Week 4: What would you do?
Under the heading of "what would you do if..." imagine the following scenarios and provide a response for each. You walk into your 12-year old child's room and on his/her computer screen you see:
a) pornography
b) instructions on how to build a bomb
c) a guide to safer sex
d) online gambling
a) Pornography. Pornography, I believe, is a natural thing in a young adults life, especially at the age of 12, when my child would just be entering puberty. However, pornography is a...skewed version of education regarding sex. At that point, I would sit down with my child and have “the talk” - just get it over with, since he is looking at pornography anyways, right?
b) Instructions for Bomb Building - This is slightly more serious of a situation. I would have to sit down with my child and my spouse in front of the computer and ask my child why he was looking up these things. A plan for building a bomb is a matter of safety of other people. I would also probably look at his internet history to see if i could verify my worst fears with more information.
c) A guide to safer sex. This is like the good version of the first example. I would be proud of my child if he was looking at information for safer sex, but, I think that 12 is a little too young for someone to be thinking about intercourse already. I would sit him down, but I wouldn’t concentrate on what sex is - if he is researching it, he probably already knows. Instead, I would focus on letting my child know that he/she is still too young for sex, and it is something which they will be able to do when they are slightly more mature.
d) Online gambling. The first thing i would do is look at my credit card account - where would a 12 year old get money - in credit card form - to use to gamble with? I would sit down with my child and describe the risks of gambling, and encourage him to gamble sparingly, and only when he is older and can make decisions for him/herself.
Monday, September 25, 2006
