Is Your Teen Wired?

The places we hung out as teens…the mall, the playground, and the school are rapidly being replaced by virtual spaces and places.  Does your teen have his/her own MySpace and/or Facebook page?  You may be surprised to learn that most do and that it is there that they do most of their social networking.

Anastasia Goodstein, author of “Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Really Do Online” recently spoke in Northern Virginia.  She noted that while adults primarily use the Internet to get work done (buy airline tickets, look up facts and information, etc), teens and tweens use this virtual environment to experiment with self-expression and to socialize with their friends.  Rather than prohibit the use, it is crucial that we better understand the importance of the Internet to today’s youth and the role that it plays in their everyday lives. Ms. Goodstein provided a number of recommendations on how to close the digital divide between parents and teens:

1. Ask your kids where they hang out online: Have them show you favorite sites and games, and help you build a profile or avatar.
2.  Ask about privacy settings: Find out if their profile is public.
3.  Be their guide: Help them evaluate and find credible sources for homework. Wikipedia should not be the be all and end all.
4.  Set limits: Tell them when to turn it off and limit multitasking when studying.
5.  Teach cyber ethics: Talk about plagiarism and cheating and the public nature of the Web.
6.  Keep the computer in a central space until the child is 16 or until trust is established.
7.  Be your child's online "friend."
8.  Know their buddies and insist on going with them to meet online friends.
9.  Encourage them to communicate bad incidents.
10. Talk about appropriate use.