We was brung up proper !!

After my post the other day ‘Are we protecting our kids the right way’ a friend sent me this reminder of what life was like when we were kids …. hope it makes you smile as well !

WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER!!”And we never had a whole Mars bar until 1993″!!!
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930’s 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s !

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonald’s , KFC, Subway or Nandos.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn’t open on the weekends, somehow we didn’t starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy  Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because…….

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY,

no video/dvd  films, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
Lawsuits from these accidents.

Only girls had pierced ears!

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time…

We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays,

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Mum didn’t have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT  

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully’s always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!

Our parents didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like ‘Kiora’ and ‘Blade’ and ‘Ridge’ and ‘Vanilla’

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL !

You might want to forward this on to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Are we protecting children the right way?

On my way down from Leeds yesterday I was listening to an article in the news about how children are not having the same kind of freedom we had when we were young (by ‘we’ I mean any of us who are able to remember when playground games consisted of ‘stuck in the mud’ and ‘Chinese skipping), instead of swapping music and pictures on mobile phones)..

I can remember at the tender age of 12 being allowed to go over the park and hang around with my friends till dusk when the keeper would kick us all out….or walking up to the swimming pool with a bunch of friends and staying there all day and getting the bus back in time for Charlies Angels.

More than anything I can remember those long summer days when you just had to be outside, playing footie, cycling around and not a mobile phone insight – just a promise to be home in time for dinner.

Now a parent of 3 daughters I have faced the same dilemma again and again, how much freedom should I give them? (according to them it’s never enough). We drive the youngest 2 (who are incidentally 13 and 17) everywhere, I wouldn’t dream of letting them walk home alone and heaven forbid if I knew they were just ‘hanging’ around the streets or parks.

With constant news stories of children being abducted, attacked or abused we are protecting our children to such a degree we are taking away their childhood. However…..

We seem to have no qualms whatsoever in letting them loose to a whole wide world of dangerous content. We let them chat to ‘friends’ some of whom they have never met but think they know, purely because another ‘friend’ introduced them.

We allow them to publish where they go to school, where they are meeting their friends on Saturday, personal information that if read by a stranger could easily be used to build up a profile of our child’s habits and movements.

I can remember whenever anything slightly provocative came on the TV my Mother would immediately get up and turn it over (to my Father’s disappointment)… however we allow them to have full access to internet content and internet content is totally uncensored. Because of this, children surfing the Web can be exposed to sexual, malicious, racist and violent content in e-mail messages, chats and social networking areas.

IMJack are dedicated to providing a safe and secure enviroment where children can still communicate online but without all the dangers of unregulated sites. Read IMJack’s Ten Tips on how children can stay safe on the internet, invest in some parental control software where you can monitor and control what a child does or doesn’t have access to.

Where there are younger children in the family don’t allow them to have computers in their room, 1) it makes them very unsocial 2) allows you to make sure they are doing homework and not surfing, chatting, playing games or worse.

Make sure if they are using social networking sites they are regulated and secure, IMJack only allows children to communicate with other children in their secure community, it monitors for key words that could identify bullying and allows them to use today’s web2 technology without all the dangers.

Remember IMSafe~IMJack

Welcome to IMJack’s blog !

Welcome to IMJack’s blog! come and  visit us regularly or subscribe to keep up to date with topical issues in Education and Secure Social Networking.

Social Networking is here to stay and with the whole concept of adding ‘friends of friends’ it means you are opening up yourself to many hidden dangers.  By providing information about yourself through publishing on profiles, blogs, chat rooms, emails or instant messaging you are opening up your world to a whole new circle of friends. However be aware of all times of the dangers this can bring and remember that the people you meet may not always have friendly intentions.

We wanted to put together some simple tips on how kids can stay safe on the internet and social networking sites so take a look at out top ten tips !!

1.  Never give any personal details to anyone you do not know offline personally, this includes phone numbers, school, location, clubs, photos/videos of themselves or friends… any of this information can be used by a complete stranger to help then pretend they know you.
2.  If you use a social networking site take some time to understand the privacy settings, try and keep people in groups so that not everyone has access to your profile
3.  Never open content/attachments unless you know what it is and you trust the person who is sending it….  it could be a virus or an inappropriate picture or video
4.  Just because someone says the know you doesn’t mean they do, only accept friends from someone you know offline or from a trusted source
5. If  a conversation online ever makes you feel uncomfortable then tell someone or ignore/block this person
6.  Never give out your password to anyone unless it’s a parent or a trusted adult like a teacher or carer
7. Don’t make plans to meet any friends online – it could be somebody else using their log in. Always call them with a trusted number and arrange on the phone
8. If someone does start asking lots of questions then be wary of this person , trust your instincts if it makes you feel uncomfortable tell someone.
9. If you are being bullied or feeling threatened by anyone online or you know someone who is,  then always tell a parent or teacher you may prevent someone else from becoming a victim
10. Only post information about yourself you are comfortable with everyone seeing, it could be a parent, teacher or even a prospective employer reading it ! AND REMEMBER       ‘IMSafe    IMJack’