- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- preteenagers today articles
- preteenagers today q&a
- teenagers today articles
- teenagers today q&a
- message boards
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
 |
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Blogging for the Future
Online Information Can Haunt
Your Teen By Sue Marquette Poremba
Your Teen
Steven Rothenberg, president and found of CollegeRecruiter.com, suggests that teenagers think of their Web postings as tattoos. "Inherently, there is nothing wrong with them if they are private or benign," he says. "But if they are visible or offensive, it can affect the way others see you."
According to Steve Jones, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois Chicago, school administrators and police are using sites like MySpace and Facebook to help solve campus crimes. "Officials are looking for students who implicate themselves and others," says Jones. For example, several colleges have used these community Web sites to identify students who stormed the field or court after ball games. The students brag about the exploit or post photos taken on camera phones.
Parents often remind their children that it is important to choose their friends wisely. This is even more important now. A teen who is always very careful about not sharing personal or incriminating information on her Web site can still find her reputation destroyed by something written on a friend's blog.
Vicki Courtney, the mother of two teenagers and author of Your Boy: Raising a Godly Son in an Ungodly World (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), regularly checks her children's MySpace sites, and she knows that what her kids are writing meets her approval. Even so, she says, "I have Google alerts set to my children's names." This, she found, will sometimes show when other teenagers are talking about her kids.
