Only in the part of the Supernatural fandom that ships Sam Winchester and Dean Winchester together (mind, I do have to explain this when I post about it because not all of my readers are fandom-oriented or even know that much about Supernatural… I don’t mind) would being a good parent who monitors their minor children’s Internet usage be a bad thing. This has literally been something that they have complained about on more than one occasion, but especially recently when their behavior made it known that they at least attempt to talk to people’s children online to try and spread the “gospel” of their ship. First of all, I can think of almost no instances where an unrelated adult needs to be talking to a minor online, barring circumstances like that minor’s participation in something like a chat room or a forum that would be modded by…. wait for it, adults. But aside from narrow circumstances like that, I can’t think of any other instances where an unrelated adult needs to be talking to a child online, and the fact that these people want it to be easier to accost people’s children says something about the quality of their “ship” (romantic pairing) within the fandom. (And in the event that I haven’t already mentioned this here, three different people who ship this have made it clear that they would contact my children if given the opportunity to do so. I could have excused one as just plain being a bad person within the fandom, but we’re… uh, we’re working on three.)

My children are fourteen and eleven years old. I do not let the one who can legally use social media have any accounts of his own, particularly ones that would require the use of his legal name. I check my children’s browser histories on their iPad. They are only allowed to use a few apps on it that aren’t games — these are things like YouTube and YouTube Kids… and come to think of it, these are the only two apps that aren’t games that either of them have on their iPads (Monster has one because he’s always been better at taking care of his possessions, and Bub has two because a friend kindly gifted him one in case something happened to his first one). I want to know what my kids are doing online, I do know what they’re doing online, and they do not have a problem with this. Funny how all of that works, isn’t it? They don’t mind at all.

Wincels, as a friend of mine calls them, have also made more of a name for themselves outside of the fandom, which is just… sad. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but people know about the “Sam and Dean shippers”. People in parenting groups that I am a part of know more of what this part of the fandom is capable of, and more and more of them have either decided not to let their children (aged 14-18 since it is a TV-14 show) watch Supernatural, closely monitor their Internet usage to ensure that they are not partaking in any fandom-related activities, or both of those things. They know what “the Sam and Dean shippers” are capable of, and what they do. This is literally a legacy that they are leaving themselves with their behavior. But are us parents who want our children to have safe Internet experiences strict? Are we strict if we curtail our children’s Internet usage because other people on it — sometimes very specific groups of other people — can not be trusted to behave in ethical manners when it comes to children? The answer, of course… is no.