I HIGHLY recommend that you purchase the amazing downloadable book: The Dirt E-Secrets of an Internet Kid by teen mentor/family trainer/parenting blogger extraordinaire, Vanessa Van Petten (www.onteenstoday.com)

This book is chockful of important information for parents from someone “in the know.” Vanessa is a young adult who is totally hooked into technology (as are virtually all kids in her generation). She covers the 3 “pillars” of technology - IMing, cell phones, and social networking - and she betrays her peers and mentees (!!) by spilling every secret that parents need to know.

Just to give you a taste, here are the TOP THREE EXAMPLES OF INADEQUATE ADVICE that parents get that don’t solve any problems whatsoever, and just serve to lull parents into a FALSE sense of security:

• FALSE: Keep the computer in a public room
• FALSE: Know all of your kids’ passwords
• FALSE: Ask your kids to see their profile and then look at it with them

I know I’m using a lot of capital letters - this is how important I think this book is and how much I support Vanessa.

Really - buy this book!