Chat rooms are places on the Internet where you can have live, real-time conversations with many people at the same time. Think of it as a telephone party line — except you type rather than talk. Everyone in the chat room can see what everyone else writes, but you can still be as anonymous as you want.
While chat rooms can be dynamic meeting places for people with similar interests, they can also be cruising grounds for predators trying to make contact with young people. For this reason, young children shouldn’t be in chat rooms — period. Just as we teach young children not to talk to strangers in the street, they shouldn’t be talking with strangers online. When they become older (10-13) they should only participate in monitored kids’ chat rooms, and even then under the close supervision of an adult.
Chat rooms are monitored in several ways. Some sites run software that automatically shuts people out for using inappropriate language, while others use real live monitors. Even in monitored chat rooms, however, there is nothing to stop an adult from joining in and pretending to be a child.
Young teens are particularly vulnerable with regard to chat rooms. They’re exploring their sexuality, moving away from parental control and seeking to establish new relationships outside the family. In the anonymous atmosphere of chat rooms, they feel free to be more open and honest and conversations can quickly become intimate, making them vulnerable to online predators.
Because of this, adolescents should be encouraged to only use monitored teen chat rooms, to protect their personal information when chatting online and to always stay in the chat room’s public area. Most chat rooms offer users the option of going into ‘private’ rooms, or sharing private messages, that no one else can see or monitor.
Classroom lessons and activities:
Internet 101
Web sites | E-mail | Instant messaging | Chat rooms | File-sharing | Text messaging
