Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley October 8, 2006 No Small Towns Online “My parents don’t have a clue. They think I only have the AOL account.” I was sitting in a College of the Sequoias classroom, where I was taking a Spanish class. During the afternoons, I was teaching English at Fresno State, but in the mornings I was just another student at COS. From my place in a hard plastic seat, I was learning a lot. This student with a laptop was updating his MySpace profile. Actually, he was creating a new profile after his parents had located his previous online profile. His parents had located his old profile because he had used his American Online e-mail address. After seeing a news broadcast, his parents decided to check on their son. “Now, I use one of my Gmail accounts or Hotmail when I create a profile. We all know to use nicks, too.” By obtaining numerous free e-mail accounts and using nicknames online, students of all ages are hiding from their parents. I’m sure this yo...
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