Cyberbullying

It's really too bad that experience is the best teacher. Wouldn't it be great if kids could learn from their parents' experiences! I've tried to tell Sean to be careful what he writes or says or shows (as in video) online because it is very public. Personally, I would only write things I wouldn't regret terribly if they were made public in my hometown newspaper. Prospective employers, prospective girlfriends, etc. could easily check up on anything posted online and emails can be sent to other than the intended recipient! Well, as is usually the case, my good advice fell on deaf ears. Sean has a Youtube channel for his ramblings on any subject that strikes his fancy--unedited, unfiltered and at times, controversial. He somehow attracted the attention of another Youtuber, a 30-something man who has large amounts of time to ramble on himself. Well, I made the mistake of posting comments on Sean's channel (not indicating that I'm his mom, however) and I think he apparently tracked down not only my facebook page, but Sean's as well and even set up a channel, using Sean's facebook profile picture and some videos that Sean made (outside and inside our home--pretty boring videos, actually) and then sent me a message from this new channel asking me if I was Sean's mom and if I knew a girl named Clara. Creepy. And he made some threats to Sean as well. Nothing serious, but enough to really scare Sean into taking down some of his videos and deciding to not interact with this particular individual. To me it all seems like such a waste of time!

Internet "spying" on College Boy

With a computer, internet access and your child's id and password you can find out a lot! My son gave me his college id and password so I could check up on him--grades, financial, aid, etc. We agreed that since we are paying a significant portion of his college expenses that his dad and I should be able to check up on our "investment." Well, this week, I check on his grades, specifically interested on how he did on a psychology exam and then I emailed him a "Way to Go!" email saying he did a good job of getting a 47/50 on the exam. He actually found out from me first!