:Connecting the Dots

The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently released the results of a survey in which they examined how teens are using social networking sites like mySpace and Facebook. The findings may actually take some of the air out of the hysteria surrounding these sites: the least common uses were flirting (17% of respondents) and making new friends (49% of respondents) while the most common was staying in touch with “offline” friends (91%). More importantly, 66% of the group who had online profiles said that they control who has access to their information. Perhaps our students are not as naïve and unguarded as we think. Overall, the study paints a picture of older kids using technology tools to plan and communicate with known friends from the real world. The entire report can be found at:

Social Networking Sites and Teens: An Overview

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“The things you put on mySpace can come back to haunt you later in life when you are applying to college or looking for a job.” Many a school administrator, parent, teacher, and/or internet safety expert has uttered these words to groups of kids who generally receive the warning with varying levels of disinterest, fear, or shrugging shoulders.

Now, an internet startup has launched Reputation Defender, which promises to seek out and potentially erase our little lapses of judgment hanging out in the dark corners of the internet. This Wired News story examines the new site at length. What interests me is the “My Child” area, where parents can pay to have their child’s online presence monitored month-to-month. Obviously, parents want to protect their children but is it me, or is this also giving technophobic parents a way to spy on their kids? Dad can’t Google and Mom doesn’t have a Facebook account, so they pay someone else to keep an eye on their children in cyberspace. Convenient, but whatever happened to just talking to your kids?

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