Hello, and welcome to Cyber Caution. This will be an informative site concerning the safety of our children on the Internet. As an adult, with an 11 year old daughter, my concerns for her safety while enjoying a host of Internet games, blogs, chats, and other sites has led me to a realization that most adults only THINK they know what their children are facing on the Internet.
I started playing Club Penguin a little over a year ago. It all began when Alyssa, my daughter, showed me the site and asked if she could make a penguin. It looked like it would be fun so I also decided to make a penguin and try it out. I found that I really enjoyed playing the game. I made both of our penguins members for a small fee and we started looking forward to our nightly visits to the game world of Club Penguin. Sometimes Alyssa and I like to play together on different computers. It became a way that we could share time together doing something we both enjoy.
When I started playing I had one goal in mind. That was to dress my penguin and decorate her igloo. However, before I knew it I had started to make friends with the many children playing along side of me. I found that I enjoyed their personalities and I found that I was gaining knowledge of what my daughter was like when playing with her peers.
Before I knew it I started really caring about the children I had befriended. They were so sweet, unique, intelligent, and creative that I couldn't help but enjoy their company. They also had really taken to my penguin. I became bffl with many of the kids. I was amazed how many of them were beginning to love playing with me as I loved playing with them.
One thing started to lead to another and I decided to make a blog about Club Penguin. My Club Penguin blog started out as a tribute to the friends that I had made there and has also developed into an informative site about Club Penguin in general. Many times on Club Penguin their filters wouldn't allow us to say basic things and we found it frustrating. So we would hop over to another site called Penguin Chat. There you are allowed to say anything. There are no filters in place to prevent children from giving personal information. The children there invent horrible names for themselves and they speak with foul language. I hated going there as an adult and felt that the children should have a safer place to be able to say things so I also created a chat room. I quickly made rules for my chat and eventually created monitors that would honor the rules and ban people that refused to follow the rules.
I was amazed how quickly my penguin friends found my blog and my chat room. Immediately I became concerned about how they trusted me as someone that posed no threat to them. They had no idea that I was an adult. They were clueless that I might not be the friend that they perceived me to be. They began telling me their names (I requested only first names be used). They also would innocently tell me where they lived or other personal information that I realized could be used against them in the wrong hands. That was when I realized that I had taken on a huge responsibility to keep them safe.
I frequently remind them that they don't know that they can really trust me or other people that they have met in the cyber world. I remind them that I probably am not the person they think I am. They know that I'm older than them but they have no idea that I'm a 49 year old. As I continue to interact with these children I continue to see how they need guidance in Internet safety. That's why I have decided to start this new site for parents and their children to increase their computer safety practices. I will report on my observations as an adult impersonating a child on children's games, chats, and blogs. I think for anybody that follows this blog it will truly be an insight into being cautious on the world wide web.
