Recently we were on a cruise. It was our fortieth anniversary and my sweet husband took me to the Mediterranean. The ship had a much older crowd aboard—even older than we are! It is always a great opportunity to learn from others’ life experiences and we met many interesting people, like a couple who have lived all over the world. He was a professor of linguistics and taught in schools on several different continents.

As educated as some may be though, the Internet seems to have accelerated beyond many learning curves. Or perhaps at this age, we just tend to be less interested in modern day technology and more comfortable in using what we know. I had to smile when we talked with a grandfather who was proud of the connections he was making with his teen grandchildren online.

“Yessir,” he said. “I keep up with them. The Internet’s a dangerous place. I check in on My Face and Spacebook to make sure they’re not getting into trouble there.”

Now, I’m sure he meant to say MySpace and Facebook and just got mixed up. I applaud his efforts. Not long ago I heard of a grandmother who checked out her granddaughter’s MySpace page to find disturbing comments that led her to believe the teen might be considering suicide. Whether it was a serious threat or not, it was certainly a cry for attention.

I’ve written here before about trying to keep grandkids safe in cyberspace but I think it bears repeating. Yes, it is Mom and Dad’s responsibility but we all know how busy life can get raising a family. As grandparents we can help monitor our grandkids cyber connections. Several ways to do that are:

• Google your grandchild’s name and see what comes up. If your grandchild is being bullied online, you may find their name on another’s blog or MySpace page.
  
• Google his name and add “MySpace” and his location to the search box and you should come up with a MySpace page (i.e.. Joe Smith MySpace Chicago). Make sure you have the right page. Look for things that would identify your grandchild—pictures, favorite music, friends’ names. What you get from Googling may not give you all of what is on the page but you will get an idea of what they are doing. Once you have the URL (the web address), you can continue to check into it.
  
• Even better, join MySpace and Facebook and invite your grandchild to be a friend. Enlist their help in setting up your page whether you need it or not. It invites interaction. Once you are listed as a friend, you can check out online profiles and pages.
  
• Remember to check in on them regularly. Hopefully you can establish a good relationship with your grandchild and even invite interaction at those online sites.
  
• Finally, remember what you do online is a testimony to not only your grandchildren but also to their friends. When you post a comment (called writing on the wall on Facebook) it shows on their home page. If you have friends writing on your wall or posting comments to your page those can be viewed by your grandchild as well. And what goes online stays online and can get passed around the net faster than the click of a key.

YouTube is another area you might explore but most likely your teen grandchild will post his videos to share on his Facebook or MySpace page. All you need to do is click on the arrow to play. Once you’ve viewed the video, it will usually display or take you to other videos that have been posted by him.

Now that exhausts my knowledge. I suggest a good conversation with your grandchild or another teen who can show you the ropes and let you in on what’s new. I’m moving on to find out more about Twittering—the newest fad growing on the Internet and tied into cell phones as well. When I was growing up, the only tweet I knew was the sound the birds made outside my window.

Copyright © 2008 by Karen Robbins Share

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