Taken from metaquotes

[conuly]

I'm not agreeing with a lot of the commentors here. Yes, every half an hour is often. But! This kid is thirteen. It's not like she's four, five years older and still being treated like a little kid.

When I was thirteen, I could, if I checked with my mom, go into Manhattan, visit the bookstore by myself. (Or go elsewhere, I suppose, though I never wanted to). I had to call before I left the house, call or drop by when I got into Manhattan, call when I got where I was going - and check in every 45 minutes or so. On a payphone.

I didn't always, since this involved having enough quarters and being able to realize how much time had passed, but I was expected to make some sort of good-faith effort to follow these simple, simple rules.

Because I didn't want my mother to think I'd been kidnapped and killed, that's why. It's just not that big a deal.

Comments

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Fucking hell! 4 deaths in 3 years! BANTEHINTERWEB!

I looked up the town mentioned. It has a population of 7644. Reported crime in the area for 2003:

Murder and non-negligent man-slaughter: 0
Forcible rape: 0
Robbery: 1
Aggravated assault: 2
Violent crime events per 100,000 people: 39

Burglary: 14
Larceny-theft: 42
Motor vehicle theft: 8
Arson: 0
Property crime events per 100,000 people: 833

I was online unsupervised at 13. I even had a craptacular little Geocities page. I haven't been stalked/assaulted/raped/seduced/anythinged. Of course, I knew not to give personal details out (I was wary even using my first name.) In fact in over 6 years of internetness the only creepy encounter I've ever had was someone contacting me randomly over AOL when I was 15 or 16. I responded as cautiously as always in that situation, gave my location no more specific than "the East Midlands" and the second he said "what a coincidence, I'm going to be in the area this weekend, want to meet up?" I reported him to AOL and blocked him.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Actually the internet was source of more trouble for me than real people -- I had someone who worked for a certain ISP, large international one, get my addy and then show up on my doorstep. I was -- it wasn't good, and there was nothing I could do, he left the country after attacking me.

And worse, my name got dragged thru the mud, for trying to 'destroy' him. It's awful.

And I was in my 20s when it happened!

My daughter is supervised online, and there is a lot of bullying going on there, a kid who already bugs her a bit really intensified it online but I opened my mouth to her and told the bully that 'by the way, I read all the logs'.

She started swearing she got hacked. Idiot.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Wow, your experienced sucked. Glad he left the country :0/ But at the same time, a bank employee or a government employee or a medical employee or *anyone* could do that to you. Scary thought really, but it doesn't mean I'll stop my hypothetical kids being registered with my GP or having their own bank accounts.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Well he was from outside the country in the first place -- still, I am more wary of the internet with my kids than them hanging out with their friends, too many vultures from not just that one experience but from experiences of friends -- of course, I've been online since the 80s so I guess it just seems like a lot, to me.