Formspring.me is basically yet another social networking site, but its main use is to post anonymous questions and comments, many of which are cruel and vicious. It can be linked to a user’s Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts where users post questions and invite their “friends” to answer them and make comments. Its popularity has grown among teens and tweens, and the anonymity Formspring affords gives young people leeway to say whatever they really think.

Unfortunately, a lot of what ends up being posted, which isn’t even everything that’s said, is highly detrimental to a young person’s sense of self. Nasty comments about a person’s appearance, hygiene and sexual activity seem to be the norm.

The very last line of the article, an interview with a teen’s mom, summarizes it for me best:

“…I do think this whole online social media thing is a huge experiment on our children.”

Had you heard of Formspring before? What’s your opinion?

The monitoring and filtering is annoying, but there’s so much I don’t want them to have to deal with yet, it’s worth the hassle. I have passwords set up on the internet and on our Dish Network system and I put music on their mp3 players for them. Basically, they can’t get onto a website unless I approve it, receive or send email to anyone without me okaying the address or watch anything that isn’t rated PG or G without me unlocking it. No one has a TV in their room and the family computers are in the upstairs hallway in plain view.

I’m sure there are those who think I go overboard, but truthfully, I wish more parents would pay attention to what their kids are watching and listening to. I don’t think it’s ridiculous to not want to have to explain what some crude sexual innuendo is when that sort of thing shouldn’t even be on their radar yet. Kids have enough stresses in their lives without being forced to try to understand and deal with things that are way above their maturity level. I also don’t want my children to grow up thinking that sleeping around, doing drugs and drinking are normal behaviors.

Once in awhile, I sit down with my girls and we watch a movie I like that’s rated PG-13. More often than not, I find myself cringing at all the crudity, sexuality and vulgarity that I don’t even notice anymore when I watch by myself. The good thing about watching it with them though is that I can explain to them what our family’s value system is in regard to different situations.

I do realize that they are exposed to a lot of the things I try so hard to shield them from at school and on the bus with kids who are allowed to ingest anything they feel like. That really can’t be helped unless I want to homeschool them. Besides, as much as I want to shelter them, I don’t want to overdo it either because they have to learn to think for themselves and make their own decisions. I just don’t feel they’re old enough to make those sorts of choices for themselves yet.

I think the key to monitoring kids’ media usage is to take the time to be aware of what they’re watching, listening to and surfing, as well as to be honest with them when they ask questions and keep communication open. I’ve told my kids why I’m so strict with what they see and hear and I encourage them to talk to me about anything unfamiliar. As far as I know, they don’t have any problems with my strictness because they know that if I didn’t care about them, I wouldn’t bother. For now, this works, and I’m happy with the protective bubble I’ve created for them so they can just be kids.

Because as much as I hate to admit that my mom was right, the old saying “Garbage in, garbage out,” really does have a lot of truth to it.

Though I felt like I lost an appendage the entire 5 days (but who’s counting?), I also felt a tremendous sense of relief at the time I had freed up to do other things besides work. It also became abundantly clear to me where all my “free” time goes.

Now it’s back to our regularly scheduled program, starting tomorrow.