I am reminded once again how glad I am I grew up when I did.
There was no Internet when I was a kid.
Look, I was a numbskull. I did a lot of dumb things. Of course, I can deny all of them now that I am well into 'dad' mode.
Or, as I always used to tell my kids, "Do as I say, not as I did."
The truth is neither my son or daughter caused their mother or I a fraction of the grief I caused my parent.
Or maybe they just didn't tell us.
As for my exploits, I now enjoy total deniability. There is no evidence.
That is not often the case today.
Almost everything we do is captured on video, including some things that once would be considered inconceivable.
Am I the only person who is not posting nude pictures of himself on the Internet?
The latest saga of cyber hijinks comes to us from North Penn High School in Lansdale.
It seems several young men there were posting pictures of nude or semi-nude female classmates on an Internet file-sharing site DropBox.
Now the school is in an uproar, meetings are being held with between the students and principal after a threatened walkout was short-circuited, and police are investigating.
I will offer these kids the same advice I give to every group of students I address.
Be very careful what you do - and post - online.
Privacy? Forget it.
I doubt the girls depicted in some of these photos ever expected to see them show up on the Internet.
That's part of the problem. The Internet is something akin to the Wild, Wild West.
Once something gets posted, it is almost impossible to get back. Take it from someone who makes mistakes online very morning. Thankfully, most of my errors are simple typos.
I guess you could suggest that these kids should not be taking these pictures in the first place. But kids often do dumb things. I know. I was a kid once. A couple of lifetimes ago.
But the Internet has changed everything.
An image you thought you were sharing with your boyfriend or someone else can - with the click of a mouse - be shared with the world.
"Those pictures were supposed to be private," said one 18-year-old high school student.
That's the problem. With the Internet, nothing is really private.
"They did not know it would be posted online for everyone to see."
They do now.
Keep that in mind. If you don't want the world to read it, or see it, don't post it online.
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