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Online
Communities Provide Friendships And Dangers For Teens |
Posted:
2.13.06
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Teens are flocking to social networking Web sites like MySpace
and Xanga. Nearly 50 million people have subscribed to MySpace.com
since it began just two years ago and the site ranks seventh among
English language sites.
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For many teens, logging onto MySpace is the first and last thing
they do every day. "It's addictive," said Ivoren Diaz,
a junior at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va. "You
can spend hours looking at pages."
NewsHour Extra spoke with a group of eight juniors and seniors
from Wakefield, and they said the Internet is now their main source
of communication among friends.
"Parents can overhear you when you talk on the phone,"
explained junior Johanna Maldonado. When asked if she was concerned
that her parents might read what she wrote, Maldonado said, "They
can only read it if they know how to go online and they don't."
Senior Cecilia Hussey added, "The only thing my mother is
concerned about with MySpace is the time I put into it."
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Safety features
go unused |
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MySpace.com says despite its site's usefulness, "it does
have its dark side."
Safety features can prevent strangers from reading blogs, sending
messages or viewing pages and there is a 14-year-old minimum age
requirement for membership. But many teens eager to meet friends
lie about their age when registering for the site and few use
the privacy features.
Unfortunately, teens aren't the only ones who lie about their
age. MySpace.com tries to prevent members over age 19 from viewing
teenagers Web profiles but has no way to verify people's information.
MySpace.com acknowledges the problem and its safety tips caution
members that "you never really know who you are chatting
with online. That cute 21-year-old guy may not be cute, may not
be 21 and may not be a guy!"
Despite the warnings, teens often post their full names and contact
information like IM addresses and phone numbers.
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Meeting strangers
online |
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Law enforcement officials are urging teens to be careful.
"There are people who are out there shopping for someone
to victimize," detective Jay Barnes told the Albuquerque
Journal. "You put yourself in danger when you put your information
out there, no matter what site it is. It's just like going into
dark places at night."
That is was happened to 13-year-old Alicia Kozakiewicz, who agreed
to meet an online acquaintance, but was eventually found tied
to the bed of a 38-year-old computer programmer hundreds of miles
from home. FBI agents were able to find Alicia because her kidnapper
bragged to an Internet acquaintance and sent photos.
According to the FBI's Web site on Internet safety, one in five
Internet users between ages 10 and 17 report being approached
for sex online and 1 in 33 are asked by a stranger to meet for
a real world encounter.
 But
Sean Keyser, a senior at Wakefield, said the dangers of the Internet
are "nothing worse than you're going to face in real life."
His classmates said kids who agree to meet people they've met
online are "just stupid" and that their parents should
teach them better.
However, Keyser has made friends while gaming online, and he
and his mother are planning to fly to New York to meet one for
the first time.
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Internet
benefits |
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Despite the dangers, MySpace.com continues to be an important
part of teens' social life because it connects all their friends
in one convenient place.
"I like MySpace because I have a cousin in Georgia and we
can talk about boys and stuff," said Hussey.
"I use [MySpace] to keep in touch with friends over the
summer," said another student, Aileen Pangan.
Teens use MySpace to talk to friends who moved away or those
who attend different schools.
The Wakefield students also said sites like MySpace have changed
the social scene at their school.
"People you see, but don't talk to you will approach you
online," said Maldonado.
Hussey agreed. "At lunch you sit with the same group of
friends. But on MySpace you will talk to people you wouldn't talk
with at school."
And creating MySpace pages can develop marketable skills. Maldonado
said she learned HTML computer coding to design Web pages for
sites like MySpace, and the experience helped her win an award
at a recent technology fair.
"If I get my own business, I can create my own Web pages,
I don't need to hire anyone," she said.
--
by Anne Bell for NewsHour Extra
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American schools and financial aid should be only for legal citizens of the United States. There should be no exceptions to this.
