Hw 7- Preteens and Blogging

To start off this blog first I would like to say I disagree with the statement “Parents should not monitor everything that their middle school children write online”. Middle school is a crucial time in a pre teens life where they can be influenced by many other peoples thoughts and ideas. As teens grow older and hit high school I believe that parents should truth them enough to hope that they are not harming themselves by using the internet. Younger pre teens however are more impressionable. This day and age you hear of many young children being kidnapped or raped because they are talking to rapists and older men on forums. Also, pre teens are getting the wrong ideas about sex, drugs, alcohol, and eating disorders from websites and blogs. I do not think parents should ban there children from using the internet or check every little detail of there life but I do believe there should be restrictions. A parent should never make a child feel uncomfortable about expressing his or her thoughts but should let them know how dangerous the internet really is. Everything you read is not always true. Although I disagree with this statement I do believe that blogging is a good way for kids to get out there feelings. Blogging can give a child a great sense of fitting in. Emily Nussbaum’s narrative “My So called Blog” shows this. “J’s sense of private and public was filled with these kinds of contradictions. He wanted his posts to be re read, and feared that people would read them, and hoped that people would read them, and didn’t care if people read them. He wanted to be included while priding himself on his outsider status.”(Nussbaum 353). This part in Nussbaums’s article makes a very good point. To “J” a blog is way of expressing himself and feeling accepted. To a kid who feels very unwanted in school this could be a great community to belong to. Overall, children should be allowed to express themselves but parents should still know what is going on in there life.