Online DANGERouuus?

Why do parents put the most interest in the internet and the dangers it exposes to young females? I agree the internet is a popular place especially for the young, but there is the real world that everyone lives in everyday filled with danger around every corner. It must be the mystery behind the internet that scares adults because it is an individual experience for everyone and an easy way to keep stuff from others. It’s true that people are scared of what they cannot explain, and I agree that a parent must be cautious with their children and the internet.
Katie Tarbox’s book, “A Girl’s Life Online” was a descriptive life experience, that I feel could be beneficial for a parent to read. Katie’s description of how she viewed her town and the concept of perfectness was certainly disturbing to me, and not something any young female should believe. She wrote how she and her friends based all they needed to know from magazines, and skinny models. Etc. Mothers and fathers should read about this because this is the truth, because middle school was when the growing up started, most of it negative, close to Katie’s experience, not so much with the wealth though. Katie turned to the internet because she wanted attention. When the young are fed unconstructive views of what is beautiful and one feels they don’t fit the description they will turn to whoever will give them attention. Katie sought attention from her online predator and depended so much on him that got her into danger. If a young girl did read this book though I would encourage it to be with an adult, maybe more comfortable with a female but a father figure could work. It’s important to seek the positive aspects of the book as opposed to the negatives.

It is indeed scary to see that 1 in 5 children were sexually solicited online according to a statistic from 2000. (Victims, Villains, and Vixens) The internet is a secretive place where predators cannot be found out so easily and hide behind disguises to creep on the innocent who know no better. I do not feel these fears are not exaggerated, because we as people have lived with our world for a very long time, and had all that time to find the dangers around many corners, and try our best to perfect the system. However the internet compared to the real world is like a baby, and not something we can get around so easily, because there is so much to figure out. So if parents could limit certain things for their children perhaps many dangers could be avoided.