A Disturbing Trend?
Recently, some very sad, local news events, sparked my curiosity about the growing trend of teenage blogs. Typing some keywords into Google one evening, I was easily able to find quite a few of these blogs, in fact far more that I expected. . . and some of what I found was rather disturbing. In a relatively short time of searching, I was able to find the sites of at least ten kids I know and while most of the blogs were filled with the usual teenage kind of talk (though some worse), the sense I gained of how common all it was really left me feeling sort of sad . . . and a little bit scared.Most of the pages I found had far too much personal information on them. Full names, where they go to school and in what city, make finding these kids a piece of cake and while I already know where they live, it wouldn’t take long for someone else too either. Most of the teen blogs I found were on the Xanga server - a favorite among teens. Filled with writings and even pictures, these sites have me and few fellow parents I’ve talked to wondering about the wisdom of teens posting so freely and frequently on the internet.I’m not against blogs (obviously) and not even blogs for teens but I am worried that some of these kids might be putting themselves in danger and I do wonder why it is more parents don’t seem to know their kids even have these blogs (I’ve asked).
I’ll admit it, I’m a pretty protective mom. My kids are/were homeschooled and none of them spends much time online. What time they do spend is closely monitored - as it should be. Only one of my kids even has a blog and he’s 20 years old and in the seminary. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not naive. I know what’s out there and dh and I talk about these issues with our kids but I remember well what it was like to be a teenager (I’m not that old), and I know how high emotions can run in those years. Personally, I don’t think these kids need to be spending so much time focusing on all the things that so many of these blogs seem to focus on (read a few for yourself and you’ll see what I mean).
We live in a different world than when we were kids. The advent of the internet, while bringing much good, has also brought with it a lot of dangers. As parents, we need to be constantly vigilant. It’s too easy to assume everything is fine when it may not be.
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