[Sticks]

There is also a flip side to this

Some years ago, when I was using ICQ (I have now ditched it) I got into a random chat with someone who said they were in South America. Talking to people all around the world seems quite cool. Then the person let on that they were 14.

I had to inform the person of my age, and warn them about the dangers of the net. Some law enforcement officers pretend to be teenagers to catch out those who do what is called grooming. This 14 year old was far too trusting and it did make me feel uncomfortable talking to them.

(One reason to ditch ICQ as MSN does not have random chat)

Nowadays I always have a picture of myself as my avatar on MSN, Facebook, forums etc, so people know who I am and can not accuse me of leading people on. Also the only minors I will ever speak to on MSN are children of church members in our congregation, should they come online, and there are very few of them now if any.

The main problem is that parents are not as computer savvy as they ought to, and sometimes their little darlings are streets ahead of them, however, as in the case of that 14 year old in South America, they are not netwise, and it behooves us to get that message out to them.

Beware of who you are talking to online.