OK, I’m on my soapbox again today, so there’s your warning. I was enjoying a second cup of coffee and a few minutes to myself after the Big Strong Man and the girls had left for the day when the story came on about the Florida high school cheerleader who was beaten up by her so-called former friends while being videotaped. The offending teens then posted the disgusting video on the web, so they could get their 15MB of fame, as they say.
What is the matter with our nation’s youth? And worse yet, why do we continue to let them get bombarded with all the crap that’s on UTube and MySpace? Have you seen what’s on UTube? Have you blocked your kids’ access to it yet (MySpace, too)? Yes, I know there are some hilarious videos on UTube, and yes, on occasion, I do share those with my kids. But sitting around for hours at a time, glued to the computer, watching video after video on UTube is not a healthy activity for our young people. Generally speaking, I am the voice from a little left of center around here. But when it comes to protecting my kids from the crap that is on the web, my husband and are ever so vigilant.
But I digress (gee, have you noticed a pattern here?). So, have you heard about this incident? The victim had been doing some cyberbulling of her own on her MySpace site. Trash talking of some girls she’d had a falling out with. And for this, one of the defendants’ mother’s has claimed that the victim has to take partial blame (????). The former friends lured her over to the scene of the beating, where they had it all planned out in advance. They would attack the victim, while catching it all on videotape. Then, they’d post in on the web.
Long (sickening) story shorter? The victim was left with 2 black eyes, has lost hearing in her left ear, sight in her left eye and was left with a cuncussion. What were these girls thinking? What could possibly have been going through their minds during the 30 minutes that they beat her while she was completely defenseless? And when the police picked them up, they were laughing and joking that they guessed they wouldn’t be going to the beach that weekend. My stomach is turning.
Cyberbullying. It’s a whole new world out there, folks.
Did you know that 85% of teens report having been the victim of cyberbullying?
And 70% of teens report having cyberbullied themselves?
And here’s the kicker. Guess how many report the activity when it happens to them? 5 percent. Only 5 percent. They’re afraid of appearing weak or wimpy.
Parents, please continue to police your children’s activities on the web. Check their usage logs. If you don’t have a means to do this, purchase a good program. In fact, chances are, your ISP has parental controls available. You just have to take advantage of them. Please. Be an advocate for your children. They are worth it.
We at White Trash Mom may not be the best at serving up home-cooked delights every single evening or keeping those ever-present dust bunnies from accumulating under the beds. But – - we are good mothers where it counts. And this is one of the places it counts. Do what’s best for your kids, WTM’s. It’s the right thing to do.
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I have an 11 yr. old daughter who wanted a myspace because most of her friends have one. You can guess what the answer to that question was – a resounding NO! I’m with you 100%! It’s so surprising what these kids think is appropriate to put on their myspace or even youtube. It’s shocking! I censor everything for my kids until they are old enough to make their own decisions – and then I can only hope that they make good choices.
Becky..Absent Minded Housewife – What is the program that you use for the keylogging? We use Safe Eyes for our Parental Controls, but we have found that even using that and having set the controls the way we think we need them, things can slip through the cracks like Message Boards with no stipulations on them, so people can use any kind of language they want, etc. Somehow, even though profanity and controls for sex, etc. are set on our Safe Eyes, Message Boards like that can slip through the cracks of the system, so we have now blocked all Message Boards. Ugh!
I used to think WHAT ON EARTH WILL IT BE LIKE WHEN MY TODDLER IS 10? 16?
and now Im deciding to focus (pray?) that things swing BACK wildly in a different direction and all kids frolic through school holding hands, being nice and weaving garlands in each other’s hair.
hey! it could happen
and Im sleeping better (for now…)
AmenAmenAmen TP. Great post and thanks everyone for the comments. Seriously, it is insane that these kids are so casual about something so awful and in Mamma Loves words—the snot nosed little shits—should be punished.
WTM, if you want to read a great book, get “Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online”. I have two boys -one 12, and one 14 – and I found this book extremely interesting. The author is an expert in the online wired community, and her insights were very helpful.
I second what Amie said!
Stumbled, too!
Preach on, Sister!
Obviously, the whole video wasn’t released, so I can’t know why this is… but why wasn’t the girl fighting back? Only one was attacking her at a time.
Christina Garcia thinks that her daughter (Mercades Nichols) shouldn’t be blamed as much as she is. She may or may not have custody of her child. Whether she does or not, I can understand her desire to defend her child – but she does make her sound like her daughter did absolutely nothing wrong at all. Except that her arguments are not very well-reasoned.
What it seems to come down to is the law: freedom of speech is the first amendment in the Bill of Rights – but assault is still illegal.
What I’m saying is, something in this story is missing, so that it lacks complete sense.
As for the vigilantly watching my child’s internet usage? When he is old enough, you’d better believe I will.
Snot-nosed little shits. The part that gets me more upset is that I just know their parents are defending their actions.
Seriously parents!! It’s your responsibility as a parent to ensure that your children grow up to be decent humans.
Have I blocked Myspace and Youtube? No.
Have I put a keylogger on my computer, to which I know every site visited, video watched, email sent, search term used and keystroke recorded? Yup.
The kids don’t get hours on the computer and it’s not in a room that has any privacy.
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