“There are definitely some things we are talking about that we don’t want (parents) to see. I’ve used POS (parent over shoulder).” No surprise there. We, too, actively hid what we could from our parents, using pointed slang and signals only friends understood. Our children are following in our footsteps…

“The danger lies in a different place from what we tried to hide from our parents,” she says. “When we were doing this, we weren’t on the Internet. (The) Internet has exposed us to all kinds of people all over the world.” The potential exposure of personal information and the associated risks that come with such exposure make it more important than before to understand what the kids are saying to their friends, even if they don’t want us to…

”Like anything in parenting, we need to be involved in kids’ lives now, because so much revolves around texting, IM-ing, social networking. They want it that way. And you won’t be able to see or track, but you can be involved…

OnGuardOnline.gov, a federal site that offers tips to help protect against Internet fraud, identity theft, phishing, spam scams and sexual predators, says: “If (your kids) use social networking sites, tell them why it’s important to keep information like their name, Social Security number, address, phone number and family financial information — like bank or credit card account numbers — to themselves. Remind them that they should not share that information about other people in their family or about their friends, either.”

Source: News & Observer
http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/511327.html