New York - Several online social websites have become very popular during the past several years — especially for teenagers, who use them for their private life. It has been noticed that many teenagers use social networking websites such as MySpace or FaceBook, as an example, to post very personal and sometimes even intimate information.
Adult users know well, that all the information posted online even on social networking websites will be then accessible by their future employers, colleagues and friends, and think well before putting something online. Teens have not come to that yet, and often face this problem, when their prospective employers can find out about their sexual life.
Over 90% of American teenagers have internet access and are able to use it daily. Over half of them are using social networking websites, for example, FaceBook has over 200 million profiles, and over one quarter of them belong to teenagers, who are under 18 years old.
Dr. Megan A. Moreno is a researcher of public networking websites. When they conducted a research, studying MySpace profiles of 18-year olds, they found out that over half of the profiles contained personal risk-behavior information, like that related to sex, alcohol, sometimes drugs and violence:
54% had information on risky behaviors
24% referencing sexual behaviors
41% referring to substance abuse
14% posting violent information.
Trying to fix this problem and to warm teenagers about possible information disclosure, Dr. Megan A. Moreno created a personal MySpace profile and sent out warning message to the users, who had risk behavior information in their personal profiles. And several months later they found out that almost half of the pages were changed. Survey results showed that after receiving a message from Doctor Moreno, most of the teenagers are now thinking a lot more before posting something on the internet.
Maybe its a solution for parents to simply forbid their kids to use such social networking websites. There are some really good features of these social websites. They allow teenagers to find friends and to socialize better and find people with the same interests. But most people under 18 don’t realize that their profiles online are there and will stay. Most of them are not really thinking ahead and planning that far in their future. Dr. Moreno came to a conclusion that both children and their parents should be taught to use Internet with responsibility. This is something that children should know from a very young age.
And although some parents think that asking their kids to show their online profiles means violating their privacy, like reading a diary, for example, this is not the case. Diary is actually a lot more private. And online information is on the Internet and its accessible by everyone who wants it. Starting this topic today and talking about it with your children is the best idea to protect them in future.
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hsr0601
People worry about steep food costs and obesity, though, they spend less on ‘back to school ‘ , citing recession. People criticize the car manufacturers for their inferior energy efficiency, while the articles over the future renewable energy and energy- efficient autos can’t be easily found on the the front page. People are concerned about the unhealthy diets, however, they ignore the toxic environments on the internet in the name of freedom. War calls for more substance abuses, internet porns, violences, too much gaming to paralyze the conscience, rationality. Teens, youths are in dire need of their parents’ care and love above food, which lead them to use internet for the sound informations, education, just as the new president mentioned.
Jan 7th, 2009
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