Social networking has hidden dangers for teens

From behind doors, more than 1 out of every 10 teenagers has posted a nude picture or seminude picture of themselves or of other people online.  By them doing this it could haunt them for the rest of their lives.  The survey also found that at least a quarter of the young people polled had posted something they later regretted, made fun of other online or created a false identity.  Teenagers do not seem aware of the long term effect with just a click of a button.  And parents generally have any idea what their children are up to the poll found.  "We've got to stop kidding ourselves about this." said James Steyer, chief economic officer and founder of San Francisco-based Common Sense Media.  "There are enormous consequences from inappropriate behavior online.  Social networking sites allow members to create individualized pages that often include information such as relationship status, address, age, and birthdate, as well as photos, videos or personnel comments.  Maxwell Wallace wanted to know more about his new roommate so instead of  calling him and talking to him all he had to do was get on Facebook.  This network told him everything he needed to know such as what his friends said about him, what his pictures were and what kind of lifestyle.  Teenagers don't always self-censor online, they might bully classmates, for example or post bad photos of themselves or peers.  Teenagers take more risk and do riskier things online, however there are consequences someday an employer or college admission office might come across an unpleasant picture with a quick click on google.  Hitting delete to get a rid of the picture or pictures won't help.  The digital  imprint never goes away and could be all over the world.  Teenagers need to be aware of this so  Steyer started an organization a pilot program this fall to bring media literacy into public school classrooms.  This would be a great way to show the awareness of doing things online.  A father said "What worries me the most is that kids will give out information that should be kept private, thinking they may be doing so privately".  Wallace said that social-networking sites can be valuable, providing support and community- positive factors in a teenager's life.


I believe that there is good things about social networking and there are some bad also, for example the good things are finding old friends, getting to talk to family members that live across the state and keeping up with events in your friends lives and that they can do the same.  The bad is mean people getting your information and doing something to harm you or your family.  Seeing unpleasant photos or videos of people, and that people can talk about you on the network and there is no way to really stop it.  That is how cyber bullying works and it gets to people everyday.  If we could clean up the social network by having censor on things I think it would make social life a little bit better.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Social-networking-has-hidden-dangers-for-teens-3289805.php