<!–

–><!–

–>

What We Need To Know | Resources

All Stories

<!–

–>

Comment

Print this Story | E-Mail this Story

<!–a href="#" target="_blank"></a–>

Does your kid hang out in cyberspace? Literally hundreds of thousands of people, many of them minors, are signing up daily – to take part in social networking websites.

But while these sites are exploding in popularity, they also have the potential to get kids in trouble.

Websites like Myspace, Live Journal and Xanga are places where any teen can have a profile – a place to post their name, picture, and the details of their lives.

“You feel like you are sharing your thoughts and feelings with people that you don’t even know,” says 22-year-old Virginia Miller. “There’s something that is kind of cool about that.”

“Its like a journal,” says 17-year-old Shasta Moon, “and you sit there and you write about your innermost feelings – and everybody reads about your innermost feelings. It’s kind of embarrassing, but yet it’s fun.”

On these “blogs” – or web logs – some teens post gossip, profanity, or pictures of themselves wearing sexy clothes.

“People incriminate themselves all the time,” adds college student Marc Testman. “You’ll see people talking about how much they were drinking last night, what kind of drugs they were doing.”

Students have been suspended for posting threats against other students – or pictures of themselves getting drunk or high.

“If you are dumb enough to brag about illegal activity that you do on your blog,” says 23-year-old Matt McWilliams, “then you have to face the repercussions.”

Experts say some teachers, employers, and college admissions personnel are now searching blogs, to learn more about a student – which is news to Shasta Moon.

“Oh! I never thought about that!” she says.

So how do you know if your child has a blog? Experts say the first thing to do, is ask them.

“Maybe ask to see, you know, if their friends have websites or blog sites or have profiles up on Myspace,” says Liza Barry-Kessler, a senior project manager for parental control at Earthlink. “You can kind of ease into the conversation.”

Barry-Kessler suggests that if you do find embarrassing content, help your kids think through the possible consequences.

“And then you can actually establish rules together, like, ‘Here’s why we don’t want you to do this,’ “ she says. “And once you do establish those rules together, enforcing them.”

Law enforcement agencies warn that criminals and sexual predators are also using these social networking websites – looking for potential victims.

What We Need To Know

• Children under age 14 should not have a blog. (Parry Aftab, Cybercrime Lawyer, Wired Safety)




• Kids should not include any information in their blog that would allow someone to identify them. Try using nicknames or initials instead of real names. Avoid using your picture. Also, do not disclose the name of your city, school, or sports team. (Harold Phipps, Computer Forensics Investigator, The Norcross Group)




• Parents can use tools like Google’s “Blog Search” to determine if their child has a blog. Search for the names of your child’s friends, school, and sports teams. (Liza Barry-Kessler, Senior Project Manager of Parental Control, EarthLink)




• If you do discover your child is talking about sex, drugs or alcohol online, don’t overreact. It’s possible your child is lying to impress their friends. Instead, engage your child in a conversation to determine the situation and help them think through the possible consequences. (Liza Barry-Kessler, EarthLink)




• Realize parents are not invading their child’s privacy by reading blogs. The information is public, and available to anyone with Internet access. (Liza Barry-Kessler, Earthlink)




• Report any unwanted sexual messages to law enforcement – and to the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children (Joe Rosen, Former FBI Investigator)

Resources

• Wired Safety, an online safety, education and help group




• Pew Internet and American Life Project (Teen Content Creators and Consumers)




• Federal Bureau of Investigation (Innocent Images National Initiative)

Top ˆ