"Mom, what's the dark web?" My 12-year old son asked me this question about 2 weeks ago, and I was stunned because in that instant I realized that I wasn't at all prepared to answer his question. My God, he hadn't even asked me that big milestone question that goes something like, mommy where do babies come from? Yeah, OK, he's 12 so he's probably known that answers for years now, but in my mind he's suppose to ask me that question first. "What?" I say to buy myself 2 more seconds to think. "Like Charlotte's Web" and then I cracked a smile. He rolls his eyes, smiles and says, "Ha, ha, very funny." "Do you know about the dark web!?" OMG, he really wants to talk about this now I thought to myself. In hindsight, I should have said, "hey, wanna order cheese pizza?" (segue!) But I decided to plunge right in and simply reply, "do you know what it is?"

So he starts telling me about this article he was reading online about the dark web and all I can think to myself is, I thought he was locked down with parental controls, has he figured out a way to get around this, do I scold him assuming that he's already been on behind our backs, he's just asking a question, I'm so confused, my husband was suppose to be on top of this parental control stuff! I realize that I've been lost in thought for about a minute not even listening to his explanation so I ask him to show me the article on my laptop and as he starts typing away I realize the URL is to a PC Magazine article. What a moron, I think to myself. That moron being me.

I recall hearing about the dark web a couple of years ago when I was visiting my brother, who's known affectionately as Uncle Geek. The conversation started with discussing bitcoin and when I asked him about if he's used it to purchase goods on the Internet he started telling me about how bitcoin is the currency of choice used on networks known as the "dark web" and the "deep web" and something called "Tor."  I was like a little kid that didn't want to get scared by listening to someone talk about the boogie man and as a mom of two young children I just didn't want to hear about the things that allegedly happen where parents are sexually exploiting their own children for profit and all the other disgusting filth that goes on in those dark portal of gore and sin. I think I said something like, "hey wanna order cheese pizza?"

Raising a child in the digital age is a real challenge, especially when children these days are more tech savvy than their parents. I'm thankful that my son has shown a strong interest in cybersecurity the past couple of years. He's one of those nerdy type kids (high functioning Asperger Syndrome ) who's really into making sure rules are followed "to a T", so it brought a sense of comfort to me when I listened to him explaining the PC Magazine article from the perspective of "let's catch the bad guys" and he was telling me how cool it would be to learn the coding to hack into sites that are illegal and harmful to children.

Of course, I realize like any other pubescent teenage boy the time will come, if it hasn't already, when he will maneuver around the parental controls to sneak a peak into the dark side out of curiosity or an attempt to catch the bad guys and could inadvertently get caught into the deep dark web and become someone's next prey.  So I've started bookmarking links to articles to learn more about these underground mesh networks and our household will immediately start having conversations about the importance for our family to keep the lines of communication open when it comes to questions about privacy and security and what it means to be good digital citizens.