The hottest new craze among teens and young adults on the Internet is social networking. But concerns related to teen use of social networking sites include unsafe disclosure of personal information, risky sexual behaviour, 'cyber bullying', involvement with dangerous communities and groups, and posting 'cyber threats'

Extracted from Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn To Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly, by Nancy E. Willard

Features of social networking sites

On social networking sites, users create individual profiles that allow them to publicly share their identity and interests. To create their profiles, teens incorporate graphics, upload photos, provide information about their favorite musicians and other artists, and share, both in images and text, aspects of their personality. Teens can also create a blog, where they can post regular commentary and images.

The social networking environment allows members to link their profiles with the profiles of their friends. Once linked as friends, members can post comments on each other's profiles, send messages, engage in IM, and respond to blog entries. For teens, social networking has become their favourite communications tool, whereas most adults still use email.

Most social networking environments also contain public features, such as discussion groups that all registered users can participate in. The environments also allow members to establish their own discussion groups, which they can set up as public or private groups. Teens can form online groups to discuss issues that relate to their own particular community or school. These discussion groups provide the opportunity for members to meet other members who share their interests. Teens may meet someone in a discussion group and then invite that person to establish a friendship link.

What do teens do on social networking sites?

Teens who are members of a social networking site frequently will go online to check the comments feature of their profile and their messages, to see if anyone has written to them. They will then either reply to any messages or perhaps send a few messages. They then might visit the sites of their best friends to see if anything new is 'happening' on their friend's sites, such as new photos, blog postings, or comments posted by others.

They are likely to leave a comment on friends' profiles as they cruise by. If they are active in any discussion groups, they also will check out any new postings in these groups. They might add some new materials to their own profile or blog.

Recent news coverage has raised significant concerns about interactions with strangers, especially sexual predators, on these sites. Many teens spend little time, if any, interacting with online strangers. The vast majority of teens are using social networking sites to engage with known friends and acquaintances from within their school and community. For some, their friendship network may expand to include others they meet in discussion groups. These friends likely are ones with whom they share mutual interests.

How parents can ensure privacy

Many teens do not appear to fully comprehend the public nature of material posted on these sites. Even material shared 'privately' with one or selected others can easily be made public by the recipient.

This lack of sensitivity to the potentially damaging nature of such disclosures is extremely evident on social networking sites, where some teens are posting personal contact information, intimate information, and material that is highly damaging to their reputations and current and future opportunities.

Many social networking sites have established mechanisms that allow members to make their profiles and discussion groups private. Used properly, these features can enhance the safety of teens using the site. For early teens, parents of the group of friends can mutually ensure that all of the teens are using privacy features and all of the friendship links are to good friends. This can create a very safe environment.

Although teens appear to have limited sensitivity to privacy concerns with respect to public disclosure, many appear to be highly alert to what they consider to be parental intrusion into their online activities. Some teens use the privacy features of the social networking sites as a screen to limit parental review. This is not safe or acceptable.

Further, some teens who are making use of the privacy protection features to prevent parental review may also think that because they are using these features, it is acceptable to post material on their profile that is unsafe or irresponsible.

Parents must know their child's username and password to be able to fully access their child's profile. The degree to which these sites make it easy to review a child's activities on the site differs from site to site. If your child is active on a social networking site and wants to restrict your access to review online activities, this may be relatively easy on some sites. One strategy to find out your child's password is to use the 'forgot password' feature on the site. It is necessary to use the computer your child used to register on the site and have access to your child's email account, as the 'forgot password' service will send information to this email address.

Terms of use

Many sites also have specific provisions and processes by which parents can intervene to address concerns about use of the site by their own children. Some sites allow parents to cancel their child's membership. But the degree to which this is possible on specific sites will vary.

Most sites have strategies to seek to identify and remove harmful material and terminate the accounts of users who are violating the terms of use agreement, but it is impossible for their personnel to review all postings. Many sites have millions of members. It generally is necessary for someone to file a complaint to seek enforcement of the terms of use agreement.

If your child has or wants to register on a social networking site, make sure you take the time to review the terms of use with him or her. Note to your child the not-so-amazing coincidence that the provisions of the terms of use agreement are quite similar to your own family's values and standards.

Extracted from Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn To Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly, by Nancy E. Willard (Jossey-Bass, £9.99 Paperback)