“Teenagers are particularly susceptible due to their regular Internet use (Liau, Khoo, and Hwaang 2005) and their still developing social, interpersonal, and computer skills.” The internet and mobile phones play an important role in the life of our teenagers. These items offer them numerous possibilities for information, entertainment and social contacts with peers. There are, however, also some negative aspects related to ICT. Internet is used for common purposes such as studying, homework, emailing, playing games, chat sites and hobbies. Teens constantly are surfing the internet for school related projects, social and to download games and music. It is important they learn safety with the internet. ” One-fourth of adolescents who participated in Stahl and Fritz’s (2002) Internet safety survey admitted to practicing unsafe behaviors online. Over seventy percent (74%) of these respondents had contact with a stranger via e-mail or chat rooms and 25% had shared identifying information about themselves.” Teen participation in online social networks such as MySpace and Facebook has become increasingly popular. Over half of teens have MySpace profiles and a third of those are unrestricted. Nearly a third post personally identifiable information that makes them vulnerable to identity theft including their last name or email address, and 79% post pictures of themselves. Children and teenagers appear to be an extremely vulnerable group. Studies about cyber bullying are scarce. It is a problem and we need to know the impact on our children with the regard of the profile of the victim and the bully. Cyberbullying is harassment on the internet, online aggression, internet stalking. There is a strong link between traditional bullying and cyberbullying. The problem is now that kids cannot get away. Used to you could go home and not be affected but now you are connected by phone and internet. Pupils who send threatening e-mails or text messaging to their class mates, or create websites with denigrating pictures of these persons. In the study of Ybarra & Mitchel (2004) among 1489 9 to 17 year olds, for instance, 19% of the young regular internet users in the sample were involved in online harassment in some capacity within the previous year: 11.7% could be classified as “aggressor-only”, 3.7% as “victim-only”, and 2.9 % as aggressor/victim. We as parents and school officers need to use safety techniques to protect our teens from internet dangers. One way is with technical implications such as updating operating systems and browser patches, updating virus protections, deleting cookies and changing passwords. We need to make sure online agreements and privacy statements are read before downloading software and removing email addresses from list of domains. Parent involvement helps to stop unsafe behavior such as meeting strangers online and accessing unwanted internet content. Parents need to monitor their teen’s online activities, make sure they do not give out their name, or any other personal information on the internet. It is as important not to talk to strangers on the internet as it is in person. Some schools also provide special software to help monitor unauthorized use on their computers. They have certain sites blocked as well.
Cyber communication these days are a very important part of our teen’s lives. It is their social connection with their friends and it is their way to research assignments for school. Today with the amount of time spent on their cell phones and computers we need to be aware of the dangers that are present and find ways to protect our teens.
East Lansing, Michigan USA. Web. 05 Aug. 2011.
Remote Database Access. Web. 05 Aug. 2011.
RACHEL O.
