Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a horrible thing to happen. Makes me not want my kids to have a computer at all.

Believe me, I have this same thought at least once a day. But it's a horrible tightrope to have to walk. After all, in order to be considered well-educated in their generation, they are going to have to be tech savvy. So the only way to do it is through complete vigilance on the parent's part. I feel like it's tougher to chase my kid and her iPod around now than it was to chase her around when she was 19 months old!

I personally think the "tech-savvy" rationale is overrated. They aren't coding on the ipod. They are playing games, using email, etc. None of these things are really becoming tech savvy

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, my kid has an ipod too. She is 8, so I went into settings and disabled a bunch of stuff. I even thought it was funny when I couldn't figure out later why she didn't have an app store, and then I realized it was because I disabled it. Safari is not enabled, and since she is so young, she hasn't even asked about it. All she does is play minecraft and a horse game. I look at it frequently while she is playing to make sure. But I am worried about this as she gets older.

An ipod at 8? What is she going to have when she's 10? 12?

As a teacher, I am continually frustrated at the decisions parents make which affect kids' attention spans, social expectations, etc.

Crimes happened before the internet age. Loose parenting, not the Internet, is to blame.

Anonymous wrote:People seems to be getting freakishly meaner and have no problem lashing out at others.

+100000

Freakish is right!

People seems to be getting freakishly meaner and have no problem lashing out at others.

I don't think this story is so far fetched, seeing how young girls act, unfortunately.

Some young girls I know are made to live such a regimented life, and consequently act out at such a young age (not at their own house, of course, but everywhere else); I see jealousy, obsession and rage and it scares me as a parent.

Unfortunately, this is no exaggeration, I wish it was.

I would imagine it is the parents who least expect it, who have the children most likely to act out such a terrible thing.

Parental controls for all of these devices are free and easy to use.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a horrible thing to happen. Makes me not want my kids to have a computer at all.

Believe me, I have this same thought at least once a day. But it's a horrible tightrope to have to walk. After all, in order to be considered well-educated in their generation, they are going to have to be tech savvy. So the only way to do it is through complete vigilance on the parent's part. I feel like it's tougher to chase my kid and her iPod around now than it was to chase her around when she was 19 months old!

Yes, my kid has an ipod too. She is 8, so I went into settings and disabled a bunch of stuff. I even thought it was funny when I couldn't figure out later why she didn't have an app store, and then I realized it was because I disabled it. Safari is not enabled, and since she is so young, she hasn't even asked about it. All she does is play minecraft and a horse game. I look at it frequently while she is playing to make sure. But I am worried about this as she gets older.

Anonymous wrote:What a horrible thing to happen. Makes me not want my kids to have a computer at all.

Believe me, I have this same thought at least once a day. But it's a horrible tightrope to have to walk. After all, in order to be considered well-educated in their generation, they are going to have to be tech savvy. So the only way to do it is through complete vigilance on the parent's part. I feel like it's tougher to chase my kid and her iPod around now than it was to chase her around when she was 19 months old!

What a horrible thing to happen. Makes me not want my kids to have a computer at all.

Hence one more reason we are all dying in front of our computers.

1984

I see it myself with Instagram-- preteens posting inappropriate or abusive things. I monitor my kids' usage and also have all access to that device. I don't get why people don't do this! These girls were supposedly "friends" but I highly doubt there were no signs on social media of what was to come.

(OP here, sorry, 19 times...for some reason it was autocorrected to 10?)

Anonymous wrote:"They had something to prove to someone they found on a ghoulish website. So, two girls allegedly lured a third girl into a wooded area in Milwaukee over the weekend and stabbed her 19 times, police in Wisconsin said...The girls were trying to impress a certain "Slenderman," the complaint read. One of the girls encountered the name on a website known as Creepypasta Wiki, which posts horror stories.

Slenderman is the site's supposed leader, and to climb up into his realm, a user must kill someone, one of the suspects told police."

WTH? What is wrong with these girls and why aren't adults monitoring their Internet usage??

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/justice/wisconsin-girl-stabbed/index.html?c=homepage-t

You answered your own question. People love to say media does not influence children but it does. Why wouldn't it?

"They had something to prove to someone they found on a ghoulish website. So, two girls allegedly lured a third girl into a wooded area in Milwaukee over the weekend and stabbed her 19 times, police in Wisconsin said...The girls were trying to impress a certain "Slenderman," the complaint read. One of the girls encountered the name on a website known as Creepypasta Wiki, which posts horror stories.

Slenderman is the site's supposed leader, and to climb up into his realm, a user must kill someone, one of the suspects told police."

WTH? What is wrong with these girls and why aren't adults monitoring their Internet usage??

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/justice/wisconsin-girl-stabbed/index.html?c=homepage-t