Teen Internet Addiction

Do you know how important social network sites are to your teen? Ok, so you use e mail to drop your friends a quick line, maybe to keep in touch with friends and family overseas; how much do you use social networking sites? Your teenager knows all of them, can tell you which ones are good/bad/in favor or not and communicates regularly with a crowd of "friends" via these sites. Unless you know how Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, Myspace, and the rest work, you cannot unravel the mysteries behind mates falling out over something "posted on a wall" or the shame and misery of being "unfriended". The latest site is Tumblr., a blog posting site with themes and groups which is free, as are most of these sites.

You can choose to remain ignorant about this aspect of your teenager's life, but then you are cutting yourself off from a rich source of information about how their world works. There is a lot of information and disinformation on social networking sites; it's one of the biggest sources of celebrity gossip and on a smaller scale, local gossip. Some schools have banned Facebook at school, advising parents that their child's at home Internet use is the parent's responsibility and the school will not get involved in resolving disputes that arise from the use of these sites.

Be very clear, children do get into arguments over what is said on these networking sites. It is an easy way to bully a child, posting nasty comments about them, uploading unflattering photos and, unfortunately, this has happened to a number of teenagers. One way to deal with this aspect of your teenager's life is to have a Facebook or Myspace page yourself! You can then see exactly how they work and what the pitfalls are. You need to have a chat with your teenager about how they use their social network page; their feelings about it and you cannot do this if you don't know how they work.

You do not have to enter your teenagers Internet world completely, just understand it and talk to them about the potential dangers. Ignorance is not bliss in this case; the interactions that take place in cyber space are very real to your teenager and form part of their identity, whether you agree with this or not. You need to encourage them to socialize with friends away from the Internet, but what their school friends say in blogs and posts will still be talked about across the airwaves and at school the next day. Be aware and help your teenager make sense of this part of their lives.