The Enid Blyton Society

Francis wrote:I only hope that we don't get someone registering to send private emails to some of our younger members - horrible thought.

     Is there any way of guarding against this? If younger members do permit the receiving of private messages, what would there be to prevent some nasty person targeting them?

Regards, Michael.

We don't have any nasty people in these forums, Michael!

I would say that a lot of the responsibility has to lay with the parents. When my children first started using the internet it was MSN and we made sure they only spoke to people they actually knew ie, school friends. When they moved onto Facebook the deal was that they had my husband and I as "Friends". Not to check up on them constantly, but just so that we could aware of what they were being exposed to.

We also have our computer in a communal part of the house, so we can glance at it if we are passing and they don't have access to the internet on their phones. We've also spoken to them about the dangers they may be exposed to etc.

Given the grief I got from them about meeting up with fellow forumites at the Enid Blyton Day - that is strangers I'd met over the internet - I think they must have been listening to the warnings.

I'm glad that you took the risk to meet us, Katharine - strangers from
the dreaded world of the internet! Impressed with the way you have
handled your children on the internet - if only others were that responsible.

Yes, I'm certainly glad I broke my own internet 'rules'

I hope my children use the internet wisely and safely. I think it's like anything in life, you can only advise your children so much. I had to trust their judgement to make friends wisely at school, espeically once they went to high school - I could hardly stand at the school gate and chose their friends for them. Similarly, I have to trust them to go where they tell me they are going. It's not always easy, but I can't be there to watch over them 24/7.

I've gone for a mixture of laying down certain ground rules/guidance and a bit of trust. Fingers crossed it's working ok so far.

Tut tut Katharine - I hope you haven't told them that on the day you were pursueded by a complete stranger you'd just met, to get into a car to go a nature reserve for a "picnic".

Shadow

And you took 3 strangers to the same picnic! Much appreciated.

shadow wrote:Tut tut Katharine - I hope you haven't told them that on the day you were pursueded by a complete stranger you'd just met, to get into a car to go a nature reserve for a "picnic".

Yes, it was rather a case of 'do as I say, not as I do'

They were also rather horrified that I went into the carpark with a complete stranger to look at his Eileen Soper Nature Plates.

I suspect that if my mother hadn't accompanied me on the weekend, they might not have let me go away at all.

     I'm about to leave for now - but I might ask this: about the advice to let children use computers only in areas where adults can see the screen - what if a child resists this, and tries to insist on their right to privacy? It may not mean they're doing anything wrong, but that they just like privacy. I had a strong sense of privacy as a child, and would have hated feeling scrutinized, even if I was doing something completely innocent. In fact, I would have kicked up a right fuss, if it had been an issue there, and it may have developed into a major fight with my parents.
     What about that? Does the child just get told, "Too bad - you can't have privacy". And what if the child really makes an issue out of it?

Regards, Michael.

The Internet, DVDs, mobile phones, home computing, video games never existed in the 70's during my childhood. The height of technology was two tin cans tied together with string as a walkie talkie.
"stranger danger" was never drilled into us in the small Cotswold village where I lived and unlike today's heavily chaperoned children we played outside from sunrise to sunset, only retiring home for meals or bedtime. Inspired by Blyton's FF we formed secret societies, climbed trees, tramped across fields, rode our chopper bikes everywhere in an exhilarating quest for adventure, a sense that time was everlasting, an incredible yearning.
Now as an adult, life's a serious of petty frustrations, thwarted ambitions, money worries, relationship troubles.
Rereading Blyton is like discovering a hidden secret cave of the imagination where once I was young and free.
Hope this makes kinda sense.

Tony Summerfield wrote:We don't have any nasty people in these forums, Michael! :lol:

     Well, I certainly hope we don't; and I haven't found any so far. But I was just thinking of the known fact that predators do sometimes infiltrate places where children are (both physically and virtually) and masquerade as a genuine member to try to gain contact with them.
     I sincerely hope that never happens here.

Regards, Michael.

Michael, on the subject of children and privacy, it's not really been an issue with us. When we first got a computer the children were quite young and would have needed our help to use it. The only really practical place to put it was a communal area so that we all had easy access to it.

For financial reasons it hasn't been possible for them to have a computer of their own in their rooms, we just don't spend that kind of sum on them for Christmas or birthday. My eldest is 17, and for a while had a part-time job, if she was still earning and wanted to save up for a lap top of her own then I would accept that if she is old enough to buy something like that, then hopefully she is mature enough to use it responsibly.

I agree that children should have a certain degree of privacy, but fortunately for us it's never really been an issue where the computer is concerned. I don't stand over their shoulders reading everything they post on Facebook, after all, I can't monitor their conversations when they are at school. However the computer lists the history of web sites looked up, so they know that we can check from time to time to make sure they haven't looked up anything unsuitable. I don't monitor their mobile phone texts either, so they do have quite a bit of privacy and we respect that.

I've just thought, this privacy thing works two ways, there's nothing to stop them reading all my posts on here.

lwindrush wrote:Rereading Blyton is like discovering a hidden secret cave of the imagination where once I was young and free. Hope this makes kinda sense.

I used to go out on my bike and nobody knew where I was or where I was going. Even I didn't know where I was going half the time. I knew where I was of course, but I had no idea where I wanted to go, just made up my mind as I went along. I had no identification on me, no money, and nobody was ever worried.

It's so sad now that kids can't play out on the street and ride their bikes around town. Those that do are more often than not from the council estates, up to no good and their bikes are stolen. It's very sad.

Reading the Famous Five etc growing up, they were free to go off on their own, miles from home, camping and hiking, and even though they always had adventures, nobody ever stopped them from going off again when the holidays came around.

Although these days kids can watch adventures on DVD and see more vivid versions of stories, it was in reading Enid's books that my imagination kicked in, and I visualised Kirrin and all the other places that they visited in my head. There is definitely something to be said for reading adventure stories and stimulating the imagination.

Katharine wrote:Michael, on the subject of children and privacy, it's not really been an issue with us. When we first got a computer the children were quite young and would have needed our help to use it. The only really practical place to put it was a communal area so that we all had easy access to it.

For financial reasons it hasn't been possible for them to have a computer of their own in their rooms, we just don't spend that kind of sum on them for Christmas or birthday...

I agree that children should have a certain degree of privacy, but fortunately for us it's never really been an issue where the computer is concerned...

I've just thought, this privacy thing works two ways, there's nothing to stop them reading all my posts on here.

My experience is almost identical to yours, Katharine. Our computer is also in a communal area (the living-room), so the person using it doesn't have total privacy. For example, I might be on it and my daughter will come over and talk to me and can see what I'm doing. But I'm not secretive about my interest in Enid Blyton/children's authors and other than this website I'm most likely to be emailing friends or relatives, reading an online newspaper or buying something we need as a family from a website, so I don't mind anyone seeing. We don't deliberately come and read over one another's shoulders but we do glance at the screen, so I can keep an eye on what my children are up to on the computer without monitoring their every move.

My daughter has a mobile phone but it's not one that connects to the internet, though she can take photos. As for mine, it's a basic model and I can't do anything on it except phone and text.

Anita
"it's a basic model and I can't do anything on it except phone"

My phone has a compass, so when I make a call I know what direction I'm facing.


Sorry it's an old joke