I recently saw a cute video of a two-year-old child dancing to an Elvis Presley tune. There are quite a few cute videos on this site and what grandmother doesn’t love to see cute infants, so I nosed around a bit. In doing so, a couple of things struck me.

I noticed quite a few videos of infants and toddlers playing with dogs. They’re cute, but I also consider them scary. Why? Because dogs see infants as additions to the family, but not all dogs accept their low position in the family pecking order. Plus, infants can raise a dog’s defensive behaviour if the infant causes pain. Some dogs are very tolerant of this, some are not.

I liked the dancing video, so with a bit of time on my hands, I took a quick look around. Surprise, surprise! Someone was inserting sex videos in the same site as the area about dogs and infants.

It made me stop to consider how much this is happening on YouTube because I send a few funny or nature sites to my grandchildren and was thinking of sending the one about the dancing toddler.

I’m not against sex sites for those who are seeking them, but to place a connection to such sites among topics that might interest children seems underhanded and sneaky.

Am I inadvertently opening their computers up to possible sex sites? I found this whole excursion into YouTube disturbing, raising a high level of distrust about social networks.

What a challenge parents face in today’s digital age.

DONNA MASON

Kamloops