Welcome!

There is a technology generation gap between parents and their children. As I look around online, talk to parents, teenagers, and younger kids (all who are spending time online) I notice more and more that parents often have a very different opinion and idea about internet safety than their children do. While one mom was asking me how to look at a video on YouTube, her son told me about the video he saw on YouTube about how to download free (and illegal) movies and videos. Dad has a hard time figuring out whether it is safe or not to pay his bills online while his daughters are sending instant messages, posting on FaceBook or MySpace, reading messages someone posted, and adding photos to their profiles.

The difference in comfort and use of technology between parents and children can often lead parents to become afraid or paranoid. Many a parent has approached me, terrified that their child or teenager will be abducted because he or she posted a home address or name on a profile. Others parents say they are afraid of what their children are doing online, but that they don't know how to do anything about it because they aren't so comfortable with technology.

My goal for this blog is to help parents understand and become more educated and comfortable with technology based communication and socialization, to help teenagers and children to make the right decisions regarding what they do online, and finally to highlight the real risks, concerns, and dangers of online social activity.

This is a beginning, and has come from the experience I have as a technology fiend and as a clinical psychologist. I have been fortunate to have begun speaking on the subjects of internet safety and online socializing to schools, parent groups, professional organizations, and with individual families. Please let me know your thoughts, ideas, or any questions you might have. I have created my psychology practice website (drfred.net) and am in the process of developing thecyberpsychologist.com, where I will be sharing information, guidelines, helpful resources, and links on internet safety and psychology.

Future topics will address safety rules for parents, the TRUE dangers of internet social connections, cyber bullying, tips for kids and teens, should parents snoop?, teen identity and the internet, and many other topics. I am very open to your suggestions as well!

This video from the Ad Council is one of many that makes a good point about how kids and teens say things online that they would not likely say in person, an example of the Online Disinhibition Effect.