So, we’ve talked a little about social media, Myspace in particular, and your teens here before, and I realize that not everyone has the kind of relationship with their teenagers (or tweens) that I do, and are a bit uncomfortable with opening up the discussions on how to be safe while online with your kids. No judgment here, it is what it is! Sometimes those little mini-clone buggers of ours can be near impossible to talk to, what with the rolling of the eyes and the “OH MAH GAWD MOM!” and “I KNOW ALREADY” and such that they tend to pop off with – sometimes ya feel you need a suit of armor just to find out what they might like for dinner. It’s ok, I’m there with ya.

Knowing this, when Ami hit me up and asked if I’d do an article on their site, NSTeens.org, I agreed at once. And then waited a couple days until after the finale of Big Brother because omg so much work and also GO RENEGADES! – but hey! I’m here now! (grin)

Anyway, NSTeens is a valuable site that will help open up those conversations with fun, colorful cartoons and good sense, giving you the opening through the piercing ‘I hate everything you stand for’ glare, when talking to your tween and teens about how much information is too much, and how to ensure that they are safe online. NSTeens also covers the issue of Cyber-bullying, which is on the rise, because threatening or bullying someone in 156 characters or less makes you the Big Idiot On Campus.

So check out NSTeens, on your own, and then most certainly with your tween/teenager! We all know common sense isn’t all that common when it comes to our kids, so why not use everything available to help them think before they post something possibly damaging?

That’s what I figured – so check it out today!

*Images Provided by the NetSmartz Workshop at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, www.NSTeens.org.