Internet Safety

Research was recently published that showed teens talk about their "risky" behavior (sex, drugs, violence, etc.) pretty openly on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook:

From Washington Post

Well, of course they are.

But why was the big question throughout the article. Here are my thoughts as to the big W:

• As the article stated, your MySpace/Facebook profile is like a diary. It's very personal and tells a lot about you... the big difference is that it's public.
• Many people (teens and adults) feel like there is still a sense of anonymity when posting on their profiles.
• Teens are still trying to push buttons, show off, be the unique one... these are things they are talking to their friends about, and now that their friends are also on these sites, they feel okay stating them online as well.
  
• They feel that it's a place where their parents won't find.

I agree with what many of the doctors said about how parents should approach the issue. We can't stop teens from using these sites (I can barely stop myself from checking my Facebook every hour), so us adults need to be aware of the sites and have conversations about what is appropriate and not appropriate.

Many public libraries have already started having programs about Internet safety, and I know of one local high school librarian who has had many discussions with his students about it as well. ALA has some really good resources to use as well as FTC.

FTC Site
ALA Site -- has some good information on how library employees can talk to customers about the issue
Netsmartz.org
Palo Alto Medical Foundation -- information about chat rooms and email