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Parents today have responsibilities in both the real world and the virtual world, Kane County Regional Office of Education Director Phil Morris told the Elgin Academy community Tuesday.
Security settings and parental involvement are especially important in the virtual world, Morris urged. "Check your child's e- mail account on a regular basis. You're the parent; you can do that."
While social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Xanga can be hot-spots for sexual predators, "not everything about these sites is bad," Morris said, noting some of the most up-to-date information after the NIU shootings was found on Facebook.
"Good things do occur, but we need to make sure we're monitoring them," he said.
Morris urged the group to keep home computers in plain sight, to outline their expectations and review communications regularly with their children.
"We want to build that level of communication with their kids," he said. "If they're talking to someone they shouldn't, we want them to be able to come to us. A child should be able to listen to a parent more than a predator."
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