Technology Through Our Eyes

As a website designer, I have seen various things. Many young teenagers are starting to date over the internet, I know from experience. They use Facebook, Myspace, Myyearbook, and so on, for their internet dating sources, when really those websites are supposed to be a social network. I am a teenager myself and I know internet dating just makes you feel like you are getting attention from a certain someone. I've been using Myyearbook for quite awhile now and they are starting to have VIP's which involve Buying On-line passes for it. To me, its just a desperate call for money to keep that website going.

Then there is Facebook, which I've just recently added my mom onto mine for protection. Like I said before, the internet is supposed to be a giant Social Network. But too many young teenagers are exposing themselves to people they don't even know. They start Internet Dating and they brag about it, but they don't know if the person they are dating is the age they told them or not. I personally think parents need to put restrictions on what their children are doing these days.

Buying on-line doesn't make too much sense either to me. If I want something, I'd go to the store and buy it. I remember in school one day, I asked one of my friends where they bought their purse, and her response was, "well my mom was buying on-line clothing and she offered me a purse, so I said yes."

Which this brings me back to the social network things on the internet. One night I was surfing the internet when one of my best friends offered to give me one of her friends email addresses so I said sure. When I started talking to the friend that I added, they kept offering to buy me stuff online when they didn't know me and I definitely didn't know them. It freaks me out to know random people offer to buy people things over the internet. What happened to the safe online protection us kids used to have?

My friend, we'll call him Taz, has strict parents. Taz recently moved and told me that he had finally got his own computer after they moved into their new house. His parents were convinced that he was doing things he shouldn't be doing so they put Net Nanny on his computer to monitor everything. Now, my question is, why can't most parents be like this?I see kids that look like they are about maybe 11 or 12 on myspace and they shouldn't be.

I think we need to turn the internet back into just a plain social network and not a danger zone. Parents should monitor what their children are doing and teach them right from wrong. I know we aren't perfect but we can at least make the internet a safer place.