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From: 4s00th <4s00th@thetruth.com>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.prettyboy
Subject: Re: Why are kids still surfing in the bedroom?
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NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:05:20 EST
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:05:20 -0500
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On 9 Mar 2007 05:36:31 -0800, "bob&carole"
<bobandcarole03@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>If you have children and you watched any of "Dateline's" "To Catch a
>Predator" series, you're scared. You have to be. And you have to
>wonder: Could this happen to my kids?
>
>Well, there's one piece of advice everyone gives parents to keep their
>children safe from predators and all the other scary parts of the
>Internet -- keep the computer out of the bedroom. The advice is so
>common, it's now trite.
>
>It might also be the most commonly ignored advice in parenting today.
>According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, twice as many kids have
>computers in their bedrooms today as did five years ago.
>
>Forget the bedtime story. These days, many kids go to bed, pull up the
>covers and just start chatting with friends online.
>
>Perhaps that explains why so many kids are so sleepy in school these
>days. Hard figures are hard to come by, but both parents and teachers
>will tell anyone who'll listen that classrooms are full of bleary-eyed
>kids who've been up all night text-messaging and e-mailing their
>friends. A U.K. researcher recently released a study indicating that
>20 percent of children there sleep at least two hours less each night
>than their parents, and she blamed computers, games and televisions in
>the bedroom.
>
>Unmonitored bedroom Internet access exposes kids to awful people, like
>those who showed up at "Dateline's" rented house full of hidden
>cameras. But even if you mistakenly believe your child is safe from
>predators, a bedroom computer creates another, less dramatic but much
>more common problem -- sleep-deprived kids. The U.K. study indicated
>that two-thirds of kids are sleep-deprived because of gadgets. And in
>preliminary results of research now being conducted by i-Safe America,
>22 percent of student-age kids admit they send instant messages while
>their parents think they're asleep.
>
>Family therapist Susan Shankle says the problem is now so common she
>asks questions about the location of child computers in her initial
>client assessment.
>
>"I ask if there are computers in the bedroom, and 'Are you sure your
>child is getting enough sleep?" she said. "I always advise parents to
>take them out, but often the advice isn't followed. It's a big
>problem, and it's only getting bigger."
>
>10 percent of 8- to 10-year-olds have bedroom Internet
>Shankle's impressions are borne out by research. The Kaiser Family
>Foundation released a study in May indicating that 31 percent of kids
>8-18 have a computer in the bedroom, and 20 percent have Internet
>access -- double the amount from five years ago. One in 10 children
>between 8 and 10 years old now has bedroom Internet access. And 1 in 4
>high-school-aged kids uses instant message software in the bedroom.
>
>"It seems to be a trend, and I suspect it will continue," said Vicky
>Rideout, a researcher at Kaiser.
>
>Why are parents ignoring the bedroom computer advice, even after
>warnings as dire as "Dateline's" predator program's? One reason is
>convenience, Rideout said.
>
>"Parents don't want competition for the computer, so they give kids
>their own," she said. "That's the main reasons kids have TV in their
>rooms, too."
>
>Wireless makes it worse
>There was a time when a bedroom computer, disconnected from the
>Internet, did not pose this menacing threat. As long as no one strung
>Ethernet cable into the kids' room, there was no way for kids to get
>on the Internet and no way for predators to get to the kids. But home
>wireless networks have exploded in popularity. If you don't have it,
>your neighbors probably do. Barring military-grade jamming
>technology, there's really no way to keep this floating Internet out
>other than keeping the computer out.
>
>Perhaps many parents think they can keep watch over computer use in
>the bedroom. Fat chance, says family therapist Barbara Melton. Kids
>will go to great lengths to outfox their parents and stay online when
>they should be sleeping, she said.
>
>"I knew one 16-year-old who stuffed a towel under the door so his
>(parents) couldn't see the light from the computer," she said. "Other
>kids dim their monitors.... This might be new to parents, but if you
>bring this up with kids, they all know about it."
>
>Staring at a computer is also among the worst things someone can do
>before going to bed, Shankle said, because it activates the brain in a
>way that makes it harder to fall asleep. She recommended cutting off
>computer use at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
>
>Increased restlessness
>But that's not happening. Shankle thinks the problem is so widespread
>that late-night computer use, fed by the addictive quality of the
>Internet, might even be contributing to increased diagnosis of
>attention deficit disorders, Shankle said.
>
>"Sleep deprivation and too much computer look like ADHD," said
>Shankle.
>
>All this late-night Internet use might seem anathema to some adults,
>who couldn't imagine staying up all night to type messages to
>friends. But Sandra Calvert, professor of psychology and director of
>the Child Digital Media Center at Georgetown University, said
>teenagers' diurnal sleep rhythms are quite different from adults',
>meaning they are more alert at night. Bedroom Internet access only
>fans that flame.
>
>Calvert recommends keeping computers out of the bedroom, but she
>thinks it's even more important to teach kids about the potential
>pitfalls of being online all the time.
>
>"They're going to have access to technology. If they don't have it,
>their friends do. So parents need to educate them and empower them,"
>she said.
>
>With handhelds coming, it'll only get harder
>That's good advice, given that new technology means the Internet,
>increasingly, is not limited to computers anyway. Plenty of cell
>phones allow Internet access, video downloads and games. So simply
>keeping a computer out of the bedroom will someday soon provide only a
>small measure of safety, if any, said Kaiser's Rideout.
>
>"As it all jumps onto handhelds, those rules will be irrelevant," she
>said -- making a parent's role in separating the Sandman from the
>Internet all the more essential, both to keep kids safe from predators
>and to get them ready for school the next day.
Gee, bo0by, an intelligent article that makes sense and actually tries
to do something positive about stopping children from being molested
... I'd've never thought you capable. Thank you.
I'm wondering, though, wouldn't it be better if we continue to allow
computers in the bedroom since that's where kids are more likely to do
homework, but put better limits on Internet access? There are software
packages that allow parents to block Internet access at specific times
and limit the total time a kid can access the Internet.
I get the point about sleep, and I think it's possible that the kids
would still stay up and play games -- but how many of them already
have game consoles in their bedroom?
I understand that you can't watch your kids 24/7 -- but there are
other ways of watching out for their safety, and parents need to know
what they are and how they work and be willing to use them. And all
you people who worry about child molesters grooming children -- the
more a parent is involved in his/her child's life, the less likely
that they will fall prey to predators. Let's face it -- the predators
make use of the fact that kids want and need adult attention and
affection. Take that away from them!
4s00th
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