s/o- teens (long rant- sorry)

Scooter359

I know the whole teens and plastic surgery has been discussed before, but I was watching a clip about it and it mentioned how one girl was called "pelican nose" on facebook, which this with a few other comments caused her to get plastic surgery at 15. In my honest opinion I think that is 100% ridiculous and it makes me mad.  Instead of teaching her to love who she is, they are teaching these kids how to make quick fixes. Everyone gets teased, get over it. In HS I was royalled picked on, and even had someone spray paint on the front wall "Scooter gives good head" and other remarks with my number on it, you could see it from the road and it took them 3 weeks to remove it. Oh no! Scooter was even my nickname in HS that was a joke of "fun to ride just not infront of your friends" but I laugh about it, because heck thats pretty funny. Im not beaten and broken about something so petty and I feel bad that I look down upon these kids who can't take a little teasing, they obiously have deeper issues that people are neglecting and you kinda have to feel sorry for them.

As a parent of a teen will you restrict what web sites your kid can go on, would you want your 15 year old all over facebook/myspace? I don't know how comfortable I would be, considering all the half-naked pictures that are all over the place I just don't find it appropriate. All over the news is "cyber-bullying" and by your kid being on these sites it is opening them up for this, and its going as far as teens commiting suicide. Is this partially the parents fault?  Am I just a cold hearted prude who has no sympothy for others? Maybe I just got lucky that I have the coolest teen stepson ever who doesnt really care about social networking?

Sorry about all that.

Temp108743750006959

that girl might have gotten her nose fixed, but that's just one girl. lots of kids do care, some don't (e.g your cool stepson!) Whether or not a teen is resilient against something like teasing is likely contingent on too many things to really make a blanket statement 'parent's fault', 'teen's fault' or 'bully's fault'.

I don't have a 15 year old yet, but I will likely have to figure out how to balance their right to privacy and their right to my foot up their ass.

DandelionMom

By the time my girls are teens I'm sure there will be something way newer and cooler that fb.  If they want to be on it, I'll research it and most likely agree with some safety measures in place (like I have all passwords, the computer will be located in a central location, etc).  The problem isn't necessarily with the sites but with parents who don't teach their kids to be safe online. 

And for the plastic surgery thing -- I know a 50+ y/o woman who had a nose job when she was in highschool.  I can tell you it wasn't because she was cyber-bullied. 

GrowingFamily

DS#1 will be 15 in July (he is in 8th grade currently).  I monitor his internet usage at home.  We have parental controls in place on the computer, which do the majority of the blocking for me.  He does not and will not have a fb or myspace account for quite some time. We are fortunate in that, to this point, he has expressed no interest in those things, anyways.  IMO, those are just asking for trouble at his age.  I would much rather have him hanging out & shooting hoops with his friends down the block than on the internet, as would he right now.  He pretty much uses it just for homework/ research.