"bob&carole" <bobandcarole03@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:1173447391.056731.139640@64g2000cwx.googlegroups.com:
>
> 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.
>
Boobie,
This is interesting that you post about exsessive computer usage
amongst kids, when *you* demonstrate 24/7 posting activity.
Where do you see yourself on the slippery scales of deviance?
Will a snake ever shed his skin??
TomBa NP-f36
--
You know how dumb the average guy is?
Well, by definition, half of them are even dumber than that.
Anon
|
| Follow-ups: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
|