"Kids as Tech Savvy as Bill Gates, but as Gullible as Bambi"

In addition to the Facebook debate, Esme Murphy briefly touched upon sexting- but focused more generally on kids and social networking. On her show someone made this awesome comment, “Kids today are as tech savvy as Bill Gates, but as gullible as Bambi.” This is why it’s critical that parents and teachers make kids aware of the potential long-term ramifications of writing on-line.

One woman called in with a great story from 15 years ago. At that time, her daughter was 16. Apparently her teacher confiscated a note that she and a friend were passing back and forth in class. In the note were several expletives. That night was conferences, so the teacher showed the parents the note. After conferences, the mom and dad came home and complimented their daughter on how well she was doing academically. They talked about how over the years they’ve always made a point of displaying her exceptional work on the refrigerator. So the mom took out the confiscated note- showed the daughter- and told her they plan to hang it on the fridge, too. The daughter was mortified.

The parents went on with the lesson of how you should never write something down that you wouldn’t feel comfortable having published in the newspaper. Their point was well taken, as their daughter now speaks to companies about using computers at the work-place. She uses this story to emphasize how with computers, everything can be tracked, preserved and shared. She emphasized that today people need to be especially careful, because, “A dumb moment lasts forever in cyberspace.”