The Internet and social networking have brought about marvelous and wonderful changes in our lives, but it also has brought out the very worst of our society’s cruds.

A local family has found that out the hard way.

Their 17-year-old daughter’s name turned up on a pornographic website last year.

You can read their story here.

Her name was placed with a bogus picture that bore a slight resemblance to her were placed there by another young person who we doubt had the slightest idea the nightmare he would be causing for this girl and her parents.

In this case, the young lady had loving and caring parents who have monitored her social sites, and yet she still fell victim to this indignity.

Social networking has allowed perverts to come out of their dark holes and to terrorize young and old in anonymity.

We can only imagine how many children are in our community whose parents don’t take the time to monitor their child’s social networking activities are suffering in fear right now because they’ve been victimized in a similar fashion.

We have no doubt that some of these children have not even told their parents about this.

Dealing with our access to the Internet and social networking presents a dilemma for us all. If we push for government controls, we put ourselves in danger of losing our First Amendment rights.

This is a debate that all of us need to be a part of.

In the meantime, local teen Kelsey Upton and her family have shown remarkable courage in coming forward to share their hurt and fears. We owe them a lot.

If you don’t know what activities your child is participating in, please take time and find out.

And if what you’re looking at and receiving online looks strange to you, turn it off, change your child’s passwords, and do whatever you have to do to keep your child safe and secure.