Talk:Hickory metro area

Dear readers, When I was young, my closest buddy was a 3 mile walk. I was safe with my walk, the only means of communicating outside the home was to write a letter, I would walk 5 miles to watch Gun Smoke and wrestling on the only TV in our community. I was never scared walking home at night unless old man Worley's bull was out. Today, it's a completely different landscape because of the Internet. Like it or not, our children are growing up in a cyber world and the threats to them are growing at a high rate. You can't help but hear or read about crimes against children through cyberspace. And though my children are all grown, you can believe I'm already starting to prepare as a grand parent to not only educate myself about these cyber threats, but also ingrain in all youth not only the awareness of drugs and alcohol but also the dangers of being online.

With all this said, THL (www.hickorylocator.com)recently launched a special Living with Technology feature: Keep your kids safe online. THL's commitment to youth guide explores the threats and explains how to help your children safely surf. It also brings front and center the awareness that parents, parents-to-be, and grandparents need to protect the innocence of youth from the online threats. This guide is extremely helpful, but nevertheless I'd like take it to the community level where parents, grandparents, or parents-to-be can discuss and share the methods and strategies in place (through software monitoring and controls or parental guidance and supervision) to keep our kids safe online and ensure that they do not fall victim to Net predators, online bullies, and so forth.

Living in a safe place like Catawba County might cause us to drop our guard. It just takes once and that can and may happen in Hickory, but all you have to do is sign into the sheriff's dep't and view the sex offenders living near you. I tell you, if you have never visited this site then you are in for a shock. [Link] http://www.watchsystems.com/nc/catawba/

If you've ever had a frightening experience or a close call regarding your kids being online victims, please share those with us, so that we all can get a glimpse of how real this problem is. The more knowledge that parents can share among one another, the better we will all be at protecting our children online.

To My Young readers: If you have a problem and have nowhere to turn to for help feel free to contact me and I will personally assist you in getting professionally trained personnel to solve your problem. Billy E. Cole aka: Gentleman Jim editor, hickorylocator.com