Top 10 Ways to Raise A Safe & Healthy Teen

1. Show love, warmth and interest in your teen
2. Spend time together regularly
3. Share your expectations about risk-taking and other behaviors
4. Set clear rules for safety and guidance
5. Consistently enforce rules with clear consequences
6. Keep track of your teen
7. Ask questions about your teen's activities and whereabouts
8. Prise your teen as often as possible
9. Show respect to hear respect
10. Set a good example, expecially when it comes to substance use

Teens and Technology

Parent Tips:

1. Limit your teen's time spent on line, and put computers in a common area of the house
2. Learn about the digital devices your teen uses
3. Visit your teen's web site or personal blog such as: myspace, facebook, xanga, bego, any hotmail or yahoo email accounts

Statistics

- 56% of teens admit to having more than one email address or screen name that they use when they don't want they buddies or parent to know when they are online. This also allows teens to play with their identity and pretend to be someone they are not.
- 64% of teens say they go to sites their parents would not approve of or chat with friends or strangers about inappropriate topics.
- 1/3 of 13 year old and 1/2 of 16 to 17 year olds report that their parents or guardians know very little or nothing about what they are doing online.
- More than 4600 illegal pharmacies were shut down in 2005 alone that were selling drugs to teens online. These rogue internet pharmacies will sale prescription drugs without a script, proof of age, and some even give out free samples. The drugs ordered arrive in unmarked packages when parents aren't home.
- Tens of thousands of people, including teens, correspond through personal webpages, chat rooms, and blogs that include drugs and drinking, and inappropriate sexual behaviors, infact the average 12 - 17 year old Myspace user spends 26 minutes and views about 81 pages on Myspace daily. Also know that even if you don't have a computer at home, there are cell phone features that allow access to the internet and access to these sites.

Internet Lingo

Emoticons - mixing symbols to express moods which enables teens to communicate with others in just a few key strokes. This is a quick and convenient means of communication teens use to warn their friends when parents or guardians might be around or discuss drug use or inappropriate behaviors in a code that parents can't decipher. Some examples include:

• POS - Parent Over Shoulder
• PIR - Parent In Room
• PAW - Parents Are Watching
• PAL - Parents Are Listening
• KPC - Keep Parents Clueless
• WYCM - Will You Call Me
• ASL - Age, Sex, Location
• MorF - Male or Female
• LMIRL - Lets Meet In Real Life
• WYRN - What's Your Real Name
• 8-# - Death
For a complete list of other phrases and emoticons, click here.