Do You Know What Your Kids Are Into Online?

The dangers of the internet include more than pornography and predators. This story from Wisconsin illustrates this:

According to court documents, the girls plotted for months to kill their friend to curry favor with Slender Man, a character in horror stories they read online. They told investigators they believed Slender Man had a mansion in a Wisconsin forest and they planned to go live with him after the slaying. 

The girl who was found mentally incompetent hosted the other two at a May 30 slumber party to celebrate her birthday. The next morning, the two girls attacked the victim in a wooded Waukesha park. The other girl told investigators that she told the victim to lie down and be quiet after the stabbing so that she would lose blood more slowly. The girl said she hoped to convince the victim to be quiet so the victim would not draw attention to them and would die.

Not every child that goes online will become a killer. However, as parents we should be concerned with the things that our children are looking at and engaging with on the internet.

What parents need in this internet generation is filtering and updates as to the websites that their children are spending time on. It is also important to restrict certain websites- and not just on the desktop at home- on all their devices.