There are some fabulous things about the internet; you can look up any part of history you forgot, discover virtual images of the stars, talk to people on the other side of the world (or fence) about a range of topics, access music and art, be au current or de rigueur.

But there is a questionable side effect of access, beyond the obvious addiction element to the bright lights and fast response time. For children, seemingly innocent chat rooms and thinly veiled game clubs bring them in close proximity with virtual folks you hope they never meet in person. This afternoon my son wanted to travel to a land of penguins, snowballs and furnaces and meet his “real time” friend, codename Peppy. Peppy had too much screen time, so he had signed off. My kid was approached by a girl whose feelings got hurt from someone swearing at her, another person asked where they could “get some.” But the thing that made my son really angry was that instead of “playing”, he was was being asked out by another player. He responded that he was too young; they replied they were his age. They continued by asking if he’d ever tried a blind date. He confronted them with the phrase, “ I know you are an adult, leave me alone!” And as they persisted, he attempted to report their behavior using the help button on the site.

Suddenly the “adult” was gone with no trace and no way to report the mis-use of the site. Okay, granted we could use an exclusively child -friendly search engine, but shouldn’t he be allowed to play mini clips or on nick.com without being bugged for a date in elementary school? I am not insinuating that all people with bad manners are predators, but why should he be bothered worrying if a participant in a kid’s site is really a kid or not? Can’t childhood remain fun filled and a bit less worrisome, at least virtually?