Are you nicer than a fifth grader?

My 10 year old son has a Youtube account.

Technically he isn’t old enough to have one but he does anyway so shut it. We have his password and try to monitor what he’s doing on there.

(Except for the time that I caught him and his BFF, The Hood, watching Eminem videos.)

The other day The Toaster Oven (my husband if you’re new here) was lurking over Z’s shoulder and noticed that he was leaving a nasty comment on someone’s video.

Now, you have to realize that my son is 10 going on 25 and he has a very snappy, sarcastic personality.

(I don’t know where that came from. Ahem.)

“DAD! It doesn’t matter what I say. These people don’t *know* me,” he insisted.

“Z., that’s not the point. You can’t say whatever you want just because it’s the internet,” The TO countered.

“What’s going to happen? They don’t know where I live!” Z continued.

At this point my normally docile Toaster Oven was getting riled up. “Would you say mean things like that to their faces?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Would you say those kinds of things to your friends?”

“NO!”

“Would you say those kinds of things to your teachers at school or church?”

“Of course not.”

“Then you can’t say them on the internet. You need to ask yourself those questions before you leave a response. And if you don’t stop it your account is being suspended – BY ME.” The TO scurried off to take his anxiety medicine (aka imported beer).

And those questions, friends, are what we should consider before responding to social media posts. It’s  common courtesy, people. Even a sassy fifth grader can understand it.