Social Networking, This is Only The Beginning

I have been wanting to talk about social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook and their role in society, particularly for teenagers and twenty-somethings, for awhile. I just haven't had the time to sit down and actually write and introduction to do it... but tonight, as I was watching TV, two things set me off.

One, a news report on a Boston television station regarding a teenager who met up with someone he met over MySpace who turned out to be a forty-something man who sexually molested him and locked him in the basement and he text messaged someone to get help.

Two, the new Law and Order... which in the first five minutes of the show spouted off the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. Teenage kid on a message board, a picture is posted of a dead girl, mother sees picture, teenager freaks out and says it's not mine, mother calls police, cut to scene where they're in an office interrogating the owners of the message board which is supposed to be a 'safe place for teens to hang out online', asking for any info they have on the poster, of course they have none because whoever posted used a fake name, an email address via a free service and the data they had on his IP was that he surfed onto the website with a different IP address tracing back to a different country every time (aka a proxy server).

This is so totally implausible.... One, most message boards for teenagers on the Internet are independently owned, run by teenagers for other teenagers. They do NOT have corporate offices and are NOT run by 30-something techie people. If they wanted this even close to be plausible, they would have made it about a social networking site, not a message board. Two, the IP address thing pissed me off. No one would EVER would ever end their sentence saying that the IP traced back to a different country every time when asked for that sort of data. They would likely go on to add that they're probably surfing via a proxy server and then when the non-technical people look at you like you have five heads, you would explain in baby terms what a proxy server is.

But no. Law and Order is piss poorly written and out of touch with reality.

Why am I so upset about this? Think of the demographic that probably watches Law and Order the most.... Parents of teenagers. What do many people in this demographic lack? Proper knowledge of how many Internet communication methods outside of email operate. They will believe just about anything the media throws out at them about the subject as fact, even if it's from a fictional television show.

The way the news gets reported and the way these fictional shows are written breed fear in parents. Fear, which while it may have some legitimate roots, that is far greater than what it should be.

Is the Internet a totally safe place for a teenager? No, but in my opinion, the risks are greatly exaggerated.

Are there things that you can talk to your kids to make them safer? Absolutely.

And so, I want to kick off a series of posts regarding social networking websites... How they work, what the dangers AND benefits are, and how what role they are playing in teenage and twenty-something culture.

What are you interested in hearing about social networking sites? What have you heard about sites such as MySpace and Facebook? Do you know how these sites operate? Do any of you have teenagers who use these services? Do you have any rules regarding whether your teens can use these websites or not? What are your concerns about these websites?

Feel free to leave a comment. Open discussion is encouraged!