I stumbled across a great story on Syndey's Kid Friendly Blog.  It floored me and really brought home a lot of what our Board has been speaking about regarding education on the issues of child exploitation online.

Here is a quote from Sydney's post.  She is speaking about her 3 and a half year old child.

"Well another mom came over to me and asked if I would be willing to
share my boy's e-mail address as her precious little Johnny wanted to
send a valentine's message to all his friends. How sweet, I replied,
but my little guy doesn't have an e-mail address, you can send it to me
and I'll let him see it, I replied. It was the incredulous and shocked
look on the other mom's face that was the big surprise as I handed over
my business card. And I won't even mention the silly tone of voice that
went along with her suggestion that 'I guess it will just have to do'."

You can read the full story here.

I'm unsure how much of this behavior is unadulterated ignorance to the issues and how much is just a refusal to look at the risks and dangers facing young children online.  Maybe this woman Sydney speaks about carefully monitors every email her child receives, but I can't shake this pit of concern in my stomach...