While all children could benefit from supervised computer usage, it is especially important when you have children with emotional, developmental, and learning disabilities. Julie, my blog-mate, and I have children with poor decision making skills, examples of which, we frequently share with you all.

Just imagine then, what easy prey they could be for a pedophile or other sex offender surfing the internet. It didn’t really hit home for me until today when I read an article in our local hometown newspaper. The Attorney general for Michigan told the newspaper that about 200 individuals whose names matched the Michigan Sex Offender Registry had MySpace profiles. That’s just in Michigan people; there are states with much larger populations and states that seem to “attract” certain types of criminals.

MySpace is all the rage if you are anywhere between a young adult and a preteen. When I was in Texas for 11 days, awaiting interstate approval to bring our new daughter home, I frequented the internet café located in the hospital cafeteria to talk to my friends and family back home. I would usually have to wait in line, while employees checked their MySpace pages during every fifteen-minute break. I got to know some of them quite well.

Our own adult children have MySpace pages. In fact, our eighteen-year-old daughter, the one who left angry nearly a year ago, has a MySpace that really worries me. You see, the teens pass around surveys, fill them out, and then post the survey with the answers on their MySpace page. That is exactly what she did, so her MySpace has her age, where she goes to college, where she works, and what kind of car she drives.

If you’ve adopted a child that wasn’t a newborn, than you may be familiar with some of the attachment issues that come up. These children may be indiscriminately seeking affection and approval from wherever and whomever they can find willing to give it. Others just don’t have the common sense to realize that they are putting themselves at great personal risk.

As parents, we tell our children of the dangers that exist on the internet, but with some special needs, like FAS, they may not remember from one day to the next. What can we do to protect them, not only now, but after they turn 18?


Gullible’s Travel’s – Living with FAS
Hoarding can be a Sign of Childhood Depression
How to Get Your Older Adopted Child to Talk to You
When an Adopted Older Child Leaves Home Angry

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