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Destiny’s Child sings, in their hit song, “Survivor”: “You know I’m not gonnna diss you on the Internet Cause my mama taught me better than that.” Mamas, it’s come to something much worse than a girlfriend dissing a boyfriend on the Internet. It’s about predators wanting a piece of the action. A new study by Cox Communications in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children notes that teens are going so far as to have face-to-face meetings with people they meet online. The study shows that 14% of teens have had such a meeting with Internet “friends.” The survey also shows that parental involvement is one road to computer safety. Parents are the best sources to explain potential threats and the keys to making smart decisions. For example, teens may be unaware that social networking websites remain problematic, mostly because they cannot be properly policed either by online security or by parents. The survey shows: • Some 61% of 13- to 17-year-olds surveyed have a personal profile on sites such as MySpace, Friendster, or Xanga. Half have posted pictures of themselves. • Older teens (ages 16-17), as well as girls of all ages, represent the majority of youths who use the Internet for social interaction, meeting friends, and networking. While 14% have actually met someone face-to-face after communicating online, some 30% have at least considered such a meeting. • 71% have reported receiving messages online from someone they don’t know, a statistic that shows that firewalls and other security efforts mostly do not work or that teens naively open their site to all comers. • Nearly half (45%) have been asked for personal information by someone they don’t know. • Only 18% say they share information with parents when a message comes in from someone they don’t know, an indication that teens either are unaware of the danger or not mature enough to understand the potential pitfalls. • Some 20% consider sharing personal information on a public blog or networking site to be a safe practice and 37% say they are not concerned, or very little worried, about that information being used in an inappropriate way. • Perhaps the most important survey stat: 33% report that their parents know “very little” or “nothing” about what they do on the Internet; that number grows to 48% among 16- and 17-year-olds. And 22% say their parents have never discussed Internet safety with them. OC Family Magazine this year has published recommended guidelines for computer use by children and teens. The magazine strongly suggests that parents severely limit Internet activity, ban any unsupervised computer use and not allow memberships to online social clubs or communication tools such as email. The national teen survey reached 1,160 teens in March. John Walsh, host of “America’s Most Wanted,” last month co-hosted with Cox Communications a Teen Summit on Internet Safety in Washington, D.C. An upcoming edisode, to be repeated in August on Cox Communications’ “the Mix” will focus on Internet safety and footage of the press conference following the summit, plus more information. The first three airdates of “the Mix” are: 5:30 p.m. July 31; 10:30 p.m. Aug. 2; and 5:30 p.m. Aug. 3. |
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