I hear a lot of slightly paranoid voices on the subject of Facebook and young users. And the fact is that sometimes creepy, disgusting people (young and old) do creepy, disgusting stuff – and some of these people have discovered Facebook (and Myspace and all the other online social networks out there).
But…
A recent study – you can read all about it at MEDIA 2.0 – shows that in fact, most online harassment takes place via instant messaging and chat rooms. NOT social networking sites. Also, the VAST majority of youths online never experience harassment of any kind.
So while I would always encourage parents to know what their kids are up to online, I would stress just as much that it’s important to know what they’re up to offline, as online presence is a reflection of offline presence. And maybe try and ease up on the paranoia, just because the medium is new to you, huh? the kids are natives when it comes to the web. They’ll absolutely figure out how to handle themselves there.
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