10-12-2005, 10:22 PM
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Suprise Me
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 4,259
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I can't believe it! (vent inside)
I am not sure where to begin, so I am just going to type and hope I make sense. LOL
Cobalt and I monitor where our kids go on the net. We quite often visit the sites that they go to. Well, my lovely daughter (age 11 - looks like she is 17) goes to a particular teen site quite often so I decided to see what it was all about. At first I thought it was a pretty neat site. It is supposed to be just for teen girls and the topics vary from puberty to hot button issues like racism and gay marriage. I usually don't mind her going to sites because it does promote conversation between her and I - we have a pretty good relationship at this point in her teenagedom. (In other words, I haven't gotten stupid yet.. lol )
Anyway - the more I explored, the more agitated I became! Then I decided to find out more about who ran the site. I read some of the disclaimers.. the children's privacy act, some mature content on the site, if parents do not want their daughter to visit the site, it is up to the parents to block etc.. yadda yadda yadda...
I felt compelled to send the "staff" an email.. this is the email.
__________________________________________________ __________
I guess I don't know where to begin, so I am just going to type my concerns and thoughts in no apparent order..
I realize that teens today are growing up very different from when I was a teen - either that or I was very very sheltered. I monitor where my 11 year old daughter goes on the internet and when I saw she was going to unnamed web site.com I decided to check the site out myself. There are a lot of topics on the site that I feel are good for my daughter to read about because those topics are conversation starters for her and I. I do not always anticipate that she may need to ask me why some teenage girls cut on themselves, or that she may have questions about other things that I wouldn't even have thought about when I was 11 years old. So, in that aspect I am thankful.
Now, the parts that I am not thankful for. (You knew that this was probably coming - LOL)
I understand that as girls go thru puberty, their body changes, and they develop urges to explore their sexuality and....oh hell - I am not goint to be PC about this! OK - Are there moderators on the forums? There are some girls on there that are talking about putting peanut butter on their privates and making the dog lick them there until they orgasm! One girl did this with her cat and the cat ended up blind because it was alergic to peanut butter! On another post someone had a contest for best masturbation technique explained in detail! The winner got a special "doll" made for them. I can say that some of the 13 year old girls are very good writers. In fact, if I were a pedophile registered as a pretend teenage girl, I would be in hog heaven with some of the stories those girls posted about sex, masturbation, threesomes and even experimenting with the same sex.
The ages of these girls appear in their profile. Many of them are around the age of 13-16 and some as young as 11. There are girls on there that say they have bumps like pimples or boils on and around the outer portion of their vaginas - some are concerned that they may be a STD. Is there an adult moderator on there that could direct the child to a Planned Parenthood of something if the concern is such that this child can't talk to a parent?
Also, I keep telling my daughter to not give an email address or any other personal information that could direct an adult posing as a teen to her. There are many girls on this site who do not have that guidance from an adult in their lives - and I know that there is a disclaimer on your site instructing the girls to not do that, but they still do. I would hope that the statement made is not just to CYA just in case something happens to one of your members. I would hope, that in addition to providing an place for teens to express themselves, you are also creating a safe place for them to do so. From what I have seen, this site does not do that.
I think the forum is a good idea. There are lots of kids out there that do not have anyone they can talk to about certain things. But to let someone loose in this type of environment without the guidance of a caring adult is ridiculous.
OK.. I think I am done venting. Thank you for reading this email.
__________________
A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.
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10-12-2005, 10:30 PM
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♦*♥Moderatrix♥*♦
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Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: on top of it all
Posts: 50,565
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The web is dangerous as hell for kids. Glad you didn't just let it pass without expressing an opinion.
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10-12-2005, 10:35 PM
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Wishful Thinker
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Augusta, Georgia
Posts: 3,234
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What Lil said... for sure! (((((Chey)))))) (hey couldn't resist)
__________________
As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will. He will be sure to repent - Socrates
Love is not looking in each other's eyes, but looking together in the same direction - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
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10-12-2005, 10:42 PM
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Not there yet.....
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: NE USA
Posts: 19,794
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These girls sure are more adventurous than i was at 13!!!
I guess i did live a very sheltered teen years.......
Are you going to broach that peanut butter subject with her chey? I can't believe it's young kids trying that..... naive i guess!
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10-12-2005, 10:46 PM
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Suprise Me
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 4,259
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I really don't think I am going to get that specific Coaster.. I am going to show her some of the "mild" stuff and explain how I, as an adult, could become a member of this site and lie about my age. I am going to say - "Lets pretend that I am an adult that does bad things to kids and am looking for confused girls to become friends with and that I am pretending to be their same age." sort of thing. I want to scare her, but I dont' want to scare her. I just want her to be aware of how she conducts herself on the net.
__________________
A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.
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10-13-2005, 12:37 AM
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Banned
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: T.O.
Posts: 20,828
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When I had stepkids a few years ago, they were young enough that I could wave them away from the computer to work on their penmanship (er, I'm probably the last generation to ever use that word non-ironically).
I can't imagine having kids surfing the Web and MSNing and eek!
I think I'd be policing my kids' intraweb usage like no drill sergeant I've ever seen.
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10-12-2005, 10:39 PM
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Suprise Me
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 4,259
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Well, I guess I want to do more than express my opinion. I will protect my daughter from this site - it will be blocked from her. But, (and I know that I can't save the world no matter how hard I try) I feel as if I should report this to someone, somewhere - Albert maybe? I dunno. All I know is that this is a place ripe for pedophiles to start picking kids out. For all I know - there are hundreds of places like this. In fact, there probably are.
Tomorrow I am going to show my daughter the things that upset me about this place, and tell her why she is blocked from going there - she will be angry, but she will get over it.
__________________
A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.
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