Teenagers and the Social Networking Phenomenon

The Internet has made and brought phenomenal changes to our every day lives.  Those of us that are old enough to remember the formation of the Internet and its development can make clear comparisons between life pre-Internet and life with the Internet.  In fact, I personally could not imagine what my life would be like without the Internet.  Not one single day passes without my spending an excessive amount of time online, whether that is for work, to catch up with family or to socialise.

The Internet allows us fast and instant access to the world... literally!  It is packed with information, entertainment, ways to communicate and more recently, ways to socialise and interact with people all over the world.  In the case of young people that reached puberty after the wide use of the Internet, they just do not know life any other way.  The Internet and all that is available through it have always existed for them.  It is as natural to them as television is to us.  They simply take it for granted.

There has been a lot of debate in the media over the issue of children being online, how much supervision they should have online, social networking and the overall dangers that potentially face our children while they are online. Unfortunately some bad things have already happened to children online. Back when chat rooms were popular and before social network web sites were on the scene, there were many instances of adult paedophiles posing as children in order to gain access to and abuse children. This worried parents to no end and many refused to let their children online.

Many social networking web sites are a lot safer than chat rooms were. This is especially true for Facebook, one of the most popular social networking sites after their most recent round of changes where people can now be put into "groups". They have developed effective safeguards which are built into their sites that when utilised, protect children while socializing online. For concerned parents however it is also worth noting that just as there are services such as child locate that let parents track their children offline, there are also programs that do the same online such as K9, Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny, and OpenDNS.

A recent study conducted by Danah Boyd, sought to investigate what young people do when they are online and to discover what their online habits are. Teenagers do many things online just like the rest of us. What Boyd discovered is that when it comes to using social networking web sites teenagers and young people use them, in many ways, to emulate their every day lives. The same or similar social structures that they know and that already exist in the real world are the same ones that they construct and maintain online. Friend lists are usually made up of people that they already know in the real world, and they are interested in socializing with as opposed to strangers. In many ways, they make their online world an extension of their offline world.

The privacy restrictions that are built into social networking sites make it possible for children to share as much information as they want with their friends and with anyone within their social circle.  At the same time, it allows them to block out anyone that they have not given approval to communicate with them.  Profiles can be open for the whole world to see, or closed for a limited number of friends.  When privacy safeguards are used, your children will be just as safe socialising online as they would be playing in the playground at school with their peers.

Your children will most likely continue to socialise online through whatever good web sites and web tools are available, this probably will not change.  Technology will only increase in its complexity.  The important thing that parents can do to safeguard their children is to teach them how to be online safely and responsibly.  Make your children aware of the potential dangers and teach them not only the mechanics of how to protect their privacy but also the importance of doing so.