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Advice for parents on protecting teens from dangerous websites

by MIMI JUNG / KING 5 News

Bio | Email | Follow: @MimiJungKING5

KING5.com

Posted on March 24, 2011 at 10:00 PM

Updated Friday, Mar 25 at 10:08 PM

When it comes to online dangers for teen girls, Internet predators are just the beginning.

Most teenage girls love to socialize online. But more of them are being attacked online, and in very brutal and personal ways.

"They were making up rumors about her, calling her a whore, saying she was ugly and she wasn't pretty and no one should like her and no one does like her," said teenager Hannah Black, whose friend was recently targeted.

"This beautiful, smart intelligent, well-rounded young girl was being just sexually harassed and taunted at every turn," said Sam Black, Hannah's father and an Internet safety expert.

As an Internet safety professional, Sam is well-aware of the dangers that lurk online for teen girls.
"Body image, sexualization of women and girls, cyber bullying - all these things can play out on the Internet," he said.

"There are a number of new sites that look like they're harmless but are actually teaching our girls very, very vicious lifestyle changes," said Michele Borba, author of "The Big Book of Parenting Solutions."

Borba's list of top offenders includes the site where Hannah's friend was bullied -- Formspring.

"Formspring is one of the new kinds of websites that looks like a social network that is popping up online for our daughters," she said. "It looks tame enough. But once they log on, what it actually encourages instead, is to send vicious notes toward one another in an anonymous nature."

What it really ends up doing is exposing the girl to sexual taunts and derogatory language, said Sam.

Formspring would only say via email that it takes safety and privacy very seriously and has developed practices for blocking inappropriate content.

But there are other sites that concern Michele and Sam. Online games where teens create and play highly sexualized characters are a shock. One is called the Bimbo Game.

"If you earn a certain amount of points in life, you can even buy yourself a sugar daddy," said Michele. "Totally unhealthy and you do not want your daughters in any part of it."

"These kinds of games only demean what girls think about themselves," said Sam.

Then there are the websites that promote anorexia and bulimia with photographs of super skinny models and step-by-step tutorials on how to purge and purchase diet pills.

"It is doing damage. Stanford University found that 96 percent of girls who are anorexic learned a lot of their eating habits on those sites," said Michele.

As the best ways to keep your teen off these websites, experts suggest investing in parental control software, monitoring your teen's online history, Google searches for your child to see if anything comes up, and limiting their time online.

"If they have a limited time on the Internet, they'll be more wise about what they do online," said Sam.

"You need to step up to the plate," Michele advised parents. "You need to monitor because we're raising our children in a tough world."

Experts say don't wait to talk to kids -- start young. A national survey of 12 and 13-year-olds found that 85 percent of them say they've experienced cyberbullying.

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