Study Shows Teens Love for Digital World
The Pew Internet Report released a study that took a close look into the world of teenagers and how they interact with the online world. This report shows that over half of online teens have created content for the Web, and that downloading music for free is easy and unavoidable.
Now, I’ve said here many times before that the Internet has forever integrated itself into the world of teenagers. It’s an incredible tool for them to learn and express themselves. With approximately 57 percent of teens, posting online content, we, as parents, have to be concerned with what exactly they’re posting. The study shows that 33 percent of teenagers post their own artwork, writings, even photos and video. Some, I am sure, are very good and have artistic value. It’s the stuff out there that’s more for shock than artistic value that we all should be concerned with.
For example, one look at sites like Xanga, an online social community, and you immediately get the sense that these kids are there for more than just getting together to be friendly. I first learned about this site from an assistant principal at a local school recently. He told me how shocked he was to find some of his own students who posted detailed personal information about themselves on their own pages. That’s just begging for trouble.
Browsing the site to get an idea of what it was all about, I found pictures of teen girls posing in ways that would make their parents blush…and these girls were wearing clothes!
But I digress from the study. Here are a few highlights:
- More than half of online teens are content creators.
- When it comes to sharing self-authored creative content, older girls stand
out as heavy blog users. - Half of online teens say they currently download music files and close to one-third say they download video.
- One in five online teens keeps a blog and 38% read them.
- Teens surpass adults in blog keeping and reading.
- Teens are as likely now to have paid for music online as they are to have tried peer-to-peer
services.
Source: Lenhart, A. and Madden, M.
Teen Content Creators and Consumers.
Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project,
November 2, 2005.
So parents, think about this. With all this online activity, do you know what your teen is doing? Don’t fall victim to the “not my child” syndrome. 
But think just for a moment when the last time you saw your teen on the computer, using a cell phone to text message someone, or when they were at a friend’s house using the computer over there. Can you say with confidence that their behavior was something you’d approve of?
I hope you can answer ‘yes’ to that question. However, I fear that a vast majority of parents look the other way and don’t want to bother with such things until, unfortunately, it becomes too late.
Show your kids you want to be involved with their activities and interests, not dominate them.
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