Hanging out online: Teens & Online Social Networks

I like Boyd's observations about teens being more and more limited in where they can "hang out". This is certainly something to bear in mind. Certainly, groups of teens are unwelcome in almost every physical space: from coffee shops to, yes, libraries, they are often tolerated at best. I am all for MySpace as a teen space, although Facebook seems to have more privacy options...perhaps more than anything, this should be a loud call-out to libraries to create teen spaces in their buildings. Certainly, the coffee shop or mall complaint that "they aren't spending any money" can't be an issue in free environment like the library. Anyway, a bit off topic, but it's food for thought.

Boyd & Jenkins provide a great overview of the issues surrounding DOPA and teen privacy. On the topic of predators on MySpace, I think some of the strongest points they make are these:

"Less than .01% of all youth abductions nationwide are stranger abductions and as far as we know, no stranger abduction has occurred because of social network services. "

" While the report shows that a large percentage of youth are faced with uncomfortable or offensive experiences online, there is no discussion of how many are faced with uncomfortable or offensive experiences at school, in the local shopping mall or through other mediated channels like telephone. Although the media has covered the potential risk extensively, few actual cases have emerged. "

I do question whether Online Social Networks such as MySpace really put teens at any greater risk than going to the mall. In fact, the thought of an online solicitation by a predator scares me a heck of a lot less than an in-person solicitation! In any case, I think that education is a much better tool to battle this issue than censorship.

I don't think that the current cultural and social importance of teen online identities is going to go away any time soon. I think that we should worry less about privacy settings or restricting access to these sites and worry more about ensuring that teens understand that pretty much everything they put on the internet is published and is therefore accessible. It is easy to forget this when you are only looking at your friends' stuff...but really who is looking at yours?