I would have loved chatrooms as a kid. Stuck in a damp council house, with family and money problems, they would have seemed like an exciting window on a better world.
My teenagers know different. At school my daughter was lectured about online abusers who groom lonely girls and boys into performing sex acts and then threaten to reveal all on the www. Kids have killed themselves out of shame.
My girl was told the truth - putting this stuff up only leads to the abuser being caught, they cannot hide behind the internet because everybody leaves a footprint that can be followed by the police. And the law is getting better at it.
Our lives were so much simpler. Those sh**bags had to get through the door to reach you at home. Now they are everywhere. Let's hope this is one lesson the kids are listening to, because it's the most important of them all.
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