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Parents are getting paranoid about blogs, especially since they haven’t yet fully come to terms with instant messaging. The bloggers are getting younger day by day; apart from the serious pundits and demagogues that hog most of the attention and primetime television, the blogosphere has seen a distinct trending towards children turning bloggers. They aren’t posting anonymously either and sometimes going overboard by divulging too much personal information. While I am not a great fan of posting personal pictures online, you would hardly expect teenagers to be paranoid. Cynicism comes with age and especially if you are parents to a teenager who has a heightened awareness of the world’s ‘treasure trove’, then you have reason to be concerned. I have always been worried about people putting pictures of their children online because of the growing threat of pedophiles. Few bloggers that I read have sensibly password-protected their personal spaces in the past few months.
But as I think more about it, it hardly makes a difference. The world isn’t protected as much as we like to think. Children are going to keep things from their parents and hide stuff from them; it is simply part of growing up. Children who consider parents to be their best friends do not have enough friends or are afraid to trust anyone. However, parents can only hope to keep the channels of communication open and make it clear that they rather hear about their children’s activities from them rather than from someone else. At least, I was brought up with this expectation – Do what you want and tell us stuff, if you think we should know. The internet has succeeded in giving children an added avenue to explore their need to communicate with their generation. Blogging is only the latest in such measures. Blogs can be a good thing since they offer a mature medium to communicate with your peers and expand your social network. If parents fail to adopt the Internet as a learning medium and only harp on its negative aspects, they are seriously undermining their children’s future prospects.
by Patrix | on Monday, May 2nd, 2005 at 2:00 pm | 
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May 2nd, 2005 at 2:54 pm reply
I do believe that blogging is a good thing for the kids, but like Ash said in her latest, I feel they ought to live their childhood not not be strapped to their computer seats. Parents should get a red flag if their child is whiling away too much time on the comp. Lot of things can happen in the internet (worse off than we were growing up) and it is very concerning. Easy access to anything in this world.
May 2nd, 2005 at 3:19 pm reply
Alpha - I also believe that there is life beyond computers that we should explore but at the same time should not deride the benefits that the online world or computers offer. It is easy to blast the downsides of getting online but given an alternative, we all love the outdoors.
May 2nd, 2005 at 6:30 pm reply
Parents cannot stop children from blogging. It is not a question of good or bad, it is a question of the limit to which, the blog is going to influence and dominate the lives of the kids. Moderation is the key.
May 2nd, 2005 at 6:36 pm reply
Mirages - You’re right. But isn’t moderation the key to everything?
May 2nd, 2005 at 8:26 pm reply
‘Blogging as a medium to communicate and develop a social network’.
Thats definitely a good thing.
Great way to make good contacts all over the world.
But again, the concern comes in when its at the cost of losing real-life social skills.
May 2nd, 2005 at 9:11 pm reply
Ash - ‘Real-life’ social skills might be obsolete or simply not possible. Email has made contacting people faster and easier. The telephone earlier had brought about a paradigm shift in communication replacing the letter network.
Of course, if you are alluding to visiting a park, a museum, or even a town square concert, I fully agree…purely for the social experience.
May 2nd, 2005 at 9:59 pm reply
I expect blogging like many things will just be a fad - something new happening - and especially something that parents don’t fully understand or approve of - so children are bound to experiment with it…. but if that holds their interest and actas as a communication /networking development tool, then why not - a small proportion of these child bloggers might actually keep blogging seriously as adults too :)
“If parents fail to adopt the Internet as a learning medium and only harp on its negative aspects, they are seriously undermining their children’s future prospects” - but it is very tough to keep any kind of control on what your child is upto and who he or she is meeting online… much tougher than it is in ‘real life’ - ‘online’ is a very vulnerable place for a child to be
May 3rd, 2005 at 10:15 am reply
Patrix, ” alluring ” ? Wow, thanks ! *blush*
*huge grin*
No, I didnt mean social outings..I meant social skills..like actually meeting and talking to people, interacting with people using your ears, your eyes, your mouth, your hands. Interpersonal skills.
Besides, having online friends at our age is understandeable and helpful too for networking. But at their age kids ought to be outside playing cricket, and biking around, and playing football in the muck. You certainly cant do that with net friends !
May 3rd, 2005 at 11:09 am reply
Charu - Blogging might prove to be a fad as much as email is. The resistance is simply protesting against change.
Keeping your child safe from external elements is redundant - online or in the real-world. We cannot fully safeguard their interests but we sure can inculcate the value of right and wrong and simply hope they make the right decisions.
Ash - That was a typo and you know it. Anyway, its corrected now.
Regards playing outside and indulging in “interpersonal skills using your body parts”, we definitely do that when it is needed. All I am saying is that it may not be the ONLY way now. Also, if you recall in one of my previous post, someone commented that you are more likely to go out and play/exercise/socialize IF you are in close proximity to areas where you can.