You've got Chain Gang Mail
My daughters have had email addresses since they were each about eight or nine years of age. I never really worried or thought anything negative about allowing them that privilege. They were permitted to use it to email their grandparents and close friends. I maintained access to their email account but never felt the need to monitor it. Now that they are in middle and high school, it has become a way of connecting with classmates about homework, sharing funny stories, but also the dreaded chain mail.
I was just informed by another parent who monitors their son's account about a particular chain mail going around. This one in particular has a long distribution list of mostly 6th grade students. The profanity, racial slurring and anger in them is alarming. My question is, what do you do in a situation where you feel the anger of the children in this series of replies is more than just nervy profanity hidden in the safety of an email? Could this explode into something worse? And how can children, who just transitioned out of elementary school, be so cruel? I think given time, children can all be as cruel as depicted in the book, "The Lord of the Flies".
Is the stage when children transition to teens the time when anger can manifest itself into something worse than hurt feelings?
More importantly, I am at a loss for figuring out the right thing to do. It could be just a simple case of email rage, like road rage. But at what point do you intervene and get the parents of the "mean" kids involved? And why aren't they already aware of this anger, this email rage? My child is not directly involved in this email. She's only being copied as are about forty other children. If we don't do anything it may simply be deleted not just from the intray, but from the memories of these children. You don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill, or an accusation out of a chain mail. What would you do?
When Tina is not reading email, she is busy with her passion taking photographs and working on improving her blogging skills. You can read about her businesses with her biz partner Kristina on www.picturethisfundraising.com and www.case-rust-photography.blogspot.com. Their parenting blog is at www.parentgrapevine.blogspot.com and their shopping and product review site is www.gotogals.blogspot.com.
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