How Young Girls Are Being Over-Sexualized Online: 3 Tips to Help

The Internet is contributing to the over-sexualization of our daughters. Dr. Albert Bandura, a leading psychologist states, “Must human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” Our girls are observing a lot online and not all of it is good. They are young and there is a lot of peer pressure and a huge audience watching. Get up to speed and learn about these risks and the new pressures they are facing.

Here are 3 Top things that you need to know:

1. Realize that our kids are like wet cement, with a web address and one click, our kids are seeing things that leave impressions that can stay for a life time. Everyday FB pages are inundated with young teen age girls posing sexually and making facebook comments that would make a sailor blush!
2. Know that we are letting our kids play in traffic. The information super highways with billboard pages that scream, “Because sex sells, that’s what you have to advertise”. On top of this, kids are giving a thumbs up “like” to these sexual comments and pictures and no one’s watching. It’s so sad to see young girls attempting to behave in this manner, believing that the more sexual they behave the more “grown” they are. Little girls are no longer princess in the eyes of society, now they have become pin ups for people to “Like”…and that is sad and disturbing.
3. Be mindful what your kids’ eyes are seeing. You can’t un-see something. The eyes often referred to as the windows to the soul. Repeated viewing of sexual content on the internet has the risk of corrupting our kids into thinking that this is “normal” and then attempting to follow to the norm and mimic that behavior. Kids are posting and reposting what they have just learned. The difference is, she is 12 years old and the guy who just liked her post is someone else’s child or an adult.

As parents, we need to protect our kids from the psychological harm of oncoming mental traffic as much as we need to protect them the bodily harm of oncoming physical traffic. It just makes sense.


This post is a contributed by Parenting Today’s Kids.  An educational and resourceful website with many informational articles to help you and your kids navigate through today’s technology safely.

Sue Scheff: Teaching Your Kids to say "No Thank You"

As school gets ready open and students will be biking and walking to school parents need to have the discussion with their kids about talking with strangers.

Many kids know already never take rides, candy, gifts, or money from strangers, and let's remind them, it's okay to say "NO THANK YOU."

Love Our Children USA helps educate parents, teachers and kids about staying safe both online and off.  Some great advice from Love our Children USA:
Always report to a police officer, a parent, a teacher or any adult you know if a stranger:

• Wants to play with you.
• Asks you to go with him/her.
• Tries to have a conversation with you, or touch you while you are at the movies, playground, or walking anywhere.
• Offers you a ride, candy, gum, present, or money.
• Always try to get a full description of the stranger.
• If you see a suspicious car, take down the license number with a pencil and paper; write it in the dirt or on the sidewalk with a stick or stone.

Public awareness and advocacy is essential to helping prevent violence against children. You have the opportunity to share information with colleagues, your community and the public at large.

St. John's County Sheriff's Office offers a Community Service Unit for Youths.  Take the time to visit this site and learn more about our local resources.

Love Our Children USA also encourages all communities to take part in Blue Shirt Day!  This is bring about public awareness to bullying, child neglect and harm done to children.  Order today and get your school and community ready for this event in October.

Be an educated parent, you will have safer children.


Watch video about Blue Shirt, be ready for it in 2010.  Read more.

Sue Scheff: Street Proofing your Teens Against Strangers

As part 2 continues in educating our children on how to talk to strangers, The Parent Report offers an excellent segment on Street Proofing your Kids. As mentioned in part one, we can tell our children not to talk to strangers, however it is almost inevitable they will. With this, they need to be educated in how to talk to unknown people, that seem completely innocent.

Telling your children to "never talk to strangers" is only one step in keeping our children safe from sexual predators and child abductors.

As children, how many times were we told to "never talk to strangers"? And how many times have we given our own children the same message? We've all heard the horror stories and because of them we're anxious to street proof our children. But Martha McArthur of the safety program, Block Parents, believes that a pat "never talk to strangers" isn't realistic. Instead, McArthur says "it's important to make your children aware how to interact with strangers. 'Never talk to strangers' just isn't practical because we do find children who get lost and are then afraid to ask for help from a stranger."

McArthur says we should teach our children "that there is a circle of safety, as in a safe distance when talking to strangers. For example if a stranger asks them for directions the child should take a step back, answer them and walk away. If they are afraid, they can turn in the opposite direction and walk quickly away."

As well, it's important to explain to our children that strangers look like normal people, not monsters. And the word stranger should be a little more defined in that a stranger is someone you don't know very well or know at all. In other words, a stranger could be someone you've never met, or an acquaintance of the family who knows you by name.

People who prey on children are very good at getting the interest of a child, so many experts suggest role playing with your child how someone might approach them such as offering candy, asking for help, or if they'd like to come and meet their new puppy. Then you have the opportunity to teach your child to say a firm "no" and to walk away.

If you do role play with your child, keep it matter of fact and calm so as not to overly frighten them, because part of street proofing children is not just pointing out dangers, but teaching them confidence. "That way they're more capable of making a good decision in a bad situation", explains retired staff sergeant, John Andrews. "You want to be able to tell your child about some of the hazards in the world. You want to arm them with the information of things that could happen. You don't want to scare your child. You want to ensure that they'll do the right things. "

Andrews adds that if the worst should happen and "someone is attempting to take your child and grabs them, the child should fall to the ground and start kicking and screaming, to bite if necessary, anything it takes. The child wants to make as much noise and create as much diversion as possible so that other people in the area will want to know what is going on."

Finally, McArthur says one of the best things we can instill in our children is trust in their own instincts. "Children have very good instinct. They should trust that feeling in their gut that tells them if something is safe or not. We describe it as that feeling in your tummy that gives you butterflies if something isn't right."



Be an educated parent, you will have safer children.

Did you miss part 1?Go Back. (Teaching your kids to talk to strangers).