Your Kid's Virtual World

One of the more interesting lectures in the PTSA conference was learning about what our kids are doing on line. Insta-messaging, chat rooms, virtual worlds, MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, et al. Oh, and also text messaging.

The speaker in this session was from Qwest, and directed folks to their Internet explainer site, called Incredible Internet. I'd suggest checking it out, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but find out what your kids are doing online on their MySpace or virtual world. Maybe even play a few games with them to understand why they like virtual worlds so much.

A couple of parents said that after some initial skepticism, they allowed their kids to have a MySpace account, with the ability to monitor it, and controls. And some parents said they found some online games becoming a family bonding event.

As an FYI, here is a good editorial in all the gadgets kids have in school these days.