Online Social Networks and Teen Safety
We have all heard stories of evil individuals trolling teen social networking websites in order to prey upon the young and naïve.
These stories as parents horrify us and we want to make sure nothing terrible happens to our kids or loved ones.
It is extremely urgent to bring these issues to the forefront.
As one Harvard Group puts it, there are a number of urban legends, misconceptions and common perceptions of social networks, predators and teens, but then again, with that truth said, also there are issues with identity theft, phishing and other things online.
For instance, a recent story where teens on their blogs were all discussing a retreat trip sponsored in part by the school and which families were going away, dates, times, everything - all those houses were robbed, and it was not by anyone connected in any way with the school itself.
Thus, personal information can be your friend and help make friendly social connections to satisfy your innate needs, but that personal information can be turned against you as well, so, personal responsibility, common sense and a little extra knowledge will go a long way.
It is for this reason that education is needed for teens and anyone who plays around with social networks online.
Of course, this education should be done in such a way that it dispels the myths of online social networks and how the predators and identity thieves use them in order to suck their prey in.
Without legitimate education, based in reality, we will end up scaring people away from social networks, when what we really should be doing is getting them to take a little extra responsibility in what they post online and how they interact with people they do not know.
These stories as parents horrify us and we want to make sure nothing terrible happens to our kids or loved ones.
It is extremely urgent to bring these issues to the forefront.
As one Harvard Group puts it, there are a number of urban legends, misconceptions and common perceptions of social networks, predators and teens, but then again, with that truth said, also there are issues with identity theft, phishing and other things online.
For instance, a recent story where teens on their blogs were all discussing a retreat trip sponsored in part by the school and which families were going away, dates, times, everything - all those houses were robbed, and it was not by anyone connected in any way with the school itself.
Thus, personal information can be your friend and help make friendly social connections to satisfy your innate needs, but that personal information can be turned against you as well, so, personal responsibility, common sense and a little extra knowledge will go a long way.
It is for this reason that education is needed for teens and anyone who plays around with social networks online.
Of course, this education should be done in such a way that it dispels the myths of online social networks and how the predators and identity thieves use them in order to suck their prey in.
Without legitimate education, based in reality, we will end up scaring people away from social networks, when what we really should be doing is getting them to take a little extra responsibility in what they post online and how they interact with people they do not know.