Despite the fact that alcohol and other drugs are readily available to teenagers, parents do have the power to raise drug free kids. We want Parent Power to address the questions, concerns and real life situations you parents and your teens face everyday.
CASA’s National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse finds that teens whose parents do not take steps to limit their exposure to the Internet are likelier to smoke, drink or use drugs compared to teens whose parents do limit their exposure.
Yes, their internet activities and postings are monitored, as per our mutually agreed upon family guidelines, i.e., monitoring is not conducted secretly.
Absolutely. I have a great firewall for blocking unwanted sites. I also have a program that allows me to monitor her email inbox.
Communication can occur on Facebook and MySpace which does not appear at all in the email inbox. So unless the firewall is blocking all social networking sites, you may not truly be seeing how and what they are communicating. I’ve become a member of social networking sites, and by becoming one of their “friends” on the site, I can easily see what they and they’re friends are posting on their pages - it keeps them and their friends more accountable with what they post because they know that I’m there. (However, by becoming a “friend” on the site, you still do not have access to their
“private” communications - you must have their password in order to monitor those.) We also have a filter, do not allow internet access in their bedrooms - its always out in the open, and the kids know that as Steven said above “monitoring is not conducted secretly.”
Absolutely. From day one the rules of the computer are that it will be monitored and that they will earn or lose their internet priveleges, based upon what they do or don’t do. Becuase of the way they are structured (primarily due to how others have access to the pages) we don’t allow our kids to have a My Space page but we have allowed our son to have a facebook page, which we monitor on a regular basis. I think if you start off from day one with these kind of cleary-defined boundaries and expectations, it’s normal to them verus suddenly swooping in and having them feel their privacy is being violated, etc.
We require computers to be in a “public” area of our home with the door open. We also do not permit our kids to use MySpace or similar sites, and no IM. E-mail has a box trapper. The kids know we will check their history and E-mails from time to time. We want our kids to not fall into the trap of using E-mail, IM, and cell phone texting for most of their interpersonal communications. We encourage them to communicate with people face to face of by phone conversation.
Like many of the other parents who have responded, we have set clear guidelines regarding the use of the computer. None of the children have internet access in their rooms, and the family computer is located in a highly visible area of our home.
Our oldest daughter, who is in high school, maintains a Myspace page. We monitor it regularly and openly. We also often visit her friends pages to stay in touch with what she is viewing online. We use what we see as a springboard for conversations about school, drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.
We have requested that she remove certain content and have strict guidelines on the amount of time she is allowed on the computer. These guidelines were communicated before she set up the page. She also understands that breaking the rules means losing the page.
Our younger children are not permitted to IM or use Myspace. Their guidelines are directly related to their ages.
Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes. Absolutely.
I became a charter member of MySpace in order to be aware of what was happening among teens in cyberspace which at that time was under the radar screen of most parents. I kept a program on the family computer that recorded every keystroke and the whole family used one computer. I never allowed my kids to have unsupervised access to the Internet. In the beginning MySpace was full of the worst that society has to offer. It was full of people promoting the use of drugs and porn. Porn was never more that about 5 clicks away from your teen’s MySpace and if a child had access to the MySpace of a college student well then just expect that they would be exposed to the worst kind of porn you could imagine. MySpace has cleaned up its act somewhat now that it has been bought by Rupert Murdoch and is largely an advertising venue. They have installed some parental controls. But I would definitely give it a “R” rating. It is not for young kids, certainly not middle schoolers.
Internet use in my house is STRICTLY monitored. I was a high school teacher last year. One of my students personal information on her myspace page. She then “hooked-up” with someone from myspace and turned up missing. So, no, my children are not allowed to have a page.
I don’t monitor their spaces but the computer with internet access is in a highly visible space and they are not allowed to have password access to log on (and I do not either). I don’t police their MySpace accounts because many teens I have talked to only show their parents the one that they keep “clean” and more public open to massive numbers of friends, and have 1 that is under a different name and only with friends allowed that keep in the secret circle. Long before they start IMing as upper elementary/young middle schoolers or even know about MySpace we talk about internet risks, responsibilities, and expectations. They weren’t allowed to look at or set up MySpace or Facebook until they were in high school.
Yes, until he turned 21. And we talked about what he saw on those sites.
I sure tried. Basically, I would have had to literally attach myself to my daughter’s hip to keep tabs on her. When a child wants to find trouble, they will find it.
We don’t allow un-monitored internet use.
My Space and all other instant messaging sites are off limits in our family.
One boy a few years ago sneaked online and was using My space and there were some really inapproiate messaging and photos posted and way too much personal information flaunted about. We discontinued his account and notified the other parents whose kids were on the site about what was being posted so they could take approiate action if they wanted to.
As parents we are always looking for way to protect our children’s from dangers like drugs and alcohol. Experience in our life us now that adolescence in probably the most challenging period as human and we look for tools that could help us as parents with our children’s. Drug testing has become a tool use by parents using home drug test to be more aware if their teen is experimenting with drugs.
A recent government survey tells us:
• Marijuana is the most frequently used illegal drug in the United States. Nearly 69 million Americans over the age of 12 have tried marijuana at least once.
• About 10 million had used the drug in the month before the survey.
• Among teens 12 to 17, the average age of first trying marijuana was 14 years.
A yearly survey of students in grades 8 through 12 shows that 23 percent of 8th-graders have tried marijuana at least once, and by 10th grade, 21 percent are “current” users (that is, used within the past month). Among 12th-graders, nearly 50 percent have tried marijuana/hash at least once, and about 24 percent were current users.
More companies like medicaldisposables.us that sell home drug test and promote products like the THC Home Drug Test, can offer parents immediate results and answers to the question of drug use from their teen. Is very important to know also Drug Detection Periods this can help parents to understand how much frequently they can test and how long drugs stay in the body.
Should you be home drug testing?
It comes down to a very personal and individual decision, and there is no clear or easy answer to this question. The home drug test are not perfect, and there are risks associated with the testing process, but if you don’t think you can keep your kids safe any other way, then maybe home drug testing is worth doing. If your child does have a history of drug use or substance abuse problems, then the arguments towards testing get a lot more compelling, and if your child has a history of lying to you about their substance use, then you may not need to worry much about eroding your trust relationship.
If you do decide that you need to test your child, make sure you have a reasoned talk with them explaining why you’re are doing it, and explaining that you are only testing them because you love and worry for them. Parenting teens is a tough job, and there are rarely easy answers.