Sims.xxx

Notes taken by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC.

Also featured on WBTV's Protecting Your Cyberturf with Kristen Miranda and Theresa Payton, in episode airing November 3, 2011

We have told you before to monitor what your kids do online. We have even encouraged you to wait as long as possible before letting them have a Facebook profile. Now add this to your list - a game could be encouraging your kids to have cybersex. We have probably stooped to a new all time low on the internet. The Facebook game, Sims, actually rewards players when they engage in cybersex. Cyber Expert, Theresa Payton, explains how this works.

HOW IT WORKS:

• Sims Social encourages you to build romantic relationships to any of your connections within their game.
• The more you play Sims Social by taking care of your neighborhood, the higher rating your profile has. That alone might be okay but there’s a disgusting twist.
• In addition to the more mundane activities of life, the more you “advance” your relationship on the game, which can include cybersex, the more e-currency and rewards you receive on your Sims Social account.

WHY THIS CONCERNS US:

• It is estimated that there is a large population of Facebook users under the age of 18 - recent estimates say it could be as high as 9 million US Facebook users are between 13-18 and that assumes they all told the truth about their age!
• Kids on Facebook admit that they friend people they don’t actually know
• It can potentially damage your kid’s reputation forever with friends, loved ones, potential job searches, and college applications
• It condones this behavior as socially acceptable
• It opens children up to sexual predators

WORD OF THE WEEK:
TEXT BOMBING: This is something that you don’t want to have happen to you! It’s when someone sends the same text message repeatedly to the same smart phone and eventually overloads the phone.