My son's friend, who is 12, (my son is 10) asked yesterday if they could go on the internet to Club Penguin and I said no.

I am afraid that any social networking site is an attraction to predators, and I am not ready to let my son do that yet. Am I being unreasonable? Has anyone else allowed their kids to go on this site?

I understand that social networking sites are popular with kids, and there may be a point at which I will no longer be able to say no. But the bottom line for me is that child predators will be attracted to them. It is entirely possible for them to fake being a kid to get in on the action and interact with kids.

Besides, I don't like the influence that this kid has on my son. But that's a different issue.

By Heaventree on Thursday, December 7, 2006 - 09:52 am:

Lisa,

I can understand your fears and I don't know what I will do when faced with that situation. Hopefullly by the time my kids are old enough there will be more safety measures in place to protect kids.

I did check out the site and it does appear that they do have some measures in place to help keep kids safer.

How does your DS feel about your decision? Is he the kind of kid that would go onto this site when at a friend's house? Sometimes it's better to have them participate with adult supervision rather than feeling like they have to hide going on the site. Certianly it's your call and you know your child best. Like I said I have no idea what I would do. Perhaps you could join and participate yourself for a few days just to see what it's all about. However, if it was no big deal to you DS then I guess it's a mute issue.

By Cocoabutter on Thursday, December 7, 2006 - 10:02 am:

It didn't seem to be a big deal. This friend had also gotten him into going to Google and searching for videos, which could contain any type of adult content (like youtube) but that seems to have died out with my son as well.

The computer is in the dining room (we have a very small house) so it's not like I wouldn't be able to watch over him. It's just scary. I don't want to get him started on anything and let him get hooked. He's young, and he needs to be more active and not waste him time on the internet (yeah- look at me! ) Now that we have snow, he loves to go outside. He just got new snowpants and boots and gloves. We live near a park with a HUGE hill, and he has already been there twice. So, I am happy with the way things are and I don't want it to change.

By Tripletmom on Thursday, December 7, 2006 - 09:34 pm:

I don't think kids need to be on chat sites,period.Chatting with friends on MSN would be fine with me,but I would definitely be snooping on them.Your right Lisa,toooo many unstable loopers preying on children these days.

By Paulas on Thursday, December 7, 2006 - 11:14 pm:

My kids go to club Penguin and I checked it out beforehand. My son is 7 and my daughter is 10. I signed them up (they don't know our email). My son can only use the phrases from the site. He can not enter any messages himself. My daughter can. I went on and signed myself up to check it out. It was pretty much questions like boy or girl, things like that. I swore to see what would happen. I think I used the b word. Well, it booted me right out and I lost my penguin.

My kids mostly play with their puff and the games.