The Instinct to Protect our Young 

     As if there aren’t enough social issues parents need to protect their children from, cyberspace creates even more. Although children are physically located in the comfort of their own home, the computer allows their mind to go beyond the confines of the safe and cozy living room or den. This has created significant awareness about the need for parents to monitor their children’s computer behavior. “Just as you would not let your child explore or wander aimlessly through a major city without adult supervision, they should not be left to their own when online” (Williams, 1997).

     News stories about children being lured online by strangers who abduct them in reality creates great fear among parents. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created a pamphlet for parents entitled “Child Safety on the Information Highway.” Organizations have formed to raise awareness about child safety and the internet (i.e. safekids.com and the parenting area of babyboomers.com). Even the U.S. Department of Education and Offices of Education Research & Improvement and Education Technology collaborated to form guidelines for parents to enforce to their children about the internet (www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/internet/tips.html). These guidelines include never distributing one's personal information or password, never arranging to meet strangers one meets online, never feeling obligated to respond to someone you don't know, and never being frightened by negative messages.

    With the Internet being such an unknown and potentially dangerous territory for parents raising their children, the natural instinct is for a parent to exert more control over their child’s computer usage. “The internet is… …not a children’s activity” (Williams). With this advice to parents combined with the media exposure of the social ills of cyberspace- like child pornography and pedophiles- parents have tightened the proverbial “parenting grip” on children.
 

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The Cyber-Struggle Between Parents and Children by Julie Carvey

From the Flinstones to the Jetsons:
How Technology is Sprocketing the American Family into the New Millennium
 

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This project was produced for Psy 380, Social Psychology of Cyberspace, Spring 1999,  at Miami University.  All graphics in these pages are used with permission or under fair use guidelines, are in the public domain,  or were created by the authors.  Last revised: .   This document has been accessed   times since 1 May 1999.  Comments & Questions to R. Sherman