In the good old days – prior to 1990 – parents were often faced with the "sex talk." The sex talk was that parent/child bonding experience that happened around puberty when parents could no longer ignore the fact that their child's body was entering the adult world in spite of their position on the issue.

With the Internet, I'm not so sure the sex talk is needed much anymore. Kids these days seem to know more about sex than any previous generation. They certainly have more access to graphic information on sex and everything else under the sun. And though they have more information access, what's still seems needed is the maturity talk; the use your brain talk; the think smart talk.

It seems like just yesterday, I knew more than my parents and wished they would just leave me alone so I could have my life and not theirs. In hindsight, like most, I see a few places where listening to my parents might have saved me some grief.

Parents in my generation used to warn us about talking to strangers. The suburbs were a happening phenomenon and most of the population was no longer growing up in Mayberry. 

The Internet gives us the freedom to talk to some really strange people and it gives strangers some ways to find out more than they probably should about our children.

This has created a need for a whole new parent/child talk – the Internet Safety talk. ConnectSafely is a resource for helping all of us deal with the issues associated with the Internet, Social Networking and wierdos.