Middle school was a different time.\u00a0 We didn’t know it then, but we had the luxury to think about scholastic challenges with our boy.\u00a0 Learning, performing, honing skills, in general a constructive set of challenges–the kind that leave everyone (student\/teacher\/parent\/bystander) better off for trying, these were on the table.\u00a0 It was the calm before the storm.<\/p>\n
High school came in like a lamb and quickly morphed into a lion.\u00a0 The steady girlfriend was announced a couple of weeks into it and nothing has been the same since.\u00a0 Grades have gone into the dumper.\u00a0 Cell texting and computer chatting consumes all time and destroys most continuity of independent teenage thought.\u00a0 We parents have become the other, the enemy, the loathed murderers of love.<\/p>\n
Our peaceful life in the country is fraying under the stress of a tech savvy 14 year old female predator obsessed with marrying our 15 year old son and having his children.\u00a0 I’ll admit, I’ve used hyperbole on occasion.\u00a0 I wish this<\/em> was hyperbole.<\/a> And this<\/em>.<\/a> And this<\/em>.<\/a> The smiley emoticons are cute, but they lose some of their charm when it’s you they’re talking about burying.<\/p>\n The girl pursues him relentlessly every waking moment through texting, sexting, chatting, email, and as a last resort, actual voice phone calls.\u00a0 The boy, raised as an innocent and to not be a victim, thinks this obsession feels wonderful.\u00a0 He’s in love and the rest of life has become a distraction he would rid himself of if he could.<\/p>\n The girl uses her own cell phone, her mother’s cell phone, her father’s cell phone when she can get it, and of course her computer to text and email the boy roughly about once every minute or so of waking time–many hundreds of contacts each day.\u00a0 Her parents don’t seem to exert any control over her electronic obsessions.\u00a0 She uses various online chat clients like facebook and yahoo messenger in addition to email from a variety of sources–cell phone texts, cell phone email, regular isp email, facebook email, etc.<\/p>\n We’ve had to become quite sophisticated in parental controls at the cell phone provider interfaces, the email provider interfaces, and even a sophisticated network router at home, to shut her electronic harassment down while keeping the various electronic tools available to my son for other uses and users.\u00a0 My wife handles the cell phone side of it, I do the rest.\u00a0 It’s taken us months to figure out how to effectively block a determined cyber stalker.<\/p>\n It was our mistake to expect the kids would use all of these connectivity tools responsibly.\u00a0 Perhaps some do, but I expect that’s the exception and that it’s more likely this kind of thing goes on without a lot of parental awareness.\u00a0 Judging by how complicated the remedies are, I bet a lot of parents have no idea what they’re up against.<\/p>\n
![I wish this<\/em> was hyperbole.<\/a> And this<\/em>.<\/a> And this<\/em>.<\/a> The smiley emoticons are cute, but they lose some of their charm when it’s you they’re talking about burying.<\/p>\nThe girl pursues him relentlessly every waking moment through texting, sexting, chatting, email, and as a last resort, actual voice phone calls.\u00a0 The boy, raised as an innocent and to not be a victim, thinks this obsession feels wonderful.\u00a0 He’s in love and the rest of life has become a distraction he would rid himself of if he could.<\/p>\nThe girl uses her own cell phone, her mother’s cell phone, her father’s cell phone when she can get it, and of course her computer to text and email the boy roughly about once every minute or so of waking time–many hundreds of contacts each day.\u00a0 Her parents don’t seem to exert any control over her electronic obsessions.\u00a0 She uses various online chat clients like facebook and yahoo messenger in addition to email from a variety of sources–cell phone texts, cell phone email, regular isp email, facebook email, etc.<\/p>\nWe’ve had to become quite sophisticated in parental controls at the cell phone provider interfaces, the email provider interfaces, and even a sophisticated network router at home, to shut her electronic harassment down while keeping the various electronic tools available to my son for other uses and users.\u00a0 My wife handles the cell phone side of it, I do the rest.\u00a0 It’s taken us months to figure out how to effectively block a determined cyber stalker.<\/p>\nIt was our mistake to expect the kids would use all of these connectivity tools responsibly.\u00a0 Perhaps some do, but I expect that’s the exception and that it’s more likely this kind of thing goes on without a lot of parental awareness.\u00a0 Judging by how complicated the remedies are, I bet a lot of parents have no idea what they’re up against.<\/p>\nDangers of Technology: Cyber-bullying, stalking can have damaging effects<\/a><\/p>\nAlmost four out of ten teens are either the bully or the victim and girls are twice as likely to do it.<\/p>\n“The boys have a tendency to do more of the physical bullying; face to face. The girls tend to do this social sabotage thing on Facebook, MySpace,” says Stanton.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nhttp:\/\/www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov\/adults\/cyber-bullying.aspx <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Middle school was a different time.\u00a0 We didn’t know it then, but we had the luxury to think about scholastic challenges with our boy.\u00a0 Learning, performing, honing skills, in general a constructive set of challenges–the kind that leave everyone (student\/teacher\/parent\/bystander) better off for trying, these were on the table.\u00a0 It was the calm before the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cyber-stalking","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/facebook-post.jpg\"){kind=link}
