Thursday, January 26, 2006

Social Media Safety

Recently it seems like I'm Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Just about every day I find myself having the same discussion about the potential dangers of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

And the media--from Dr. Phil to Dateline NBC--have been full of stories urging parents to log on and see what their children are sharing on their blogs and social networking profiles.

According to a 2005 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 96% of 8 to 18 year olds are online. Even more shocking, although not surprising, the Kaiser study reported that 31% of respondents admit lying about their age in order to visit, register, or participate in a social networking community. And a 2005 Pew Internet study found that 57% of teens use social software to create and publish their own content.

Now even though they are the most web savvy generation ever, they are still teenagers who haven't learned how to negotiate relationships with people they know, let alone people in cyberspace.

I don’t have the solution, but I do know that all of us--parents, teachers, and educators--need to take a rational, measured approach on the issue.

At the same time, we need work on educating students to be more aware of the potential hazards and implications of disclosing too much personal information on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.


Social Media Safety Resources

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Posted by Derek Baird

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