Christ Cartoon

I seated a child on computer in the library today and scanned the surrounding screens for mischief, as I always do. A ten year old boy was looking at a game in which the object was to crucify Jesus. A colorful cartoon of Christ on the cross was labled with instructions on how to pound the spikes.

Someone designed that game. Perhaps it was done in retribution for the insulting cartoons of Muhammed that were around a few months ago. Meanness for meaness. Maybe it's because of the war. Still meaness and it makes my heart ache.

I've had to take kids off sites that were vulgar. "But it's a commercial--it's funny, see?" This from a sweet little girl watching a man leap out of bed dressed only in his shorts. It was relatively inoffensive, but the fact that a woman was in bed with him had set my alarms off. I've seen little boys line up behind girls who were playing on paper doll sites where the dolls were life-like and dressed in bras and panties.

I once took a teenager off a game with such exquistite graphics of a small convenience store I first thought it was a video. Every item on the counter and shelves behind the clerk was clear and identifiable. The problem arose at checkout time when the customer shot the elderly clerk straight in the face with a gun.

We have My Space locked out on juvenile computers. Kids aren't happy about it but older ones just go upstairs and log onto adult computers where it's available. Several of my teens and twenties friends have great blogs on My Space, but they also have the maturity to know what to put in those blogs. Unfortunately, adults with ulterior motives trawl looking for pictures and personal information on young kids too innocent to realize they're putting themselves in jeopardy. It's also an easy way to pass on drug information.

So if your kids play games on computers, check to see if they're driving tanks through desert towns and blowing up civilians (yep, seen that one, too.) Do they have a blog on My Space? Are they old enough? Have you spoken to them about the dangers? Don't just read their blog, see who they're linked to. Do you like their choice of friends and subject material or does it require some input from you? Does you son say he looks at funny stuff? You might want to give that a gander and see if his idea of funny includes bashing minorities or if this is where he's getting his sex-ed.

If the screen is off, but the computer light is on and your child is "doing" homework, check. Look at the bottom of the screen to see if the buttons listed are as innocent as the homework screen. One more thing. IM messages can take up all your kid's time. Do you know if they have that program? Do you know who they message. Work, huh?