![And this<\/em>.<\/a> And this<\/em>.<\/a> The smiley emoticons are cute, but they lose some of their charm when it’s you they’re talking about burying.<\/p>\nThe girl pursues him relentlessly every waking moment through texting, sexting, chatting, email, and as a last resort, actual voice phone calls.\u00a0 The boy, raised as an innocent and to not be a victim, thinks this obsession feels wonderful.\u00a0 He’s in love and the rest of life has become a distraction he would rid himself of if he could.<\/p>\nThe girl uses her own cell phone, her mother’s cell phone, her father’s cell phone when she can get it, and of course her computer to text and email the boy roughly about once every minute or so of waking time–many hundreds of contacts each day.\u00a0 Her parents don’t seem to exert any control over her electronic obsessions.\u00a0 She uses various online chat clients like facebook and yahoo messenger in addition to email from a variety of sources–cell phone texts, cell phone email, regular isp email, facebook email, etc.<\/p>\nWe’ve had to become quite sophisticated in parental controls at the cell phone provider interfaces, the email provider interfaces, and even a sophisticated network router at home, to shut her electronic harassment down while keeping the various electronic tools available to my son for other uses and users.\u00a0 My wife handles the cell phone side of it, I do the rest.\u00a0 It’s taken us months to figure out how to effectively block a determined cyber stalker.<\/p>\nIt was our mistake to expect the kids would use all of these connectivity tools responsibly.\u00a0 Perhaps some do, but I expect that’s the exception and that it’s more likely this kind of thing goes on without a lot of parental awareness.\u00a0 Judging by how complicated the remedies are, I bet a lot of parents have no idea what they’re up against.<\/p>\nDangers of Technology: Cyber-bullying, stalking can have damaging effects<\/a><\/p>\nAlmost four out of ten teens are either the bully or the victim and girls are twice as likely to do it.<\/p>\n“The boys have a tendency to do more of the physical bullying; face to face. The girls tend to do this social sabotage thing on Facebook, MySpace,” says Stanton.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nhttp:\/\/www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov\/adults\/cyber-bullying.aspx <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Middle school was a different time.\u00a0 We didn’t know it then, but we had the luxury to think about scholastic challenges with our boy.\u00a0 Learning, performing, honing skills, in general a constructive set of challenges–the kind that leave everyone (student\/teacher\/parent\/bystander) better off for trying, these were on the table.\u00a0 It was the calm before the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cyber-stalking","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/facebook-post-2.jpg\"){kind=link}
![And this<\/em>.<\/a> The smiley emoticons are cute, but they lose some of their charm when it’s you they’re talking about burying.<\/p>\nThe girl pursues him relentlessly every waking moment through texting, sexting, chatting, email, and as a last resort, actual voice phone calls.\u00a0 The boy, raised as an innocent and to not be a victim, thinks this obsession feels wonderful.\u00a0 He’s in love and the rest of life has become a distraction he would rid himself of if he could.<\/p>\nThe girl uses her own cell phone, her mother’s cell phone, her father’s cell phone when she can get it, and of course her computer to text and email the boy roughly about once every minute or so of waking time–many hundreds of contacts each day.\u00a0 Her parents don’t seem to exert any control over her electronic obsessions.\u00a0 She uses various online chat clients like facebook and yahoo messenger in addition to email from a variety of sources–cell phone texts, cell phone email, regular isp email, facebook email, etc.<\/p>\nWe’ve had to become quite sophisticated in parental controls at the cell phone provider interfaces, the email provider interfaces, and even a sophisticated network router at home, to shut her electronic harassment down while keeping the various electronic tools available to my son for other uses and users.\u00a0 My wife handles the cell phone side of it, I do the rest.\u00a0 It’s taken us months to figure out how to effectively block a determined cyber stalker.<\/p>\nIt was our mistake to expect the kids would use all of these connectivity tools responsibly.\u00a0 Perhaps some do, but I expect that’s the exception and that it’s more likely this kind of thing goes on without a lot of parental awareness.\u00a0 Judging by how complicated the remedies are, I bet a lot of parents have no idea what they’re up against.<\/p>\nDangers of Technology: Cyber-bullying, stalking can have damaging effects<\/a><\/p>\nAlmost four out of ten teens are either the bully or the victim and girls are twice as likely to do it.<\/p>\n“The boys have a tendency to do more of the physical bullying; face to face. The girls tend to do this social sabotage thing on Facebook, MySpace,” says Stanton.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nhttp:\/\/www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov\/adults\/cyber-bullying.aspx <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Middle school was a different time.\u00a0 We didn’t know it then, but we had the luxury to think about scholastic challenges with our boy.\u00a0 Learning, performing, honing skills, in general a constructive set of challenges–the kind that leave everyone (student\/teacher\/parent\/bystander) better off for trying, these were on the table.\u00a0 It was the calm before the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cyber-stalking","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/facebook-post-3.jpg\"){kind=link}