The other day I found myself having a very serious conversation with my children about the importance of carefully choosing your username and passwords. It is important. They require some consideration and I have to be aware of their choices as well so that I can monitor what they are doing online. But it seems like such a funny conversation since I don't really have anything to compare it to in my childhood.
Let me first say that they know that they are not allowed to create any account online without our permission. As far as I know they haven't broken this rule. (I am pretty sure Lilly won't anytime soon as her internet privileges are sacred to her - God forbid she not get to watch a YouTube video of Justin Bieber!) The problem is that I've given them permission on a couple of occasions when I was busy doing something else and wasn't paying enough attention and they've set up their own accounts. Later, when we were talking about their accounts I asked them about their usernames and passwords. To put it simply, they have no clue.
To them they are just looking for something that they will remember. They don't understand that there could potentially be crazy, effed up people creeping around a website designed for little kids to "own" a monster. They are kids. They see the best in people.They are still innocent and don't fully understand some of the crazy stuff that happens in this world. And so they use some conglomeration of their names. To which this parent responds, "AHHHHHH!"
And so we talked. We discussed (in elementary school age language) the importance of having a somewhat oddball username and password. We discussed not EVER giving your password to anybody, even your best friend. We tried to figure out how to cancel their accounts so that they could start fresh with more secure screen names.
When I was a kid we talked about people calling the house when my Mom and Dad weren't home. We talked about what to do if someone knocks on the door when no one else is home. The Internet didn't come to my house until I was about 15. And it was dial up. And it was limited. It was nowhere near the crazy place it is today.
I still teach my kids those lessons my folks taught me. They know how to answer the phone and not state that we aren't here. They know that they are not to open the door for anyone. And now they know that they have to come up with some concoction of initials, their favorite pets names and their Webkinz pets birthdays to come up with a username and password.
Gosh, sometimes this parenting thing is hard! You just can't think of it all ahead of time and plan it all out. There's so much thinking and making decisions on the fly.
Have any of you had problems with this?
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