The dangers associated with children using the Internet are well-documented in scary news stories about sexual predators posing as teenagers, cyber bullies causing kids to commit suicide, and embarrassing photos ruining reputations and careers.

Many parents and educators have responded by limiting or banning Web access, but that’s a failed strategy for two reasons: 1) the best way to prompt a teen activity is to forbid it, and 2) even cyber skeptics have come to realize the tremendous advantages of the Web for research and communication.

At Josephson Institute, we accept as an irreversible reality that kids will send text and video messages wirelessly and use the Internet extensively – and will do so more and more. Our strategy is to become so proficient in these new technologies that we can harness them in the service of our mission to improve kids’ lives by strengthening their character and decision-making skills.

We invited the CHARACTER COUNTS! community to vote on a name for a new positive website we would create that would be designed by and for kids. They selected www.Mylife24-7.org.*

Now, with the aid of a national cadre of Student Ambassadors, we’re building a place in cyberspace where kids can connect, reflect, and evolve in a safe and positive setting, a place you’ll want your kids to go because they’ll grow.

It will have lots of fun stuff: quotes, jokes, surveys, and contests on everything from videos to songs to T-shirt designs and much more. It will also provide advice to help kids deal with stress, time management, leadership skills, college placement, personal and family traumas, and issues that interest them most.

Check it out!

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

* The MyLife 24-7 project is about preparing and empowering young people to lead the way to a more ethical world by mobilizing them into a sort of “Good for You” movement. Meeting teens on their turf – the Internet – the website is a forum to connect, reflect, and evolve individually and within the global community and to enact real-world change through self-improvement and service to others.