up.
