Unsupervised Children on the Net

My most popular posting on this blog deals with a popular children's role playing game which is highly addictive, Animal Jam.  Shockingly, many of the commenters are children.

Today I received a comment from someone claiming to be a nine year old, calling me "A DEMON" (capital letters the emphasis of the "child" writer) for limiting my child's use of Animal Jam.  Here it is:

i am a 9 year old kid. animal jam is epic, you DEMON, i hate you, animal jam is epic, it's epic, don't make them get off! more than an hour miss! 

Is it normal for nine year olds to call strangers demons?

My blog is aimed at adults, not children, but clearly children are reading it.  I am left to wonder whether the parents have any idea that their child is reading, or what they are posting.

A study has shown that 3/4s of five year old children use the Internet every day.  On March 2, 2011, the Mail Online reported the following:

"As many as 72 per cent of pre-school children are lured online on a daily basis by sites such as the BBC’s Cbeebies and games like Peppa Pig, the research reveals. 

Many parents are allowing their under-fives to explore the web without supervision, leaving them vulnerable to predatory paedophiles."
...
It is feared that spending so much time online will mean they lack reading and writing skills, and scientists believe the glare from the screen may damage the brain development of young children. 

Professor Tanya Byron, a clinical psychologist, said leaving a five-year-old unsupervised on the internet is equivalent to ‘abandoning a kid in a shopping centre for a couple of hours’. 

She warned: ‘Parents don’t realise they have a responsibility to prepare children for the online world as much as for the real world. 

‘A lot of parents haven’t been brought up on the internet and don’t know its dangers.’"

There was a popular public service announcement on American television back in the 1960s to 1980s, when I was growing up.  "Do you know where your children are?"  It was asked on Buffalo, New York television at 10 or 11 pm, sometimes before the news came on.  It made reference to the local curfew time, and helped make parents more aware of the need to supervise their children.  Growing up in Southern Ontario, this was a catch phrase that I remember.

Now I ask you.  Do you know what your children are watching?  Whether it is television or the Internet, there is still a need for supervision.  Please watch your children.

Am I a demon?  Yes, little children.  I am your worst nightmare.