Jun 5, 2008
Positive influence
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Adults walk a fine line in today’s society, as illustrated on the front page of last week’s Advertiser.
Top left, a headline announced the arrest of an Oklahoma man near New Canaan High School, where he waited to meet a girl he met online. In chats, she told police, he said he was a 17-year-old boy. He was actually 31, and the reasons for his trip to meet his friend shake parents to the core.
On the right side of last week’s Page 1, the Youth Adult Partnership Board promoted greater interaction between children and adults, a return to the days when grown-ups visited kids’ lemonade stands, and watched out for their safety from the front porch.
The juxtaposition led at least one to wonder how we could encourage adults to approach kids on one hand, while on the other considering the ever-prevalent threat of potential predators lurking on the Web, and last week on the trails of Waveny Park, where the man awaiting his teen friend was caught.
The answer lies in greater interaction between trustworthy adults who provide positive role models for impressionable children. Ask not only about your sons and daughters, ask about their friends. Get to know them. Pay attention to them. Let them know you care.
Though it sounds very “Pleasantville,” there is something to be said about the return to the 1950s atmosphere in which kids played in the neighborhood, grown-ups watched from porches and everyone felt safe leaving the doors unlocked.
Unfortunately, too many took advantage of an open invitation to prey on others and now everyone locks the door.
However, we grant unfettered access to the heart of the home via the Internet, which when misused connects those who would do harm to the most innocent in touch with potential victims. Often those connections grow stronger when a child feels the need for love, or attention.
But if adults reached out with positive attention, and worked with our youth to make a better world, the connections forged in those efforts would knit together to form a web to safely catch those kids at risk of falling prey to those who offer attention and false promises.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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