The Lesser Known Dangers of Children on the Internet

When you are the parent of a child who is too young to be computer literate, often times the warnings about "beware of letting children on the internet" goes in one ear and out the other.  I mean, I knew there were people on-line that we all need to be worried about.  I just didn't know that those people might be the children themselves on occasion.

Over the past weekend, my 5-year-old son and I went to the lake for a much needed vacation.  While there, we played some on the computer, including www.JibJab.com, which, much to my son's delight, gave us the ability to put use our pictures in videos that made us Star Wars characters.  He spent almost an hour watching a replay of himself blowing up the Death Star.

Unfortunately, JibJab also offers a video that allows you to place yourself in a video with Justin Bieber.

My boy played around with the Bieber video while I was making him dinner this evening, apparently.

And then he clicked another icon he recognized on the screen:  Facebook.

So, when I woke up at 2:00 this morning, and glanced through my iPhone, I noticed that I had some interesting comments regarding my Facebook profile.  It seems that my son had posted on my profile a link to Justin Bieber's JibJab page which read:

"Are you a victim of Bieber fever?  Would you classify yourself as a Belieber?  When you star in Justin Bieber's video for his new movie, you can BE with BIEBER!  What' that sound?  It's all of your dreams coming true at once."

My initial reaction was to be mortified, but then I started laughing so hard that I can't go back to sleep (hence the time of this posting).

After nine and a half years at the District Attorney's office and engaging in practical joke wars with the likes of Robert Summerlin, Steve Shellist, Justin Keiter, Lyn McClellan, and Will Womble, I finally truly get taken out by a 5-year-old.