As a child, my parents told me to never speak to strangers and never tell details about myself. Now i practically live on the internet. Why do parents always give these warnings when you rarely hear of people being abused etc. Yes you hear about them but no way near as much as similar bad things outside of the internet. What do you guys think about it?
I assume parents don't want to take risks in these cases, but they also do not get informed about the matters themselves, and rely solely on details they hear on TV programs or other people. The internet wasn't around when they were teens and they grew up without it. Not everyone can keep up with how the world is changing.
I dont think some parents fully understand the internet, they only know whats been said or heard of from news and movies, which 9/10 is bad or negative. I have made hundreds of online friends and i've even met a few of them in real life. My boyfriend is someone who i met online (well mobile app). And i'm addicted to tumblr and met several awesome people from there who i plan on meeting.
People rarely notice the good or the norm because it has no dramatic effect, the bad is always more memorable. I have met loads of great people online, but my mom hated me being on the net. I think as long as you're careful there isn't anything to worry about. Just be mature about things and don't do anything you may later regret.
My mom always told me to not go to weird sites, talk to random strangers, trust no one, etc. I think she still tries to do that o_o.
Yep. I wouldn't give my valuable information to just anybody, but I never liked "don't talk to strangers" as advice without an expiration date. How else are you supposed to make friends? I guess my parents trusted me to make judgment calls as to when it was finally okay and what age range I should talk to.
It's actually weird how my parents never said anything about the "dangers" of talking to strangers online but once they met my "friend" (who happened to be my then boyfriend) in real life I think they know what I'm doing online.
I was around in the BBS days and the very start of Prodigy Online. I met people and even found a 6 year pen pal on Prodigy. We traded info and address and wrote for so long. But I have to admit that things like abduction are more prevalent in the news these days. I don't even think it HAPPENS more often...it's just reported more often thanks to the WWW. In BBS days you maybe talked to a couple people if you weren't busy playing LORD In Prodigy there weren't exactly full on chat rooms. It was mostly email. Even in early AOL days there was chat but not massive news networks like there is today. The new-found trade of information is awesome...to a point. Drama and danger and sex sells much more than happiness and people saving baby ducks from a sewer. So parents (and I won't judge them) are terrified now...not because it's that much more dangerous, rather because the stories become instantly nationalized and live for weeks. When I was a kid, I was told to go take walks and go outside and given money to walk two miles the the grocery store for my mom to pick up milk. Granted I lived in a fine neighborhood, but there is a more palpable fear these days that didn't exist so mightily back in the 80's and even early 90's. So I see both sides...on one hand I think people do need to relax a bit...on the other hand the world is dangerous and we know that now more than ever thanks to a global information reach.