Staying one step behind
For my son's twelfth birthday this year we bought him his own computer. He was spending way too much time on mine, and some of that was actually school related, but a lot wasn't. He discovered e-mail, and AIM, and a girl in his class that he likes has AIM, and that kids in his class (she among them) use it to converse in the evenings, and once that happened, life as we knew it changed.
Then this summer when the cousins came to visit, girl cousin who is three years older than him showed him a whole new universe of interactive fun. The problem is my in-laws are computer illiterate and let her do pretty much what she pleases, either ignorant or apathethic about the possible consequences. We on the other hand, border on paranoid about the predators out there and keep the youngster's leash rather short. Still, he now communicates with his cousin using AIM and e-mail, and she keeps him informed about new things to do, like building his own web page, with his picture, name, address, hobbies and so forth on it. How absolutely cool. Not!
So I come home from work to, "Dad, will you take a picture of me with the digital camera?"
"Why?"
"For myspace.com"
"and what's that?"
He proceeds to tell me the story and show it to me. Already the wheels in my head are turning and the Lost in Space robot is flailing its arms announcing "Danger, Will Robinson!". Then I see my e-mail address on his page.
"So why is my e-mail address on your page?"
"Because you have to be 16 to do this and somehow they knew I wasn't with my e-mail address, so I used yours."
So busted.
Next came a discussion where I thanked him for giving these people my e-mail address, so they could sell it to the spammers of the world. We had yet another discussion on spyware and predators who search the web for exactly what he wanted to put out there, and Hell NO you can't put your picture on that page! In fact, I want that page destroyed, never to be seen again. No I don't care that your cousin has a page and she's not 16. Nor do I care that your classmate has a page with his picture on it. Just because he's stupid doesn't mean you get to be too.
I guess I'm lucky he asks and talks to me, even if it's after the fact. One step behind is better than losing sight altogether.
Then this summer when the cousins came to visit, girl cousin who is three years older than him showed him a whole new universe of interactive fun. The problem is my in-laws are computer illiterate and let her do pretty much what she pleases, either ignorant or apathethic about the possible consequences. We on the other hand, border on paranoid about the predators out there and keep the youngster's leash rather short. Still, he now communicates with his cousin using AIM and e-mail, and she keeps him informed about new things to do, like building his own web page, with his picture, name, address, hobbies and so forth on it. How absolutely cool. Not!
So I come home from work to, "Dad, will you take a picture of me with the digital camera?"
"Why?"
"For myspace.com"
"and what's that?"
He proceeds to tell me the story and show it to me. Already the wheels in my head are turning and the Lost in Space robot is flailing its arms announcing "Danger, Will Robinson!". Then I see my e-mail address on his page.
"So why is my e-mail address on your page?"
"Because you have to be 16 to do this and somehow they knew I wasn't with my e-mail address, so I used yours."
So busted.
Next came a discussion where I thanked him for giving these people my e-mail address, so they could sell it to the spammers of the world. We had yet another discussion on spyware and predators who search the web for exactly what he wanted to put out there, and Hell NO you can't put your picture on that page! In fact, I want that page destroyed, never to be seen again. No I don't care that your cousin has a page and she's not 16. Nor do I care that your classmate has a page with his picture on it. Just because he's stupid doesn't mean you get to be too.
I guess I'm lucky he asks and talks to me, even if it's after the fact. One step behind is better than losing sight altogether.
John put this out here at 2:33 PM
1 Comments:
Hehhehe that's funny.
Hey, lately I've been getting spams on my blog too. People trying to sell me something. How annoying, huh?
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