MizzBia - 4:54 am on Oct 24, 2008 (gmt 0)

I don't have any kids but I truly believe I would not allow my children to have their own site under the age of 14-15 (minimum). At this point, I don't even think I would allow them to surf the internet on their own. I am in my twenties and have seen enough horror on the net to know that it is not a safe place for children. I would be too concerned with perverts and cyber-pedophiles lurking around, as well as them being exposed to graphic spam, emails, comments and pictures. The statistics are 1 in 3 children receive aggressive sexual solicitation on the internet and that doesn't include children who are cyber-bullied or threatened.

And even if I could prevent that, there is always the risk of them becoming "addicted" to the internet and essentially end up withdrawn and maybe even anti-social. My cousin who is 13 uses the computer daily. He is virtually (no pun intended) addicted to those game sites. He sits there glued to the screen, chatting with his friends as he plays this computer game instead of being outside with them and actually interacting. If my aunt didn't put limits, he'd be there day and night by choice and that to me is sad.

It seems all gravy now but I think we will start to see a lot of consequences for this as this young generation gets older.