Txtn gap can b a dangerous 1

Whenever I need to get a hold of someone in my husband's large, perpetually-on-the-go family, I always go to the same source.

Pat's 15-year-old brother Keegan always has his cell phone turned on, and by his side.

The master-texter sends multimedia messages at rapid speed from any location - caddying on the golf course, from the couch, or a little league game.

Reading my colleague Steve Zalusky's Sunday article about a text-messaging competition at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, I had to LOL. That is, laugh out loud.

Asking tweens how many minutes out of each hour they spent texting, contestant Renee Pedigo, 14, of Oak Park, estimated at times, it could be as much as a half-hour. "It depends if I'm eating or not," she said.

Maybe Keegan's texting gift is not that novel, after all. And maybe, I'm more out of the loop than I thought.

There's a huge gap between technology-savvy kids and the adults looking out for them.

With cyber-bullys and predators lurking out there, parents today have responsibilities in both the real world and the virtual world.

At a seminar I attended earlier this spring, Kane County Regional Office of Education Director Phil Morris told a group of Elgin Academy parents that 58 percent of 130,000 students in grades five through 12 admitted to using the Internet unsafely in 2005. Another 29 percent met face to face with someone they first contacted online.

"Kids are giving out their cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses and class schedules freely," Morris said. "This is very dangerous, and it needs to be monitored."

Morris, whose office is responsible for consulting with area schools on technical safety issues, said "when we were kids, our parents always told us not to talk to strangers. That was drilled into our heads," he said. Now, we have to factor in what happens on cell phones and computers.

Cyberbullying can be more devastating than physical bullying because a sense of self is still developing, Morris said.

"Middle and high school kids like that game where they see how bad they can cut their friends down."

Security settings and parental involvement are especially important in the virtual world, Morris urged.

Morris urged the group to keep home computers in plain sight, to outline their expectations and review communications regularly with their children.

"We want to build that level of communication with their kids," he said. "If they're talking to someone they shouldn't, we want them to be able to come to us. A child should be able to listen to a parent more than a predator."

Congratulations to: Olivia Jean Happel of Elgin who was awarded a $1,000 scholarship by the Elgin Odd Fellows Lodge. Olivia, who graduated in May from Elgin High School, plans to become a Latin teacher. In the fall, she'll attend Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mi., majoring in Latin and the classics. Afterward, she says, she plans to teach Latin at the high school level. Tabula gratulatoria!