Messengers: How young is too young?

I came across an article in Today's Parent about Messaging. The article entitled "Mini Messengers" by Randi Chapnik Myers debates how young is too young for kids to become instant-messengers. In the article, there are some startling statistics that show just how soon kids are getting onto computers these days.

Here are two that fascinated me:

-In 2000, only six percent of children aged two to five years were online. By 2002, that figure soared to a whopping 35 percent and continues to rise.

Imagine that ... in only two years - the statistic jumped 29 percent and that last figure came from 2002 so imagine how high it would be now.

-In a study of six to 19 year olds, even after training, the younger kids had a lower level of Internet safety knowledge than the older kids.

Thankfully, there is some hope out there for parents of these kids. The article goes onto to talk about safeguarding younger kids from the hazards of Messenger services. They say there are tips to make MSN messenger safer for students too. One way, is to block dirty words. There are other suggestions for teachers or parents at the following website:

Visit da.co.la.ca.us/pok
This particular site also has information on blogs and kids too.

Anastasia Rioux