IM Misconduct: What Not To Do

Instant Messaging is one of the most popular forms of online communication. While many use IM to chat with known friends, it is also used for anonomous conversation between strangers.

Last month's Mark Foley controversy over IM chats with underage congressionals pages is an important reminder for parents to be aware with whos your child IMs. This AOL article today discusses more about Instant Message misconduct:

When it comes to instant messaging in the workplace, credit former Florida Congressman Mark Foley with being the poster boy for bad judgment.

The recent hoopla surrounding Foley's sexually explicit text communications with teenage congressional pages led to his abrupt resignation. The continuing fallout also threatens to cost his Republican Party the House and Senate majorities following the upcoming mid-term elections.

Foley's case may be an extreme one, but it's hardly the first misuse of instant messaging since the technology hit the workplace in recent years. "The most important thing, whether it's e-mail or instant messaging, is that the technology gives you a chance to communicate before you think," says Rita Kirk, professor of communications at Southern Methodist University.

The recent crop of grads, those born in the early 1980s, aka Generation Y, has marched boldly into the workforce over the past four years. They've brought with them a set of technological tools that makes fax machines, voice mail and spreadsheet software look positively quaint. They've grown up with scanning, text messaging and Googling, and they're not about to stop once they've hit the working world.

Safekeeper provides daily reports of your kid's IM activities on your home computer.